Outline numbering a la Shauna Kelly / subsequent changes

[Carol Whitney]

I am a brand new Word user, Windows 98 SE, Word2000 (Office
2000). Before I ask my question(s), I want to heap thanks on
Suzanne Barnhill and Shauna Kelly, Suzanne for extra tips and
an amazing way of comprehending questions and finding answers,
Shauna for wonderful assistance on her web site. Also, to the
MVPs whose articles on the mvp.org site help me so much. When
I understand them, that is. There. Now to see if I know enough
to ask my questions <g>

1) I went through Shauna's Outline Numbering procedures,
step-by-step, following the article on her web site.
Everything seemed to work as advertised, and my documents seem
to respond appropriately. I'm still doing only test documents,
fairly short ones, but will be working on long ones, when I
know what I'm doing.

Once I get the outline numbering working, is there a way I can
change parts of the formatting of the numbers (for outline
purposes, and also, presumably, that would affect both display
and printing)?

For the moment, I selected the I, A, ... numbering, in the
second row of the Outline Numbering Customization area, and
worked from there. I can't really see the Number Format part
too well, because there's a kind of background grey thing
covering up the number examples. Can I get rid of that grey
thing? If so, how?

I need to put a period or other mark between the actual number
for the paragraph and its previous-level number; by default, I
got nothing there, so my first Level 2 paragraph shows as "IA"
- but I'd prefer it show as something like "I.A" How can I do
this?

Shauna emphasizes, do all the customization before leaving the
area, then save with OK, OK, Apply. I did that, except that I
did check "Add to Template" on the way out (if any of you
follow me).

And she emphasizes something about, "Never return to this
area" (sorry, I don't know how to say what I mean by area -
but it's something like, the Outline Number Customization
area, or something like that).

Also, she says, something about not making changes - to what?
to the numbering? to the numbering styles? - except
(apparently?) by starting from scratch all over again? going
back to the Outline Numbering Customization, selecting from
the second row, using only the highlighted box, thereafter
(next screen), deleting everything in the Paragraph Format
box, and starting again?

You can see how totally confused I am. I'm saving everything
in different documents, as I go, giving each new document a
new name, and saving the file first as .doc, then deleting the
text and saving as .dot, and I'm also adding (I think) my
customizations to Normal.dot.

Today I renamed Normal.dot in order to start all over again,
and it only took me about half a day to do the whole job
again, this time, I thought, with a better idea of what I'm
doing, or, at least, better familiarity with the screens. So
far, my test document looks reasonable, though it's not yet
the way I expect to be working.

I'm not at all clear how to manage indents on the numbers. I
have one list, for instance (a numbered list, for which I'm
using the style List Number), that has 102 lines (list lines).
I'd like to "align decimal" on those numbers, so that they
line up appropriately between 9 and 10, and between 99 and
100, straight through, from 1 through 102.

And the indents on the Headings are a bit larger than I want
them, because my Heading 9 wraps to the next line.

I can't find, in Word2000 (Shauna's article on Outline
Numbering is largely for Word2002), where to set Tabs of
different types (either that, or I've gotten lost, because I
did, one day not long ago, find a place to designate that;
however, it wasn't, I think, in the Headings Outline Numbering
Customization area (or was it?).

Sorry to be so confused. I could always try to answer
questions, but my mind won't hang onto exactly what I'm doing
when. Yet. The day will come, maybe a couple of years down the
road, when I'm familiar enough and have played enough with
Word so I know enough to ask the question, by which time I'd
probably be able to answer it for myself <g>.

Thanks again to all you incredible MVPs and others who do such
a great job on the newsgroups; it's thanks to you I'm getting
anywhere at all, and there really are things I'm beginning to
understand.

Friday 29 Aug 2003, 23:26:31
Carol Whitney

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Okay, whoa! Back up! First of all, you need to understand that you *can*
customize anything you like in the Outline Numbering dialog (that's why the
dialog is called Customize Outline Numbered List), and you can go back as
many times as you want to fine-tune it. Shauna's caution is not to do this
directly through Format | Bullets and Numbering or through a lower-level
style. As long as you always go back through Format | Style, selecting the
Level 1 style (regardless of which level you want to customize), you'll be
fine.

Now to your specific questions (I'm using Word 2002, so the dialog may not
be exactly the same in Word 2000, but I think it's not very different):

1. You can customize the numbering and associated punctuation any way you
want to. The "background grey thing" is field shading. It shows which part
of your numbering will be automatic as distinguished from the part that you
can edit. You can't get rid of the shading, but the display in Preview
window will show you what the resulting numbering will look like.

2. You can change the numbering style for any given level by selecting that
level and choosing a "Number style." If you'll scroll through this list box,
you'll see that the available styles include arabic numerals, capital and
lowercase roman numerals, capital and lowercase letters, a selection of
bullets (including New Bullet and New Picture), and (none).

3. The punctuation can also be edited for any level. To add a period between
I and A, just place the insertion point between the two fields and type it
in; you can remove unwanted punctuation the same way. You can also add a
limited amount of standard text (for an example, look at the numbering
options that use "Section" or "Chapter" as part of the numbering format.

4. To align double- and triple-digit numbers (or letters) on the period,
choose Right instead of Left for the "Number position." Word will
automatically change your indents, but you'll probably need to fine-tune
these by trial and error. I usually like to adjust them so that single
digits align at the left margin and larger numbers hang out into the margin.

5. There are (at least in Word 2002) three separate tab/indent/position
settings in the dialog: (a) "Aligned at" sets the position of the number;
this will be the left edge of left-aligned numbers or the right edge of
right-aligned numbers (including any punctuation); (b) "Tab space after"
sets where the tab following the number will go to (this setting is not
available if you have selected "Space" or "Nothing" instead of "Tab
character" for "Follow number with"); (c) "Indent at" determines where the
runover lines will start; if you're using the conventional hanging indent,
you'll want this measurement to be the same as the "Tab space after"
setting, but in many legal documents, runover lines start at the left
margin, so it would be 0".

Note that these tabs stops and indents *must* be set in the Numbering
dialog; any left, first-line, or hanging indent settings you make in Format
Paragraph will be overridden by the settings you choose for numbering.

6. One more point: if any of your headings are wrapping to the next line,
then either they're actually paragraphs (rather than true headings) or
they're too long. You may be able to edit them shorter, but if you can't
(and often you can't), it's a good idea to add a right indent to the style
(you can do that through Format Paragraph) so that headings will wrap short
of a full line (half to two-thirds of a line is good). This gives them a
more pleasing and balanced appearance. If there are just a few, or you want
more precise control, you can use line breaks (Shift+Enter) to force them to
break at a logical point, but note that the line break should replace a
space between words because the TOC will (by default) convert a line break
to a space, and if you leave the word space, you'll end up with two spaces
in the TOC entry.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Carol Whitney]

Suzanne,

Wow, thanks! I actually understood almost all of your reply
even without loading Word - undoubtedly because I spent a lot
of time with Shauna's page on one side, Word on the other,
following her instructions, and doing my best, and using
numbers of documents to test with.

I'm on my way now for more study, and I won't be shaking in my
shoes quite as much as before <g>.

Also, again, I have to give credit to many others on the
MVP.org site, whose articles I continue to read and study,
whether I understand them or not; doing so (and reading the
newsgroups also), I begin to understand better. It's a great
way to study. The secret, of course, is not to try to write
crucial material at the same time as studying <g>

Saturday 30 Aug 2003, 10:22:49
Carol Whitney
Coherent Dog <g>