Numbered Lists w/more than 1 digit

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Patti - 17 Sep 2004 23:08 GMT

In numbered lists, when you have more than one digit, the
first digit in a two-digit number should not line up with
the only digit in a one-digit number. I am baffled by
how to get Word to create properly lined-up numbers in a
numbered list!

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Suzanne S. Barnhill - 19 Sep 2004 04:45 GMT

Have you tried setting the number position to Right instead of Left?

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Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
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> In numbered lists, when you have more than one digit, the
> first digit in a two-digit number should not line up with
> the only digit in a one-digit number. I am baffled by
> how to get Word to create properly lined-up numbers in a
> numbered list!

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Andy - 19 Sep 2004 07:07 GMT

> Have you tried setting the number position to Right instead of Left?

Ooohh, that's much better than my kludge. Now I don't have to keep
track of lists longer than 10 items when I add a paragraph between 1
and 9.

Thanks Suzanne!

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Suzanne S. Barnhill - 19 Sep 2004 15:13 GMT

It is amazing to me that I used Word for a zillion years before discovering
that setting, which evidently had been present but unobvious in every
version I'd used (from 2.0 on). When you change to right alignment, Word
adjusts the tab position and indent to compensate, but you may still need to
tweak these settings. If my list are mostly short (very rarely break into
double digits), I like to align the single digit with the left margin (as if
it were flush left) and let the double digits hang. If the lists are longer,
I'll align the second digit with the margin. For body text font sizes, I
like to allow about 0.1" between the punctuation after the number and the
following text, and all this can require some trial and error.

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> > Have you tried setting the number position to Right instead of Left?
>
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
>
> Thanks Suzanne!

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Andy - 19 Sep 2004 20:23 GMT

I set up my list number alignment pretty much like yours, but I was
doing it the hard way.

I keep wondering what neat feature I'll stumble across next!

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Suzanne S. Barnhill - 19 Sep 2004 20:55 GMT

Believe me, I did it the hard way for many years (and without the benefit of
styles, though that would probably have made it even harder).

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> I set up my list number alignment pretty much like yours, but I was
> doing it the hard way.
>
> I keep wondering what neat feature I'll stumble across next!

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Patti - 23 Sep 2004 21:58 GMT

>-----Original Message-----
>Have you tried setting the number position to Right instead of Left?

Yes, I tried this and it didn't work for me. Did it work
for you? The solution should be something simple like
this. Instead, I'm going to do what Andy does (see the
other answer to my post). Thanks anyway.

>> In numbered lists, when you have more than one digit, the
>> first digit in a two-digit number should not line up with
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
>
>.

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Andy - 19 Sep 2004 06:43 GMT

I'm hoping someone has a better solution than what I came up with, but
for what it's worth, here it is.

I do my numbering with styles. For lists with more than one digit, I
have a second style based on the first. The only difference is on the
second style, under paragraph settings, the left indentation is set to
a minus number, and the hanging indent is increased by the same
amount. For example, the left indentation is set to -.06, and the
hanging indent is at .31 (the base single digit style's hanging indent
is .25). This sets the first digit to the left into the margin,
everything else lines up.

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Lorrie - 20 Sep 2004 22:51 GMT

I do something similar. With the Automatic number list
turned on from the tools menu...I type the first 10
items. Then I go back, highlight the first nine items
and move them over, as a group, into the proper
alignment. That leave everything else where it belongs.

>-----Original Message-----
>> In numbered lists, when you have more than one digit, the
[quoted text clipped - 16 lines]
>
>.

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Suzanne S. Barnhill - 21 Sep 2004 02:17 GMT

Please read the rest of this thread for a better way!

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> I do something similar. With the Automatic number list
> turned on from the tools menu...I type the first 10
[quoted text clipped - 32 lines]
> >
> >.

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Patti - 23 Sep 2004 21:56 GMT

>-----Original Message-----
>> In numbered lists, when you have more than one digit, the
[quoted text clipped - 14 lines]
>is .25). This sets the first digit to the left into the margin,
>everything else lines up.

Thanks, Andy. This is probably what I will have to do.
In FrameMaker (a good publishing program), it's much
easier to set up a numbered list.

I don't know if you also have this problem -- whenever I
try to restart the numbering (for a new list), Word
instead changes all numbers in all numbered lists in the
document to show the total number of list items in the
document (and my new list starts at 57 and goes to 61!).
I luckily stumbled upon the way to instantly rectify
this -- just do an undo (Ctrl + z). Believe it or not,
that resets all lists' numbers to where they should be! I
think Word developers are crazy....

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Andy - 25 Sep 2004 20:22 GMT

Too bad you couldn't get Suzanne's method to work Patty, I've since
gotten rid of my extra 2-digit style.

I haven't had any numbering problems since I set my lists up according
to Shauna Kelly's instructions, "How to create numbered headings or
outline numbering in your Microsoft Word Document" at:

http://www.shaunakelly.com/index.html

http://www.ShaunaKelly.com/word/numbering/OutlineNumbering.html

Andy

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