Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Lining Up Numbered List Numbers.

Lining Up Numbered List Numbers

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated December 9, 2017)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

You already know how to create a numbered list using the built-in tools provided by Word. If you create a numbered list that has more than nine items in it, you may notice that your numbers for each item do not line up properly. For instance, the numbers are not lined up on the decimal point, as you might expect. This condition is easy enough to fix; follow these steps:

Select all of the items in the numbered list.
Choose Bullets and Numbering from the Format menu. Word displays the Bullets and Numbering dialog box with the Numbered tab selected. In addition, the numbering style applied to your selection is also highlighted. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Numbered tab of the Bullets and Numbering dialog box.

Click your mouse on Customize. Word displays the Customize Numbered List dialog box. (See Figure 2.)

Figure 2. The Customize Numbered List dialog box.

Change the Number Position drop-down list to Right.
Click on OK.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1826) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Lining Up Numbered List Numbers.

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. Learn more about Allen...

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What is 1 + 1?

2017-12-09 19:15:48

Kat Crawford

Had no idea how to align the number lists. Thank you for this wonderful tip. I'm sharing your word.tips.net with other writers:)

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