8/15/2017 Using Word to Write your Thesis: Making a Table of Contents, Inserting Captions, and Cross­referencing ­ Bitesize Bio

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Using Word to Write your Thesis: Making a Table of Contents, Inserting Captions, and
Cross-referencing
By Lauren Tebay (http://bitesizebio.com/pro퐶�le/laurentebay/)

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In the last post I showed you how to make an outline for your thesis in Word. You should now have a document outline with a list of
headings for your sections (maybe even a few sections 퐶�lled in if you were feeling motivated to make a start!). From here, we can move on
to:

Setting up a Table of Contents,

Learning to insert captions which will make compiling a List of Figures/Tables at the end a painless process
Learning how to cross-reference your document, so that 퐶�gures or paragraphs that you refer to in the body text are always
numbered correctly, even when you move things around.

Automatically generating a Table of Contents

A thesis requires a detailed table of contents that lists the headings and page numbers of each section. Rather than manually scrolling
through your document making notes of where everything is (and having to go back and change numbers every time you add something
new or move a section) why not let Word do all the hard work?

When your document is properly laid out, generating a Table of Contents in Word is as simple as 1, 2, 3 (something my silly undergraduate
self could sorely have done with knowing 3 years ago!!).

With the cursor at the start of the document where you want to insert the Table of Contents:

1. Click the “references tab”

2. Select Table of Contents
3. Pick a style 

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8/15/2017 Using Word to Write your Thesis: Making a Table of Contents, Inserting Captions, and Cross­referencing ­ Bitesize Bio

Done. It’s that easy when you have things set up properly!

(http://bitesizebio.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/word-for-thesis-퐶�g-8.jpg)

(http://bitesizebio.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/word-for-thesis-퐶�g-9.jpg)

The Table of Contents will be generated automatically using the di냸erent levels of heading that you de퐶�ned when you set up your outline.
This is why it’s really important to use the headings from the styles gallery rather than just manually changing the size and font that you’re
using!!!!

Don’t forget, if you move things around, add bits in or remove others, you should update your Table of Contents too!

Return to the Table of Contents options in the References tab and select “Update Table”.

Inserting captions
After a Table of Contents, most theses also include a List of Tables and a List of Figures. To make compiling this list less di扨�cult, you can
use a speci퐶�c kind of label each time you insert tables and 퐶�gures that will allow you to generate the list automatically in Word.

To do this:

1. Go to the References tab and click on “Insert caption”

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(http://bitesizebio.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/word-for-thesis-퐶�g-10.jpg)

2.  Select a label from the dropdown list for what you are inserting i.e. Table or Figure and press “OK”.

(http://bitesizebio.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/word-for-thesis-퐶�g-11.jpg)

3.  Next to the caption Table 1, add a title for your table, which will appear in the list of tables.

4.   When adding a 퐶�gure legend for tables or 퐶�gures, make sure to go to the next line after the title to ensure the entire legend doesn’t get
included in the list!

Create a list
Once your 퐶�gures and tables have been captioned, inserting a list is very similar to how you created a Table of Contents.

With the cursor at the point where you want to insert the list:

1. Click the References tab

2. Click “Insert table of 퐶�gures”
3. Select a caption label (table or 퐶�gure)
4. Click “OK”


(http://bitesizebio.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/word-for-thesis-퐶�g-12.jpg)

Update
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8/15/2017 Using Word to Write your Thesis: Making a Table of Contents, Inserting Captions, and Cross­referencing ­ Bitesize Bio

Update
Ideally you will be inserting lists of 퐶�gures and tables at the end when the layout of your thesis is pretty much 퐶�nalized. However if you
need to move your tables or 퐶�gures around and the order or page number changes, don’t forget to update your list!

1. Click anywhere on the list to highlight it

2. Click “Update table”

And done! I repeat –it’s that easy!

(http://bitesizebio.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/word-for-thesis-퐶�g-13.jpg)

Cross-referencing
Another useful tool found in the References tab is the Cross-reference button

(http://bitesizebio.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/word-for-thesis-퐶�g-14.jpg)

Cross-referencing allows you to link back to other paragraphs, tables or 퐶�gures referring to them in your body text.

Cross-referencing is useful for not only creating a hyperlink in the text for you to jump back and forth, but also for keeping your referenced
paragraph, table and 퐶�gure numbers up to date if you need to move them about. This saves you the trouble of going back and re-
numbering every paragraph where you have mentioned a 퐶�gure or table whose number has now changed!

***A small warning with this one, sometimes it doesn’t automatically update immediately – if after saving and re-opening your document it
has still not updated, you might need to insert or update the List of Figures or Tables for the document to recognise that things have been
moved a little bit – so don’t panic too much!***

Using Word to automatically generate your Table of Contents, Lists of Figures or Tables and to ensure that your internal references stay up
to date takes a little bit of planning and some practice, however it will also hugely bene퐶�t you in the long run! Thinking back to my silly
undergraduate self, lea퐶�ng through a printed copy of my thesis, typing out each heading, fretting that the numbers weren’t aligned
properly and nearly having a nervous breakdown when my supervisor suggested moving things because I would have to redo it all, I
shudder at the wasted hours that could have been spent doing something productive (like learning to use Word properly!).

The bottom line is that writing a thesis is hard enough as it is, don’t give yourself extra work that the computer could be doing for you
instead!!

**Note:  All screenshots taken from Word for  Windows, 2013.

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