Create Table of Contents in Word Using Java

The table of contents is usually an indispensable part of a long document. It enables readers to understand what is in the document and how to find the specific content easily. In this article, I will introduce how to create table of contents in a Word document programmatically using Free Spire.Doc for Java.

Installation
Method 1: Download the free library and unzip it. Then add the Spire.Doc.jar file to your Java application as dependency.

Method 2: Directly add the jar dependency to maven project by adding the following configurations to the pom.xml.

<repositories>
   <repository>
      <id>com.e-iceblue</id>
      <name>e-iceblue</name>
      <url>http://repo.e-iceblue.com/nexus/content/groups/public/</url>
   </repository>
</repositories>
<dependencies>
   <dependency>
      <groupId>e-iceblue</groupId>
      <artifactId>spire.doc.free</artifactId>
      <version>3.9.0</version>
   </dependency>
</dependencies>

The following example shows how to create a table of contents with default appearance that includes all text formatted with built-in styles Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3, and page numbers right-aligned with tab leaders.

import com.spire.doc.*;
import com.spire.doc.documents.*;
import com.spire.doc.fields.*;

import java.awt.*;

public class TableofContents {
    public static void main(String[] args){
        //instantiate a Document object
        Document doc = new Document();
        //add a section
        Section section = doc.addSection();

        //add a paragraph
        Paragraph para = section.addParagraph();
        TextRange tr = para.appendText("Table of Contents");
        //set font size and text color
        tr.getCharacterFormat().setFontSize(11);
        tr.getCharacterFormat().setTextColor(Color.blue);
        //set the space after the paragraph
        para.getFormat().setAfterSpacing(10);

        //add a paragraph
        para = section.addParagraph();
        //add a table of contents with default appearance by specifying lower heading level and upper heading level. The heading level range must be from 1 to 9.
        para.appendTOC(1, 3);

        //add a new section
        section = doc.addSection();
        //add a paragraph
        para = section.addParagraph();
        para.appendText("Heading 1");
        //apply Heading 1 style to the paragraph
        para.applyStyle(BuiltinStyle.Heading_1);
        section.addParagraph();

        //add a paragraph
        para = section.addParagraph();
        para.appendText("Heading 2");
        //apply Heading 2 style to the paragraph
        para.applyStyle(BuiltinStyle.Heading_2);
        section.addParagraph();

        //add a paragraph
        para = section.addParagraph();
        para.appendText("Heading 3");
        //apply Heading 3 style to the paragraph
        para.applyStyle(BuiltinStyle.Heading_3);
        section.addParagraph();

        //update Table of Contents
        doc.updateTableOfContents();

        //save the resultant document
        doc.saveToFile("createTableOfContents.docx", FileFormat.Docx);
    }
}