Time-saver for changing font settings in a list template

[Bruce Brown]

Did you know you can change the font settings of a list template --
that is, the settings of the number itself -- without going into the
Customize Outline Numbered List dialog?

Starting with Word 2002 (I believe) when you move your cursor to a
numbered style, all the numbers belonging to that style become greyed
like fields. The purpose of that seemed to be as a visual aid to help
users see their all their Heading 2s, List Number 4s, etc.,
highlighted on the screen.

But on top of that, the greyed numbers allow you to *directly modify a
number's font settings* and avoid the Customize Outline Numbered List
dialog altogether.

This is a tremendous time-saver. Want a number bolded or italicized?
You don't have to put your cursor on the level 1 style and "dig to
China," you put it right on the style where font changes are needed
and when the numbers turn grey you make the changes.

Font settings thus modified will show up in the Customize dialog, and
testing the list template with VBA will confirm that the changes are
valid and permanent.

Stumbling onto this feature recently and not recalling any discussion
of it on these threads, thought I'd mention it in the hope that others
might benefit from it too. (Or who knows, maybe everyone else knew
already and I just caught on.)

Won't work on a list template's indents or number styles, but man does
it ever save time on font settings.

 

[Luc]

Bruce,
You can even use it to change the indentation of the whole list by dragging
the greyed numbers.
Luc

 

[Bruce Brown]

Luc, dragging the greyed numbers to change indentation seems to work
only on the first level. Am I missing something? - Bruce

 

[Luc]

Bruce,
The whole list here, Bruce. Click on your first number or any number/bullet
for that matter, and drag immediately and every number will follow. This
behaviour is true for both the 2002 and 2003 versions.
It even works when you add some unnumbered paragraphs in between afterwards
by hitting enter a couple of times. Just drag any number in the list and the
rest will follow.
Cheers
Luc

 

[Klaus Linke]

Hi Bruce,

This messes with the style definition, even if "Automatically update" isn't
checked for the style.

I'd call that a bug, but it is one I won't complain too loudly about ;-)

Klaus