Generate PDF Table of Contents

Why long PDFs need a contents page

Reports, manuals, theses, and handbooks are hard to navigate without a table of contents. A contents page tells readers what the document covers before they start, and a clickable one lets them jump straight to the section they need.

How the tool builds it

List your sections, each with a title and the page it starts on. The tool inserts a new contents page at the front of the document with every section and its page number, and each entry is a link to that page. The page uses a clean, readable layout, and the title defaults to “Table of Contents”.

The contents page is a single-level list. For a multi-level navigation tree with chapters and sub-sections, add nested bookmarks with the PDF Bookmarks tool; many documents use both.

Getting the page numbers right

Because the contents page is inserted at the front, it becomes page 1 of the exported file. Enter the page numbers of your sections as they are in the original document, and check the links in the preview before exporting.

Compatible and private

The links are standard PDF link annotations, supported by Adobe Reader, browser viewers, and mobile apps. The contents page is created in your browser; the document is not uploaded to a server.

Finish the document

Add page numbers so the printed contents page lines up with the pages, and add a header or footer with the document title for a polished result.