When do Outline Numbers appear selected?

[Vivian Carroll]

In Word 2002 I have sometimes found that when I selected a numbered
paragraph, the number before that paragraph and others at the same level
became highlighted. I can't make this happen on purpose. When does it happen
(is it related to Option settings?) and what is the purpose.

TIA,
Vivian Carroll

 

[Vivian Carroll]

I started paying closer attention and discovered the following:

- I can't drag across bullets or auto numbers to select/highlight them.
- I can't move the cursor to the left margin/selection area and click with a
right-pointing white arrow to select them.

- I can click on a bullet or auto number and every item in that list (or at
that number level) gets highlighted (but the one I clicked on is darker).
- I can click to the right of a number and then press the Left Arrow key and
the same highlighting of the numbers occurs.
- I can click at the end of the previous paragraph and then press the Right
Arrow key and the same highlighting of the numbers occurs.
- I can right-click on a number and, in addition to the highlighting just
mentioned, the shortcut menu shows "Restart Numbering" and "Continue
Numbering".


But......

Why are all of the paragraphs in the same list (e.g., all Heading 2 numbers
in the document) getting highlighted--what is the purpose?

 

[Word Heretic]

G'day "Vivian Carroll" <[email protected]>,

if its a numbered list style - the numbers / bulltes wont select. If
its manually formatted (ie typed in) or a SEQ field number - it
selects.

List styles get their numbers from the ListFormat of the para and add
'fake content' to make the number appear - the number isnt really in
the document body proper.

The list number takes it formatting from the ListFormat AND the
styling of the para mark itself for the para.

In Word 2002 I have sometimes found that when I selected a numbered
paragraph, the number before that paragraph and others at the same level
became highlighted. I can't make this happen on purpose. When does it happen
(is it related to Option settings?) and what is the purpose.

TIA,
Vivian Carroll

Steve Hudson

Word Heretic, Sydney, Australia
Tricky stuff with Word or words for you.
wordheretic.com

If my answers r 2 terse, ask again or hassle an MVP,
at least they get recognition for it then.
Lengthy replies offlist require payment.

 

[Vivian Carroll]

Thanks for answering, but you didn't really get to the issue.

I'm asking about Word 2002, where numbers created by selecting from the
Bullets and Numbering galleries *do* appear selected. See my second posting
on this topic.

After I made my second post, I discovered a possible purpose for all numbers
of the same style getting selected at the same time. It isn't really
selecting numbers of the same "style" so much as of the same "outline
level". When I create an outline by selecting a format from the gallery,
after clicking on a 2nd level number, all 2nd level numbers get highlighted
and I can drag to change the indentation (equivalent to dragging the box
below the left indentation triangle on the ruler). Although the same numbers
highlight if I have attached styles to the outline levels, I am not able to
drag to change the indentation.

 

[Paul E]

Hi, I stumbled upon this lately also and found it useful. In some cases
where I am promoting or demoting a paragraph by one or more outline levels,
I sometimes see the outline number gain or lose "bold" or "underline" if the
text following the outline number gains or loses one of those styles. By
clicking on the number, as you have noted you cannot edit or reposition it,
but you can change it's font style.

 

[Klaus Linke]

In Word 2002 I have sometimes found that when I selected a
numbered paragraph, the number before that paragraph and
others at the same level became highlighted. I can't make this
happen on purpose. When does it happen (is it related to
Option settings?) and what is the purpose.

Hi Vivian,

One thing the highlighting might be useful for is to determine if a couple
of paragraphs are numbered with the same rules.

If not all paragraphs "belonging" to the list are highlighted, you are in
trouble.

On the other hand, a paragraph with a restart applied doesn't highlight, so
the highlighting can make it easier to find restarts.

Greetings,
Klaus

 

[Vivian Carroll]

Thanks Paul and Klaus,

Here's another interesting discovery that I made today.

I have a document formatted with heading styles with Heading 1 =1., Heading
2 = 1.1, Heading 3 = 1.1.1.

I have AutoFormat As You Type set to "set left- and first-indents with tabs
and backspaces".

When I put the cursor before "2." and press tab, it correctly indents just
that paragraph and changes the number to "2.1". However, when I put the
cursor before "1." and press tab, *every* paragraph at every heading level
keeps its number but indents. The top and bottom indentation triangles stay
equally spaced. When I press Tab once, the top triangle goes first to the
first tab stop that I have set (.3"). When I press Tab a second time, it
goes to the first default tab stop (.5 - which isn't really set because I
have many tabs higher than this). Then to my next tab stop (.75), then to
the next default tab stop (1")-- i.e., it is using my tab stops and the
default ones. Amazing the little things MS built into this version of Word!

Vivian