When creating professional documents in word processors like LibreOffice Writer, many users rely on manually formatting headings to make text look like section titles. While this might seem quicker to implement, it leads to unreliable table of contents generation. The correct and efficient approach is to use built-in styles instead of manual formatting to define headings and ensure a automatically updating table of contents.
Styles are structured formatting profiles that can be applied to text with a one action. When you apply a heading style such as Heading 1, you are not just changing how the text looks—you are embedding semantic context. The word processor recognizes these styles as hierarchical levels, which is exactly what the table of contents needs to generate an dynamically updated list of sections and subsections.
To begin, avoid adjusting point size to 16. Instead, locate the quick styles toolbar in your word processor—usually found on the home tab—and click on the correct level style. If the styles are not visible, enable them through the options panel. Once applied, every instance of Level 1 Heading will look the uniform, every Heading 2 will follow the consistent styling, and so on. This uniformity is critical for both professional aesthetics and functional reliability.
After applying styles to all your headings, generating a table of contents becomes instant. Navigate to the references tab and select structured outline. The software will scan your document for all text marked with semantic tags and ketik build a structured list automatically. If you later update subsections, simply update the table of contents with the refresh button. No need to adjust spacing. The table will adjust to reflect the new structure because it is based on the underlying styles, not font size.
Using styles also makes formatting updates far more efficient. If you decide to change the appearance of all level two headings, such as switching from blue to black, you only need to update the template once. Every heading using that style will update across the entire document. This is unmanageable at scale with manual formatting, where you would have to hunt down each formatted line.
Moreover, inclusive design benefits significantly from proper style usage. Screen readers rely on tagged elements to navigate content. Headings defined by styles provide logical navigation points for users with accessibility needs, whereas manually formatted text appears as style-less paragraphs. This makes your document not only more corporate-standard but also more equitable.
It is also worth noting that styles help maintain coherence when co-authoring. If multiple people are working on the collaborative project, using styles ensures that everyone follows the brand standards, preventing the chaos that comes from different individuals applying their own arbitrary tweaks. Templates with predefined styles can be shared across teams to maintain consistency effortlessly.
In summary, manual formatting may appear convenient in the short term, but it introduces errors. By using semantic heading tags, you establish a defined content flow, enable dynamic indexing, simplify updates, improve usability, and ensure document reliability. Making the switch to styles is not just a visual enhancement—it is a process optimization that saves time and enhances the quality of every document you produce.
