Hi Norm:
So if I've defined a List Style as multi-level list I will get a restart
whenever I have an intervening paragraph of a different style.
1. If this is so, wouldn't each "List Continue" type result in a
restart... and they don't.
They do here. It would be important that List Continue is not defined into,
or based in a style that is defined into, the list style in question.
To you and I, it appears that there are three kinds of list: Bullets,
Numbers, and Outline. In fact, they are simply different views of the
same thing: a "List". The Outline lists display nine levels and are most
often used for heading numbering. The others have only one level and are
usually employed for paragraph bullets or numbering.
[Norm's defense: so the we we've been working with Outline lists because
you showed how to change the settings for the level above 1]
An Outline list can have non-list paragraphs in the middle, the others can
not. To see which paragraphs are a member of a particular list, click once
on the bullet or number at the front of one of the paragraphs.
[Norm's defense: Hmmmm...interesting.... John says this Outline list,
which is multi-level can have non-list paragraphs in the middle and by
inference not restart. This seems a contradiction. Norm confused.
]
It IS a contradiction, but to explain it we have to talk about "coercion".
Microsoft keeps changing their minds about what they are going to do here.
In the beginning (196 or so...) there was only one kind of "List", which
became a single-level list.
Then, "Outline" lists were invented. These are multi-level lists.
All was well with the world. Then Microsoft decided to have only one kind
of numbering: Multi-Level. Then they decided to "make it easy" for users:
whenever Word saw a single-level list and needed another level, it would
coerce the single-level list into a multi-level list, giving no indication
that it had done so.
This would happen any time a user applied an indent to a single-level list.
At that point, numbering became extremely difficult to either understand or
use. We are slowly working our way back from this mess. Single-level lists
appear to be back to stay. Sadly, they can't be used with List Styles. And
they will still coerce themselves into multi-level lists whenever you turn
your back.
In a couple of weeks time, I will have a chat to my friend Stuart (if he
doesn't see me coming...) and try to discover what the intention of this
design was, and how they expect it to evolve. Chances are, he will tell me
that this was forced on him by Marketing, which regularly redefines the
concept of FUBAR.
[Norm's defense: Hmmmm....again.... Norm concludes what we are defining
a multi-level list with one level.]
As soon as you define a multilevel list, you get nine levels. But you don't
have to use them all. I often don't use more thn four or five.
One of Margaret's tricks is to define a list with two levels. Level one
uses the Body Text paragraph style and has no numbering. Level 2 uses the
List Number paragraph style and is set to "Reset on higher".
Higher, in this case, is Body Text. Such a list automatically rests to 1
whenever Body Text appears before it.
Another of her tricks, equally effective, is to define the unused Heading
styles for numbering. Sane individuals never design a document with more
than four levels of Heading numbering. And never require more than three
levels of Paragraph numbering.
So the numbering works perfectly, using the hard-coded properties of the
Heading series of styles to ensure that it can't go wrong. Heading 1 to 3
have numbers applied. Headings 4 and 5 are sub-headings in case the
document structure is not optimal. Headings 6, 7 and 8 are paragraph
numbering, and Heading 9 is the Appendix number. You can fit all of the
numbering in the document into a single list.
That technique is very effective in documents you are sending to unskilled
authors: it is actually quite difficult to break the numbering in such a
document!
Therefore, it must:
1. not be a multi-level lists, or
2. the paragraph is really not of a different style (but he's inserted
both bt and Heading 2 and neither resulted in a restart), or
3. when "they" created the multi-level list, they changed a "default"
causing it not to restart, or
4. John is wrong.
We can eliminate number 4!
I would say Number 4 is the most likely possibility
However, I suggest
that you try this with a nice fresh blank document: there's a limit to how
much you can play with numbering in a document before it breaks.
Like I said: It works here.
Cheers
This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters 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
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:
[email protected]