Having Numbered Lists in Subdocuments Restart their Numbering

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated March 2, 2019)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


John has a master document with approximately 80 subdocuments in it. About 60 of them contain numbered lists. When he opens the whole thing (outline view | expand documents) the numbers in the numbered lists continue rather than restart. The numbered lists are set using a style from a custom global template based on the standard List Number style. John wonders if there is a way to make sure that the numbered lists restart at 1 rather than continue from the previous list without having to change them manually every time he expands the entire master document.

There are a couple of approaches you could use. First, at the end of each of your documents you could add a LISTNUM field to reset the numbering. The format of the field would be as follows:

{ LISTNUM "NumberDefault" \s0 }

This will set the numbering used for numbered lists back to zero. Depending on your system and your version of Word, you may end up with some visible characters generated by the LISTNUM field. If this is the case, then simply format those characters as hidden text.

Another option is to recognize that Word's built-in automatic numbering is fraught with lots of problems. (These problems are well documented and have been addressed in other issues of WordTips.) Many people abandon the built-in numbering all together and use SEQ fields to implement their list numbering. If you do this, you could use a different sequence for each of your subdocuments, and you would be sure to have just the numbering you wanted.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (3429) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Editing While Spell-Checking

When you run a spell-check on a document, you may end up seeing other things that need to be edited. Never fear; you can ...

Discover More

Specifying Paper Trays for Specific Pages in a Single Print Job

If your printer has multiple paper trays, you may want to send some pages to one tray and other pages to a different ...

Discover More

Automatically Breaking Text

Want to convert the text in a cell so that it wraps after every word? You could edit the cell and press Alt+Enter after ...

Discover More

Learning Made Easy! Quickly teach yourself how to format, publish, and share your content using Word 2013. With Step by Step, you set the pace, building and practicing the skills you need, just when you need them! Check out Microsoft Word 2013 Step by Step today!

More WordTips (menu)

Stubborn Highlighting

When you make extensive edits to a document and those edits include changing the formatting of numbered or bulleted ...

Discover More

Automatic Numbers with Leading Zeroes

Word's automatic numbering formats allow you to easily create lists that have one leading zero. If you want more than one ...

Discover More

Turning Off Automatic Bulleted Lists

As you are typing away on a document, you may notice that Word automatically formats bulleted lists (or what it thinks ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 6 - 0?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)


This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the menu interface (Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.

Videos
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.