MS-Word. How do I add 'tabs' in the margin to show chapter number

[Rabbit Farmer]

I am putting together a manual. I want the number 1 to be printed in a red
box about 3 inches down the page for each page within chapter 1 (could be 20
pages in length). Then, for chapter 2, I want the number 2 to be printed in
a blue box about 5 inches down the page for each page in chapter 2 and so on.
Each chapter will have its chapter number in a small colored box (ok for
boxes to all be black with a white number). Then, then looking at the edge
of the manual, I will be able to see where chapter one is, chapter 2, etc.
For you VW folks out there... think of the VW Rabbit Bentley manual for an
example.

Thanks for your help!
Steve

 

[garfield-n-odie]

It's easy enough to insert text boxes with contents as described, but
your printer will probably not be able to print the text boxes close
enough to the edge of the page that you can see them by looking at the
edge of the manual.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I'll tell you how to do this if you will accept that, unless you are going
to trim the edges of the paper, you won't be able to use the tabs as you
expect (because most printers can't print to the edge of the page).

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

A better solution is a long skinny table (that is, a single-column,
borderless table with narrow cells). You fill in a different cell in each
section.

 

[garfield-n-odie]

That is a good idea! I didn't think about it that hard because I
thought of the printer limitation first.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Yep, that's why I told the OP I'd describe a method if he could live with
that limitation.

 

[Rabbit Farmer]

I will try the route of the table. Thanks.

Steve

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Some more details. Create the table in your header. You'll need to wrap it
so it can appear down the side of the page, but it will still be anchored to
the header paragraph so it will appear on every page. Once you have it
formatted to your satisfaction, unlink the header in each section from the
previous ones so that you can shade a different cell in each section. Your
best bet is to fill the cell with black shading. If your font color is set
to Auto, it will automatically be white (reversed out of your black
background). Use a sans serif font, formatted Bold, for best readability.

 

[Bob S]

Some more details. Create the table in your header. You'll need to wrap it
so it can appear down the side of the page, but it will still be anchored to
the header paragraph so it will appear on every page. Once you have it
formatted to your satisfaction, unlink the header in each section from the
previous ones so that you can shade a different cell in each section. Your
best bet is to fill the cell with black shading. If your font color is set
to Auto, it will automatically be white (reversed out of your black
background). Use a sans serif font, formatted Bold, for best readability.

If you didn't want to unlink the headers, I wonder whether it would be
possible to write a complex IF field in each cell to do the job. For
instance, the top cell would have something along the lines of

IF StyleRef Heading 1 = 1 then AutoText of chapter number in shaded
paragraph else Autotext of blank paragraph

Bob S