I guess "difficult" is in the eye of the beholder. I would say learning to use styles well is is about as hard to learn as learning to change the oil on a car. Learning their intricacies in the various versions of Word and what can go wrong and why is about like learning to rebuild a carburetor. Neither is impossible, and both may be word doing.

I'm superstitious. I ran into big numbering problems with Word 97 when working on an Appellate Brief (big, formal, paper). I've been following Shauna's (John McGhie's) directions ever since without any trouble. In Word 2010 I've taken to using the multilevel list button out of the box on simple documents. I still apply it to heading styles, though. My briefs and complex pleadings, though, all use heading styles attached to list styles per her directions, though. Once burned.

The original poster here needs to use heading styles linked to a multilevel list. I think we agree on that as well as on the idea that learning to use styles is a very good thing for anyone who uses Word more than occasionally.