Common Numbering Problem Faced in MS Word 2007

The most common problem that almost 70% of the MSWord Users face can be described as provided below. Suppose that I’ve sections like this in my word document

Heading1

Heading1.1

Heading1.1.1

Heading2

Heading2.1

Heading2.1.1

Now, with the text provided above, it is required to get the numbering in this order.

1 Heading1

1.1 Heading1.1

1.1.1 Heading1.1.1

2 Heading2

2.1 Heading2.1

2.1.1 Heading2.1.1

But in reality, most of us will have problem in creating such a list and will end up with a list like this

1 Heading1

1.1 Heading1.1

1.1.1 Heading1.1.1

2 Heading2

1.2Heading2.1

1.1.2 Heading2.1.1

I’ve highlighted the erroneous ones for easy viewing. I thought I will provide a cleaner solution for this using Multilevel list in Office 2007. This tutorial is specific to office 2007 and not with other versions.

So, how do I go about to solve this problem? The best way is not to associate any ‘numbered’ style to your headings. Just have the headings and then specify a multilevel list to get the job done.

So, click on ‘Multilevel list’ and then click ‘Define New Multilevel List’. Following window appears

Choose ‘1’ under ‘Click level to Modify’and leave all other parameters as it is.

Now click on ‘2’ under ‘Click level to Modify’ and follow the steps as provided below

1. Choose ‘Include level number from’ as ‘Level1’
2. Now, choose ‘Number style for this level’ as 1,2,3..
3. You will get a screen like this

Note that if we want the numbering to come as “1.1” then we have to place a ‘dot’ between the two ‘1’ under ‘Enter formatting for number’.

We are not done yet. Click on ‘3’ now under ‘Level to Modify’. This time choose both Level 1 and Level2 in the same order for ‘Include level number from’ drop down . After this, select the number style as 1,2,3.. As in the previous case, a dot needs to be placed between the numbers manually. We will get a screen like this

Now type a ‘tab’ separated level text as show below

Heading 1

Heading1.1

Heading1.1.1

Heading2

Heading2.1

Heading2.1.1

Select the text as a whole and select the multilevel list pattern that we have just defined. Alas! See what you get now!

While, defining the list you can specify the text indent position to make sure that you get the correct number format.