Reference multiple items in a list

[BeerStud]

For the life of me, I cannot figure out how to reference multiple items in a list at one time. Assuming a list"



1 Bla Bla Bla
a. line 1
b. line b
c. line c
d. line d

Now, to reference items 1.a to 1.c, the reference should read as: 1a..c Now, I cannot figure out how to do that in word without going through multiple steps. Word will not let me select 1.a to 1.c at one time. I can create this type of reference in LaTeX in one step.

Can anyone help me with this?

[macropod]

That's just how Word works.

[BeerStud]

Originally Posted by macropod

That's just how Word works.

Wow, that sucks. You would think that the biggest software company in the word could write code to properly reference items in a document, something especially important in legal documents, which I routine work on, for their flagship product. LaTeX handles this quite eloquently, and it is free.

Since Microsoft doesn't operate a "bugzilla" and doesn't have a readily available method of contacting the authors of their software, perhaps as an "MVP", whatever that is supposed to mean, you might try and pass this suggestion onto their coding team. I have no illusions that it will actually matter though.

You could tell them to start here https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/...ss-referencing if they are as clueless as I think they are.

[macropod]

Instead of having a rant here, perhaps you would care to share it with MS. After all, this site has no affiliation with MS...

That said, if LaTex were such a wonderful word processor, I'm sure more people would use it...

[BeerStud]

Originally Posted by macropod

Instead of having a rant here, perhaps you would care to share it with MS. After all, this site has no affiliation with MS...

And that address would be ...?

That said, if LaTex were such a wonderful word processor, I'm sure more people would use it...

You would probably be surprised to learn that it is being used more and more, and by college students who are fed up with the limitation of MS Word, or its sudden tendency to renumber lists, or change list orders for no apparent reason. It is a documented fact that documents over 100 pages become a nightmare to handle in Word. Formatting suddenly starts changing for no apparent reason. On one recent document I was working on, I added a numbered item in a list to the middle of the list. Suddenly Word totally renumbered the document and changed the numbering from 2, 3, 4, etcetera to 102, 103, 104, bla - bla -bla. Using LaTeX, that sort of problem would be impossible.

By the way, virtually no one uses LaTeX as a stand alone product. I use TeXstudio as the front end, but there are others available.

[macropod]

Originally Posted by BeerStud

You would probably be surprised to learn that it is being used more and more, and by college students who are fed up with the limitation of MS Word, or its sudden tendency to renumber lists, or change list orders for no apparent reason.

Invariably the fault lies between the seat & keyboard, in the form of users who haven't a clue how to use Word properly.

Originally Posted by BeerStud

It is a documented fact that documents over 100 pages become a nightmare to handle in Word. Formatting suddenly starts changing for no apparent reason.

Documented where???
Having used Word for over 25 years, in most of its iterations, including for writing/editing many documents with 100+ pages and some very complex documents with well over 500 pages, I can assure you the behaviour you describe is far from typical and not something one who uses Word properly is likely to encounter. Unpredictable formatting usually afflicts users who don't take the time to learn even the basics of how to use Word (especially templates and Styles) and, instead, override the formats of whatever Styles they're using to make them look like something else. That path eventually (often in very short order) ends in grief...

Originally Posted by BeerStud

Formatting suddenly starts changing for no apparent reason. On one recent document I was working on, I added a numbered item in a list to the middle of the list. Suddenly Word totally renumbered the document and changed the numbering from 2, 3, 4, etcetera to 102, 103, 104, bla - bla -bla.

As I said:

Invariably the fault lies between the seat & keyboard

If the best you can do is rant instead of learning to use Word, go away and use something else.

[BeerStud]

I respectfully disagree. Yes, I create custom styles, suitable for the document I am working on. It is possible to merge several documents into one; however, you will lose the formatting (doesn't work that way with LaTeX). I have worked with numerous colleges who have divided documents into into multiple sections/chapters only to find Word changes the page numbering unexpectedly. Word seriously restricts the ability of the user to create the number and design of the styles required in a given document.

Word is a fine program for writing simple documents that don't require extensive formatting options or the use of complex mathematical formulas or expressions. Legal documents, like the ones I commonly work on, can become a nightmare if I suddenly need to add a new section to the middle of a 200 page document. I honestly go into a cold sweat every time I need to make a page edit to a Word document over 100 pages. I recently ran into a problem with images in a document. There were supposed to be two, in landscape mode per page with captions. No matter what I did, could I get the frigging thing to place more than one caption without breaking the page. After nearly two hours of extensive work and consultation with another Word user, including Googling for an answer, I gave up and created the document in LaTeX in 30 minutes perfectly.

Anyway, enough of this. I have far better things to do. Oh, where is this address that I can send my complaints and recommendations to Microsoft? I never have a problem with FOSS, since they most proudly list an address or link in the <Help> <About> section.

[Stefan Blom]

Note that Word is not a page layout program, which explains why it gives you limited control over pages.

Remember that this site is not affiliated with Microsoft in any way. Feedback and suggestions intended for Microsoft can be posted at http://word.uservoice.com.