Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Creating Categories for Your Table of Authorities.

Creating Categories for Your Table of Authorities

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated December 12, 2020)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021


If you are developing a long legal document, a table of authorities can be very valuable. Word allows you to divide a table of authorities into categories. For instance, you may want case citations in a different section of the table than statute citations. Word provides seven different categories you can use: cases, statutes, rules, treatises, regulations, constitutional provisions, and other authorities. If you need more than these pre-defined categories, you can create your own categories. Word allows you to define up to 16 different categories, including the seven already defined. You can define your own categories by following these steps:

  1. Press Shift+Alt+I to display the Mark Citation dialog box.
  2. Click the Category button. Word displays the Edit Category dialog box. (See Figure 1.)
  3. Figure 1. The Edit Category dialog box.

  4. In the Category list, select one of the numbers, 8 through 16. (If you select one of the existing seven categories, you will end up replacing it with your new category.)
  5. Edit the text in the Replace With box to reflect how you want the category to appear.
  6. Click on Replace. The edited category name now appears in the Category list.
  7. Click on OK.

You can now use the new category, as desired, to mark and classify citations.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (13169) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Creating Categories for Your Table of Authorities.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Understanding Strikethrough Formatting

The strikethrough text feature in Word can be used as part of your document or to indicate that changes have been made to ...

Discover More

Inserting Initials and Date in a Comment

When you insert a comment into a document, Word keeps track of who entered it and the date when it was entered. Here's ...

Discover More

Determining If a File Exists

Your macro may need to know if a particular file exists. This is easy to figure out using the Dir command, and even ...

Discover More

The First and Last Word on Word! Bestselling For Dummies author Dan Gookin puts his usual fun and friendly candor back to work to show you how to navigate Word 2013. Spend more time working and less time trying to figure it all out! Check out Word 2013 For Dummies today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Generating a Table of Authorities

With the entries for your table of authorities marked throughout your document, you are ready to actually generate the ...

Discover More

Creating a Table of Authorities

In legal documents a table of authorities is a common element. Creating the table is easy to do if you apply the ...

Discover More

Ensuring Proper Page Numbers for a Table of Authorities

Automatically create a Table of Authorities entry in your document, and Word might place the necessary field at the wrong ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 7 + 9?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)


This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the ribbon interface (Word 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the menu interface.

Videos
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.