MS-Word / General Formatting

Creating a Table of Authorities

After you mark all citations in your document, follow these steps to create the table of authorities:

  1. Move the insertion point to the place where you want the table of authorities to appear.
    You can place the table of authorities at the beginning or end of the document. If you want the table to appear on its own page, press Ctrl+Enter to create a page break. You might also want to type a heading, such as Table of Authorities.
  2. Click the Insert Table of Authorities button in the Table of Authorities group on the References tab.
    The Table of Authorities dialog box appears.
  3. Pick the style you want from the Formats drop-down list.
    As you click the various formats, the Print Preview area shows how the resulting table of authorities appears.
  4. Play with the other controls to fine-tune the table of authorities.
    • Use Passim: Select this check box if you want Word to use the word passim whenever a citation occurs on five or more pages. (The Latin word passim means either "scattered throughout," or "an ugly, overgrown, rat-like creature that hangs upside down by its tail.")
    • Keep Original Formatting: Select this check box if you want the character formatting (such as underline and italics) that Word applies to the document's citation to carry over into the table of authorities.
    • Tab Leader: Use this drop-down list to add or remove the dotted line that connects each table entry with its page number.
    • Formats: Use this drop-down list to select one of several predefined formats for the table of authorities.
    • Category: Use this list box to choose the citation category you want compiled. Usually, you leave the category set to All, the default. If you want to compile a table of one category (cases, rules, and regulations, for example), select the category from the drop-down list.
  5. Click OK.
    The table of authorities is created.

Here are some things to remember when you compile a table of authorities:

  • If the table of authorities looks like { TOA \h \c "1" \p }, right-click it and choose Toggle Field Codes. Alternately, call up the Word Options dialog box (choose File → Options), click the Advanced tab, and deselect the Show Field Codes Instead of Their Values check box (found in the Show Document Content section). Click OK, and the table appears correctly.
  • To delete a table of authorities, select the entire table and then press Delete.
  • Word formats the entries in a table of authorities in a standard Table of Authorities style, and the category headings are formatted in the TOA Heading style. If none of the predefined formats in the Formats list tickles your fancy, select From Template and click the Modify button. A special version of the Style dialog box appears, showing only the standard styles used in a table of authorities. You can customize the appearance of your table by modifying the Table of Authorities and TOA Heading styles.
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