Outline numbering

[Stella Rivera]

Outline numbering has been a continuous source of frustration. The help menu
is not very helpful because many problems aren't covered. Here is my latest
problem and any help would be greatly appreciated. My outline numbering
should be:
3
3.2
3.2.3
3.2.3.2 (I didn't forget 3.2.3.1--3.2.3.2 is the area I am having trouble
with)
3.2.3.2.1 - Instead of 3.2.3.2.1 I get 13.2.3.2.1

For the life of me I can't make the "13" a "3"--not sure how it got there in
the first place. HELP!!

 

[Anne Troy]

Stella, this usually results in using a style for paragraphs, and then
hitting the numbering button on the formatting toolbar to turn OFF the
numbering. Check the number 2 items for their style. Then find the same
style applied but without numbering. These should NOT be the same style.
************
Anne Troy
www.OfficeArticles.com

 

[Margaret Aldis]

I would hazard a guess that the 13 is actually made up of the 3 you should
have and a spurious 1 picked up from another level or entered as a
character.

You don't say whether you are using paragraph styles. If you are, to fix
this you should "Modify" the *top level* style (usually Heading 1). Choose
Format > Number > Customize to get at the numbering scheme, then check out
what you have at the fifth level. You might need to start again as explained
in

See http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/numbering/OutlineNumbering.html

If you aren't using paragraph styles this may be more difficult to fix. If
the numbering is coming from a list style then fixing the fifth level in
that may work. If it's direct numbering I would start again using paragraph
styles as explained above.

Finally - are you sure you really *need* five levels of numbering? Three or
at most four levels is usually quite sufficient to indicate hierarchy -
beyond that and you've lost your readers in the heap anyway.