Did you ever want to add a Wikipedia like table of contents box on some of your long articles? A table of contents makes it easier for users to jump to the section they want to read. In this article, we will show you how to create a table of contents in WordPress posts and pages without writing any HTML or CSS.
Why Add Table of Contents in WordPress Posts?
You may have seen the table of contents on websites like Wikipedia. A table of contents makes it easier for users to jump to the section they want to read in long articles.
It also helps with your WordPress SEO because Google automatically adds a jump to section link next to your site in search results.
You can manually create a table of contents in WordPress by writing HTML code. However that is difficult for beginners because you have to manually create a list, add links, and add ID attribute through-out the article.
But there’s an easy way. Let’s take a look on how to easily create a table of contents in WordPress posts and pages.
Video Tutorial
If you don’t want to watch the video tutorial, then you can continue reading the text version below:
Creating a Table of Contents in WordPress
First thing you need to do is to install and activate the Easy Table of Contents plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, you need to visit Settings » Table of Contents page. From here, you can manage general settings for the table of contents like selecting position, choosing a label for the container, etc.
You can also enable or disable auto-insertion of the table of contents for each post type. If enabled, then the plugin will automatically add a table of contents for any article that has more than 4 headings. You can change that to any other number that you like.
Typically, we don’t recommend adding a table of contents on every article unless all of your articles are really long.
Next, you can scroll down to change the appearance of the table of contents box. From here you can select a theme, adjust width and height, set the font size, or create a custom color scheme for your table of contents box.
After that, you need to go to the Advanced settings section. The default options would work for most websites, but you can review these options to see if you would like to adjust anything.
Don’t forget to click on the Save Changes button to store these settings.
Adding a Table of Contents to WordPress Posts or Pages
Unless you have disabled the auto-insertion, the plugin will now automatically start adding a table of contents to posts based on settings you chose earlier. You can also manage the settings on a post by post basis.
On the post edit screen, you will notice a new section to add and manage the table of contents for your post.
In this section, you can disable auto-insert option for the table of contents on this post specifically. You can also define which heading level to use for the table items.
Note: If you change any setting in this box, then it will override the global settings for this specific post / page.
Once you have written the article with multiple headings, you can simply preview it to see the Table of Contents in action.
The table of contents will appear just above the first heading in your article. Your readers can click on links and jump to the section they want to read.
We hope this article helped you learn how to create a table of contents in WordPress posts and pages. You may also want to see our guide on how to appear in Google answer boxes with your WordPress site to get more search traffic.
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Tay says
How can I manually place the TOC on specific pages? It seems I can only disable auto-insertion but I can’t then decide where I want to put the table on the page. Is this possible?
WPBeginner Support says
The table of contents would need to be enabled for pages and then there should be an option when editing the specific page you want to add it to.
Admin
Muhammad Arslan Sharif says
What a tutorial and very helpful for me and other who want to add new features in their websites and in blogs. In very short words you explain exceptionally.
WPBeginner Support says
Glad you found our guide helpful
Admin
Rianne says
Brilliant! What I thought would take me hours took me 20 minutes instead
WPBeginner Support says
Glad our guide was helpful
Admin
Claudia says
Thank you for all your helpful articles!
WPBeginner Support says
You’re welcome
Admin
Kim Balchios says
My developer created a Table of Contents on a really long blog I wrote. I edited one of the entries and the link fell off.
When I try to create a new entry it says “Paste URL or type to search.” If I add the URL, it will take the reader to the top of the blog not the exact place inside the blog.
WPBeginner Support says
You would want to create an anchor link following our guide below:
https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/how-to-easily-add-anchor-links-in-wordpress-step-by-step/
Admin
David Ellin says
this video shows me how to create a table of contents within a post. I want to create a table of contents for my entire blog so that the title of each article appears in the TOC. How do I do that?
WPBeginner Support says
You would want to take a look at our article below for how to create a blog page as a ToC would get far too long for what you’re wanting to do.
https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-create-a-separate-page-for-blog-posts-in-wordpress/
Admin
jean says
Hi thank you for this informative post!
Only a small question, what is “override the global settings for this specific post / page.”
I chose to insert the table of content manually, and when i check only for h2 & h3, the table of content just doesn’t show up at all.
Thank you!
WPBeginner Support says
That would mean you are telling it to ignore your default settings for the plugin for that specific post/page. If you have no H2 or H3s on the page then there wouldn’t be anything for the plugin to add to the table.
Admin
Ahmad Zeeshan says
In setting there is no “Table of Content”. Where to find it?
WPBeginner Support says
You would want to ensure you activated the plugin after installing it.
Admin
Dheeraj soni says
Thanks for sharing an informative article, your content always helps me to go next level.
WPBeginner Support says
You’re welcome, glad you found our content helpful
Admin
Asthen says
Why wpbeginner don’t recommend using TOC unless it’s really long ?
How long is too long ?
WPBeginner Support says
If the page is too short to scroll then there wouldn’t be a reason to have a table of contents. It is a personal preference for the length of a post.
Admin
SAHIL DHIMAAN says
Hi, very helpful article
But….
Table of content isn’t showing in Mobile, what to do…
i use AMP plugin also…
WPBeginner Support says
Your AMP plugin would be removing the plugin’s additions. If you reach out to the table of contents plugin’s support they can let you know if they have AMP support.
Admin
Bee Lian Low says
Thank you, I have waited so long before I decided to install this Table Of ontent!
WPBeginner Support says
You’re welcome
Admin
Cecilia says
Thanks. Easy to use.
WPBeginner Support says
You’re welcome
Admin
Lucimar says
Good afternoon!
Congratulations on the article, it helped me a lot
However, it just didn’t work on amp pages.
Note: I use the “Accelerated Mobile Pages” plugin.
How can I solve?
Thank you!
WPBeginner Support says
You would want to reach out to the plugin’s support for if there is a recommendation for AMP.
Admin
Džangir Kolar says
Hi!
How those this plugin affect the speed of the page itself?
WPBeginner Support says
It shouldn’t affect your page’s speed.
Admin
Luke Richardson says
Using easy table of contents, is there an option to create hyperlinks to jump to that particular section when you click on one of the headings in the table.
Not sure if I’m missing something with the plugin, but when I click on the headings it doesn’t jump to that section at all.
thanks
WPBeginner Support says
The plugin should be allowing that, you may want to ensure there is enough room between your content and you don’t have any browser addons that would prevent scrolling to a certain section of your page.
Admin
Tosh Lubek says
I’ve checked “Initially hide the table of contents” but the TOC shows every time I open a post with a TOC. Is there something else I need to do?
WPBeginner Support says
You would want to reach out to the plugin’s support to ensure this is not a conflict between the plugin and your theme
Admin
Oulimata says
As usual, amazingly detailed and helpful. You guys have definitely become my go-to resource for anything blogging related.
WPBeginner Support says
Thank you, glad we can continue to be helpful
Admin
Raaz shrestha says
The plugin is really great. Thanks for sharing wpbeginner team.
WPBeginner Support says
Glad you liked our recommendation
Admin
Akamps says
Hey is there a way i can put this table of contents in my sidebar
WPBeginner Support says
The plugin does have a widget you can use
Admin
Nic says
Is there anyway to centre the table?
WPBeginner Support says
You would need to enable custom CSS and depending on your theme would determine the CSS needed
Admin
KM says
How use the plugin “manually” just one lost at a time? Instructions not clear
WPBeginner Support says
You would enable support for the post type you want to have the table of contents in and when you edit one of the types where it is activated, it will have the option at the bottom of the editor to add the table of contents
Admin
Kelvin says
NO it’s POSTS again – not pages!
How do I get a table into a page?
WPBeginner Support says
In the plugin’s settings you would enable support for pages and you should be able to follow the same procedure for pages that you do for posts.
Admin
Rishi says
nice
WPBeginner Support says
Glad you like our article
Admin
Abhishek says
Hi, is this possible to show/hide individual headings, just by clicking on it, like on Wikipedia?
I have too many subheadings under each h3 so I want it to be easier to navigate.
WPBeginner Support says
Hi Abhishek,
Please see our article on how to show hide text in WordPress using toggle effect.
Admin
Alex says
Thanks for article!
Prince Gabriel Okocha says
I have installed this plugin on my blog following the guideline in this post. But it’s not showing up on my posts. Is there anything I’m doing wrong? I really need this to ASAP
WPBeginner Support says
Hello,
Please review plugin settings, you need to enable support for the posts and pages. After that edit the post and page and below the post editor you will find TOC settings. From here, you need to check the box ‘Insert table of contents’ to add it in that particular post.
Admin
Srinu says
Thanks for the article it’s working for me, But I am getting with bullets and numbers, in TOC_Box how to change it. I already numbered with h2 tags.
so its repeated the numbers twice.
Mae says
Thank you so much! I used this for my Exclusives Library and I love it! Now my subscribers won’t have a difficult time looking for their printables.
XOXO,
Mae
Jan Peter Aursnes says
A fine plugin, but is there any way I can exclude pages? Writing in headings and using * and ⎮ does not work, for me anyway. I am not a tech guy so it could be I just need a bit of explanation.
Thanks in advance.
Raushan says
This is best plugin but when i created table of content from this plugin then showing multiple H1 tag which is not good at seo point of view.
How to solve this ?
Thanks
Sunil Suresh says
Thanks. Your article came at the right time for me! I was just now looking for something like this for a client of mine.