List Numbering continues across sections -- sometimes

[dogwoodnc]

I'm combining several small documents into one large document, trying to
retain all info from each small document by adding section breaks between
them. The individual doc settings for margins, headers/footers, and page
numbers all are fine in the large document, as are most of the other
formatting (font size/attributes, spacing, etc).

The numbered lists are ok some of the time -- ie, they start back at 1 in a
new section -- however, in other sections, they start numbering at the next
sequential number from the list in the previous section.

The content of the sections is parallel -- ie it was developed using the
same underlying templates and processes. There does not seem to be any
difference in the coding for the lists that start renumbering at 1 and the
ones that do not. Nor any difference in coding at the ends of the preceding
sections.

Question: Is there a way to easily (perhaps programmatically?) ensure that
the first number in each section begins at 1 (short of manually placing the
cursor at each first number and selecting Bullets & Numbering/Restart
Numbering), perhaps by finding/replacing all first numbers (after a section
break) with a restarted number?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

If the numbered lists are part of an outline numbering scheme, with a dummy
higher level used to restart numbering, they will behave as expected. See
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Numbering/ListRestartMethods.htm

 

[dogwoodnc]

Thanks for the idea -- however, unfortunately, the individual docs were not
created using Styles. (There are a number of reasons for that, too numerous
to go into here. Suffice it to say, using Styles is not an option for us
right now. Also, if the restarting numbering only affected one large
document, it wouldn't be an issue at all; however, we're looking at combining
several thousand already-existing small documents into several larger ones.)

So -- might you have any other suggestions? Thanks in advance!

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

There is really no way to make numbering reliable without linking it to
styles. Sorry.

 

[dogwoodnc]

That's what I thought; I could find the workaround with styles, but since
this particular set of docs doesn't use them, I figured I was up the
proverbial creek.... Thanks anyway!