Automatic paragraph numbering

[Don Zalkin]

I am trying to use automatic paragraph numbering, Word
2002. I have the following sequence of paragraph numbers:
3.2 Heading 2 style
3.2.1 Heading 3 style
3.1.1.1 Heading 4 style
3.2.1.1.1 Heading 5 style
3.1.1.1.1.1 Heading 6 style
3.1.1.1.1.2 Heading 6 style
3.2.1.1 Heading 4 style
etc.
This is the first instance in the document where I use
headings going down to level 4.
I cannot get the heading 4 and heading 6 paragraphs to
track the numbering scheme correctly. I have tried to
delete and retype them, I have tried all combinations
of 'continue numbering' and 'restart numbering' that seem
to make sense, I have tried throwing more darts at my Bill
Gates dartboard; nothing seems to help.
Any suggestions?

 

[Robert M. Franz]

Hi Don

I am trying to use automatic paragraph numbering, Word
2002. I have the following sequence of paragraph numbers:
3.2 Heading 2 style
3.2.1 Heading 3 style
3.1.1.1 Heading 4 style
3.2.1.1.1 Heading 5 style
3.1.1.1.1.1 Heading 6 style
3.1.1.1.1.2 Heading 6 style
3.2.1.1 Heading 4 style
etc.
This is the first instance in the document where I use
headings going down to level 4.
I cannot get the heading 4 and heading 6 paragraphs to
track the numbering scheme correctly. I have tried to
delete and retype them, I have tried all combinations
of 'continue numbering' and 'restart numbering' that seem
to make sense, I have tried throwing more darts at my Bill
Gates dartboard; nothing seems to help.
Any suggestions?

Seems to be my numbering day today ...

1) See (start with the last article and see if that resolves your woes):

Word's numbering explained (by John McGhie)
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Numbering/WordsNumberingExplained.htm
How to do it in VBA (by Dave Rado)
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Numbering/CureListNumbering.htm
How to do it manually (by Shauna Kelly)
http://www.ShaunaKelly.com/word/numbering/OutlineNumbering.html

2) Spend some time about rethinking using an outline of that depth. Your
readers will probably not like it ...

2cents
..bob

 

[Don Zalkin]

Bob,
Thank you for your help. I tried Shauna Kelly's approach,
and it modified, but did not solve the problem I then
looked up John McGhie's paper, and found a suggestion
there which I should have thought of myself, based on past
encounters with exotic word 'features' - namely, delete
all of the heading styles, and reapply them from the
beginning. This worked; apparently Word responds better
to brute force than to subtlety. Perhaps this
slash/burn/rebuild strategy should become the default for
handling Word anomalies.

 

[Chad DeMeyer]

Brute force works as a last resort, but I think in this case you could have
(substituting appropriate steps in Word 2002 and 2003 due to interface
changes) gone to Format>Style, select Heading 1, click Modify, click
Format>Numbering, click Customize, if button in Customize Outline Numbering
dialog says "More" rather than "Less" click more to display the additional
settings, select level 4 in the Level listbox and relink it to "Heading 4"
style in the "More" section, select level 6 in the Level listbox and relink
it to "Heading 6" style, OK out of all the dialogs, and then, if necessary,
you may also need to reapply the Heading 4 and Heading 6 styles to the
appropriate paragraphs. When I've run across the situtation you describe in
the past, this has worked 99% of the time.

Regards,
Chad DeMeyer

 

[Don Zalkin]

Chad,
Thank you for your interest. The process you suggest is
the one suggested by Shanua Kelly, which I referred to in
my antepenultimate email in this series - it almost worked
in my case, but I guess it fell into your 1% category.