Space between number and text

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Paul Gray - 30 Oct 2004 23:09 GMT

I'm using the roman numeral style of outline numbering and cannot seem to
find a way to get proper spacing for all numbers and their text. I have
nine Heading1 lines so the numbers go from I to IX. I, II, III, and V all
have very little space between number and text, (though they do line up with
each other), while the wider remaining numbers appear to have approximately
a 0.2" tab Basically what it looks like is the narrow numerals have a
single tab and the wider ones have two.

Something like this:
I. xxx
II. xxx
III. xxx
IV. xxx
V. xxx
VI. xxx
VII. xxx
VIII. xxx
IX. xxx

The following settings are shown in the Customize Outline Numbered List:

Number position: left
Aligned at: 0"
Tab space after: 0"
Indent at: 0"
Follow number with: Tab character

The only tab stop is 0".

I had this problem under Word 2000, so I took the opportunity to upgrade to
2003 and it's no different. Can anyone help?

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Jezebel - 31 Oct 2004 00:15 GMT

What's happening is that, in the absence of any defined tab stops, Word
advances to the next default tab position. Eg, if your default tab is 0.25"
and the width of your numeral is less than 0.25, the text will align at
0.25; if the numeral is wider than that, the text will be at 0.5, or 0.75,
... and so on.

To fix: Format the paragraph with a hanging indent of enough to accommodate
your widest numeral, and add a tab stop at the same value (eg hanging and
tab at 0.5"). Makes life easy if you define a style for these numeral
paragraphs -- then you need set up the format only once, and you can make
adjustments to all such paragraphs in one go.

> I'm using the roman numeral style of outline numbering and cannot seem to
> find a way to get proper spacing for all numbers and their text. I have
[quoted text clipped - 27 lines]
> I had this problem under Word 2000, so I took the opportunity to upgrade to
> 2003 and it's no different. Can anyone help?

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Paul Gray - 31 Oct 2004 04:02 GMT

I do have styles for Heading1 through Heading6 IAW with Shauna's webpage and
although I don't currently have any tab stops in the Heading1 style, I have
experimented with lots of sizes bigger and smaller than 0.5". However, I
will try to follow your advice to the letter to see if I missed something.
Thanks.

> What's happening is that, in the absence of any defined tab stops, Word
> advances to the next default tab position. Eg, if your default tab is 0.25"
[quoted text clipped - 42 lines]
> to
> > 2003 and it's no different. Can anyone help?

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Suzanne S. Barnhill - 31 Oct 2004 05:51 GMT

In addition to what Jezebel has said, you'll have better luck if you
right-align the numbers. This will align all the numbers on the period. Make
sure that the number position is far enough to the right to accommodate your
longest roman numeral, and then add the desired about of space between the
number position and the tab position.

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Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

> I do have styles for Heading1 through Heading6 IAW with Shauna's webpage and
> although I don't currently have any tab stops in the Heading1 style, I have
[quoted text clipped - 53 lines]
> > to
> > > 2003 and it's no different. Can anyone help?

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Robert - 31 Oct 2004 07:04 GMT

Greetings–
This kind of “concertina alignment” is happening whenever all values are
set at 0 in the Customize Outline Numbered List dialog. This seems to get
Word confused.
I have a personal solution for this. Here are the exact steps:
1) Set up your list scheme as you already have done (indent, space after
and alignment all have their values set at 0).
2) OK out of the numbering dialog.
3) Place the caret at the end of the first list item.
4) Click "Format | Paragraph | Tabulations".
5) In the Tabulation dialog, set the default tab stop at 0.1cm (I am using
centimetres, you might try your luck with inches).
Your list items should have equal spacing between number and text.
This works in Word 2003.

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Cheers
Robert

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