How to Add a Table of Contents on the Side in Google Docs (2025)

In this tutorial, we will show you exactly how to add table of contents on the side of Google Docs. Simply follow the steps below.

Enabling the Google Docs’ Sidebar Table of Contents

Follow the steps below to enable the sidebar table of contents in Google Docs.

1. Click the View Menu

To activate the Document tab outline, go to the “View” menu. From the options that appear, select “Expand tabs & outlines sidebar”.

This will display your document’s outline on the left side of the screen. In this example, the document has two tabs. We will focus on the outline for the “Information Technology” article.

2. Access Tab Options

Click the “vertical three dots” next to the target document tab, which in this case is the “Information Technology” tab. This will open the tab options for that document. Select “Show outline” from the menu.

You have now enabled the sidebar table of contents! Click any heading in the sidebar to easily navigate to that section.

We hope that you now have a better understanding of how to access the sidebar table of contents on Google Docs. If you enjoyed this article, you might also like our articles on how to add an automatic table of contents in Google Docs and how to delete a box from a table in Google Docs.