Hi there I am working on a document and the section numbering for heading 3 isn't continuing on from the heading 2 number above. I cant seem to correct it so it follows on. It is starting from a random section number much further into the document. Any ideas on how to fix easily?

Your description suggests one or more sections have a 'different first page' layout. In that case, a header on the first page of that Section wouldn't be carried through to subsequent pages. The other possibility is that you have multiple Sections whose headers are not configured 'same as previous', and that the one where the header re-appears was originally linked before being unlinked to enable a new Section to be inserted. Setting all headers to 'same as previous' should resolve that issue.

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Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

If you are talking about outline numbering (in headings), rather than headers, see How to create numbered headings or outline numbering in Ribbon Versions of Word by Shauna Kelly.
Redefine your styles and numbering using the steps in that article starting with Heading 1 or the first heading you have numbered. You must define the entire set of styles at one time.

I managed to fix it slowly by doing the following...so it affected only heading 3 level. But went to the first H3 heading in the document then changed the numbering to none. Then re-selected the numbering 1 H1, 1.1 H2, 1.1.1 H3, etc. from the list. This corrected the numbering and sub-sequent H3 headings in the document but not all. It corrected like maybe 20 of them, then it stopped at a particular problem H3 heading. And would repeat the above process again...and work through the document.

I was hoping I could select all H3 headings in the document and just correct them all at once. Should I not be able to select all instances of H3 style, remove the numbering then re-apply as I did above? And this would remove and readd the section numbering for ALL instances of H3 headings in the document.

Let me know if none of this makes sense...

Your thread title 'Section numbering screwed up' implies something to do with Section breaks & headers, for which I took your reference to heading 3 not continuing on from heading 2 to be a reference to header content, not to the Styles named 'Heading 2' & 'Heading 3'. It would be easier to provide help if you expressed the problem with greater clarity.

If you start by defining the Heading Style multi-level relationships with 'Heading 1', working through all required Heading Styles systematically, all of the Style deinitions will be updated automatically without the need to select anything other than the initial paragraph with the 'Heading 1' Style. Furthermore, there will be no room for any of them to go awry part-way through your document unless someone has overridden the Style-based formatting with hard formatting at some point. Even then, however, it is only the overridden paragraphs that will be affected.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

To add to what Paul has said, when editing heading numbering, click in the first Heading 1 paragraph of the document and then click Home | Multilevel List | Define New Multilevel List. Set up numbering for each level and verify that heading styles are assigned to their corresponding numbering levels. For details, see http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/numb...g20072010.html.

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Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

Thanks all for the comments and for that link. I am going to read through that article in detail and try avoid these issues in the future. Unfortunately the template we have been used is beyond repair, too many cooks copying and pasting from other documents which seems to ruin things and add far too many styles into the equation.

What you have appears to be something described by the technical term "spaghetti numbering."

Sometimes what is needed is to copy the entire document's text into a new document as plain text. Then apply appropriate styles to format it.