Help with vertical numbering in columns or tables (Word 2000 SP-3).

[Delphine]

Hi everyone,

I am preparing a test (using Word 2000 SP-3) that needs to be in the
following format:

Page 1
Instructions here (like a normal body text style)
1. Test item one 3. Test item three
a) choice 1 a) choice 1
b) choice 2 b) choice 2
c) choice 3 c) choice 3

2. Test item two 4. Test item four
a) choice 1 a) choice 1
b) choice 2 b) choice 2
c) choice 3 c) choice 3

Page 2
Instructions here (like normal body text style)
5. Test item five 7. Test item seven
a) choice 1 a) choice 1
b) choice 2 b) choice 2
c) choice 3 c) choice 3

6. Test item six 8. Test item eight
a) choice 1 a) choice 1
b) choice 2 b) choice 2
c) choice 3 c) choice 3

etc. for about 8 pages

There are different numbers of items on each page (usually 15-20), and
115 items total. I would like to have the numbers update automatically
if we delete items or add items to a section.

I am trying to do this using tables, because it is nice to have the
left and right test items lined up horizontally. Sometimes a test item
will be long enough to span two or more lines. Tables make it easy to
keep all the questions lined up horizontally. But I can't for the life
of me get the numbering to work the way I want.

Is there a macro or something that would allow me to have the numbering
go vertically down columns? I've tried snaking columns too, but it's
very difficult to get the items (left and right) lined up horizontally,
and controlling the column breaks is proving difficult. Any help would
be greatly appreciated! This seems like it should be something so
simple to achieve, but if there's an easy way, I sure haven't found it.

Many thanks in advance,
Delphine

 

[Stefan Blom]

Use a single-column table and newspaper columns, but specify a fixed
height for all the rows; this will make the questions line up across
columns: Select the entire table. Choose Table Properties from the Table
menu. Click the Row tab. Check "Specify height", set "Row height is" to
"Exactly" and then specify the appropriate value.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

And note that if you want the Instructions to run full width (as I assume
you do), you'll either need to interpolate a single-column section at the
top of each page or (if the instructions are the same on each page) put the
instructions in the document header.