I have a problem that a lot of people have been having for a long time, but for which I've never been able to find a solution.

Ordinarily, on Microsoft Word, if you're working with a bulleted list, hitting the tab key will indent the current bullet forward one level, and hitting the backspace key while the cursor is at the front of the bullet will de-indent the current bullet backward one level.

Sometimes, for reasons I do not understand, this feature will turn off, and hitting backspace will instead delete the bullet point. Once it does turn off, even closing the document and re-opening will not correct the problem, nor will the obvious fix of making sure the "Set left and first indent with tabs and backspaces" Autocorrect option is turned on.

The closest thing to a "fix" is to start using shift + tab instead of backspace, but that's inconvenient if you've been using backspace for your entire typing career, and of course, logically speaking if this is a setting you can turn off, it should possible to turn it back on.

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.