Outline Numbering Headers

[rtmst3k]

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) Processor: Intel I am following Shauna Kelly's great document on "How to Create numbered headings for outline number in your Microsoft Word document". Each step of the document appears to work until I get to the step that tells me to "include numbering from the previous level". Header 2 seems to let me include numbering from Header 1, but when I try to configure Header 3 to include numbering from Header 2, it immediately goes back to Level 1 again, or blanks the pulldown menu completely.

I have completely updated my Office:Mac 2008 with all the available patches as of today (4/9/2010), so am I dealing with a new bug, Corrupted Word installation, or does Shauna's instructions not necessarily apply to Word:Mac 2008?

Thanks!!
Randy

 

[John McGhie]

Shauna's instructions apply exactly to Mac Word 2008.

However, you need to do all the levels you intend to use in one operation
without closing the dialog box.

Of course, you must HAVE numbering on the higher-level heading before you
can use it on the lower one. And the styles you intend to use must already
be in the document (so add a Heading 1 para, a Heading 2 para and a Heading
3 para...) then click in the first Heading 1 para.

There's an additional bug in Word 2008: it permits "Linked Styles". If
Heading 2 were applied only as a "Linked" style (i.e. Only the Character
part of the style has been applied) then Heading 2 would not have any
numbering to "continue".

Hope this helps

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) Processor: Intel
I am following Shauna Kelly's great document on "How to Create numbered
headings for outline number in your Microsoft Word document". Each step of the
document appears to work until I get to the step that tells me to "include
numbering from the previous level". Header 2 seems to let me include
numbering from Header 1, but when I try to configure Header 3 to include
numbering from Header 2, it immediately goes back to Level 1 again, or blanks
the pulldown menu completely.

I have completely updated my Office:Mac 2008 with all the available patches as
of today (4/9/2010), so am I dealing with a new bug, Corrupted Word
installation, or does Shauna's instructions not necessarily apply to Word:Mac
2008?

Thanks!!
Randy

--

The email below is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless I ask you to; or unless you intend to pay!

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410 | mailto:[email protected]

 

[rtmst3k]

Shauna's instructions apply exactly to Mac Word 2008.

>
> However, you need to do all the levels you intend to use in one operation
> without closing the dialog box.
>
> Of course, you must HAVE numbering on the higher-level heading before you
> can use it on the lower one. And the styles you intend to use must already
> be in the document (so add a Heading 1 para, a Heading 2 para and a Heading
> 3 para...) then click in the first Heading 1 para.
>
> There's an additional bug in Word 2008: it permits "Linked Styles". If
> Heading 2 were applied only as a "Linked" style (i.e. Only the Character
> part of the style has been applied) then Heading 2 would not have any
> numbering to "continue".
>
> Hope this helps
>
> On 10/04/10 2:52 AM, in article (e-mail address removed)2ac0,
> "[email protected]" wrote:
>
>
> --
>
> The email below is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
> matters unless I ask you to; or unless you intend to pay!
>
> John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
> McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
> Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410 | mailto:[email protected]
>
>
>

The default "blank document" already has "Heading 1", "Heading 2", and "Heading 3" so I didn't create those - they were already there.

After re-reading Shauna's doc, she indicated that I may need to actually "instance" a "Heading 1" in the actual text of the document, and then she right clicks in this Heading 1 text to modify the style -- I didn't do this, I pulled up the style in the "Styles Drawer" and clicked "modify style" -- it seemed like the same thing, and she was referencing word 2003, which made me think I could do it a little bit different in word:mac 2008.

Would something as benign as this small procedural difference cause things to go wacky?

Thanks a bunch for the reply(s)

Randy

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Randy:

That wasn't a "small procedural difference" ‹ that was a major change

There is no way you could have discovered that from the Word help, but until
you have applied the Heading 1 style to some text in the document, it
doesn't exist in the document. Only the name of a style exists, the other
several hundred properties of the style are all empty.

The mechanism is complex and fragile, but it works very well if it works.

When Microsoft created the stunningly stupid "Linked Styles" they increased
the complexity and unreliability of this mechanism by another layer.

I still "think" your problem is that you have a linked style applied only to
text, not to paragraph in the document. Under those conditions, the link
style becomes a character style, and they don't support numbering, so there
was no numbering to "continue".

But I could be wrong: It could be that the style wasn't in the document at
all when you tried (as above) or it could be that you have not created a
List Style to link the numbering levels to their style names.

I would throw that document away and try again: it's likely that the
document has now corrupted.

Try again: If it blows up this time, we'll have to get serious with it.

Cheers

The default "blank document" already has "Heading 1", "Heading 2", and
"Heading 3" so I didn't create those - they were already there.

After re-reading Shauna's doc, she indicated that I may need to actually
"instance" a "Heading 1" in the actual text of the document, and then she
right clicks in this Heading 1 text to modify the style -- I didn't do this, I
pulled up the style in the "Styles Drawer" and clicked "modify style" -- it
seemed like the same thing, and she was referencing word 2003, which made me
think I could do it a little bit different in word:mac 2008.

Would something as benign as this small procedural difference cause things to
go wacky?

Thanks a bunch for the reply(s)

Randy

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!