Once upon a time, Word's Document Map had a poor reputation. That reputation was justified. Until Word 2002, it was very flaky. I've had Word 2000 crash while displaying the Document Map more times than I can remember.
But from Word 2002, it improved a lot, and in Word 2010 it has been re-vamped and moved to centre stage. The document map is very useful, so give it a go.
Figure 1: The three parts to the Navigation Pane in Word 2010
You'll see the Document Map on the left of your Word screen.
Strictly speaking, it doesn't do anything. It just sits there on the left of your screen. What it shows you, however, can be very useful. It shows an outline of your document. That is, it shows all the headings in your document. You get to choose whether to show just the highest-level headings, or lower-level headings as well.
To get Document Map to display useful headings, apply the built-in heading styles to the headings in your document.
There are many ways to apply the heading styles.
In Word 2007 and Word 2010, on the Home tab, in the Styles gallery, click the thumbnail for the heading style you want to apply.
In Word 2003 and earlier versions, the easiest way is probably to use the Styles combobox on the toolbar. (And if you're used to using that, in Word 2007 and Word 2010, you can reinstate the Styles combobox to the Quick Access Toolbar.)
From the Styles combo box, choose Heading 1 for your main headings, Heading 2 for sub-headings and Heading 3 for minor headings, and so on.
If you click on a heading in the Document Map, the cursor will jump to that heading. That gives you a really fast way to navigate around your document.
If you have a really big document, it's sometimes easy to get "lost". You can see a page of text, but it's hard to know where you are in the document.
Document Map is a good way to solve this problem. As you move around your document, the Document Map will highlight the current heading.
For example, in Figure 1, I can see that the cursor is within the section with the heading "Balloons". In Figure 2, I can see that the cursor is within the section "Sea transport".
Figure 1: In Word 2007 and earlier versions, to control the number of levels displayed in Document Map, right-click in spare space in the Document Map and choose your preferred level. This is the Document Map from Word 2003. Word 2007 is similar.
Figure 2: Expand or collapse individual headings by clicking on the Plus and Minus signs next to the headings. This is Word 2003. Word 2007 is similar.
In Word 2007 and earlier versions, text in the Document Map is shown in style Document Map. Modify the Document Map style to suit your needs. I find that 10pt Tahoma works well. This feature was removed from Word 2010.
Hover over the vertical bar separating the Document Map from your text. Drag left or right to suit your needs. See Figure 3.
Figure 3: Hover over the vertical bar to the right of the Document Map and drag to change the width of the Document Map.
The Document Map has changed substantially in Word 2010 (Figure 4). It's not even officially called the Document Map any more, but since it does not have a new name, it seems sensible to keep using the old one.
Figure 4: The Document Map in Word 2010 showing the shortcut menu when you right-click a heading. Note that in Word 2010 you must right-click a heading.
It now shares the new "Navigation Pane" with a panel for Find and one for Thumbnails. (Except they're not called Find and Thumbnails any more either; but, like the Document Map they don't have new names, so using the old names seems sensible.)
There is some [NOTE: outdated link removed by Lene Fredborg 29-Dec-2016] some good material about the new Document Map at microsoft.com, written during the beta testing of Office 2010.
Word displays paragraphs in Document Map according to the Outline Level of the paragraph. You can change the outline level of an individual paragraph by doing Format > Paragraph and changing the Outline Level. Or, you can use Outline View to change the outline level of a paragraph.
More usefully, the Outline Level can be derived from the style you apply to your text. The built-in heading styles have their Outline Level fixed (Heading 1 has Outline Level 1, Heading 2 has Outline Level 2 and so on). If you create a custom style, you can modify it to have the Outline level you choose.
If your document has text with appropriate Outline Levels, Document Map will use those outline levels. If Word can't find any text with appropriate Outline Levels, then, in Word 2007 and earlier versions, Word will guess. (In Word 2010, Word no longer guesses. Hooray!)
A small line of text
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
Another short line
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. jumps over the lazy dog.
Few words here
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
You can see that Word has guessed that short, bold lines are headings and has changed the Outline Level of the paragraphs.
Since no-one ever wants Word to guess, make sure you apply appropriate styles (which have appropriate Outline Levels) to your text. Then you will be controlling what displays in Document Map.
Word displays text in the Document Map based entirely on the Outline Level of the paragraph. It does not guess.
Acknowledgement
Fellow MVP Klaus Linke worked out the problem with the missing heading numbering in Document Map.
Created May 2005. Last updated 7 August 2010.
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The creator of ShaunaKelly.com, Shauna Kelly, passed away peacefully on Wednesday November 16, 2011 after a long battle with ovarian cancer. If you are requesting permission to re-use any information on this site, then you may do so with appropriate acknowledgement of her work. If her words, thoughts or pictures have helped you, or made money for you, then please consider making a donation in her name to WomenCan (previously Women's Cancer Foundation).
The creator of ShaunaKelly.com, Shauna Kelly, passed away peacefully on Wednesday November 16, 2011 after a long battle with ovarian cancer.
If you are requesting permission to re-use any information on this site, then you may do so with appropriate acknowledgement of her work.
If her words, thoughts or pictures have helped you, or made money for you, then please consider making a donation in her name to WomenCan (previously Women's Cancer Foundation).
