Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
Want to include a table of figures or a list of tables in Word but not sure how? Well, there’s one step you must take before you can in fact include either of these in a document. Once you’ve taken the step, you’ll find it’s a simple process to then insert an automatic table of figures.
An automatic table of figures works in the same way as an automatic table of contents.
That is, it collates a list based on the contents of your document. But in this case, the list is collated from captioned items (rather than headings).
Given this, there’s an essential step you must take before you’ll be able to insert a table of figures. And that is to add captions to the tables and/or images, etc, in your document.
Then you can insert the table of figures as follows:
- Place the cursor where you’d like the table of figures to appear;
- Click the Insert Table of Figures button (References > Captions);
- Apply settings as required, being sure to select the correct Caption label;
- Click OK.
Note that Word doesn’t include a heading when you insert a table of figures. So you’ll need to insert this yourself.
When you add the heading, be sure to apply the TOC Heading text style to it. That way, the heading will look the same as the table of contents heading, providing a more cohesive feel.
Finally, there’ll be times where you may want to insert more than one table of figures. That is, where you’ve used various labels to caption different elements in your document. For example, a table of figures for images, another for tables, and so on. This is easy to do – simply follow the process above for each label type.
