Word 2003 - Customize Outline Numbered List

[M. Berteau]

am a legal secretary and part-time Support Representative for Information
Technology. I have many years of experience with the production of complex
legal documents. The problem I have is that for the past few years I have
been getting contradictory instructions on how to Customize Outline Numbering
in Word 2003.

Some trainers and books say it is better to fill out the Font options for
each level in the Customize Outline Numbered List dialog box to have stable
numbering. Others says to leave these options blank to allow changes of
formatting in text to be reflected onto the numbering.

Also many Word specialists say that every level in the Customize Outline
Numbered List dialog box must be linked to a style. If only 6 levels are
linked for example 1-6 out of 9 levels how can this affect the numbering in a
document?

Finally, many Word numbering sites suggest that to ensure stability of
numbering in long complex documents that it is best to reset all numbering
schemes in the this same Customize Outline Numbered List dialog box.

I am including a few basic screenshots to help you understand where I am
going.

I would greatly appreciate any information you may have on these issues. I
have already gone through hundreds of books and Web sites on the subject.
Including Word 2003 for Law Firms from Payne Consulting.

Thank you for reading me.

Marlene

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Marlene:

I'm a Technical Writer: I do complex numbering all day...

1) I recommend that you leave the FONT properties alone in the Customise
Outline Numbering. Normally, you want the Style to set the font for both
the paragraph and the number.

There may be times when you want to use a different font for the number, but
it's very rare for me to do that.

2) If you are only using six levels, you only need to link six levels.

3) It is ESSENTIAL to define all of the levels you are going to use in a
numbering scheme at the same time. However, after that, you can make a
change to the numbering in only one level.

The various versions of Word are quite different in how they behave at this
level of detail. Word 2003 is fairly stable. I still believe that it is a
good idea to click into the first level-one paragraph in the scheme before
making changes to any level in the numbering scheme. But it's no longer
essential to do that, most of the time you will get away with it.

The key fundamental is to apply the numbering by applying the style. If you
don't do that, you get numbering that is not associated with the styles in
the document, which leads to document corruption and can make the document
unmaintainable. Some of my documents remain under maintenance for decades:
that may not be quite so important in a legal practice, but I am sure you do
have documents that remain under maintenance.

BTW: You came into the group specialised in Macintosh Word. Numbering
works almost the same in Mac Word until you get to Word 2007, but there are
some bits that don't. So next time, you need to make very sure that that
stupid web interface is actually going to send your question into the
PC-Word group, not the Mac-Word group

Hope this helps

am a legal secretary and part-time Support Representative for Information
Technology. I have many years of experience with the production of complex
legal documents. The problem I have is that for the past few years I have
been getting contradictory instructions on how to Customize Outline Numbering
in Word 2003.

Some trainers and books say it is better to fill out the Font options for
each level in the Customize Outline Numbered List dialog box to have stable
numbering. Others says to leave these options blank to allow changes of
formatting in text to be reflected onto the numbering.

Also many Word specialists say that every level in the Customize Outline
Numbered List dialog box must be linked to a style. If only 6 levels are
linked for example 1-6 out of 9 levels how can this affect the numbering in a
document?

Finally, many Word numbering sites suggest that to ensure stability of
numbering in long complex documents that it is best to reset all numbering
schemes in the this same Customize Outline Numbered List dialog box.

I am including a few basic screenshots to help you understand where I am
going.

I would greatly appreciate any information you may have on these issues. I
have already gone through hundreds of books and Web sites on the subject.
Including Word 2003 for Law Firms from Payne Consulting.

Thank you for reading me.

Marlene

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[M. Berteau]

Thank you very much John for the detailed answer and for the MacIntosh Tip.

 

[Clive Huggan]

Thank you very much John for the detailed answer and for the MacIntosh Tip.

Here's where all the groups are listed:
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/FlyoutOverview.mspx

Cheers,

Clive Huggan
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