Style with numbering - paragrah formatting changes when numbering restarted (Word 2003)

[Paul]

Hi,

I am trying to set up a template in Word 2003 to be used by a number of
people.

As formatting has caused problems with this document/group of people before,
I am trying to create a style for pretty much every sort of text that will
be used.

I have modified the inbuilt numbering styles (e.g. List Number 1, List
Number 2) which are flush with the left margin. These work fine unless you
choose to restart the numbering, as soon as you do, the list you are working
on reformats, changing the settings for the left margin for the first and
subsequent lines in the paragraph and adding a tab character.

It seems that restarting the numbering (or going into customize and setting
the start number as 1) also changes the paragraph settings (to something
undesirable for this document). The user can change the paragrah settings
back to their 'correct' settings using the ruler bar, but this is
frustrating, time consuming and prone to creating inconsistencies in the
document which is exactly what we are trying to avoid.

Can you please explain how I can set up a style that will not change when I
try to restart the numbering, or a way I can restart numbering with messing
up the paragraph settings.

TIA

Paul

 

[Stefan Blom]

For methods to restart style-based numbering, see:
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Numbering/ListRestartMethods.htm

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

--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP


in message news:[email protected]...

 

[Paul]

Thanks for that Stefan .

I need to keep things as simple as possible for the users, so I have just
added a macro+button to fix the damage done to the numbering paragraphs by
restarting the numbering. I think it will be easier to teach the users that
once they have selected the list and restarted it, after panicing about the
fouled up margins, they need to hit this button to 'fix' the paragraphs
again.

Given that we are now at version 11 of Word (OK, I know they skipped numbers
between 2 and 6) rubbish like this really ought to be fixed and working
properly. I persuaded my users to move to Word 2003 because the
merge/compare is broken in Word 2000 (gets messed up on tables and long
documents) - now I need to go back to them with a 'bodge' becasue Word 2003
still isn't right! Sorry to rant - I know it isn't you, but if you have any
influence as an MVP you might want to let MS know that (if I am in any way
typical) experienced users are starting to think about OpenOffice because
the 'basics' in MS Word still aren't sorted.

Thanks

Paul

--
Visit my website www.pdtech.co.uk for Access Developer Resources

For methods to restart style-based numbering, see:
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Numbering/ListRestartMethods.htm

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

 

[Stefan Blom]

in message

Thanks for that Stefan .

I need to keep things as simple as possible for the users, so I have just
added a macro+button to fix the damage done to the numbering paragraphs by
restarting the numbering. I think it will be easier to teach the users that
once they have selected the list and restarted it, after panicing about the
fouled up margins, they need to hit this button to 'fix' the paragraphs
again.

If you need more on macro solutions, see
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Numbering/ListRestartFromVBA.htm, which also
includes links to setting up numbering schemes via VBA.

Given that we are now at version 11 of Word (OK, I know they skipped numbers
between 2 and 6) rubbish like this really ought to be fixed and working
properly. I persuaded my users to move to Word 2003 because the
merge/compare is broken in Word 2000 (gets messed up on tables and long
documents) - now I need to go back to them with a 'bodge' becasue Word 2003
still isn't right! Sorry to rant - I know it isn't you, but if you have any
influence as an MVP you might want to let MS know that (if I am in any way
typical) experienced users are starting to think about OpenOffice because
the 'basics' in MS Word still aren't sorted.

I think bugs are corrected regularly with service packs and upgrades
of different kinds, but perhaps Microsoft could be even better at
this, considering that so many people use Word/Office around the
world.

However, fixing problems that are related to the underlying structure
is probably a lot harder (programmers know more about this than I do).

See
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Numbering/WordsNumberingExplained.htm for
more about numbering in Word.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Keep in mind that indents in numbered styles must be set in the Numbering
dialog, not in the Paragraph dialog. For outline numbering, this must be
done by going through Format | Style beginning with the top-level style, as
described in
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/numbering/OutlineNumbering.html. Note also
that this works correctly only if the numbering scheme is linked to the
styles.

 

[Paul]

Thanks,

This is normal numbering rather than outline numbering, but setting indents
via the numbering dialogs rather than the paragraph dialogs helped a lot.

Also setting the indents of the Style closer to those Word kept trying to
revert to when the numbering was restarted has now given me something I can
live with without having to resort to macros to tidy up the mess.

Thanks for the help everyone.


--
Visit my website www.pdtech.co.uk for Access Developer Resources

Keep in mind that indents in numbered styles must be set in the Numbering
dialog, not in the Paragraph dialog. For outline numbering, this must be
done by going through Format | Style beginning with the top-level style,
as
described in
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/numbering/OutlineNumbering.html. Note also
that this works correctly only if the numbering scheme is linked to the
styles.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup
so
all may benefit.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

If you are using more than one level of numbering (as your use of List
Number, List Number 2, etc., suggest), you would probably be happier setting
it up as outline numbering.

Thanks,

This is normal numbering rather than outline numbering, but setting indents
via the numbering dialogs rather than the paragraph dialogs helped a lot.

Also setting the indents of the Style closer to those Word kept trying to
revert to when the numbering was restarted has now given me something I can
live with without having to resort to macros to tidy up the mess.

Thanks for the help everyone.