How do I remove an extra bullet point in a table of contents?
Asked by Steve Wohl:

I created my Confluence space document. I've established my heading levels. I create a TOC with a bullet point list.   

Issues:

I see an extra bullet point with no text next to it. How do I remove the extra bullet point?


Answers:
author: Ken Tam
body: In my case, the issue was that my TOC itself was in a line set to a Heading. When changing the TOC line to be Paragraph format, the leading empty bullet went away.

comments: author: Ernie
body: Super common - good thing that was it.

I \*REALLY\* wish they'd do a real text+formatting tags mode . . .

That and get a 1:1 between visual mode and save - a lot of the things I end up pasting short-circuit it and get translated when it didn't render when in visual mode (IMO it's not supposed to right)?


author: vijay.rajagopal
body: That works for me as well.. Thank you Ken..


author: Chris Hefner
body: omg thank you Ken!


author: Ranadeep Sharma
body: Thanks [@Ken Tam](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/5167042) . That worked perfectly.


author: Natalia Krivonos
body: Thanks! It works!


author: In?s Ver?ssimo
body: Thank you [@Ken Tam](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/5167042) it worked for me as well!


author: Ravosh Samari
body: In the TOC settings there is a "List Style" that defaults to "disc". Set this to "none" and hit enter then publish.

comments: author: Anne Massenkeil
body: Thank you! This way worked for me


author: Richard
body: It's including some sort of formatting character in the bullet list, try this:

![Capture.JPG](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/280825i5C6112C13FC71843/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Capture.JPG")

comments: author: Richard
body: Ah that worked in preview but not on page save... sos.


author: Bill Ryder
body: I used the Exclude Headings based on this

```
^\s*$
```

works in preview and on the page

I didn't try the include.


author: krishprasadar
body: Found a better way to fix this. Once the page is in editor mode, on the top right there is source editor icon

![image.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/276319iFC11ED10FD6EA4FC/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "image.png")

In the source editor window, find the unnecessary heading tag which one of the element has and then remove it.

Save changes and voila!


author: Dominic Lagger
body: HI [@Steve Wohl](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/3317414)

This issue occurs, when there is a "**Heading 1**" line somewhere in the page.

So, you have to find this line and make a normal text.

Regards

Dominic

comments: author: Bill Bailey
body: To clarify, use the view storage format and look for empty heading tags. Then you can see where it is and either delete or format as a paragraph.


author: Asha
body: Hi Steve, I also got this issue with the bullet point, when we insert the table of contents macro in editing section, try to start the content just adjacent to the table of content macro then we will not see the extra bullet. hope this is helpful.


author: Derek Jackson
body: I cannot believe the extra bullet at the top of the TOC was due to the paragraph style set to Heading 1

Note, if you set Disc to None, as suggested by the original answer, it will remove all the bullets, which is not what I was after...


author: Prashanth H
body: I had a header called **Table of Contents** which was also shown as part of TOC along with the empty line in the bullet points.

![TOC Before.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/321581i0C3E7A904B2E9FE1/image-dimensions/208x199?v=v2 "TOC Before.png")

**Follow below steps to fix it:**

1. Edit the Table Of Contents Macro
2. Add regex for **Exclude Headings:** **\^\\s\*$\|Table of Contents** ![Confluece TOC.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/321579iC62AAA3C09E42B37/image-dimensions/247x125?v=v2 "Confluece TOC.png")
3. Preview the change, you shouldn't see blank headers or the header "Table Of Contents" as bullet points  
   ![TOC After.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/321582i54F420BBDAD7A240/image-dimensions/216x183?v=v2 "TOC After.png")


author: Ernie
body: **Mind your firefox**

I just discovered today that between Firefox version 92 and 93, there were changes (for example, the input type 'datetime-local' was supported by most browsers in 2012 but Firefox was not implemented until 2021)

We are on ESR 92 for certain Linux distros (special setup) and I suspect a lot of the 'weirdness' I've had with Confluence may be resolved by accessing from either Chrome or another machine.

It just happens to be one of those strange disconnects. When I saw today's update to this thread, the lightbulb went on.


author: Ernie
body: Old post - I know, but it's still pertinent.

What's happening is that it is rendering as if you've entered this:

*-headingtag-**TOC*** Your HeadingText *-headingtag-*

**Steps to fix:**

* Space out your objects with returns
  * Put a return above the macro
  * put a few returns between the macro and your heading text
  * put an extra return after your heading text
* Select all lines above your heading tag - change the format to "Paragraph"
  * For me, this even reverted my text line
* Clean up the returns
  * Macro should be on the first line
  * The heading text should be on the second line
  * Content subtext should be on the next line
* Highlight only your heading text, and change the format to desired heading style

**This does not work (but should, logically fix it):**

* Put a return between your macro and heading text
* Select the entire row of the macro
* Select "Paragraph" format

It could be the version of FireFox I'm using, but I doubt it.