Importance of Tables of Contents
Tables of Contents are a valuable coordination tool to ensure the text includes everything required. The first step for writing the text is to create the table of contents listing the expected sections from every design discipline on the project team. The contents usually includes the titles or descriptions of the first-level headers, such as chapter titles in longer works, and often includes second-level or section titles within the chapters as well, and occasionally even third-level titles . The depth of detail in tables of contents depends on the length of the work, with longer works having less. Formal reports also have a table of contents. Within an English-language book, the table of contents usually appears after the title page, copyright notices, and, in technical journals, the abstract; and before any lists of tables or figures, the foreword, and the preface. Printed tables of contents indicate page numbers where each part starts, while digital ones offer links to go to each part. The format and location of the page numbers is a matter of style for the publisher. If the page numbers appear after the heading text, they might be preceded by characters called leaders, usually dots or periods, that run from the chapter or section titles on the opposite side of the page, or the page numbers might remain closer to the titles. In some cases, the page number appears before the text. The table of contents shows what Subjects are there in a book, journal, magazine or in a research paper. So what is included in a book is shown in its table of contents. The table also shows a reader what the topics are, who the writers are, and which page a reader should open to read a particular topic. Sometimes in some books, topics are organized first in units and then in lessons. However, some books only show the chapters .In some cases, tables of contents contains a high quality description of the chapter’s but usually first-level header’s section content rather than subheadings. Matter preceding the table of contents is generally not listed there. However, all pages except the outside cover are counted, and the table of contents is often numbered with a lowercase Roman numeral page number. Many popular word processors, such as Microsoft Word, Word Perfect, and Star Writer are capable of automatically generating a table of contents if the author of the text uses specific styles for chapter titles, headings, subheadings, etc. So tables of contents are much important to get desired topics quickly.
