Multilevel lists in Word (2024)

The most likely reason it keeps vanishing is how the list was created. There are two similar commands and only one of them saves a reusable style. If you used Define New Multilevel List, the numbering belongs to that document only. It will not come back in a new document. Use Define New List Style instead. Go to Home, then Multilevel List, then Define New List Style. Name it Harvard Outline. Set each level the way you want it, I, then A, then 1, then a. Tick the option for new documents based on this template. Then click OK. Next, watch what happens when you quit Word. If Word asks whether to save changes to Normal.dotm, choose Save. If you choose Do Not Save, the work is thrown away and the style is gone again. That prompt is an easy one to miss. To check whether it worked, open a new blank document. Go to Home, then Multilevel List, and look under List Styles for Harvard Outline. If it is not there, it never reached Normal.dotm. One more point if you use the Organizer. Copy the list style and the paragraph styles linked to it. Copying the list style alone is not enough.

This answer was prepared with help from Muse.

You can either open Normal.dotm directly and create the list style in it, or you can create the list style in a document and use the Organizer to copy the list style to Normal.dotm. Here is Microsoft's page on how to open Normal.dotm to modify it: Change the Normal template (Normal.dotm). And check the first answer on this page to see how to open the Organizer utility: Finding the Organizer

Here is Shauna Kelly's classic article about how to create list styles: How to create numbered headings or outline numbering in Word. In this example, she names the list style Headings. If you use the Organizer to copy the styles to Normal.dotm, you must copy the list style and the paragraph styles that are used in the list style.