How to build an index, a table of figures and fields in a Word document

Everything here is a field

A field is an instruction stored in the document together with its last result. The page shows the result; underneath is the code: { PAGE } for the page number, { DATE \@ "d MMMM yyyy" } for today’s date, { SEQ Figure \* ARABIC } for a caption’s number, { INDEX } for a whole index.

The result is a snapshot. It changes when the field is updated and not before, which is why an index built last week still lists last week’s pages. In Word:

• F9 updates the fields in the selection; Ctrl+A then F9 updates the body of the document.
• Alt+F9 shows or hides every field’s code, and Shift+F9 the one at the caret.
• Ctrl+F11 locks a field so updates leave it alone, Ctrl+Shift+F11 unlocks it, and Ctrl+Shift+F9 turns it into plain text for good.

Page numbers, dates and the file name

Insert → Quick Parts → Field lists every field Word has, by category, with the formats each takes. The everyday ones:

• PAGE and NUMPAGES. “Page 3 of 12” is { PAGE } of { NUMPAGES }. SECTIONPAGES counts the pages of the current section instead.
• DATE and TIME. Today’s date or the time, in a format set by a picture such as \@ "d MMMM yyyy". CREATEDATE, SAVEDATE and PRINTDATE give the date the document was created, last saved or last printed.
• FILENAME. The file’s name, or with \p its full path — useful in the footer of a draft, so a printout says where it came from.
• AUTHOR and TITLE. The author and title from the document’s properties.

Case and numbering switches go on the end: \* Upper for capitals, \* roman for page numbers in roman numerals, and \* MERGEFORMAT, which is what “Preserve formatting during updates” writes, to keep the formatting you gave the result.

One trap catches everyone once. A DATE field shows the date it was last updated, and Word brings it up to today each time the document is opened, so a letter dated with a DATE field shows a new date whenever somebody opens it. For a letter, use CREATEDATE, or Insert → Date & Time with “Update automatically” unticked, which types the date in as plain text.

Captions and a table of figures

A caption is a label, a number and some words: “Figure 3: Sales by region”. In Word, References → Insert Caption writes it, with Figure, Table, Equation or a label of your own. The number is a SEQ field that counts that label from the top of the document, so figures and tables are numbered separately. Word renumbers the rest when a new caption goes in; when a figure is deleted or moved, the numbers stay as they were until the fields are updated. Cross-references to a caption (References → Cross-reference) are fields too, and go stale the same way.

A table of figures is built from those captions. References → Insert Table of Figures asks for the caption label, whether to include the label and number, and whether to show page numbers, right-aligned behind a leader. It writes a table-of-contents field that collects every paragraph holding that label’s SEQ field. A caption typed by hand as ordinary words has no field in it, so the table cannot see it — the most common reason a figure is missing from the list.

To bring the list up to date, click in it and press F9, or use Update Table in the Captions group. Word asks whether to update page numbers only or the entire table: page numbers only if the text has merely moved, the entire table if a caption was added, removed or reworded.

An index

An index is built in two steps: mark the entries, then insert the index.

Marking. Select a word or phrase and choose References → Mark Entry (Alt+Shift+X). The Mark Index Entry box takes a main entry and a subentry, a cross-reference in place of a page number (“See Invoices”), a page range from a bookmark, and bold or italic page numbers. Mark marks this one place; Mark All marks the first time those exact words appear in each paragraph, matching case. Each mark is an XE field — { XE "Invoices:overdue" }, the subentry after the colon — formatted as hidden text, and it shows on screen while formatting marks (¶) are on, which Word turns on for you.

Inserting. Put the caret where the index goes, usually on a new page at the end, and choose References → Insert Index. Choose indented (each subentry on a line of its own) or run-in (subentries run on in one paragraph), the number of columns, and right-aligned page numbers with a leader. Word writes an INDEX field and fills it from every XE field in the document. For a long document, AutoMark in the same dialog marks entries from a concordance file: a two-column table of the words to find and the entries to file them under.

What makes a good one. Index what a reader will look for, not every occurrence of every noun. Pick one term for each idea and make the others “See” references to it, and gather narrow terms as subentries under a broad one rather than scattering them.

To refresh an index, click in it and press F9, or choose Update Index. Hide the formatting marks first: while they show, the hidden XE fields take up room on the page and push text onto later pages, and the index takes its page numbers from the pages as they then stand.

How each one refreshes

• Page numbers in headers and footers are kept up to date by Word as the pages move. Nothing to do.
• Fields in the body — PAGE, NUMPAGES, FILENAME, AUTHOR, TITLE, caption numbers, cross-references — keep their last result until they are updated: select them and press F9, or Ctrl+A then F9. Headers, footers and text boxes are separate from the body and need their own F9.
• DATE and TIME come up to today whenever they are updated, and each time the document opens.
• A table of contents, a table of figures or an index never refreshes by itself. A new heading, caption or index mark appears in it only after Update Table, Update Index, or F9 with the caret inside it.

In Word, ticking “Update fields before printing” (File → Options → Display) updates the fields each time you print. Either way, update once more before making the final PDF: a table of contents that grew by a page moves every page number after it.