Wednesday
17Sep
Controlling multiple numbered lists in Microsoft Word
Wednesday, September 17, 2008 at 04:25PM
Have you ever been working on a lengthy document in Word that had several numbered lists, when all of a sudden the formatting or numbering got whacked and, even using the Undo feature, you couldn't find your way back?
I bet you have. We at Logical have a method of dealing with this: we add an empty paragraph mark using a List Number 0 style before each list, as advocated by Dave Rado on google groups. Then the List Number 1 style is applied to the actual numbered items. Whenever Word sees the zero style, the next occurrence of List Number 1 begins at one, and each additional paragraph is property formatted and numbered. Works every time.
We've tried the other most popular approach to number control, which is to insert fields. That works consistently too, but we found it more clunky to implement.
Still, both approaches concern me when we turn over a document for client maintenance. Neither approach is truly appropriate for a possible non-writer who gets stuck with documentation, even though we provide instructions. And why must we all be rocket scientists in order to manage numbered lists anyway?
As always, have a nice day!
I bet you have. We at Logical have a method of dealing with this: we add an empty paragraph mark using a List Number 0 style before each list, as advocated by Dave Rado on google groups. Then the List Number 1 style is applied to the actual numbered items. Whenever Word sees the zero style, the next occurrence of List Number 1 begins at one, and each additional paragraph is property formatted and numbered. Works every time.
We've tried the other most popular approach to number control, which is to insert fields. That works consistently too, but we found it more clunky to implement.
Still, both approaches concern me when we turn over a document for client maintenance. Neither approach is truly appropriate for a possible non-writer who gets stuck with documentation, even though we provide instructions. And why must we all be rocket scientists in order to manage numbered lists anyway?
Note: To view the entire discussion at the link above, click More Options and then View Thread.
As always, have a nice day!
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