Creating a table of contents in a newly created Word document is an important means to enhance document quality, improve reading experience, and effectively convey information. As a navigational guide for the document, the table of contents provides readers with a way to quickly locate and navigate through the document's content. Through the table of contents, readers can swiftly grasp the document's structure and content organization, saving reading time and boosting work efficiency. This article will explain how to use Spire.Doc for .NET to create a table of contents for a newly created Word document within a C# project.
- C# Create a Table Of Contents Using Heading Styles
- C# Create a Table Of Contents Using Outline Level Styles
- C# Create a Table Of Contents Using Image Captions
- C# Create a Table Of Contents Using Table Captions
Install Spire.Doc for .NET
To begin with, you need to add the DLL files included in the Spire.Doc for .NET package as references in your .NET project. The DLL files can be either downloaded from this link or installed via NuGet.
PM> Install-Package Spire.Doc
C# Create a Table Of Contents Using Heading Styles
Using heading styles to create a table of contents is a method to automatically generate a table of contents in a Word document by identifying title and subtitles in the document using different levels of heading styles. Here are the detailed steps:
- Create a Document object.
- Add a section using the Document.AddSection() method.
- Add a paragraph using the Section.AddParagraph() method.
- Create a table of contents object using the Paragraph.AppendTOC(int lowerLevel, int upperLevel) method.
- Create a CharacterFormat object and set the font.
- Apply a heading style to the paragraph using the Paragraph.ApplyStyle(BuiltinStyle.Heading1) method.
- Add text content using the Paragraph.AppendText() method.
- Apply character formatting to the text using the TextRange.ApplyCharacterFormat() method.
- Update the table of contents using the Document.UpdateTableOfContents() method.
- Save the document using the Document.SaveToFile() method.
- C#
using Spire.Doc;
using Spire.Doc.Documents;
using Spire.Doc.Fields;
using Spire.Doc.Formatting;
namespace SpireDocDemo
{
internal class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
// Create a new document object
Document doc = new Document();
// Add a section to the document
Section section = doc.AddSection();
// Add a paragraph
Paragraph TOCparagraph = section.AddParagraph();
TOCparagraph.AppendTOC(1, 3);
// Create a CharacterFormat object and set the font
CharacterFormat characterFormat1 = new CharacterFormat(doc);
characterFormat1.FontName = "Microsoft YaHei";
// Create another CharacterFormat object
CharacterFormat characterFormat2 = new CharacterFormat(doc);
characterFormat2.FontName = "Microsoft YaHei";
characterFormat2.FontSize = 12;
// Add a paragraph with Heading 1 style
Paragraph paragraph = section.Body.AddParagraph();
paragraph.ApplyStyle(BuiltinStyle.Heading1);
// Add text and apply character formatting
TextRange textRange1 = paragraph.AppendText("Overview");
textRange1.ApplyCharacterFormat(characterFormat1);
// Add regular content
paragraph = section.Body.AddParagraph();
TextRange textRange2 = paragraph.AppendText("Spire.Doc for .NET is a professional Word .NET library specifically designed for developers to create, read, write, convert, compare and print Word documents on any .NET platform (Target .NET Framework, .NET Core, .NET Standard, .NET 5.0, .NET 6.0, Xamarin & Mono Android) with fast and high quality performance.");
textRange2.ApplyCharacterFormat(characterFormat2);
// Add a paragraph with Heading 1 style
paragraph = section.Body.AddParagraph();
paragraph.ApplyStyle(BuiltinStyle.Heading1);
textRange1 = paragraph.AppendText("Main Functions");
textRange1.ApplyCharacterFormat(characterFormat1);
// Add a paragraph with Heading 2 style
paragraph = section.Body.AddParagraph();
paragraph.ApplyStyle(BuiltinStyle.Heading2);
textRange1 = paragraph.AppendText("Only Spire.Doc, No Microsoft Office Automation");
textRange1.ApplyCharacterFormat(characterFormat1);
// Add regular content
paragraph = section.Body.AddParagraph();
textRange2 = paragraph.AppendText("Spire.Doc for .NET is a totally independent .NET Word class library which doesn't require Microsoft Office installed on system. Microsoft Office Automation is proved to be unstable, slow and not scalable to produce MS Word documents. Spire.Doc for .NET is many times faster than Microsoft Word Automation and with much better stability and scalability.");
textRange2.ApplyCharacterFormat(characterFormat2);
// Add a paragraph with Heading 3 style
paragraph = section.Body.AddParagraph();
paragraph.ApplyStyle(BuiltinStyle.Heading3);
textRange1 = paragraph.AppendText("Word Versions");
textRange1.ApplyCharacterFormat(characterFormat1);
paragraph = section.Body.AddParagraph();
textRange2 = paragraph.AppendText("Word97-03 Word2007 Word2010 Word2013 Word2016 Word2019");
textRange2.ApplyCharacterFormat(characterFormat2);
// Add a paragraph with Heading 2 style
paragraph = section.Body.AddParagraph();
paragraph.ApplyStyle(BuiltinStyle.Heading2);
textRange1 = paragraph.AppendText("Convert File Documents with High Quality");
textRange1.ApplyCharacterFormat(characterFormat1);
// Add regular content
paragraph = section.Body.AddParagraph();
textRange2 = paragraph.AppendText("By using Spire.Doc for .NET, users can save Word Doc/Docx to stream, save as web response and convert Word Doc/Docx to XML, Markdown, RTF, EMF, TXT, XPS, EPUB, HTML, SVG, ODT and vice versa. Spire.Doc for .NET also supports to convert Word Doc/Docx to PDF and HTML to image.");
textRange2.ApplyCharacterFormat(characterFormat2);
// Add a paragraph with Heading 2 style
paragraph = section.Body.AddParagraph();
paragraph.ApplyStyle(BuiltinStyle.Heading2);
textRange1 = paragraph.AppendText("Other Technical Features");
textRange1.ApplyCharacterFormat(characterFormat1);
// Add regular content
paragraph = section.Body.AddParagraph();
textRange2 = paragraph.AppendText("By using Spire.Doc, developers can build any type of a 32-bit or 64-bit .NET application including ASP.NET, Web Services, WinForms, Xamarin and Mono Android, to create and handle Word documents.");
textRange2.ApplyCharacterFormat(characterFormat2);
// Update the table of contents
doc.UpdateTableOfContents();
// Save the document
doc.SaveToFile("CreateTOCUsingHeadingStyles.docx", FileFormat.Docx2016);
// Release resources
doc.Dispose();
}
}
}
C# Create a Table Of Contents Using Outline Level Styles
In a Word document, a table of contents can also be created using outline level styles. The ParagraphFormat.OutlineLevel property can be used to specify the level style of a paragraph in the outline. Subsequently, these outline level styles can be applied to the table of contents creation rules through the TableOfContent.SetTOCLevelStyle() method. Here are the detailed steps:
- Create a Document object.
- Add a section using the Document.AddSection() method.
- Create a ParagraphStyle object and set the outline level using ParagraphStyle.ParagraphFormat.OutlineLevel = OutlineLevel.Level1.
- Add the created ParagraphStyle object to the document using the Document.Styles.Add() method.
- Add a paragraph using the Section.AddParagraph() method.
- Create a table of contents object using the Paragraph.AppendTOC(int lowerLevel, int upperLevel) method.
- Set the default setting for creating the table of contents with heading styles to False, TableOfContent.UseHeadingStyles = false.
- Apply the outline level style to the table of contents rules using the TableOfContent.SetTOCLevelStyle(int levelNumber, string styleName) method.
- Create a CharacterFormat object and set the font.
- Apply the style to the paragraph using the Paragraph.ApplyStyle(ParagraphStyle.Name) method.
- Add text content using the Paragraph.AppendText() method.
- Apply character formatting to the text using the TextRange.ApplyCharacterFormat() method.
- Update the table of contents using the Document.UpdateTableOfContents() method.
- Save the document using the Document.SaveToFile() method.
- C#
using Spire.Doc;
using Spire.Doc.Documents;
using Spire.Doc.Fields;
using Spire.Doc.Formatting;
namespace SpireDocDemo
{
internal class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
// Create a document object
Document doc = new Document();
Section section = doc.AddSection();
// Define Outline Level 1
ParagraphStyle titleStyle1 = new ParagraphStyle(doc);
titleStyle1.Name = "T1S";
titleStyle1.ParagraphFormat.OutlineLevel = OutlineLevel.Level1;
titleStyle1.CharacterFormat.Bold = true;
titleStyle1.CharacterFormat.FontName = "Microsoft YaHei";
titleStyle1.CharacterFormat.FontSize = 18f;
titleStyle1.ParagraphFormat.HorizontalAlignment = HorizontalAlignment.Left;
doc.Styles.Add(titleStyle1);
// Define Outline Level 2
ParagraphStyle titleStyle2 = new ParagraphStyle(doc);
titleStyle2.Name = "T2S";
titleStyle2.ParagraphFormat.OutlineLevel = OutlineLevel.Level2;
titleStyle2.CharacterFormat.Bold = true;
titleStyle2.CharacterFormat.FontName = "Microsoft YaHei";
titleStyle2.CharacterFormat.FontSize = 16f;
titleStyle2.ParagraphFormat.HorizontalAlignment = HorizontalAlignment.Left;
doc.Styles.Add(titleStyle2);
// Define Outline Level 3
ParagraphStyle titleStyle3 = new ParagraphStyle(doc);
titleStyle3.Name = "T3S";
titleStyle3.ParagraphFormat.OutlineLevel = OutlineLevel.Level3;
titleStyle3.CharacterFormat.Bold = true;
titleStyle3.CharacterFormat.FontName = "Microsoft YaHei";
titleStyle3.CharacterFormat.FontSize = 14f;
titleStyle3.ParagraphFormat.HorizontalAlignment = HorizontalAlignment.Left;
doc.Styles.Add(titleStyle3);
// Add a paragraph
Paragraph TOCparagraph = section.AddParagraph();
TableOfContent toc = TOCparagraph.AppendTOC(1, 3);
toc.UseHeadingStyles = false;
toc.UseHyperlinks = true;
toc.UseTableEntryFields = false;
toc.RightAlignPageNumbers = true;
toc.SetTOCLevelStyle(1, titleStyle1.Name);
toc.SetTOCLevelStyle(2, titleStyle2.Name);
toc.SetTOCLevelStyle(3, titleStyle3.Name);
// Define character format
CharacterFormat characterFormat = new CharacterFormat(doc);
characterFormat.FontName = "Microsoft YaHei";
characterFormat.FontSize = 12;
// Add a paragraph and apply outline level style 1
Paragraph paragraph = section.Body.AddParagraph();
paragraph.ApplyStyle(titleStyle1.Name);
paragraph.AppendText("Overview");
// Add a paragraph and set the text content
paragraph = section.Body.AddParagraph();
TextRange textRange = paragraph.AppendText("Spire.Doc for .NET is a professional Word .NET library specifically designed for developers to create, read, write, convert, compare and print Word documents on any .NET platform (Target .NET Framework, .NET Core, .NET Standard, .NET 5.0, .NET 6.0, Xamarin & Mono Android) with fast and high quality performance.");
textRange.ApplyCharacterFormat(characterFormat);
// Add a paragraph and apply outline level style 1
paragraph = section.Body.AddParagraph();
paragraph.ApplyStyle(titleStyle1.Name);
paragraph.AppendText("Main Functions");
// Add a paragraph and apply outline level style 2
paragraph = section.Body.AddParagraph();
paragraph.ApplyStyle(titleStyle2.Name);
paragraph.AppendText("Only Spire.Doc, No Microsoft Office Automation");
// Add a paragraph and set the text content
paragraph = section.Body.AddParagraph();
textRange = paragraph.AppendText("Spire.Doc for .NET is a totally independent .NET Word class library which doesn't require Microsoft Office installed on system. Microsoft Office Automation is proved to be unstable, slow and not scalable to produce MS Word documents. Spire.Doc for .NET is many times faster than Microsoft Word Automation and with much better stability and scalability.");
textRange.ApplyCharacterFormat(characterFormat);
// Add a paragraph and apply outline level style 3
paragraph = section.Body.AddParagraph();
paragraph.ApplyStyle(titleStyle3.Name);
paragraph.AppendText("Word Versions");
// Add a paragraph and set the text content
paragraph = section.Body.AddParagraph();
textRange = paragraph.AppendText("Word97-03 Word2007 Word2010 Word2013 Word2016 Word2019");
textRange.ApplyCharacterFormat(characterFormat);
// Add a paragraph and apply outline level style 2
paragraph = section.Body.AddParagraph();
paragraph.ApplyStyle(titleStyle2.Name);
paragraph.AppendText("Convert File Documents with High Quality");
// Add a paragraph and set the text content
paragraph = section.Body.AddParagraph();
textRange = paragraph.AppendText("By using Spire.Doc for .NET, users can save Word Doc/Docx to stream, save as web response and convert Word Doc/Docx to XML, Markdown, RTF, EMF, TXT, XPS, EPUB, HTML, SVG, ODT and vice versa. Spire.Doc for .NET also supports to convert Word Doc/Docx to PDF and HTML to image.");
textRange.ApplyCharacterFormat(characterFormat);
// Add a paragraph and apply outline level style 2
paragraph = section.Body.AddParagraph();
paragraph.ApplyStyle(titleStyle2.Name);
paragraph.AppendText("Other Technical Features");
// Add a paragraph and set the text content
paragraph = section.Body.AddParagraph();
textRange = paragraph.AppendText("By using Spire.Doc, developers can build any type of a 32-bit or 64-bit .NET application including ASP.NET, Web Services, WinForms, Xamarin and Mono Android, to create and handle Word documents.");
textRange.ApplyCharacterFormat(characterFormat);
// Update the table of contents
doc.UpdateTableOfContents();
// Save the document
doc.SaveToFile("CreateTOCUsingOutlineStyles.docx", FileFormat.Docx2016);
// Release resources
doc.Dispose();
}
}
}
C# Create a Table Of Contents Using Image Captions
Using the Spire.Doc library, you can create a table of contents based on image captions with the TableOfContent tocForImage = new TableOfContent(Document, " \\h \\z \\c \"Image\"") method. Here are the detailed steps:
- Create a Document object.
- Add a section using the Document.AddSection() method.
- Create a table of content object with TableOfContent tocForImage = new TableOfContent(Document, " \\h \\z \\c \"Image\"") and specify the style of the table of contents.
- Add a paragraph using the Section.AddParagraph() method.
- Add the table of content object to the paragraph using the Paragraph.Items.Add(tocForImage) method.
- Add a field separator using the Paragraph.AppendFieldMark(FieldMarkType.FieldSeparator) method.
- Add the text content "TOC" using the Paragraph.AppendText("TOC") method.
- Add a field end mark using the Paragraph.AppendFieldMark(FieldMarkType.FieldEnd) method.
- Add an image using the Paragraph.AppendPicture() method.
- Add a caption paragraph for the image using the DocPicture.AddCaption() method, including product information and formatting.
- Update the table of contents to reflect changes in the document using the Document.UpdateTableOfContents(tocForImage) method.
- Save the document using the Document.SaveToFile() method.
- C#
using Spire.Doc;
using Spire.Doc.Documents;
using Spire.Doc.Fields;
using Spire.Doc.Formatting;
namespace SpireDocDemo
{
internal class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
// Create a document object
Document doc = new Document();
// Add a section to the document
Section section = doc.AddSection();
// Create a table of content object for images
TableOfContent tocForImage = new TableOfContent(doc, " \\h \\z \\c \"Picture\"");
// Add a paragraph to the section
Paragraph tocParagraph = section.Body.AddParagraph();
// Add the TOC object to the paragraph
tocParagraph.Items.Add(tocForImage);
// Add a field separator
tocParagraph.AppendFieldMark(FieldMarkType.FieldSeparator);
// Add text content
tocParagraph.AppendText("TOC");
// Add a field end mark
tocParagraph.AppendFieldMark(FieldMarkType.FieldEnd);
// Add a blank paragraph to the section
section.Body.AddParagraph();
// Add a paragraph to the section
Paragraph paragraph = section.Body.AddParagraph();
// Add an image
DocPicture docPicture = paragraph.AppendPicture("images/Doc-NET.png");
docPicture.Width = 100;
docPicture.Height = 100;
// Add a caption paragraph for the image
Paragraph pictureCaptionParagraph = docPicture.AddCaption("Picture", CaptionNumberingFormat.Number, CaptionPosition.BelowItem) as Paragraph;
pictureCaptionParagraph.AppendText(" Spire.Doc for .NET product");
pictureCaptionParagraph.Format.AfterSpacing = 20;
// Continue adding paragraphs to the section
paragraph = section.Body.AddParagraph();
docPicture = paragraph.AppendPicture("images/PDF-NET.png");
docPicture.Width = 100;
docPicture.Height = 100;
pictureCaptionParagraph = docPicture.AddCaption("Picture", CaptionNumberingFormat.Number, CaptionPosition.BelowItem) as Paragraph;
pictureCaptionParagraph.AppendText(" Spire.PDF for .NET product");
pictureCaptionParagraph.Format.AfterSpacing = 20;
paragraph = section.Body.AddParagraph();
docPicture = paragraph.AppendPicture("images/XLS-NET.png");
docPicture.Width = 100;
docPicture.Height = 100;
pictureCaptionParagraph = docPicture.AddCaption("Picture", CaptionNumberingFormat.Number, CaptionPosition.BelowItem) as Paragraph;
pictureCaptionParagraph.AppendText(" Spire.XLS for .NET product");
pictureCaptionParagraph.Format.AfterSpacing = 20;
paragraph = section.Body.AddParagraph();
docPicture = paragraph.AppendPicture("images/PPT-NET.png");
docPicture.Width = 100;
docPicture.Height = 100;
pictureCaptionParagraph = docPicture.AddCaption("Picture", CaptionNumberingFormat.Number, CaptionPosition.BelowItem) as Paragraph;
pictureCaptionParagraph.AppendText(" Spire.Presentation for .NET product");
// Update the table of contents
doc.UpdateTableOfContents(tocForImage);
// Save the document to a file
doc.SaveToFile("CreateTOCWithImageCaptions.docx", Spire.Doc.FileFormat.Docx2016);
// Dispose of the document object
doc.Dispose();
}
}
}
C# Create a Table Of Contents Using Table Captions
You can also create a table of contents using table captions by using the method TableOfContent tocForTable = new TableOfContent(Document, " \\h \\z \\c \"Table\""). Here are the detailed steps:
- Create a Document object.
- Add a section using the Document.AddSection() method.
- Create a table of content object TableOfContent tocForTable = new TableOfContent(Document, " \\h \\z \\c \"Table\"") and specify the style of the table of contents.
- Add a paragraph using the Section.AddParagraph() method.
- Add the table of content object to the paragraph using the Paragraph.Items.Add(tocForTable) method.
- Add a field separator using the Paragraph.AppendFieldMark(FieldMarkType.FieldSeparator) method.
- Add the text content "TOC" using the Paragraph.AppendText("TOC") method.
- Add a field end mark using the Paragraph.AppendFieldMark(FieldMarkType.FieldEnd) method.
- Add a table using the Section.AddTable() method and set the number of rows and columns using the Table.ResetCells(int rowsNum, int columnsNum) method.
- Add a table caption paragraph using the Table.AddCaption() method, including product information and formatting.
- Update the table of contents to reflect changes in the document using the Document.UpdateTableOfContents(tocForTable) method.
- Save the document using the Document.SaveToFile() method.
- C#
using Spire.Doc;
using Spire.Doc.Documents;
using Spire.Doc.Fields;
using Spire.Doc.Formatting;
namespace SpireDocDemo
{
internal class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
// Create a new document
Document doc = new Document();
// Add a section to the document
Section section = doc.AddSection();
// Create a TableOfContent object
TableOfContent tocForTable = new TableOfContent(doc, " \\h \\z \\c \"Table\"");
// Add a paragraph in the section to place the TableOfContent object
Paragraph tocParagraph = section.Body.AddParagraph();
tocParagraph.Items.Add(tocForTable);
tocParagraph.AppendFieldMark(FieldMarkType.FieldSeparator);
tocParagraph.AppendText("TOC");
tocParagraph.AppendFieldMark(FieldMarkType.FieldEnd);
// Add two empty paragraphs in the section
section.Body.AddParagraph();
section.Body.AddParagraph();
// Add a table in the section
Table table = section.Body.AddTable(true);
table.ResetCells(1, 3);
// Add a caption paragraph for the table
Paragraph tableCaptionParagraph = table.AddCaption("Table", CaptionNumberingFormat.Number, CaptionPosition.BelowItem) as Paragraph;
tableCaptionParagraph.AppendText(" One row three columns");
tableCaptionParagraph.Format.AfterSpacing = 18;
// Add a new table in the section
table = section.Body.AddTable(true);
table.ResetCells(3, 3);
// Add a caption paragraph for the second table
tableCaptionParagraph = table.AddCaption("Table", CaptionNumberingFormat.Number, CaptionPosition.BelowItem) as Paragraph;
tableCaptionParagraph.AppendText(" Three rows three columns");
tableCaptionParagraph.Format.AfterSpacing = 18;
// Add another new table in the section
table = section.Body.AddTable(true);
table.ResetCells(5, 3);
// Add a caption paragraph for the third table
tableCaptionParagraph = table.AddCaption("Table", CaptionNumberingFormat.Number, CaptionPosition.BelowItem) as Paragraph;
tableCaptionParagraph.AppendText(" Five rows three columns");
// Update the table of contents
doc.UpdateTableOfContents(tocForTable);
// Save the document to a specified file
doc.SaveToFile("CreateTOCUsingTableCaptions.docx", Spire.Doc.FileFormat.Docx2016);
// Dispose resources
doc.Dispose();
}
}
}
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