Using Different Formatting for Tabs and Page Numbers in a TOC Style

Diana notes that when creating a table of contents, the settings in the TOC styles determine how each TOC entry will appear. If she defines the TOC 1 style as bold and set a tab with leader dots for the page number, then the TOC entry is all bold. However, Diana would prefer that the leader dots and page number were non-bold while the title for the TOC entry remains bold. She is therefore curious if there is a way to set up the TOC entry in this manner.

The short answer is no, there is no way to do this. The reason is because TOC styles are paragraph styles, meaning they are applied to the entire paragraph. The only workaround to this would be to manually apply formatting to the leader dots and page number. This, then, would be your steps in creating your TOC:

1. Generate your TOC based on the headings in your document. Word automatically applies the TOC styles to the paragraphs.
2. Select the leader dots and the page number in a paragraph formatted using the TOC 1 style.
3. On the Home tab of the ribbon, click the Bold tool. Word returns the leader dots and page number to non-bold type.
4. Using the controls on the Home tab of the ribbon, apply any other explicit formatting necessary for the leader dots and page number.
5. Repeat steps 2 through 4 for every other TOC entry using the TOC 1 style.

While this produces what you ultimately need, understand that the result is temporary. If you regenerate the TOC, then your explicit formatting will be removed. This means you'll need to go through the above steps every time that the TOC is updated.

There is a bright spot here, though. When you print a document, Word normally regenerates all the fields in the document. There is one field it apparently doesn't regenerate automatically, though, and that is the field that creates the TOC. Thus, you would be able to print and have your leader dots and page numbers look the way you want.

There is one other thing that should be addressed. You might believe that you can create a character style for how you want your leader dots and page numbers to look and then apply that style in step 3, above. Testing has shown, though, that this won't work. Even if you define the character style to not be bold (to be regular text), Word won't remove the bolding from the text to which you apply the character style. It will apply all the other attributes of the character style, but it won't remove the bolding. The only way to apparently do that is through the explicit formatting described in the steps above.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (2280) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Word in Microsoft 365.