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  General

  • Word's numbering explained
  • Remove manually typed numbering
  • Safely update a document's styles from its template

  Page Numbering

  • “Page X of Y” displays or prints as “Page 1 of 1,” “Page 2 of 2” (or “Page 2 of 1”) and so on
  • How to control the page numbering in a Word document
  • Why do all the page numbers in my Word 2002 document display as 0?
  • Front matter numbered separately
  • Include the chapter number with the page number

  List Numbering

  • Word's numbering explained
  • Methods for restarting list numbering
  • VBA: Return the number, or list level, or outline level of a paragraph.

  Other

  • Whenever I update my Table of Contents it acquires unwanted tabs
  • Customizing your table of contents with switches
  • Automatic "intentionally blank" page
  • How can I use an AutoNum field but suppress the period after the number or use a different separator character?
  • Create a numbered list using SEQuence fields
  • How to insert captions that include chapter numbers
  • Creating sequentially numbered documents (such as invoices)
  • Sequentially numbering multiple copies of single document using a macro
  • Sequentially numbering multiple copies of single document using a mailmerge

Restarting list numbering using a higher level style

Article contributed by Margaret Aldis

This article covers how to restart list numbering using a paragraph at a higher level in the same outline numbering scheme. This method is very reliable but it needs to be 'designed in' - it cannot be used on existing documents without making changes to styles. For other methods of restarting list numbering, see How to restart style-based numbering.

The first step is to decide on the style hierarchy. Start by looking at the logical structure of the document to see if there is already a style that can be used to restart the list numbering. For example, if you are writing numbered procedural steps and each procedure starts with a procedure title, you can restart numbering of procedure steps after the procedure title style. Remember the intervening style does not have to come immediately before or after a list, just so long as the same style reliably intervenes - you could even use Body Text style, if you know that you will always have intervening Body Text paragraphs between lists.

If you cannot be certain that any particular style will separate lists, or if you don't want to include a heavily used style like Body Text in a numbering scheme, then you can set up a dummy style at the top level, with formatting to prevent it appearing in the final print. Using a dummy style means you will need to include a dummy paragraph at the start of each list, and so the style formatting needs to be chosen carefully to minimize the possibilities of turning real text 'invisible', and to maximize ease of editing. A good solution for a printed document is to use a framed style, with the frame placed in the margin, and the font set to a bright colour. Provided editing is done with Show/Hide showing non-printing characters, the empty paragraph then displays as a coloured paragraph symbol, does not disturb page layout, and is easy to select. A framed style will not work if you need to save the document as a Web page, however, and you would also need to check compatibility of this approach with any third party conversion tools you use such as online Help creation software.

When you have decided on the hierarchy, set up the styles and the numbering scheme. You can do this manually, working from the top-level style, or use VBA code as shown in the example below.

If you are using the logical structure of the document to restart lists, then once you have set up the styles your list numbering will work reliably and silently without any further user intervention. If you are using a dummy style, then whenever you start a new list you must insert a paragraph in this style. This can be automated very simply by using an AutoText for the dummy paragraph, and making sure the follow-on style is set to the list item style, so that pressing return after inserting the AutoText automatically creates the first item. For a wider user base it's worth being a bit more sophisticated with macros, to include converting selected paragraphs to a new list. You can also provide a 'continue numbering' macro to remove the next previous dummy paragraph, so users do not need to understand the mechanism.

Example VBA code to set up numbered list

The following example sets up a dummy style and three levels of numbered list. Note that this code does not need to be present in the final document or template, as it is only used at design stage, while setting up the styles.

Sub SetUpNumberedLists()

  ' Sets up built-in numbered list styles and List Template

  ' including restart paragraph style

  ' Run in document template during design

  ' Macro created by Margaret Aldis, Syntagma

  '

  ' Create list starting style and format if it doesn't already exist

  Dim strStyleName As String

  strStyleName = "ListStart" ' the style name in this set up

  Dim strListTemplateName As String

  strListTemplateName = "items" ' the list template name in this set up

  Dim astyle As Style

  For Each astyle In ActiveDocument.Styles

    If astyle.NameLocal = strStyleName Then GoTo Define 'already exists

  Next astyle

  ' doesn't exist

  ActiveDocument.Styles.Add Name:=strStyleName, Type:=wdStyleTypeParagraph

  Define:

  With ActiveDocument.Styles(strStyleName)

    .AutomaticallyUpdate = False

    .BaseStyle = ""

    .NextParagraphStyle = wdStyleListNumber 'international compatibility

  End With

  With ActiveDocument.Styles(strStyleName).Font

    .Size = 9

    .ColorIndex = wdViolet

  End With

  With ActiveDocument.Styles(strStyleName).ParagraphFormat

    .LineSpacingRule = wdLineSpaceSingle

    .WidowControl = False

    .KeepWithNext = True

    .KeepTogether = True

    .OutlineLevel = wdOutlineLevelBodyText

  End With

  With ActiveDocument.Styles(strStyleName).Frame

    .TextWrap = True

    .WidthRule = wdFrameAuto

    .HeightRule = wdFrameAuto

    .HorizontalPosition = CentimetersToPoints(- 1 )

    .RelativeHorizontalPosition = wdRelativeHorizontalPositionColumn

    .VerticalPosition = CentimetersToPoints( 0 )

    .RelativeVerticalPosition = wdRelativeVerticalPositionParagraph

    .HorizontalDistanceFromText = CentimetersToPoints( 0 )

    .VerticalDistanceFromText = CentimetersToPoints( 0 )

    .LockAnchor = False

  End With

  ' Create the list template if it doesn't exist

  Dim aListTemplate As ListTemplate

  For Each aListTemplate In ActiveDocument.ListTemplates

    If aListTemplate.Name = strListTemplateName Then GoTo Format 'already exists

  Next aListTemplate

  ' doesn't exist

  Dim newlisttemplate As ListTemplate

  Set newlisttemplate = ActiveDocument.ListTemplates _

      .Add(OutlineNumbered:= True , Name:= "items" )

Format:

  ' Set up starter and three list levels - edit/extend from recorded details if required

  With ActiveDocument.ListTemplates(strListTemplateName).ListLevels( 1 )

    .NumberFormat = ""

    .TrailingCharacter = wdTrailingTab

    .NumberStyle = wdListNumberStyleNone

    .NumberPosition = CentimetersToPoints( 0 )

    .Alignment = wdListLevelAlignLeft

    .TextPosition = CentimetersToPoints(- 0 . 5 )

    .TabPosition = CentimetersToPoints( 0 )

    .ResetOnHigher = True

    .StartAt = 1

    .LinkedStyle = strStyleName

  End With

  With ActiveDocument.ListTemplates(strListTemplateName).ListLevels( 2 )

    .NumberFormat = "%2"

    .TrailingCharacter = wdTrailingTab

    .NumberStyle = wdListNumberStyleArabic

    .NumberPosition = CentimetersToPoints( 0 )

    .Alignment = wdListLevelAlignLeft

    .TextPosition = CentimetersToPoints( 0 . 5 )

    .TabPosition = CentimetersToPoints( 0 . 5 )

    .ResetOnHigher = True

    .StartAt = 1

    With .Font

      .Bold = True

    End With

    .LinkedStyle = ActiveDocument.Styles(wdStyleListNumber).NameLocal

  End With

  With ActiveDocument.ListTemplates(strListTemplateName).ListLevels( 3 )

    .NumberFormat = "%3"

    .TrailingCharacter = wdTrailingTab

    .NumberStyle = wdListNumberStyleLowercaseLetter

    .NumberPosition = CentimetersToPoints( 0 . 5 )

    .Alignment = wdListLevelAlignLeft

    .TextPosition = CentimetersToPoints( 1 )

    .TabPosition = CentimetersToPoints( 1 )

    .ResetOnHigher = True

    .StartAt = 1

    With .Font

      .Bold = True

    End With

    .LinkedStyle = ActiveDocument.Styles(wdStyleListNumber2).NameLocal

  End With

  With ActiveDocument.ListTemplates(strListTemplateName).ListLevels( 4 )

    .NumberFormat = "%4"

    .TrailingCharacter = wdTrailingTab

    .NumberStyle = wdListNumberStyleLowercaseRoman

    .NumberPosition = CentimetersToPoints( 1 )

    .Alignment = wdListLevelAlignLeft

    .TextPosition = CentimetersToPoints( 1 . 5 )

    .TabPosition = CentimetersToPoints( 1 . 5 )

    .ResetOnHigher = True

    .StartAt = 1

    With .Font

      .Bold = True

    End With

    .LinkedStyle = ActiveDocument.Styles(wdStyleListNumber3).NameLocal

  End With

  With ActiveDocument.ListTemplates(strListTemplateName).ListLevels( 5 )

    .NumberFormat = ""

    .LinkedStyle = ""

  End With

  With ActiveDocument.ListTemplates(strListTemplateName).ListLevels( 6 )

    .NumberFormat = ""

    .LinkedStyle = ""

  End With

  With ActiveDocument.ListTemplates(strListTemplateName).ListLevels( 7 )

    .NumberFormat = ""

    .LinkedStyle = ""

  End With

  With ActiveDocument.ListTemplates(strListTemplateName).ListLevels( 8 )

    .NumberFormat = ""

    .LinkedStyle = ""

  End With

  With ActiveDocument.ListTemplates(strListTemplateName).ListLevels( 9 )

    .NumberFormat = ""

    .LinkedStyle = ""

  End With

End Sub