Deleting a Table of Contents

by Allen Wyatt
(last updated December 26, 2013)

3

Google Docs includes a great feature that allows you to easily add a table of contents to a document. At some point, though, you may want to get rid of the TOC completely. You would think it would be as easy as deleting all the headings that appear in the TOC, but not so!

If you put the insertion point somewhere within the TOC, you'll notice that Docs shows a box around the entire TOC. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. A TOC has a box that appears around it.

If you delete all the headings in the TOC, then the box still remains—it is an element that must be deleted in its own right. Here are the steps I follow to get rid of a TOC; they should work for you, as well.

  1. Position the insertion point before the existing TOC. When you do so, the TOC box should not appear anywhere on the screen.
  2. Hold down the Shift key as you use the down-arrow to select everything within the TOC.
  3. Make sure you still hold down the Shift key as you select at least one character beyond the end of the TOC. (You should now have the full TOC box and a character before and a character after the box selected.)
  4. Press the Delete key. The TOC is now completely gone.

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

Forcing Manual Calculation For a Workbook

If you have a large, complex workbook, you may want to make sure that it is always calculated manually instead of ...

Discover More

Turning Off Comment Color when Printing

Comments that you add to your document are most often displayed in a bright color so they aren't easily missed. If you ...

Discover More

Placing Formula Results in a Comment

Excel won't allow you to directly or automatically insert the results of a formula into a cell's comment. You can, ...

Discover More
More DriveTips

Understanding Custom Dictionaries

Spellcheck a document and you have the opportunity to save a flagged word into your custom dictionary. What, exactly does ...

Discover More

Creating and Saving a Document

Need to start writing your new masterpiece? The first step is to create the document that will hold that opus, and then ...

Discover More

Updating a Table of Contents

For longer documents, a table of contents is almost a necessity. Google Docs allows you to add a TOC to a document, but ...

Discover More
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}] 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 four less than 5?

2016-10-11 15:11:55

kaya

You can also right click on the table of contents. At the bottom of the potions list, there will be a prompt saying, "Delete Table of Contents".

2016-04-10 17:01:54

Aimee

What a simple solution, but VERY helpful!

2014-03-10 01:07:59

J

Thanks so much!

Links and Sharing
OUR COMPANY
OUR PRODUCTS
OUR AUTHORS
OUR SITES
 

Copyright © 2019 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.