Word 2003 - Auto-numbered Headings

[sabrina30]

I have searched the forums and have not found an answer to my problem and it seems none of the other tech writers in my office can answer this either.

We use numbered headings

1. heading1
1.1 heading2
1.1.1 heading3

Problem is that sometimes it gets messed up, will be working fine and then just decided it doesn't want to work anymore (yes being sarcastic - I appologize)

I will end up with

1. heading1
1.1 heading2
1.2 heading2

2 heading1
1.1 heading2
1.2 heading2

I have tried using format painter to bring in the format from a document that is working properly, but it either turns the number to a bullet or just doesn't work at all. I reset the heading 1 thinking it wasn't reading it properly and then modified the heading2 and it is still not working. I am using Outline Number I have it set to restart numbering after level 1.

I even reset all of the gallery positions for 'Outline Numbered' tab and still nothing.. ok not nothing.. now I get

2. heading1
2.1 heading2

3. heading1
2.1 heading2

BLEH... The tech writers tell me, it is just Word and if I manually put in the number for the first few heading with a space and tab then the rest will start working. This works occassionally but is not working for me today and having the headings manual will make updating the documents in the future a bit more difficult.

 

[Lilliabeth]

If you have the style correctly set up, the step you may be missing is to indent.

Click inside the paragraph that looks like this:
1.2 Stuff here

and click the Increase Indent button

To turn it into 1.1.1


Lilliabeth
-Why use a big word when a diminutive one will do?-

 

[sabrina30]

Thank you, I ended up going back and reset all the gallery positions for heading 1 and heading 2 and although I would swear I already did this it worked this time. Word has a mind of its own.. :/

 

[Madawc]

A lot of my work is writing specifications with auto-numbering and I've had similar problems. Especially converting an old document, when indeed Word seems to have a mind of its own.

Microsoft seem to have created something very elaborate and not under full user control. There used to be an explanation at [

http://www.word.mvps.org/faqs/numbering/WordsNumberingExplained.htm

], but it seems to have vanished.

One solution is to open a clean document, do Ctrl-A on the old one and then Edit>Paste Special to get rid of all Word's settings. You could then re-set style, including numbers.



Madawc Williams (East Anglia, UK). Using Windows XP & Crystal 10

 

[sabrina30]

While that is a great idea and I have used that solution for Change Page documents, it is very time consuming when you have a document that is 2 to 3 hundred pages long.

 

[thegrover]

One more hint. If you have tracking turned on and you have made changes and not accepted them your numbering will appear to not be working and give the results you indicated. Once you accept all changes your numbering will be correct. On one of the MVP sites is a document called "Word Numbering Explained" look for it.

 

[Madawc]

Take a look at Word Numbering Explained - I could not access it on the 19th, but as of now it is there.

Madawc Williams (East Anglia, UK). Using Windows XP & Crystal 10