Headings and the outline

Heading levels are a map of the document. Keep them in order and Docs builds the navigation for you.

Headings are levels, not sizes

Heading 1, Heading 2 and Heading 3 are not “big, medium and small”. They are levels in an outline, like chapters, sections and sub-sections in a manual.

A reader (and a screen reader) expects:

  • One Title.
  • Heading 1 for each major part.
  • Heading 2 only underneath a Heading 1.
  • Heading 3 only underneath a Heading 2.

Do not skip a level because you like the look of the smaller one. If Heading 3 looks better than Heading 2, change the Heading 2 style (lesson 1), not the level.

Document Heading 1 Heading 2 Heading 3
Employee handbook Time off Vacation Requesting vacation
Project proposal Scope What is included Deliverables
Standard operating procedure Opening the store Alarm and lights If the alarm does not disarm

The outline panel shows the levels as indents, which makes a skipped level easy to spot.

A document outline panel listing Employee handbook as the Title, Time off and Pay as Heading 1, Vacation and Sick leave as Heading 2 and Requesting vacation as Heading 3, with Overtime rates flagged because it is a Heading 3 placed directly under a Heading 1, beside a diagram of Title, Heading 1, 2 and 3 nesting inside each other
The outline is a map of the document. Overtime rates sits at the wrong indent because it skips Heading 2.

The outline panel

Once headings are real headings, Docs shows an outline down the side. Tap a line in it and the document jumps there. On a long document this saves minutes of scrolling, and it is the fastest way to spot a heading at the wrong level: it will sit at the wrong indent in the list.

The outline is also a quick quality check. Read the outline on its own. If it makes sense without the body text, the structure is good.

A table of contents that updates itself

A table of contents is built from headings. Insert it once near the top. When you add or rename sections, refresh it and the entries and page numbers update. Never type a table of contents by hand; it is out of date the first time anyone edits.

You can also link straight to a heading. Share the link and the reader lands on that section, which beats “see the part about refunds”.

A short walkthrough of inserting and refreshing the table of contents.

Video: How to Create a Table of Contents in Google Docs · Simpletivity with Scott Friesen · 2 minNotice that the table is built entirely from the heading styles, and how the refresh icon updates it after edits.Watch on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Try it now

Open a document longer than one page. Show the outline. If it is empty or has a line that should not be a heading, fix the styles until the outline reads like a sensible table of contents. Then insert a table of contents under the title.

Remember: read the outline before you read the document. If the outline is confusing, the document is confusing.

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