Can level 3 subheadings only be listed for certain level 2 headings in MS Word ToC?

Question

My question could also be expressed as:

• Can MS Word tag heading styles as "appears in ToC"?
• Can MS Word show a partial TOC?

Here's the situation: I maintain a company document with a table of contents to two levels. For just one of the level two headings, I would like to show its level three subheadings. Kinda like this:

Introduction ⇐ level 1
  Scope      ⇐ level 2
  Summary
Process
  Preparation
  Main process ⇐ level 2
    step 1     ⇐ level 3 which I want to appear
    step 2
    ...
    step profit
  Clean up
Appendix
  A
  B

In other words, I want the level 3 steps of the Main process to be listed, but I don't want the level 3 subheadings under Preparation or Clean up to appear.

The reason I included those alternative questions is because:

1. I'm thinking there may be a way to control whether or not a heading style appears in the ToC - so for the ones I want to appear, I style them "Heading 3 exposed" and the ones I don't as "Heading 3 hidden".
2. It may be possible to create three partial ToCs: ToC1 is 2-deep and covers up to Preparation; ToC2 is 3-deep and covers Main process; ToC3 is 2-deep and covers Clean up through to the end.

My answer has emerged from #1 above as I wrote it...

Answer 1

First, follow Rich's advice to create separate style for Heading 3 headings that you don't want to appear in the TOC.

Next, create a custom TOC field that includes only the styles you want. Here's an example:

{ TOC \o "1-2" \h \z \u \t "Heading 3,3" \h }

This TOC field excludes the "Heading 3 no-toc" field.

A complete reference for the TOC field can be found here: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/toc-table-of-contents-field-1f538bc4-60e6-4854-9f64-67754d78d05c

Answer 2

Possibly the best way to accomplish this is to:

1. create a clone of Heading 3 named Heading 3 no-toc
2. crucially, set Heading 3 no-toc to be a level 4 heading in the paragraph styling dialog
3. create the ToC to show up to level 3

I'm experimenting with this, and it appears to work. In my copy, I've also renamed Heading 3 to Heading 3 in-toc