Tables of contents, footnotes and citations

The References tab holds the tools for longer documents: a table of contents, footnotes, captions and a table of figures, citations with a reference list, and updating fields. Cross-references are covered in Links, bookmarks and cross-references.

Everything on this page is saved as real Word fields and parts, so Word recognises it and can update it.

Table of contents

A table of contents lists the document’s headings with the page each one starts on.

Insert a table of contents

1. Give your section headings heading styles — Heading 1, Heading 2 and so on. See Paragraphs and styles.
2. On the References tab, in the Table of contents group, click the contents button (Insert a table of contents, built from the heading styles).
3. In the Table of contents dialog, choose how many heading levels to include: Heading 1 only, Headings 1 to 2, Headings 1 to 3 or Headings 1 to 4.

Writer inserts the table of contents at the very start of the document, under a heading that says Contents. Each entry is indented by its level and followed by its page number. The status bar says Contents inserted, with and the number of entries.

The page numbers are worked out by laying the document out exactly as printing and PDF export do, so they match the printed pages.

If the document has no headings in the chosen levels, the table of contents says “No headings found. Give a paragraph a Heading style and update this field.”

Update the table of contents

When headings change, rebuild the table of contents:

• Click Update the contents (the circular arrow) in the Table of contents group. Writer rebuilds it with the number of levels you last chose in this session, or three levels.
• Or click the contents button again. The dialog is titled Update the contents and says the existing contents will be rebuilt from the headings as they stand now; choose the levels.

The existing table of contents is replaced where it is, rather than a second one being added. This also works for a table of contents made in Word. The status bar says Contents updated.

In a long document, updating the table of contents takes a moment, because Writer lays out the whole document to find the page numbers.

Footnotes

A footnote puts a small number in the text and a note with the same number at the foot of the page.

Insert a footnote

1. Put the caret where the footnote number should go.
2. On the References tab, in the Footnotes group, click the footnote button (Insert a footnote).
3. In the Footnote dialog, type the note in the box.
4. Click Insert.

A superscript number appears at the caret, and the Footnotes pane opens.

You don’t choose the number. Footnotes are numbered 1, 2, 3 in the order their references appear in the document, so adding a footnote above an existing one renumbers everything after it.

Edit or delete a footnote

1. On the References tab, in the Footnotes group, click the footnote count button (its tooltip says how many footnotes there are). It appears once the document has a footnote.
2. In the Footnotes pane, find the note by its number.
3. Click Edit this note to change the text in the Edit the footnote dialog, then click Save.
4. Or click the bin (Delete it, and the reference to it) to delete the note and its number in the text.

An empty note shows as Empty in the pane.

Footnotes on paper

When you print or export a PDF, each note is printed at the foot of the page its reference lands on, under a short rule, in a smaller size. The text on that page stops higher to make room.

Captions

A caption labels a figure, table or equation with a number that Writer keeps in order.

Add a caption

1. Put the caret in the paragraph or table the caption belongs to — for a picture, the paragraph that holds the picture.
2. On the References tab, in the Captions group, click the caption button (Caption this).
3. In the Caption dialog, next to Label, choose Figure, Table or Equation.
4. Type the caption text. The box shows the label and number the caption will get, for example “Figure 3:”.
5. Click Insert, or press Return.

The caption goes on a new line below the block the caret is in, in the Caption style: small, italic and muted, kept with the item above. Writer adds the Caption style to the document the first time you use it.

Each label counts separately, so Figure 3 and Table 1 can sit side by side. Inserting a caption renumbers every caption of the same label after it. The number is a Word field, so Word keeps it in order too.

To renumber captions after moving or deleting things, use the update button in the Cross-references group. See Update cross-references.

Table of figures

A table of figures lists every Figure caption.

1. On the References tab, in the Captions group, click Insert a table of figures.

If the document has no table of figures, Writer inserts one at the very start of the document. If it has one, the button says Rebuild the table of figures and replaces the existing one where it is.

The status bar says Listed and the number of figures, or, when there are no Figure captions, “No Figure captions yet — the table is a field, so it fills in once there are”. The table of figures lists Figure captions only.

Citations and a reference list

You can keep a list of sources in the document, cite them in the text, and build a reference list of everything cited. Sources are stored where Word keeps them, so Word’s own source manager sees them.

Add a source

1. On the References tab, in the Citations group, click Add a source to this document.
2. In the Add a source dialog, choose the type: Book, Article, Website or Report.
3. Fill in the fields you have:
   • Author — for example “Ada Lovelace”. Separate several authors with commas.
   • Title
   • Year
   • Publisher
   • Address, for something online
4. Click Add.

Writer gives the source a short tag made from the first three letters of the author’s surname and the last two digits of the year — for example Lov43. If the tag is taken, it adds a letter: Lov43a. The status bar says Added and the tag, followed by “Cite it from the Citations list.”

Sources that came with a document from Word are listed too.

Cite a source

1. Put the caret where the citation should go.
2. On the References tab, click the citations list in the Citations group. It lists the tags of the document’s sources. When there are none, it shows a dash and its tooltip says “Add a source and it appears here”.
3. Click a tag.

Writer inserts the citation in author-date form, for example (Lovelace, 1843). With no author, the title takes the author’s place; with no year, the year is left out.

Citations are saved as Word citation fields.

Insert the reference list

1. On the References tab, in the Citations group, click the reference list button (Insert a reference list of everything cited).

Writer adds a heading, References, at the end of the document, followed by one entry per cited source. The status bar says Listed and the number of cited works.

• Only sources that are cited in the text are listed.
• Entries are sorted by author surname, then year, then title.
• Each entry reads: author, year in brackets, title, publisher and address, separated by full stops.
• If nothing is cited yet, the list says “Nothing is cited yet. Insert a citation and update this.” and the status bar says “Nothing is cited yet — the list fills in once something is”.

When the document already has a reference list, the button says Rebuild the reference list and replaces it where it is.

Writer formats citations and reference lists in an author-date style.

When a source goes missing

Updating fields refreshes every citation from its source. A citation whose source is no longer in the document shows (Source not found: followed by the tag.

Update fields

The update button in the Cross-references group on the References tab brings these up to date in one step:

• Cross-references to a bookmark’s text or page number.
• Caption numbers.
• Citations.

To update the table of contents, the table of figures or the reference list, use their own buttons.