Writer’s Toolbox: Table of Contents Plug-In
Welcome to the latest installment of a series on writing tools and resources. Comment below with your own favorite tools and we might share them in a future post.
Drafting & Editing Tool: Table of Contents Plug In for Google Docs
If you think a Table of Contents app sounds like the finishing touch for your writing project you’re very much mistaken. This interactive document organizer is essential to how I build my drafts and manage my editing process. It’s a simple Google Docs plug-in from LumApps but it has saved me thousands of hours of scrolling.
Once you’ve installed this add-on in Google Docs, the app will generate a linked table of contents in the sidebar based on any headings in the document. All you have to do is click on the chapter in the sidebar and you will jump there. Allowing you to move back and forth easily anywhere you need to go.
My completed novel with the TOC app on the side
If you write anything long format you know how impossible it is to find ‘that one part’ when you’re scrolling through thousands of words. With this plugin, you can easily jump back and fix that detail in chapter 3 that you thought of while working on chapter 40. I can’t even imagine working on something longer than 25 pages without it.
I use the functionality even more when I’m writing the first draft. I don’t write in a linear way, so being able to jump back and forth through the story fleshing out whatever is on my mind is essential to my process. When I’m early in the process the headings are unnumbered and more scenes than final chapters. I give them fake names so I remember what they’re about, drop in dummy headers as placeholders for scenes that still need to be written and tag chapters I’m finished with as ‘Done’ in the header so I can track my progress. From day one, the Table of Contents is like my interactive outline evolve as the novel grows and helping me keep track of the beast.
This my messy blobby TOC in development
Full disclosure, the app isn’t perfect. It’s a little slow to reload when you change headings. It can be glitchy when you hop to different devices. For some reason, it works fine on my laptop and my phone but my tablet is hit or miss. It’s not perfect and I wish Google would just build this useability into Docs rather than it being a plug-in, but it’s the best I’ve found and it saves me a world of time.
Installing the app is easy. Open Google Docs. Then in the toolbar go to Add-ons/Get Add Ons and search for it. Once you’ve installed it, close and reopen the document and then go to Add-Ons/Table of Contents/Show in Sidebar and Voila. Your scrolling days are over.
We have lots more tools to share. Be sure to comment below with any tools you love and we’ll add them to the discussion.
