broken outline numbering

[Guy Worthington]

I know this is a FAQ but I'm still confused. I have the
classic re-start numbering problem. In particular:

I have a document that's structured:

[preface]
I part one title
1 chapter one title
2 chapter two title
II part two title
17 chapter seventeen title
18 chapter eighteen title

but using automatic outline numbering, gives a structrue

[preface]
II part one title
1 chapter one title
2 chapter two title
III part two title
11 chapter eleven title
12 chapter twelve title

where the first heading starts at II rather than I.

my [preface] uses none of the built in headings (and uses
no numbering at all).

How can I get my "part one title" to synchronize with
"part I" numbering?

Yours sincerely

stymied

P.S. I'm using word 97

 

[Guy Worthington]

[how can I get 'heading 1' to start counting from 1?]

Is there anybody out there? Any answers? No URL to paste?
No gem of information in the mountain of dross that constitutes
the microsoft knowledge base?

Surely one of you cut and paste babies must have a fistful
of URLs squirreled away on how to restart numbering.

Actually don't worry. After seeking for a long time
I found an answer. And the answer was found only through
a process of exhausting every option on the menu bar.
(It wasn't easy, there are a lot of options.)

I'd thought of keeping this information to myself, but in
the interest of boosting the signal-to-noise ratio on this
list I've generously decided to share this answer.

To restart numbering, when using the inbuilt outline
numbering for heading 1 through to heading 9:

1) Go to the heading in your document, for example,
in my document I have a heading

II "my part I title"

2) Click on your right mouse button. Select the item
"Bullets and Numbering" from the floating menu.
This displays the "Bullets and Numbering" applet.

3) Click on the customize button in the "Bullets and
Numbering" applet to display the "Customize Outline
Numbered List" applet.

4) Find the text box with the label "Start at:" and
set the displayed number to I. This will restart
numbering. So in my example, the heading is now:

I "my part I title"

5) Click OK twice to close the applets.

This interface must've been designed by a nasty
adventure gamer. Who else would bury essential stuff
like restarting numbering in a text box, two applets deep
on the rarely used third mouse button?

Well Mr. GUI Developer if I want to play adventure games
I'll play NetHack thank you very much.

Yours sincerely

Word user with the patience of Job

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Guy,

Is there anybody out there?

Well, yes. But do keep in mind that this is a weekend. And a
peer-to-peer volunteer support group. Some people do have a
life I calculate you waited all of eighteen hours before
coming back in a snit. Even on CompuServe, where there are
designated Sysops that try to make sure every question gets
a response, the time window is "within 24 hours".

This interface must've been designed by a nasty
adventure gamer. Who else would bury essential stuff
like restarting numbering in a text box, two applets deep
on the rarely used third mouse button?

I've actually met the person who designed it. And no, he's
not a nasty adventure gamer...

1. You could have found it, logically enough, via
Format/Bullets and Numbering. Outline tab. Customize.

2. If the restart was at "2", rather than "1" you must have
done something to cause that. In some eight years of using
this numbering functionality, I've never yet seen *first*
level numbering start at a value other than "1" all on its
own. To my knowledge, this "deeply buried" box is the only
place you can do that. Unless you've been fiddling with
macros.

And because it's so unlikely that someone could change this
without knowing how to get back in to find it, that's
probably why no one ventured an answer to your original
question. They couldn't figure out what might have gone
wrong.

in
the interest of boosting the signal-to-noise ratio on this
list

I don't see any noise on this list. Every posting in the
last few days has been on-topic. And if you'd bothered to
look at the links in some of the regulars' signature lines,
you'd have found word.mvps.org and all you need to know
about numbering is in there.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Sep
30 2003)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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[Guy Worthington]

Guy Worthington wrote:
Well, yes. But do keep in mind that this is a weekend. And a
peer-to-peer volunteer support group. Some people do have a
life I calculate you waited all of eighteen hours before
coming back in a snit. Even on CompuServe, where there are
designated Sysops that try to make sure every question gets
a response, the time window is "within 24 hours".

Whoa! no need to come in with both barrels blazing.

I've actually met the person who designed it. And no, he's
not a nasty adventure gamer...

A poor choice. I'll edit that to a thwarted adventure gamer.

1. You could have found it, logically enough, via
Format/Bullets and Numbering. Outline tab. Customize.

Logical? Bah, Humbug!

2. If the restart was at "2", rather than "1" you must have
done something to cause that.

Why not blame the victim?

 

[Dayo Mitchell]

Whoa! no need to come in with both barrels blazing.

Well, you might want to consider the attitude implicit in what you
wrote...Frustration is fine, and we all know tone is difficult to express in
plain text messages, but these sounded like personal attacks on the people
who post here regularly AND on the people who ask for help. Maybe you
didn't realize, so I've compiled the essential bits to help you out,
although I *really* don't want to escalate an argument (and would be saying
all this quite diffidently if I were speaking instead of writing .

[how can I get 'heading 1' to start counting from 1?]

Is there anybody out there? Any answers? No URL to paste?
No gem of information in the mountain of dross that constitutes
the microsoft knowledge base?

Surely one of you cut and paste babies must have a fistful
of URLs squirreled away on how to restart numbering.

I'd thought of keeping this information to myself, but in
the interest of boosting the signal-to-noise ratio on this
list I've generously decided to share this answer.

Word user with the patience of Job

Patience?

I'm sure it reads worse to me, and to others, than it seemed to you at the
time.

DM

 

[Guy Worthington]

Guy Worthington wrote:

[some best forgotten words]

Well, you might want to consider the attitude implicit in what you
wrote [...] I'm sure it reads worse to me, and to others, than it
seemed to you at the time.

Quod scripsi scripsi
Pontius Pilate

 

[Dayo Mitchell]

Guy Worthington wrote:

[some best forgotten words]

Well, you might want to consider the attitude implicit in what you
wrote [...] I'm sure it reads worse to me, and to others, than it
seemed to you at the time.

Quod scripsi scripsi
Pontius Pilate

Ooh, sorry...understanding that is well beyond my capabilities. I had to
pause and ponder the Job reference, to be honest. But now I'm consumed
with curiosity and too lazy to go find my medievalist friend, so perhaps you
could translate, Guy?

Dayo

 

[Chad DeMeyer]

More or less translates as "what I have written, I have written". How
droll.

Regards,
Chad DeMeyer

Guy Worthington wrote:

[some best forgotten words]

Well, you might want to consider the attitude implicit in what you
wrote [...] I'm sure it reads worse to me, and to others, than it
seemed to you at the time.

Quod scripsi scripsi
Pontius Pilate

Ooh, sorry...understanding that is well beyond my capabilities. I had to
pause and ponder the Job reference, to be honest. But now I'm consumed
with curiosity and too lazy to go find my medievalist friend, so perhaps you
could translate, Guy?

Dayo

 

[Dayo Mitchell]

Yeah, eventually I got it, though my internet search kept running into Harry
Potter (!?!). Thanks much, though.
Dayo

More or less translates as "what I have written, I have written". How
droll.

Regards,
Chad DeMeyer

Dayo Mitchell wrote:
Guy Worthington wrote:

[some best forgotten words]

Well, you might want to consider the attitude implicit in what you
wrote [...] I'm sure it reads worse to me, and to others, than it
seemed to you at the time.

Quod scripsi scripsi
Pontius Pilate

Ooh, sorry...understanding that is well beyond my capabilities. I had to
pause and ponder the Job reference, to be honest. But now I'm consumed
with curiosity and too lazy to go find my medievalist friend, so perhaps you
could translate, Guy?

Dayo

 

[Guy Worthington]

Quod scripsi scripsi
Pontius Pilate

[...] I'm consumed with curiosity and too lazy to go find
my medievalist friend, so perhaps you could translate, Guy?

My latin comprises of what some very patient teachers
could lodge into a very unwilling head. So if you want
a proper answer you'd better seek out your friend.
However since I know better than most what I meant,
here's what I meant.

The quote comes from the bible (John 19:19-22).
Pilate answered, What I have written I have written.

But these days the quote also has its own life.
"What I have written ought not change." In this
context it is commonly used when you're unhappy
with the way your words have been edited.

And I'm unhappy with the way that you've edited my
writing. In your edited version of what I wrote
you've (probably quite unintentionally) made me
look crass, boorish, & rude. The worst
I can make of my own writing is that I'm
ever so slightly miffed.