I combined two reports and now all of a sudden my heading numbers are getting all messed up. First of all, I don't know why MS can't have a number format for heading 1 that easily accepts 1.0 Heading 1, 1.1 Heading 2, 1.2.1 Heading three, etc.



THAT is the industry standard for most technical reports, but MS's available numbering consists of 1. Heading 1, and so on. Heading 2-9 are fine, but getting that elusive 0 on Heading 1 is a pain.

At any rate, I finally decided the heck with it and created a new list style. The trouble is, it works okay under Heading 1.0, but once I get o the next section, 2.0, heading two starts out with 2.2 instead of 2.1. And further down in the document, not only do the heading 3s start out out of sequence, they're FAR out of sequence (like 3.7) and they are "grayed out". I can see that word initially put the correct numbering in such as 3.1, but the number portion of the heading is grayed out, and is something to the effect of:

3.1.1 3.6.2 Titled Portion (where the underlined is actually lined-through in my document and both sets of numbers are grey). So it appears as if Word tried to put the correct numbering in, but there's some weird glitch and it "bounced" back and put the wrong number in.

I've tried recreated in defined lists, and even went so far as to select all and clear all formatting. One of the original documents was from a guy who tried to hand enter all formatting (sigh). But I would have thought clearing all formatting would have taken out any weirdness he left behind.

Help?

Thanks in advance

Help!

Such a numbering scheme is not part of any 'industry standard' I'm aware of. Indeed, a number like 1.0 Heading implies a Heading 2, but with its numbering starting from 0 instead of 1. If that's the visual effect you want, it's a simple matter to define a numbering scheme that gives you exactly that - and you format Heading 1 as hidden and only use it to force Heading 2 (which you use in its place) to increment.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Sorry, I wasn't clear. I'm talking about the written report when complete, not the computer programming industry. I swear, it's as if the guys who write this stuff do their best to make sure the finished product is as far opposite what we actually need (for those of us authoring the darned things) as possible. (good example, though not word, is their taking the super and sub scripts and burying them in the ribbon in Excel...gee who would possibly need quick access to those when they're writing sample analysis tables? )

At any rate, in my industry and related industries (where we produce tech memos, investigation reports etc for DoD, other federal agencies, oil companies, and such), the 1.0, 2.0 for heading 1 has always been standard. To have a heading 1., or even just 1 just looks weird, especially when it's followed by 1.1 and so on.

But that was just a gripe, I actually know how to force heading 1 to accept the zero. My real problem is the weird strike throughs that keep happening further along in my document in Heading 2 and 3.

I even selected, copied and pasted it to a new word doc, which helped a little, but about the middle of the document I started having that grayed out strike through problem again. I've noticed it seems to be after text that's been selected through tracked changes, but trying to accept or reject changes just makes it worse.

Thanks again.

Hi CanvasShoes,

While ever there are unaccepted deletion changes that precede the numbered paragraphs you're concerned with, the numbering will be off - and the 'changed' paragraph number is especially likely to occur if you insert or delete a numbered paragraph that precedes another numbered paragraph.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]