Has automatic numbering been fixed in in Word 2007?

[Deborah Salverda]

Hey there,

I have been playing around with Word 2007 and am curious about your
experiences with automatic numbering. I've heard that certain improvements
have been made but that it doesn't look like numbering has actually been
fixed.

Based a post about list levels on Microsoft's Word Blog I have a suspicion
that it hasn't:
"When you edit a multilevel list, Word creates a copy of the original list
and makes the changes to that copy."

That sounds similar to what causes all the trouble with numbering in
previous versions of Word.

So, how robust are the list styles and the automatic multi-level lists in
Word 2007? Is it safe to let the people for whom I developing templates use
them or will I end up having to spend hours fixing up their horribly tangled
lists much like I do currently.

thanks,
deborah

 

[Cliff]

I haven't noticed much of an improvement in lists in Word 2007. I get the
following problems with flat lists and styles:
1. adding a new list of a certain style causes numbering in other lists
using the style later ir the document to change
2. restarting the erroneously renumbered lists at 1 will cause a them to
switch to a different style (and applying the original style switches it
away from starting at 1)
3. hanging indents change for no apparent reason on the first item in a list

Of course, if you create a unique style for every list you use, you can get
around some of these problems (but then again, that defeats the whole
purpose of styles!)

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

When I saw the switch to XML, I had high hopes for numbering. But, it still
seems as seriously brain dead as ever. SEQ fields are a lot more reliable
and predictable, albeit more trouble.