How to Fix the Most Common Table of Contents Error in MS Word

Here’s how to fix the following error in Word when trying to open the Table of Contents.

The error message is: { TOCO “2-4″H Z T “HEADING 1,1”}

The problem is usually to do with Field Codes. Here’s a few suggestions.

  1. In Word, go to Tools > Options > View tab and click off Field Codes (if this is selected) or
  2. Close Word. Open Windows Explorer and search for Normal.dot.
  3. Delete all copies of Normal.dot!
  4. Open Word. It automatically re-creates a new Normal.dot, which may be the correct default settings or.
  5. On the Tools menu, click Options. Click the Print tab, and then clear the Field codes check box.