Word for Finance Reports: Styles, Navigation Pane and Table of Contents

A long finance report in Word is easier to write, review and navigate when it is built on styles rather than manual formatting. Microsoft's support pages document how heading styles feed the Navigation Pane and the table of contents, how Track Changes works during review, and what to check for accessibility. This post summarises those pages and adds practical reporting tips that are clearly labelled as ours. Menus, names and availability change by version and licence, so check the current Microsoft documentation for your version. If the report you are drafting comments on accounts, our guide to how to read and understand financial statements may help with the content itself.

Styles: the foundation

Microsoft's article on applying styles explains that styles give each element, such as headings, a consistent font and size. Changing a style updates every place it is used, and headings also support the Navigation Pane and tables of contents. The desktop steps are to select the text, go to the Home tab, preview a style by pointing at it, then select it. The article notes that a cursor in a paragraph formats the whole paragraph, while selected text formats only the selection. For a different overall look it points to Design and Themes, where each theme has its own set of styles. If no style fits, you can customise an existing style or create a new one.

The article applies to Word for Microsoft 365, Word 2024, 2021, 2019 and 2016 and shows no publication or update date on the page we read.

Our suggestion: choose a small set of styles for the whole report (heading levels, body text, a table text style and a note or source style) and apply them from the start. If a heading looks wrong, fix the style, not the individual heading.

The Navigation Pane

Microsoft's article "Use the Navigation pane in Word" says you can open it by pressing Ctrl+F or by choosing Navigation Pane on the View tab, and that Mac and Word for the web behave differently. Its Headings tab lists headings that use heading styles in the document body. Clicking a heading jumps to it, and arrows next to a heading show or hide its subheadings. Headings inside tables, text boxes, headers or footers do not appear. The Pages tab shows page thumbnails, and a search box at the top finds text.

The article also documents reordering: on the Headings tab, you can drag a heading to move that section, and right-click a heading to change its level or add a new heading. If the document has protected regions, you may be unable to drag a section past the last one. It applies to Word for Microsoft 365, 2024, 2021, 2019 and 2016. Its metadata shows a date of 02/24/2026 and an update timestamp of 2026-09-25.

This is useful in a long report: if the headings are structured, you can restructure a section without cutting and pasting. It also works as a quick check that your heading levels make sense. If a section you expected is missing from the pane, it probably was not formatted with a heading style.

Table of contents

Microsoft's article "Create a table of contents" says Word builds the table of contents from the document's headings, so the headings must be styled first. You select each heading and apply a style such as Heading 1, Heading 2 or Heading 3 from Home and Styles. To insert the table, place the cursor where it should go, usually near the start, then choose References and Table of Contents and pick Automatic Table 1, Automatic Table 2 or Custom Table of Contents.

The article says that after changes affecting the table you should right-click it and choose Update Field, and that automatic tables can reflect changes to heading text, order or level. A Manual Table of Contents does not use the headings; it inserts placeholder text, so entries must be typed in and cannot update automatically. You can also change the font, the number of heading levels included and whether dotted leader lines appear. The page does not state which Word versions it applies to and shows no dates.

Our suggestion: update the table of contents as part of your final checks before you send a report, and again after any late edit that could move page numbers. A table that shows an old page number is a common error in documents that have been through several reviews.

Track Changes in review

Microsoft's article on Track Changes says to use Review, Tracking and Track Changes. When tracking is on, deletions show as strikethrough and additions as underlines, with a different colour for each author. When it is off, Word stops marking new edits but existing markup stays. If a document was shared with you for review, you may not be able to turn tracking off, and Lock Tracking can require a password to turn it off.

• Show markup: the Markup group offers Simple Markup, All Markup, No Markup and Original, and you can filter by edit type or by reviewer.
• Accept and reject: you can step through changes with Next and Previous, resolve them one at a time or in bulk, or resolve all at once.
• Comments: the article states that comments are no longer part of the Track Changes function. The Reviewing Pane shows the number of remaining tracked changes and comments.
• Hiding is not removing: the article says hiding markup does not remove it. To print without markup, clear Print Markup under File, Print and Settings.

The page applies to Word for Microsoft 365, 2024, 2021, 2019 and 2016, plus Word for iPad, the web app and iPhone. It does not describe how revision dates are displayed.

Our suggestion: because hiding markup does not remove it, resolve all tracked changes and review comments before a report leaves the building, and check the document for leftover markup. The practical rule is simple: only send a version after you have accepted or rejected every change.

Accessibility

Microsoft's article "Intro to making documents accessible" says to go to Review and Check Accessibility, review the results in the pane and make the recommended changes, and that Review and Read Aloud can help you hear how the document will sound to someone experiencing it through a screen reader. It says built-in headings and styles help screen readers and advises using the Accessibility Checker to make sure headings are in a logical order. For hyperlinks, link text should clearly describe the destination, and generic text such as "Click here" should be avoided. It also advises not relying on colour alone to convey meaning, using larger sans-serif fonts, avoiding all caps and excessive italics or underlining, and leaving ample white space.

The page does not cover alt text or tables; it links to a separate article for those. It applies to Word for Microsoft 365, 2024, 2021, 2019 and 2016, and its metadata shows a content date of 01/01/2025 and an update timestamp of 2026-09-16.

Styles do double duty here: the same heading structure that powers the Navigation Pane and table of contents is what helps screen reader users move around a report.

A reporting workflow: our suggestions

• Template first. Start from a report template with the styles already set, so every contributor writes in the same structure.
• Structure with headings. Use heading levels for the summary, the main sections and the appendices, rather than bold text.
• Use the Navigation Pane in review. It gives reviewers a map of the document and a way to jump between sections.
• Track changes with a single owner. Agree who consolidates reviewers' edits to avoid conflicting versions.
• Final checks. Update the table of contents, resolve changes and comments, run the Accessibility Checker and read the front page once more.

If you are exploring AI assistance for drafting and summarising in Microsoft 365, see our overview of Microsoft Copilot for finance teams, and for presenting numbers in the report itself, our guide to financial dashboards in Excel for executive reports.

What this guide does not cover

This guide makes no claims about Microsoft's separate Word accessibility article on alt text and tables, or the Styles pane. We also state nothing about Copilot features inside Word.

Learnsignal's offices are off Baggot Street in Dublin, and we offer in-person training from there. For current details, see our CPD pages.

Frequently asked questions

How does Word build a table of contents?

Microsoft says it uses the document's headings, so you apply styles such as Heading 1 and Heading 2 first, then insert an automatic table from References. A manual table does not use the headings and does not update automatically.

Why are my headings missing from the Navigation Pane?

Microsoft says the Headings tab lists headings that use heading styles in the document body, and that headings inside tables, text boxes, headers or footers do not appear.

Does hiding tracked changes remove them?

No. Microsoft says hiding markup does not remove it. To print without markup, clear Print Markup in the print settings, and accept or reject changes to remove them from the document.

How do I update the table of contents?

Microsoft says to right-click it and choose Update Field after changes that affect it.

Build the report on styles, review it with tracked changes and finish with a checklist: that is where Word's documented features earn their keep.