I appreciate the feedback, but what I believe would really help me is if someone can explain to me:

1. Precisely what each of the various settings in the "Adjust List Indents" dialog box actually mean.

2. How these settings can interact with each other.

3. How these settings can interact with settings implemented through other dialog boxes (such as the "Paragraph" dialog box).

Try to put yourselves in my shoes. When I see a setting in the "Adjust List Indents" dialog box titled "text indent", and then I also see a setting titled "Indentation" in the "Paragraph" dialog box, my head starts to spin, frankly.

At the end of the day what I want to do is really simple (I think). Given that I have implemented a numbered list, all I want to do is to adjust the amount of "leading white space" to the left of the number as well as the amount of "white space" between the number and the text. And, of course, I want subsequent lines of text (within the body of the numbered item) to all align on the left.