I have followed advice from Shauna and set up my headings
as numbered heading as an alternative to using the
outline numbering option.  It is a great way to go and
you have much better control on what gets numbered and
when etc.  My only problem is that after setting it up
for a particular document, th esettings are not there
when I open a new blank document.  the only way I
retrieved them, and it took a bit of setting up to do, is
to open the original document, do a save as to new name
delete old text and start again and I know enough to know
that word must be better than that (or rather what I'm
capable of asking it to do!).  So how Do I get those
headings to be availabel again?

The other thing, for my assignments, there is a
particular style for the college that must be followed.  
do I just set everything up as it should be; headings,
line spacing, indented quotes with smaller fonts (is
there a pre set style), margins etc and then rather than
saving it as a document save it as a template - say uni
assignment?
This one is a bit of a tome, but Cheers
Eddie