I seem to remember reading, many years ago, that some of Word's numbering/bullets settings are associated with an array in the user profile – so if a list on your PC points to item 1 in the array, you may not see the same results if you send the file to someone whose profile has different settings. Is this still the case?
I'd be quite relieved to learn it isn't, and then abandon this out-of-date/incorrect misapprehension.