MS Word's equivalent to LaTeX: \section[Short Header] {Header}

Question

I am looking for an equvilant of LaTeX: \section[Short Header] {Header} in MS Word or OpenOffice.

Any hint is welcome.

Answer 1

I believe this feature is called styles in MS Word. As far as I can remember (it's been quite a while since I last used Word for such work) things work basically the same way they do in LaTeX - apart from the fact that you don't use markup language but point-and-select-style of doing things.

That is you mark certain text, assign it a style, e.g. Heading 1, then specify how this style should be formatted.

Here is a tutorial that explains styles in MS Word:
http://addbalance.com/usersguide/styles.htm

Answer 2

You'll need to use the TC field code and then generate your table of contents (TOC) from those codes. There are some old tips at http://sbarnhill.mvps.org/WordFAQs/TOCTips.htm.

As a quick guide though, press ALT+F9 to reveal field codes. Press CTL+F9 to add a blank field code on the same page as your heading, which you then fill with, say,

{TC "My short title" \l 1}

The \l 1 indicates that this is a level 1 formatted heading, and could be \l 2 for a level 2 sub-heading, etc.

The step of actually generating the table of contents is a bit fiddly because (IIRC) there isn't a default style for this sort of thing. In Word 2007 (you haven't specified your version), insert the TOC from References -> Table of contents -> Insert table of contents... -> Options... In that dialog tick "Table entry fields", remove the TOC level from any numbered headings (else your long headings will appear in the TOC), and add a TOC level of 1 to the TOC heading (the last option in the list).

That should give you what you're after, and even allows you to add subsequent additional long and short headings without pointing and clicking though menus, which is music to our LaTeXing ears.