Word 2007 nested lists and formatting

[EdwardMartinIII]

Got a question for Word 2007 brains.

I browsed around help and a few other links, but I haven't q-u-i-t-e found out how to do this thing (assuming it's possible).

We write documents in an outline form:

1. Fruit
1.1 Grape
1.2 Banana
1.2.1 Yellow
1.2.2 Green
2. Vegetable
2.1 Corn
2.2 Potato
2.2.1 Red
2.2.2 Yellow
2.2.3 White

and so forth.

Nested lists I can make no problem, and they're great for data entry because you can just hit the

button and it nests one more layer.

What I'd LIKE to be able to do is to have a document with a nested outline structure like this (with the #.#.# numbering scheme), that also allows the following:

1. To be able to format (font, size, indent, etc.) each level of nesting separately,
2. To be able to build a Table of Contents using the items in the big nested list, while also having the ToC recognize the same structure and allow me to individually format each level.
3. For each sublevel to recognize its "parent." (so, using my example above, "Red" recognizes that it belongs to "Potato" AND "Vegetable" and numbers itself accordingly)

I tried using a simple nested list, but I could not figure out how to style each level separately.

I tried simply defining styles, but I could not figure out how to get one style to recognize its parents and number itself accordingly.

I tried building a document in Outline View, but I could not get it to LOOK like a nested outline list inside the normal document (I couldn't get it to do the number trick I wanted).

It seems like this should be fairly straightforward, so I must be missing something glaringly obvious.

Could someone please steer me onto the right path, please?

Thanks!


Edward

"Cut a hole in the door. Hang a flap. Criminy, why didn't I think of this earlier?!" -- inventor of the cat door
​

 

[SkipVought]

Hi,

1. & 2. check out Styles.

3. "and numbers itself accordingly". Not sure what that means. I did this in about 30 seconds, using the Format > Bullets & Numbering -- Outline Numbered TAB
[tt]
1. Fruit
1.1. Grape
1.2. Banana
1.2.1. Yellow
1.2.2. Green
2. Vegetable
2.1. Corn
2.2. Potato
2.2.1. Red
2.2.2. yellow
2.2.3. white
[/tt]
The KEY is to TAB or BACKTAB to get the numbering/indent.

Skip,

_{Just traded in my old subtlety...
for a NUANCE!}

 

[EdwardMartinIII]

Thanks, Skip.

Maybe I didn't explain it right.

Styles: For example, I could have STYLE_HEAD_LEVEL_1 and STYLE_HEAD_LEVEL_2 and STYLE_HEAD_LEVEL_3.

1. If I understand Styles correctly, they don't understand that they are part of a bigger container, so I could not INSERT "Yellow" into my potatoes list and assign it the STYLE_LEVEL_3 style and have it automatically understand that not only should it be formatted such-and-so, but that it is ALSO the second item of class "Potato," which is the second item on my, well, my snack list. So, it would not know to call itself "2.2.2"

This breaks requirement #3.

As for multileveled lists, or lists where I insert indents, I cannot figure out how to style the subcategories -- the style menu shows it's all part of "List Paragraph". If I change anything in that Style, the entire list changes.

I can make changes to individual lines, of course, but that's only a step above hand-numbering the lines.

So, (as far as I can tell), multilevel lists appear to break requirement #1 and the second half of Requirement #2 (although it satisfies #3 and first half of #2).

Does that make more sense?

Thanks!



Edward

"Cut a hole in the door. Hang a flap. Criminy, why didn't I think of this earlier?!" -- inventor of the cat door

 

[SkipVought]

Seems as if you'd need VBA to do this.

Skip,

_{Just traded in my old subtlety...
for a NUANCE!}

 

[EdwardMartinIII]

Er... well, um... It seems like it's not THAT complicated, is it?



Edward

"Cut a hole in the door. Hang a flap. Criminy, why didn't I think of this earlier?!" -- inventor of the cat door

 

[SkipVought]

"they don't understand that they are part of a bigger container"

I don't believe that inheritance has anything to do with it. It is merely the LEVEL in the list.

If you are talking about 'Yellow' automatically knowing that is belongs as a child of 'Potato' or 'Banana' How would 'Yellow' know that, without some VERY complex intelligence? Even when you program object oriented code, which has inheritance, the programmer must KNOW and UNDERSTAND the object relationships. The intelligent editors do not do that for the programmer.

It seems like it's not THAT complicated, is it?

Have at it, then, if it's not that complicated. Don't let me stop you!

Skip,

_{Just traded in my old subtlety...
for a NUANCE!}

 

[EdwardMartinIII]

If you are talking about 'Yellow' automatically knowing that is belongs as a child of 'Potato' or 'Banana' How would 'Yellow' know that, without some VERY complex intelligence?"

Usually it's enough to tell it to set its numbering as a part of whatever previous list is.

Just like a nested list.

Except editable.

"Have at it, then, if it's not that complicated."

This is functionality I expect in a word processor. How Word 2007 does it is my question. It's not as if I'm asking it to hunt through the supermarket for really good bargains on noodle dishes made in Ukraine.

Edward

"Cut a hole in the door. Hang a flap. Criminy, why didn't I think of this earlier?!" -- inventor of the cat door

 

[SkipVought]

In my post 15 Mar 10 15:49 I stated the process of employing the feature. It work quite well. Do you need any more detail ragarding this process?

Ragarding exactly HOW Microsoft Word accomplishes that, I could only guess. I am a technical user, especially of Excel and VBA. It has never been necessary to know HOW any of these applications accomplished the vast plethora of features. It IS important to know how to use them.

So here's the 'bottom line,' as I perceive it, regarding your requirements...
[tt]
1. To be able to format (font, size, indent, etc.) each level of nesting separately,

I'd modify each of the styles based on the indent level.

2. To be able to build a Table of Contents using the items in the big nested list, while also having the ToC recognize the same structure and allow me to individually format each level.

I'd modify each of the styles based on the indent level to include TOC.

3. For each sublevel to recognize its "parent." (so, using my example above, "Red" recognizes that it belongs to "Potato" AND "Vegetable" and numbers itself accordingly)

This requirement is way beyone a Word Processor. You need a parent/child relationship, which can be done in a Database Application. This is a simple indented LIST.

[/tt]

Skip,

_{Just traded in my old subtlety...
for a NUANCE!}

 

[EdwardMartinIII]

Okay, I figured out how to do it. Somewhat annoying, as it appears to be easy to break Word's numbering if you're not careful, but here it is:

The idea is to create a numbered outline list where each level is independently stylable, and where the whole thing can be compiled into a single Table of Contents, and modified as needed.

To CREATE it:

1. Create a Multilevel List, which is one of the list buttons in the Paragraph Palette.  If you click the arrow on the button, it lets you pick the KIND of numbering system.
2. Add all the things you want to add to the list, using TAB and SHIFT-TAB to promote or demote items as needed.
3. Open the Styles Palette by clicking on the lower right corner.
4. Before continuing, if there's any particular uber-style preferred for all header items, make that modification in the "List Paragraph" style now.
5. Select an entire line from the list, by clicking to the left of the line.  Doesn't matter which line, but I'd pick the one that had the deepest level.
6. In the Styles Palette, click the Create a New Style button (lower left corner of the Palette).
7. Make sure the new style has a name that makes sense (for example, CUSTOM_HEADER_4 to indicate this is the fourth level in of headers)
8. Make sure the new style is based on "List Paragraph".
9. Do NOT make any modifications to the numbering of the new style -- it's just going to inherit from what you have already built.
10. Repeat Steps 5-9 for each different Style (to follow the above example, continue making styles for CUSTOM_HEADER_3, CUSTOM_HEADER_2, and CUSTOM_HEADER_1)
11. Now that all the styles are defined, go through the entire list, and for each line, select the line, and then click the Style you want applied to that line.
12. This completes creating the list.  Further edits to the individual styles will affect the list items associated with that style.

Add the content text:

1. To add content text to a section, click the end of the header, and press [ENTER] to create a new line.
2. Select the new line, and in the Styles Palette, click CLEAR ALL to knock the paragraph back to Normal and kill the line numbering.
3. Continue entering the text normally.
4. If you have a special style you prefer, go ahead and use it now.
5. Use Indenting commands and so forth to properly format the text, etc.

Add a new header item to a list.

Assume you have a structure as built above, and looks like this:

  3. Vegetable
    3.1 Potato
      3.1.1 Red
            The Red Potato is nature's finest achievement.
      3.1.2 Yellow
            The Yellow Potato is the banana of the potato world.
      3.1.3 White
            The White Potato is a mean drunk.

And between Yellow and White, you want to add a Purple Potato, known as the shyest potato ever.

1. Click just at the end of the "3.1.3 White" line and press [ENTER] to produce:

  3. Vegetable
    3.1 Potato
      3.1.1 Red
            The Red Potato is nature's finest achievement.
      3.1.2 Yellow
            The Yellow Potato is the banana of the potato world.
      3.1.3 White
      3.1.4 
            The White Potato is a mean drunk.

2. Enter "White" as item 3.1.4:

  3. Vegetable
    3.1 Potato
      3.1.1 Red
            The Red Potato is nature's finest achievement.
      3.1.2 Yellow
            The Yellow Potato is the banana of the potato world.
      3.1.3 White
      3.1.4 White
            The White Potato is a mean drunk.

3. Change the "White" at 3.1.3 to read "Purple":

  3. Vegetable
    3.1 Potato
      3.1.1 Red
            The Red Potato is nature's finest achievement.
      3.1.2 Yellow
            The Yellow Potato is the banana of the potato world.
      3.1.3 Purple
      3.1.4 White
            The White Potato is a mean drunk.

4. At the end of Purple, press [ENTER]:

  3. Vegetable
    3.1 Potato
      3.1.1 Red
            The Red Potato is nature's finest achievement.
      3.1.2 Yellow
            The Yellow Potato is the banana of the potato world.
      3.1.3 Purple
      3.1.4
      3.1.5 White
            The White Potato is a mean drunk.

5. With your cursor still on the balnk line, in the Styles Palette, click CLEAR ALL ("white" will renumber) to knock out the numbering and kick the line's style back to NORMAL.  Add and edit your text as usual:

  3. Vegetable
    3.1 Potato
      3.1.1 Red
            The Red Potato is nature's finest achievement.
      3.1.2 Yellow
            The Yellow Potato is the banana of the potato world.
      3.1.3 Purple
            The shyest potato ever
      3.1.4 White
            The White Potato is a mean drunk.

6. This allows you to add items to the list at any level while preserving the level formatting.

To create your Table of Content:

1. Place the cursor where you want the Table of Contents and click the References tab.
2. For the Table of Contents button, click the down-arrow and select "Insert Table of Contents"
3. Click [Options...]
4. In the Options controls, delete all numbers next to the normal Word styles (such as "Heading 1," etc.
5. Locate the styles you created above and assign TOC level values to them, such as:
   CUSTOM_HEADER_1  1
   CUSTOM_HEADER_2  2
   CUSTOM_HEADER_3  3
   CUSTOM_HEADER_4  4
6. Click [OK] to accept the new custom values
7. Click [OK] to build the new Table of Contents.
8. When the Table is built, it will be indented and numbered to reflect the nested list.  In the Styles Palette, there will be a new style for each specified level.
9. Edit each TOC style however you wish.

Enjoy!

Hope that helps in case anyone else is looking!


Edward

"Cut a hole in the door. Hang a flap. Criminy, why didn't I think of this earlier?!" -- inventor of the cat door