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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 manually with the Restart Numbering command

Article contributed by Margaret Aldis

This article covers how to restart the numbering of style-based lists using the Word Restart Numbering command available in Word from version 2002, and explains the problems of this method. For other methods of restarting numbering, see How to restart style-based numbering.

The Restart Numbering command appears on the right-click (shortcut) menu when a numbered paragraph is selected, or you can put the command on a toolbar by using Tools > Customize - the command is called RestartNumbering and is listed under All commands. To restart numbering, put your cursor in the paragraph to restart, and then select the command. The effect of the command is to reapply the list template as direct formatting, and to set a mysterious and undocumented 'restart marker' on the paragraph. It does not make any change to the style, the list template, or the linkage between them, but it does cause Word to restart the count for the numbering at this point.

Word also includes a built-in command to continue numbering, but in style-based lists the simplest and safest method of removing the 'restart marker' is to reset the paragraph to style, either by reapplying the style or by using the built-in command ResetPara (Ctrl-Q).

Never restart numbering using the Format > Bullets and Numbering dialog. Even if you leave the pane selection unchanged, this can build up additional list templates in the document. If you do change the pane, you are likely to find Word has made unintended changes to your styles, and if your list template was named new or duplicate names may appear.

Note that you cannot record the Restart Numbering command in a macro - the macro recorder creates code that uses the ListGalleries collection, exactly as if you had used the Bullets and Numbering dialog. If you need to restart numbering in this way from within a macro, see Restart numbering using VBA.

Pros and Cons

The Restart Numbering command is now the 'standard' Word way of restarting lists, and appears to be stable when used simply within a single document. It is 'out-of-the-box' compatible with saving as Web pages.

The main problems with this method are:

• Since the restart is reapplied as direct formatting, your document is no longer strictly style-based. If you reset paragraphs to style in order to tidy up formatting, your restarts will be lost. For the same reason, if you update the style you might find that the paragraphs that have been restarted don't update their numbering format to match.
• Copy and paste can produce some nasty surprises. If you like to copy one list as a model for another - beware! Unless you are working in Word 2003 with the document protected for styles, when you paste earlier in the same document the restart marker moves with the pasted text, leaving the original list you copied from continuing from whatever previous list Word finds. Since the source for your copy may now be out of sight and out of mind, this error is only too easy to miss. If you paste into a different document, you will probably find that the pasted lists do not restart where you expect.

Because of these problems, the manual restart method cannot be recommended for professional 'long document' work, unless you also use macro workarounds to preserve and reapply the restarts, as discussed in Restart numbering using VBA.