I have a long document with headings, and a table of contents at the start of the document, with the entries being links to that section. So far, so good. However, I also want the toc text to be single spaced, with no before/after additional spacing.

I've tried using both Heading styles and TOC styles.

If I change the format of the Table of Contents, the next time I refresh the table, the formatting reverts. __FAIL!
If I change the format in Table of Contents > Modify, then the text in the document also changes. __FAIL!

Is there a way to accomplish what I want? Would using an Index instead of a toc do what I want?

You should set the Spacing Before and Spacing After to zero for all of the paragraph styles in the TOC 1, TOC 2 etc. series of styles.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

Cross-posted at https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/table-of-contents-independently-change-format-of/53685e79-a308-4480-bceb-7370a86fc970.

Yes, that works if all the section headings have a heading style.


I had read something elsewhere that made me think I needed to use the TOC styles on the section headings, but that didn't work very well. The combo does the trick.



Thanks!

No, the TOC styles are only for use in the TOC.

Here is one more link on Tables of Contents.
How to create a table of contents in Microsoft Word by Shauna Kelly

Sometimes it helps to see different takes on the same subject.