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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