Ms Word - Styles - MultiLevel Numbering

Question

Ms Word - Styles - MultiLevel Numbering

Anonymous

I need help with setting up styles in a Ms Word document. e.g. 1.1 1.1.1
How can you fix a style that is not working any more. It loses the 1.1
How can you correct a file when you have lost the style

I have a Microsoft 365 subscription

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Answer accepted by question author

Charles Kenyon 172K Volunteer Moderator

You are on the right track - looking at styles. However, a key element is the Define New MultiLevel List dialog.

If you use automatic paragraph numbering or bullets read Shauna Kelly's articles on numbering and bullets. Start with How to create numbered headings or outline numbering in Word 2007 and Word 2010 For large documents you must follow these directions or you will lose your hair!
(Mac version: http://www.brandwares.com/bestpractices/2016/06/outline-numbering-in-word-for-os-x/)

This may seem a bit convoluted at first, but it really is not. Just follow the steps. Shauna Kelly's instructions use the built-in heading styles, but you can use any existing paragraph styles including your custom styles. There are, however advantages to using the built-in heading styles when you create a Table of Contents. Here are some more advantages: Why Use Word's Built-In Heading Styles? by Shauna Kelly Note, you can modify these built-in styles to look exactly the way you want.

Videos on this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He_ob8ydc9E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbyTcWo52G4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GevZOS-nCuw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niD6VXPvAyU

The basic idea is that the numbering is set using the Define MultiLevel List dialog with each numbering level being attached to an existing paragraph style. Once you have this set up, you should not use the buttons for numbering in the Ribbon but rather apply the appropriate style for that level.

You can save a document with this as a template for future documents if you want so you will not need to do this every time.

To fix your broken document, find the first numbered paragraph in the top level and use the Define New MultiLevel List dialog at that point. If necessary, reapply the styles to your numbered paragraphs after you have it set up.

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1 additional answer

Answer 1

Hi

Thank you for posting the thread on our forum.

Based on your description, it seems that your Word file can't set the level style and lost the style in your document. ( If there have any misunderstanding, please feel free to post back.)

We did a test in our end and we can select the multilevel list like 1.1, 1.1.1 in Home tab as the below screenshot

If one of your file lodt this style and you can't use , we suggest you copy all the content of ths fils to a new one to check if you can use this level list.

We also suggest you go to Word for web to check if you can use this style successfully.

And if the file lost the style or the style can't work for this fiel, the best and convenient way is to copy all the contents to a new one to check the result.

If all the file have this problem, we suggest you use online repait tool to check the result. For your reference: Repair an Office application (microsoft.com)

Go to File>Options>Advanced >Display>check the box of disable hardware graphics acceleration to check the result.

Make sure your Word have already update to the latest version, sometimes teh update can solve this kind of problem. Reference: Update history for Microsoft 365 Apps (listed by date) - Office release notes | Microsoft Docs

We appreciate your understanding that sometimes the initial suggestions may not resolve the problem very soon. However, we can work together to narrow down and resolve the situation. So, Please kindly provide more information below to let us work further.

Can you provide the screenshot of the style 1.1 can't work in your file to us?
May I kniw if all files have this problem or just a specific file have this problem?
Can you tell us your Word version? Go to File>Accounts>to give us ascreenshot.

Hope the suggestion can help you. And if there have any unclear or misunderstanding, please feel free to post back and we’ll continue to help you all the time!

Appreciate your patience and understanding.

Best regards,

Stacey