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Tables of contents contain links to sections within an article, providing easy and automatic on-page navigation.

Standard Tables of Contents
Articles will include a default table of contents when more than three section headings appear. The default table of contents will include all section headings and will appear just before the first section heading. By default, the table of contents will be left aligned.

You may hide an individual table of contents when viewing an article by clicking the "hide" link in the table. Alternately, if you do not wish to see any tables of contents, you may deactivate their display entirely within the Misc tab of your user preferences. Simply uncheck the box next to "Show table of contents (for pages with more than 3 headings)" and no tables of contents will be displayed.

Modifying the Table of Contents
Several magic words and templates exist which modify the standard tables of contents.

Removing the Table of Contents from an article
To remove the table of contents from any article, simply add the magic word anywhere within the article. It's usually not advisable to do so, however.

Forcing and Moving the Table of Contents
To force the table of contents to appear regardless of how many headings an article has, simply add the magic word anywhere within the article. The table of contents will appear wherever you place the template, allowing you to move it up or down the page from its normal position.

Changing the alignment of the table of contents
To force the table of contents to appear on the right of a page, use the template. The table of contents will appear wherever you place the template.

To force the table of contents to float on the left of a page, use the template. The table of contents will appear wherever you place the template. Note that the text of the page will wrap around a floated table of contents, whereas the standard table does not allow text to appear to the right of the table and instead creates whitespace.

Limiting the headings listed in a table of contents
Section headings create a hierarchy. In this page's table of contents, note how Section 2, "Modifying the Table of Contents", contains several subsections. These subsections could also contain subsections of their own.

It's possible to limit the depth of headings which are included in the table using the template. By setting a number value for, only headings of the specified level or greater will display. For example,  will include only level two headings ( ==Heading== ), while   will include level three headings ( ===Heading=== ) as well as level two headings, and so on.

Like the other TOC templates, will cause the table to appear wherever the template is placed on the page. Additionally, both and  support the use of the   variable.

Special Tables of Contents
It's also possible to design a template which will replace the table of content entirely. For example, Powers uses a special table of contents:.

The template is a variation of the special table of contents. This template produces a horizontal table which links to sections for each letter of the alphabet--useful on long, alphabetically sorted articles like glossaries and lists. To use, simply place the template where the table should appear, and ensure that you add sections for each needed letter of the alphabet ( ==A== , ==B== , ==C== , etc.)

For more on using special tables of contents, or for other TOC templates, see Category:Table of Contents Templates.