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> A colleague is currently fighting with word 97, and having spent the
> last few hours peering at her screen and generally failing to sort out
> the problem she is having with her styles, I wondered if anyone might
> have some helpful hints. In short the problem is:
>
> We have outline numbered headers in our manuals.
> Unfortunately, the level 3 (1.1.1) headings currently refuse to
> acknowledge the existence of the level 1 (1.1) and 2 (1.) headings:
>
> 5.1 (blah)
> 1.1.1 (blah)
> 1.1.2 (blah)
> 5.2 (blah)
> 1.1.3 (blah)
>
> Answers to obvious questions:
> Yes, the 'restart numbering after higher list level' box is checked
> Yes, the number format is in the form (level 1).(level2).(level3)
> Yes, all the levels are linked to all the appropriate styles
> Yes, the *exact, same style* works properly in the other documents
> (they're all based on the same template)
> No, shutting down Word and trying again doesn't fix the problem
>
> Any suggestion would be appreciated.
Word's automatic numbering as introduced in Word 97 is a right mess.
Microsoft keeps tweaking it with each new version. Word 2002 is a bit
better, but the underlying weaknesses haven't been dealt with, and the
refinements are papering over the cracks rather than fixing the foundations.
The thing about automatic numbering is that there can be any number of List
Templates in a document (or template), and each one is numbered
independently. What I suspect has happened in this case is that Heading 3
has managed somehow to get itself attached to a different List template from
headings 1 and 2.
That's the good news. The bad news is that Microsoft neglected to provide
any means at all In Word 97 or Word 2K to manipulate List templates
directly, or even to see which List Template is attached to a particular
numbered paragraph.
The only robust solution for list numbering that I have come across (which I
use in my own templates) is to have a VBA routine that creates a named List
Template and attaches its nine levels to nine different styles (for outline
numbering, these are Heading 1 to Heading 9). For numbered lists, the same
principle is applied, except that the first level of numbering is applied to
a style using hidden paragraph formatting, and what appears to the user to
be a first level numbered list is in fact a second-level list. Restarting
numbering is achieved by inserting a hidden first level list paragraph.
If you want to read about the full horror of the way numbering works in
Word, take a look at this article. Read it and weep!
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