I've got a document set up with a multi-level list (actually saved as a List Style named "Headings"). I have heading styles linked with each (Home-multilevel list dropdown-select custom list "headings"-right click -modify-numbering-more-liink level to style). It worked great yesterday. I saved it, and reopened this morning. level numbers were gone from top level and some others. So I went into the same dialog, and noticed NONE of the levels had styles linked to them. So I did it again, starting at heading 1 through heading 5, and linked them to levels 1-5 in my document. Again, worked great. After several hours with it working great, I saved and closed Word. Got home, opened it again, and AGAIN no styles linked to the levels in my list. But if I relink them, the doc is fine. And obviously I'm clicking OK and OK on the dialogs right, since it works fine till I save it.

How do I make these STAY linked?

Make sure that the problem document is the active document in Word. Open the Templates and Add-Ins dialog box and clear the "Automatically update document styles" option. (To display the dialog box, first enable the Developer tab via File tab | Options | Customize Ribbon, and then click the Document Template button on the Developer tab.)

Set up numbering carefully linked to paragraph styles as discussed in the article at http://shaunakelly.com/word/numberin...g20072010.html.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

I'm not sure exactly what was wrong, but I went back in to the Numbered List - Numbering dialog, and set the correct heading style at each level of the hierarchy. And I made sure to save the template again. And it seems to have taken this time.

That's good news. Word is picky about its numbering; you have to set it up very carefully or it may break.

To mention just one thing that might happen: in the process of assigning paragraph styles to numbering levels, if you accidentally select a style that has already been used for another level, it will be removed from that other level (no warning is given).

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional