Numbered list issue, Word 97

[chrizio]

Halo

My configuration: MS Office 97 polish, sr1 and sr2
I have some problems with a Word document
It consists mainly of the numbered lists. There ar
4-5 such lists in this document. Two of them are very long
(between 150 and 200 list positions)
The document has been created once upon a time using Word 6.0.
And now I'm formatting it in the Word 97 due to false edition metods o
the document's author

The problem: at some list positions the Word starts the list counting wit
1 value. I have tried a plenty of workarounds: linking the position wit
the previous one and creating it once again. Transfering using other document
checking the numbering properties (continuing the last/starting with 1)
None helps. The Word changes the position number to 1 at accident time poin
once again. While viewing the document with HEX-viewer one can see at th
suffered place, that the document text is broken by plenty (about 200) of zero bytes

What can be the cause
Should I better look for workarounds as for issue's reason

Thanks for your hints
chrizio

 

[Bruce Brown]

Chrizio

You forgot to mention two important things:

1) Are the lists simple, single-level lists . . .?

1. One
2. Two
3. Three

.. . . or are they outline-numbered with more than one level?

1. Insurance Risks
(a) Fire
(i) House
(ii) Car

2) If they are simple, single-level lists, do all 4 or 5 lists use the
same style? What is that style?

3) If different styles are used, what exactly are they?

Let's assume the answer to question #2 is yes, all the lists are
single-level and use the same single-level style -- for example, List
Number.

OK, if that's the case, try doing a Find/Replace on the List Number
style, replacing it with some other style not used in the document,
like Body Text Indent 3 (tiny type, triple-spaced). Now do another
Find/Replace in reverse -- find Body Text Indent 3 and replace it with
List Number.

The re-starts will all disappear. Now the numbering will be
consecutive from beginning to end. You can go to the beginning of
each list and re-start it at 1.

If that's the wrong scenario, post back with the information requested
above.

It would probably be wise to make a copy of the document before
experimenting.

- Bruce

 

[Klaus Linke]

OK, if that's the case, try doing a Find/Replace on the

List Number style, replacing it with some other style
not used in the document, like Body Text Indent 3
(tiny type, triple-spaced). Now do another Find/Replace
in reverse -- find Body Text Indent 3 and replace it with
List Number.
The re-starts will all disappear. [...]

Hi Bruce, chrizio,

I guess if you replace the "List Number" style with itself (leaving "Find
what:" and "Replace with:" empty), it would achieve the same result.

Regards,
Klaus

 

[chrizio]

This is a simple numbered list. Neither bullets no
outline numbered list. Based on your hint (thanks to you)
I have checked the paragraph's style used in the list positions
this is 'standard'. I didn't manage to realy understand, what you
mean with the find/replace operation. Not enough free time so far
Thus I have tried such workaround
Definition of a new paragrafh style, named ListaPozXX,
as the base I used the predefined style: Head 1. Application to al
positions (1 till 99) of the first list. Closing and opening the document
the problem occurs once again
Next some days I will find some time to apply your find/replac
suggestion

regard
chrizio

 

[Bruce Brown]

Chrizio, Klaus

You can find and replace styles the same way you find and replace
words.

Ctrl-h brings up the dialog, putting your cursor in the top box
(find). Then you click More > Format > Style. Scroll down to the
style you wish to find and click OK.

Now tab down to the second box (replace with) and repeat the same
steps using the same style, so that the style you're finding and the
style you're replacing it with are one and the same.

Both boxes should be empty with no text in them.

Then click Replace all. Bang, that's it. (Thank you for reminding me
that you don't need a middle step, Klaus.) Let us know how you do. -
Bruce

P.S. I'm overlooking the fact that your buttons will be in Polish,
not English, but they should say more or less the same thing, right?

 

[chrizio]

I think I should mention one point yet.
These are the publication lists and
the list items have special formatting.
(A) This is:
at first comes the author's name printed in bold, then the publication title
no bold no italic, issuing date and so on. If no author's name
applies to the publication item, the title is printed bold and italic as well.

Recently I realized on myself too, one could exchange the paragraph style
with some another only as well.
The list items had got the 'standard' paragraph style + numbering
facility. Exchanging the standard style with the itself caused the
special formatting disappeared. I was too lazy to correct all of
them once again.
Thus I had to define a new paragraph style. It bases on the 'List Item 1'-style.

On the German version of word 97 the same problem occurs.

Recently I had defined and applied to each list a dedicated style (identical in
definition, different in their names),
to avoid the lists are linked together and they continue the numbering.
This does not help too.

1. Unfortunately your find/replace hint didn't help to correct the numbering scheme error.

2. The zero bytes in the document's text stream (if viewed in HEX-viewer)
are wondering me. Do you have any idea about this ?

3. While applying the new defined style a new problem appeared:
Applying the new style to some number of list items causes,
the item's special formatting (see point A, author's name changes from bold to normal,
or position title changes from bold italic to normal) is being discarded.
On other part of items such discarding does not occur at all.

chrizio

 

[Bruce Brown]

Chrizio

This is getting complicated and I don't understand what's going on.

If the thing is an impossible disaster, here is a "worst case
scenario":

* Select the whole document except for the last paragraph mark

* Apply Normal style to the whole document. The numbers should
disappear.

* Copy the whole document (but not the last paragraph mark)

* Create a new blank document.

* 'Paste Special' (unformatted text) into the new document.

* Now there should be no numbering -- no formatting either,
unforunately.

* Select each of the 4-5 lists and apply the *built-in* single-level
numbering style (in English that's List Number, List Number 2, etc.
Maybe it's List Item 1, etc., in Polish? Whatever it is, use Word's
style and don't define your own.)

* Now you have 4-5 numbered lists in the same style with continuous
numbering, so the next step is to re-start each list as follows.

* Go to the *last entry* in each of the first three lists. Let's say
the first list ends with number 10, for example:

10. Linke, Klaus, Goldilocks, c. 1739.

* Use the ShowAll view so you can see hidden text.

* Between the period and the paragraph mark, put in a LISTNUM field
like this:

( LISTNUM \S 0 } <---That's a zero

* Select the field and use hidden font to conceal it.

* The next list will start at 1. Repeat the process for each of the
first 3 lists.

* The numbering task is now finished. All that remains is to restore
the formatting at the beginning of each number (author's name, etc.)
That will take a little time, but probably less time than if you keep
playing around with styles. We could probably write a simple macro to
help you with the formatting job.

Reminder: this is extreme surgery, to be used when all else has
failed.

Perhaps Klaus can give you further advice about the different field
and style names among English/German/Polish. And Klaus may well have
a better solution than this one, so I wouldn't make any changes until
you hear from him.

P.S. Forgive my ignorance, but I don't know how to access the
HEX-viewer. Your instructions would be welcome.

- Bruce

 

[chrizio]

Helo Bruce.

Thanks to you for the great deal.
There are no problems with the english/polish/german associations.
I can easily find the equivalents.

For the HEX-Viewing I'm using the one of IrfanView (pictures presentation).

I wanna avoid the reformatting of whole document too.

chrizio