Hi, Eric ~
1. Put the cursor on the text of the first paragraph in your document where
you want numbering to start (or on the first heading in the document where
you want the numbering to start over each time you use that heading, even if
that heading itself will not be numbered).
2. In the Home tab/Paragraph group, click on the dropdown arrow of the
Multilevel List button, then click on "Define New Multilevel List." (NOTE:
you can add a button to your Quick Access Toolbar for this function if you
use auto-numbering a lot.)
3. In the Define new Multilevel list window that opens, click on the More
button in the lower left corner of the window. Now you're ready to set up
your numbering levels.
4. In the top left corner of the window, click on Level 1. Under the heading
Number format, click on the dropdown arrow under "Number style for this
level:" and select the number style you want to use for Level 1 (e.g., I., A,
1, a, bullets, etc.). If you don't want Level 1 to have a number, then delete
whatever appears in the "Enter formatting for number:" window; as soon as you
do that, the word "(none)" will appear in the window under "Number style for
this level."
5. If your Level 1 paragraph or heading will be numbered, the "Font" button
to the right of the "Enter formatting for number:" window lets you format the
number ONLY (NOT the paragraph style for Level 1).
6. A little further down the window under the heading "Position," ALWAYS set
your Number alignment for "Left," even if you plan to center Level 1 on the
page. (You can set up the center alignment after you've finished defining
your new outline, when you're back in your document.) If you set the Number
alignment to "Center," Word centers the line (assuming it's a heading) on the
NUMBER _only_, not on the whole heading, and this can make your document look
funny if you've added text, like the words "Article" or "Section," before the
number.
7. "Aligned at:" selects how far to the right of the left margin the first
line of the numbered paragraph will be indented. "Text indent at:" selects
where the second (and all other) lines of the paragraph will wrap.
8. The most important part of the whole outline process is the "Link level
to style:" window. Whether you use Word's heading styles to apply your
outline to the document, or make up your own style names, Level 1 numbering
must be linked to a specific style in order for the numbering process to
remain stable and work correctly. (In our office, we created numbering
paragraph styles that are only intended to be used for auto-numbered
paragraphs, so we link Level 1 paragraph numbers to Level 1 numbering style.)
9. Leave "Level to show in gallery:" and "ListNum field list name:" alone.
10. If you want to use legal-style numbering (e.g., Section 1.1 or 1.01,
etc.), select the number for the paragraph (e.g., 1 or 01), type a period to
the left of the number where it appears in the "Enter formatting for number:"
window, then put your cursor to the left of the period and click the box
labeled "Legal style numbering." Select the number for the first part of the
paragraph number from the previous numbering levels shown in the window
labeled "Include level number from," so that your number style will change
from ".01" (in the "Enter formatting for number:" window) to "1.01." If you
want the paragraph heading to contain the words Article or Section, type them
in to the left of the numbering fields.
11. The default Word setting for space after the auto-number is Tab
character (in the "Follow number with:" window). If your numbered heading is
going to be centered, change the "Follow number with:" setting to Nothing.
12. Now, go back to the top left corner of the window, click on Level 2, and
go through steps 4-11, setting up the Level 2 numbering and linking it to a
specific style. If your outline will have more than 2 levels, then when
you're done setting up Level 2, go back to the top left corner, click on
Level 3, and go through steps 4-11 again. Repeat until you have all the
outline levels you need, then click OK.
13. You'll find that the paragraph where you put your cursor to start with
(step 1 above) is numbered according to your outline. If you need to center
the heading, click on the center alignment button, then update your style.
If the numbering in that paragraph is not correct, then go back to step 1
above and start over from the beginning. There's no shortcut for doing this
but I promise you, if you go through the steps methodically and described
above, your outline will be stable and each level of the outline will chain
to (start over after) the level above it.
14. If, as you're working with your outline, Level 3 goes crazy and stops
chaining back to Level 2 (if it's supposed to), Never, never, NEVER open the
Define new Multilevel with your cursor in the Level 3 paragraph where the
problem started. The only correct way to fix any problems with your numbering
outline is to put your cursor back in the first paragraph or heading in the
document where auto-numbering started, fix the whole outline again, then
click OK and go back to typing. If you do this, make sure that each level of
your outline is still linked to its style.
After you've set up a auto-numbering outline that you may or are likely to
use again, you can save the auto-numbering styles in that document as a New
Quick Style Set that you can use in any other document, without having to
"reinvent the wheel" everytime you want to use those styles.
Please post again if you have any questions about this process.
