Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
It’s easy to move around a Word document when the document is short. But what happens when you’re working on a long document? You might jump to a particular page or search for specific text. The only problem is you don’t always know which page you need to navigate to, or text to search. And scrolling is downright inefficient. This is where it’s best to use the Navigation pane.
Overview
The Navigation pane displays all the headings contained in a document. So it’s very much like a table of contents. But better!
Why? Because you can keep the Navigation pane open while you work (it sits to the side of your document). You then have quick and easy access to every part of your document.
This makes the Navigation pane the best way to move around a lengthy Word document.
That’s because you don’t have to navigate back up to the table of contents, to then click the relevant heading. You can also avoid scrolling through your document to get to the section you need.
There’s one proviso though. And that is you must ensure all headings in your document have a heading style applied. If this isn’t the case, be sure to apply heading styles within your document before reading on.
Tip: Use Microsoft’s built-in heading styles (Headings 1-9) to format your document. It’s the quickest way to ensure your headings will appear in the Navigation pane. Otherwise you’ll need to take extra steps if you use your own custom styles.
How to use the Navigation pane in Word
To move around your document using the Navigation pane:
- Open the Navigation pane
To open the pane, select the Navigation Pane checkbox (View > Show). Or use one of these shortcuts. The pane opens on the left-hand side of your document. - Go to the Headings tab
If not already there, click on the Headings tab. You’ll see all the headings in your document displayed here. Again, this is with the proviso that you’ve applied heading styles.
Note that the pane only displays headings in the body of your document. So you won’t see headings in the pane that have been added to headers / footers, or in tables or text boxes. - Navigate to the desired section
Scroll through the pane to locate the heading you’re looking for. Then click on it – one click is all that’s needed to take you to the relevant section!
To go to the very top of your document, click the Jump to the beginning button. The button sits at the top of the Navigation pane. If you can’t see it, scroll up.
View less (or more) headings in the pane
Word displays Headings 1-9 in the Navigation pane by default. Given this, you may find the pane is too cluttered. That is, if you’ve used all (or most of) these heading levels in your document.
If so, choose how much detail you’d like to display in the pane. You can do this in a few different ways.
Show Heading Levels
To show a set number of heading levels, right click any heading in the pane. Then select Show Heading Levels and choose a heading level from the menu that appears.
For example, select Show Heading 2 if you only want to see the first two heading levels in your document. Word will then collapse all headings beneath Heading 2 (i.e. Headings 3-9).
Note: this option still allows you to expand or collapse headings. Read on for how this is done.
Collapse (or expand) an individual section
If you don’t want to see the subheadings below a heading, click the black triangle beside the heading. This will collapse all subheadings.
Once collapsed, a white triangle appears in place of the black triangle. This is to let you know that the heading contains hidden subheadings. Clicking the white triangle expands the section again.
Collapse All (or Expand All)
Right click any heading in the pane and select Collapse All. This sets the pane to show first level headings only (i.e. Heading 1).
You can then click on an individual heading to expand a section. Or if you’d like to show all heading levels again, click on any heading and select Expand All.
Other useful features
This article has focused solely on how to use the Navigation pane in Word to move around your document. But you can use the pane to do a whole lot more.
Use the Navigation pane whenever you need to:
- Search for text in your document – use either the Headings, Pages or Results tab to locate the text you’re looking for;
- Access the Advanced Find dialogue box. This allows you to:
- Refine your search by selecting various search options;
- Find and replace text; or
- Go to a specific point in your document, e.g. a page or section;
- Search for other content such as graphics, tables and comments;
- Promote or demote a heading, or add a new heading to your document;
- Select a heading and all its content. This makes it easy to either copy or cut and paste the content to another part of your document;
- Print a heading and all its content.
