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Sorry, had to get that off my chest... I've wasted countless hours over the years trying to get it to do what I want... and I don't mean "do what I want in the body of the document", I mean just "save what I input". You get something setup all nice, hit ok, and then it decides to do something a little different. Close, but never quite what you put in... never what it was displaying before you hit okay.
I think maybe Lucifer himself got a job at Microsoft figuring he could push Word users over the edge by almost doing what they want, but NEVER doing quite what they want.
Whoever thought the 8 magical positional thing was a good idea should ... well ... I won't go there.
Enough venting... let's see if one of you smart people can help guide me to some useful state...
(1) Is there any way to clear out those 7 magical numbering settings... returning them to their defaults... getting word to forget all past attempts to customize the numbering?
(2) If you have a set of styles that you want to setup to be associated with an Outline Numbering scheme, is there a "proper" way to do it such that what you see before you hit OK is what you get after you hit OK? (I've tried invoking it starting with the topmost style, the bottommost style, an in the middle style, and so on.)
(3) Is there any forced relationship between the Outline Level of a style and the Numbering Level of a style. There doesn't seem to be... but I'm reaching for anything that would explain Word's current bizzarro behavior.
(4) I'm trying to build a template that has a standard set of styles to be used as the starting point for a whole DB full of documents. Will there be any reliability when cutting and pasting between those documents that the styles will "match up" and not shift mysteriously?
(5) My current starter template seemed to be working pretty good... but then on one file it wasn't restarting numbering properly... that's when I started trying other things and Word starting building up all these wrong customizations in the different of the 8 magical slots. I need to somehow get those magical slots cleared out, I fear, or things may continue to spiral downward. Can anyone shed any light on how those magical slots are supposed to work?
Brian
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You can reset all the panes in the List Gallery by selecting each one in turn and clicking Reset. For trouble-free outline numbering, carefully follow the instructions at http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/numbering/OutlineNumbering.html
-- Suzanne S. Barnhill Microsoft MVP (Word) Words into Type Fairhope, Alabama USA Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so all may benefit.
"Brian" <TargetedConvergence[ at ]newsgroup.nospam> wrote in message news:eMcMBNNtGHA.3240[ at ]TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
[Quoted Text] > Sorry, had to get that off my chest... I've wasted countless hours over
the > years trying to get it to do what I want... and I don't mean "do what I want > in the body of the document", I mean just "save what I input". You get > something setup all nice, hit ok, and then it decides to do something a > little different. Close, but never quite what you put in... never what it > was displaying before you hit okay. > > I think maybe Lucifer himself got a job at Microsoft figuring he could push > Word users over the edge by almost doing what they want, but NEVER doing > quite what they want. > > Whoever thought the 8 magical positional thing was a good idea should ... > well ... I won't go there. > > Enough venting... let's see if one of you smart people can help guide me to > some useful state... > > > (1) Is there any way to clear out those 7 magical numbering settings... > returning them to their defaults... getting word to forget all past attempts > to customize the numbering? > > (2) If you have a set of styles that you want to setup to be associated > with an Outline Numbering scheme, is there a "proper" way to do it such that > what you see before you hit OK is what you get after you hit OK? (I've > tried invoking it starting with the topmost style, the bottommost style, an > in the middle style, and so on.) > > (3) Is there any forced relationship between the Outline Level of a style > and the Numbering Level of a style. There doesn't seem to be... but I'm > reaching for anything that would explain Word's current bizzarro behavior. > > (4) I'm trying to build a template that has a standard set of styles to be > used as the starting point for a whole DB full of documents. Will there be > any reliability when cutting and pasting between those documents that the > styles will "match up" and not shift mysteriously? > > (5) My current starter template seemed to be working pretty good... but > then on one file it wasn't restarting numbering properly... that's when I > started trying other things and Word starting building up all these wrong > customizations in the different of the 8 magical slots. I need to somehow > get those magical slots cleared out, I fear, or things may continue to > spiral downward. Can anyone shed any light on how those magical slots are > supposed to work? > > > Brian > >
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See: How to create numbered headings or outline numbering in your Word document http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/numbering/OutlineNumbering.html. (For bullets see http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/bullets/controlbullets.html, the subject is related.)
This is based on ...
Word's Numbering Explained http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Numbering/WordsNumberingExplained.htm
Additional information you may find useful or need is at:
How to Create a Template, Part II http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Customization/CreateATemplatePart2.htm
Legal Numbering http://www.addbalance.com/usersguide/numbering.htm
Numbering is difficult but you can get it to work. -- Charles Kenyon
Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word
Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide
See also the MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/ which is awesome!
My criminal defense site: http://addbalance.com --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn from my ignorance and your wisdom.
"Brian" <TargetedConvergence[ at ]newsgroup.nospam> wrote in message news:eMcMBNNtGHA.3240[ at ]TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
[Quoted Text] > Sorry, had to get that off my chest... I've wasted countless hours over > the years trying to get it to do what I want... and I don't mean "do what > I want in the body of the document", I mean just "save what I input". You > get something setup all nice, hit ok, and then it decides to do something > a little different. Close, but never quite what you put in... never what > it was displaying before you hit okay. > > I think maybe Lucifer himself got a job at Microsoft figuring he could > push Word users over the edge by almost doing what they want, but NEVER > doing quite what they want. > > Whoever thought the 8 magical positional thing was a good idea should ... > well ... I won't go there. > > Enough venting... let's see if one of you smart people can help guide me > to some useful state... > > > (1) Is there any way to clear out those 7 magical numbering settings... > returning them to their defaults... getting word to forget all past > attempts to customize the numbering? > > (2) If you have a set of styles that you want to setup to be associated > with an Outline Numbering scheme, is there a "proper" way to do it such > that what you see before you hit OK is what you get after you hit OK? > (I've tried invoking it starting with the topmost style, the bottommost > style, an in the middle style, and so on.) > > (3) Is there any forced relationship between the Outline Level of a style > and the Numbering Level of a style. There doesn't seem to be... but I'm > reaching for anything that would explain Word's current bizzarro behavior. > > (4) I'm trying to build a template that has a standard set of styles to > be used as the starting point for a whole DB full of documents. Will > there be any reliability when cutting and pasting between those documents > that the styles will "match up" and not shift mysteriously? > > (5) My current starter template seemed to be working pretty good... but > then on one file it wasn't restarting numbering properly... that's when I > started trying other things and Word starting building up all these wrong > customizations in the different of the 8 magical slots. I need to somehow > get those magical slots cleared out, I fear, or things may continue to > spiral downward. Can anyone shed any light on how those magical slots are > supposed to work? > > > Brian > >
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"Suzanne S. Barnhill" <sbarnhill[ at ]mvps.org> wrote in message news:ePlACrOtGHA.2260[ at ]TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
[Quoted Text]
That's a nice doc... answered some of my questions.
I followed it, including resetting all gallery positions... and still I get crazy behavior.
I chose to modify position 8. I set its Level 1 to "My Heading" style and the numbering has the (none) number format; and my Level 2 numbering has the "1." format and is set to the "My Numbered 1" style... but when I click OK, it changes the My Heading style associated with Level 1 to "1." format!! So, I re-modify the My Heading style and see that it has Numbering set to the #7 position in the gallery with some messed up nonsense. So, I reset that position, reset the style to position #8, customize it to fix it, but see that everything is still defined correctly in that position! But when I hit OK, it goes right back to putting a 1. in front of it. STUPID!
Anyway, if anybody can offer any suggestions... I've tried everything I can think of... other than cracking out the VBA.
Brian
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Instead of defining custom styles, why not use Word's built-in heading styles, which are already linked to outline levels (especially in the outline number format you selected). See http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/numbering/UseBuiltInHeadingStyles.html. You can format the styles any way you like, and you can add your own names to the Heading 1, 2, 3 names if you like.
-- Suzanne S. Barnhill Microsoft MVP (Word) Words into Type Fairhope, Alabama USA Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so all may benefit.
"Brian" <TargetedConvergence[ at ]newsgroup.nospam> wrote in message news:uiAZ$KPtGHA.644[ at ]TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
[Quoted Text] > > "Suzanne S. Barnhill" <sbarnhill[ at ]mvps.org> wrote in message > news:ePlACrOtGHA.2260[ at ]TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl... > > You can reset all the panes in the List Gallery by selecting each one in > > turn and clicking Reset. For trouble-free outline numbering, carefully > > follow the instructions at > > http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/numbering/OutlineNumbering.html> > > That's a nice doc... answered some of my questions. > > I followed it, including resetting all gallery positions... and still I get > crazy behavior. > > I chose to modify position 8. I set its Level 1 to "My Heading" style and > the numbering has the (none) number format; and my Level 2 numbering has the > "1." format and is set to the "My Numbered 1" style... but when I click OK, > it changes the My Heading style associated with Level 1 to "1." format!! > So, I re-modify the My Heading style and see that it has Numbering set to > the #7 position in the gallery with some messed up nonsense. So, I reset > that position, reset the style to position #8, customize it to fix it, but > see that everything is still defined correctly in that position! But when I > hit OK, it goes right back to putting a 1. in front of it. STUPID! > > Anyway, if anybody can offer any suggestions... I've tried everything I can > think of... other than cracking out the VBA. > > > Brian > >
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"Suzanne S. Barnhill" <sbarnhill[ at ]mvps.org> wrote in message news:OqfewVPtGHA.3240[ at ]TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
[Quoted Text] > Instead of defining custom styles, why not use Word's built-in heading > styles, which are already linked to outline levels (especially in the > outline number format you selected). See > http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/numbering/UseBuiltInHeadingStyles.html. > You > can format the styles any way you like, and you can add your own names to > the Heading 1, 2, 3 names if you like. Because I'm setting this up as a starter file within a larger application into which my app's users will often end up pasting bits of content from lots of other documents. Not being Word experts, they will tend to not think deeply about how to paste so as not to mess up the styles in the document. Thus, to reduce the trashing of my carefully crafted Styles, I want them to NOT have the standard names. If I use Heading 1, 2, 3... they will be toast in no time.
After a dozen more failed experiments, I finally found the secret incantation to get this to work...
The secret was, contrary to Shauna Kelly's document, you need to build the List Template while editing the bottommost Style in your hierarchy, NOT the topmost. Whenever I used the topmost, it would shuffle it down one level... such that I'd end up with two levels pointing to the same style, and the style below the one I chose to edit not being used. Once I saw the pattern, I figured it couldn't do that if I chose the bottommost one... there'd be nothing below it to screw up.
Now, in Shauna's case, she wasn't trying to setup the topmost one having no numbering. I think Word might have a bug where it takes the top style and tries to apply the first numbers it encounters, even if they are at a lower level. And that ends up causing the goofy partial shuffling down the tree that I was seeing.
It may also be important that the styles you use are defined on top of the one higher each time... not sure... once I got it to work, I wasn't about to risk disturbing things. I locked that puppy down.
Anyway, thanks for the help, the various documents suggested were certainly helpful in narrowing down from hundreds of things to try to about a dozen!
>> > For trouble-free outline numbering, carefully >> > follow the instructions at >> > http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/numbering/OutlineNumbering.html >> >> >> That's a nice doc... answered some of my questions. >> >> I followed it, including resetting all gallery positions... and still I > get >> crazy behavior. >> >> I chose to modify position 8. I set its Level 1 to "My Heading" style >> and >> the numbering has the (none) number format; and my Level 2 numbering has > the >> "1." format and is set to the "My Numbered 1" style... but when I click > OK, >> it changes the My Heading style associated with Level 1 to "1." format!! >> So, I re-modify the My Heading style and see that it has Numbering set to >> the #7 position in the gallery with some messed up nonsense. So, I reset >> that position, reset the style to position #8, customize it to fix it, >> but >> see that everything is still defined correctly in that position! But >> when > I >> hit OK, it goes right back to putting a 1. in front of it. STUPID! >> >> Anyway, if anybody can offer any suggestions... I've tried everything I > can >> think of... other than cracking out the VBA. >> >> >> Brian >> >> >
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If you have set up the Heading styles correctly, then when you paste in text formatted with those styles by other users, they will take on your formatting. Alternatively, you can paste as Unformatted Text.
-- Suzanne S. Barnhill Microsoft MVP (Word) Words into Type Fairhope, Alabama USA Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so all may benefit.
"Brian" <TargetedConvergence[ at ]newsgroup.nospam> wrote in message news:umofKsRtGHA.1224[ at ]TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
[Quoted Text] > > "Suzanne S. Barnhill" <sbarnhill[ at ]mvps.org> wrote in message > news:OqfewVPtGHA.3240[ at ]TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl... > > Instead of defining custom styles, why not use Word's built-in heading > > styles, which are already linked to outline levels (especially in the > > outline number format you selected). See > > http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/numbering/UseBuiltInHeadingStyles.html.> > You > > can format the styles any way you like, and you can add your own names to > > the Heading 1, 2, 3 names if you like. > > Because I'm setting this up as a starter file within a larger application > into which my app's users will often end up pasting bits of content from > lots of other documents. Not being Word experts, they will tend to not > think deeply about how to paste so as not to mess up the styles in the > document. Thus, to reduce the trashing of my carefully crafted Styles, I > want them to NOT have the standard names. If I use Heading 1, 2, 3... they > will be toast in no time. > > After a dozen more failed experiments, I finally found the secret > incantation to get this to work... > > The secret was, contrary to Shauna Kelly's document, you need to build the > List Template while editing the bottommost Style in your hierarchy, NOT the > topmost. Whenever I used the topmost, it would shuffle it down one level... > such that I'd end up with two levels pointing to the same style, and the > style below the one I chose to edit not being used. Once I saw the pattern, > I figured it couldn't do that if I chose the bottommost one... there'd be > nothing below it to screw up. > > Now, in Shauna's case, she wasn't trying to setup the topmost one having no > numbering. I think Word might have a bug where it takes the top style and > tries to apply the first numbers it encounters, even if they are at a lower > level. And that ends up causing the goofy partial shuffling down the tree > that I was seeing. > > It may also be important that the styles you use are defined on top of the > one higher each time... not sure... once I got it to work, I wasn't about to > risk disturbing things. I locked that puppy down. > > Anyway, thanks for the help, the various documents suggested were certainly > helpful in narrowing down from hundreds of things to try to about a dozen! > > > >> > For trouble-free outline numbering, carefully > >> > follow the instructions at > >> > http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/numbering/OutlineNumbering.html > >> > >> > >> That's a nice doc... answered some of my questions. > >> > >> I followed it, including resetting all gallery positions... and still I > > get > >> crazy behavior. > >> > >> I chose to modify position 8. I set its Level 1 to "My Heading" style > >> and > >> the numbering has the (none) number format; and my Level 2 numbering has > > the > >> "1." format and is set to the "My Numbered 1" style... but when I click > > OK, > >> it changes the My Heading style associated with Level 1 to "1." format!! > >> So, I re-modify the My Heading style and see that it has Numbering set to > >> the #7 position in the gallery with some messed up nonsense. So, I reset > >> that position, reset the style to position #8, customize it to fix it, > >> but > >> see that everything is still defined correctly in that position! But > >> when > > I > >> hit OK, it goes right back to putting a 1. in front of it. STUPID! > >> > >> Anyway, if anybody can offer any suggestions... I've tried everything I > > can > >> think of... other than cracking out the VBA. > >> > >> > >> Brian > >> > >> > > > >
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When they paste into your documents, your formatting will control the style definition. -- Charles Kenyon
Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word
Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide
See also the MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/ which is awesome!
My criminal defense site: http://addbalance.com --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn from my ignorance and your wisdom.
"Brian" <TargetedConvergence[ at ]newsgroup.nospam> wrote in message news:umofKsRtGHA.1224[ at ]TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
[Quoted Text] > > "Suzanne S. Barnhill" <sbarnhill[ at ]mvps.org> wrote in message > news:OqfewVPtGHA.3240[ at ]TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl... >> Instead of defining custom styles, why not use Word's built-in heading >> styles, which are already linked to outline levels (especially in the >> outline number format you selected). See >> http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/numbering/UseBuiltInHeadingStyles.html. >> You >> can format the styles any way you like, and you can add your own names to >> the Heading 1, 2, 3 names if you like. > > Because I'm setting this up as a starter file within a larger application > into which my app's users will often end up pasting bits of content from > lots of other documents. Not being Word experts, they will tend to not > think deeply about how to paste so as not to mess up the styles in the > document. Thus, to reduce the trashing of my carefully crafted Styles, I > want them to NOT have the standard names. If I use Heading 1, 2, 3... > they will be toast in no time. > > After a dozen more failed experiments, I finally found the secret > incantation to get this to work... > > The secret was, contrary to Shauna Kelly's document, you need to build the > List Template while editing the bottommost Style in your hierarchy, NOT > the topmost. Whenever I used the topmost, it would shuffle it down one > level... such that I'd end up with two levels pointing to the same style, > and the style below the one I chose to edit not being used. Once I saw > the pattern, I figured it couldn't do that if I chose the bottommost > one... there'd be nothing below it to screw up. > > Now, in Shauna's case, she wasn't trying to setup the topmost one having > no numbering. I think Word might have a bug where it takes the top style > and tries to apply the first numbers it encounters, even if they are at a > lower level. And that ends up causing the goofy partial shuffling down > the tree that I was seeing. > > It may also be important that the styles you use are defined on top of the > one higher each time... not sure... once I got it to work, I wasn't about > to risk disturbing things. I locked that puppy down. > > Anyway, thanks for the help, the various documents suggested were > certainly helpful in narrowing down from hundreds of things to try to > about a dozen! > > >>> > For trouble-free outline numbering, carefully >>> > follow the instructions at >>> > http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/numbering/OutlineNumbering.html>>> >>> >>> That's a nice doc... answered some of my questions. >>> >>> I followed it, including resetting all gallery positions... and still I >> get >>> crazy behavior. >>> >>> I chose to modify position 8. I set its Level 1 to "My Heading" style >>> and >>> the numbering has the (none) number format; and my Level 2 numbering has >> the >>> "1." format and is set to the "My Numbered 1" style... but when I click >> OK, >>> it changes the My Heading style associated with Level 1 to "1." format!! >>> So, I re-modify the My Heading style and see that it has Numbering set >>> to >>> the #7 position in the gallery with some messed up nonsense. So, I >>> reset >>> that position, reset the style to position #8, customize it to fix it, >>> but >>> see that everything is still defined correctly in that position! But >>> when >> I >>> hit OK, it goes right back to putting a 1. in front of it. STUPID! >>> >>> Anyway, if anybody can offer any suggestions... I've tried everything I >> can >>> think of... other than cracking out the VBA. >>> >>> >>> Brian >>> >>> >> > >
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"Suzanne S. Barnhill" <sbarnhill[ at ]mvps.org> wrote in message news:u4TfW0WtGHA.4748[ at ]TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
[Quoted Text] > If you have set up the Heading styles correctly, then when you paste in > text > formatted with those styles by other users, they will take on your > formatting.
<chuckle> You two say that like such behavior is so reliable! Not in my experience.
But actually, more to the point, my numbering styles are not logically "headings" of chapters, parts, or paragraphs as is intended for the Heading 1-9 styles. My template is designed for a one- to two-page document. Only "My Heading" is intended as a heading, and it doesn't really use numbering... it just serves to break up the numbering. The "My Numbered 1-3" styles are just intended for lists.
For example, a My Heading might be "Alternatives", and the content of that segment of the page might be a numbered list, using style My Numbered 1. The next segment might have My Heading "Procedure", and it would list the steps out, starting again from #1, using the My Numbered 1 style. If it needs some sub-steps nested under the major steps, then it might also use My Numbered 2 style.
People often cut n paste from various sources into our documents. Very rarely, if ever, will they want to map their Heading 1 to My Heading. And almost never will they want to map their Heading 2 to My Numbered 1. They might want to map some of the Heading 3 and some of their Heading 4 to My Heading, but typically not. Our documents use certain standardized headings, and they'll map their content to be inside one of the existing headings. But almost never will any of their Headings go to my Numbered's. They are used for fundamentally different purposes.
So, any sort of auto-mapping by my templates of their Headings to my Numbered styles would be seen by my users as obnoxious. They want me to leave their existing styling alone OR they want to paste in unformatted. They do NOT want me auto-converting.
Soooo, it is best if my style names are unique, unlikely to match the style names of paragraphs being pasted in. So, the standard names are certainly a poor choice.
But, as noted in a different note, I do have this working now... with a few bizarro caveats (there's more inexplicable behavior from Word being exhibited that I cannot even begin to describe accurately). So, thanks for all the feedback!
But I will stick with my assertion in the subject of this thread! ;^)
Brian
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[Quoted Text] > So, any sort of auto-mapping by my templates of their Headings to my > Numbered styles would be seen by my users as obnoxious. They want me to > leave their existing styling alone OR they want to paste in unformatted. > They do NOT want me auto-converting. > > Soooo, it is best if my style names are unique, unlikely to match the > style names of paragraphs being pasted in. So, the standard names are > certainly a poor choice.
Nope, it is best if you supply a template that has your numbering scheme attached to the built-in heading styles. You can give those styles additional names. You can use Heading 6 - Heading 9 for your headings if you want.
Numbering in Word _is_ complex. The seemingly simple methods are broken. Here are some old discussions that were put together a while back.
Nightmare on ListNumbering Street <URL: http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&th=9e790fa7ed2886b3,18&ic=1> The Joy of Lists <URL: http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&th=811287ebce8fc203,15&ic=1> Relinking ListTemplates <URL: http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&th=2350746054c838e,12&ic=1> Outline numbering: restart doesn't restart <URL: http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&ic=1&th=2168093ed1c9eaed,6&seekm=muq2hs47vabsq381ngrm7fdmqj4s2e4ab2[ at ]4ax.com#p> Format Doesn't "Hold" <URL: http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&ic=1&th=3a351382011420bf,5&seekm=RXz39CAcCC$4Iwap[ at ]syntagma.demon.co.uk#p> (above list compiled by Dave Rado, Word MVP)
ListNumbering Street Revisited http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&safe=off&th=57df77857e4993ce
-- Charles Kenyon
Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word
Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide
See also the MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/ which is awesome!
My criminal defense site: http://addbalance.com --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn from my ignorance and your wisdom.
"Brian" <TargetedConvergence[ at ]newsgroup.nospam> wrote in message news:On3CI7htGHA.2160[ at ]TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl... > > "Suzanne S. Barnhill" <sbarnhill[ at ]mvps.org> wrote in message > news:u4TfW0WtGHA.4748[ at ]TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl... >> If you have set up the Heading styles correctly, then when you paste in >> text >> formatted with those styles by other users, they will take on your >> formatting. > > <chuckle> You two say that like such behavior is so reliable! Not in my > experience. > > But actually, more to the point, my numbering styles are not logically > "headings" of chapters, parts, or paragraphs as is intended for the > Heading 1-9 styles. My template is designed for a one- to two-page > document. Only "My Heading" is intended as a heading, and it doesn't > really use numbering... it just serves to break up the numbering. The "My > Numbered 1-3" styles are just intended for lists. > > For example, a My Heading might be "Alternatives", and the content of that > segment of the page might be a numbered list, using style My Numbered 1. > The next segment might have My Heading "Procedure", and it would list the > steps out, starting again from #1, using the My Numbered 1 style. If it > needs some sub-steps nested under the major steps, then it might also use > My Numbered 2 style. > > People often cut n paste from various sources into our documents. Very > rarely, if ever, will they want to map their Heading 1 to My Heading. And > almost never will they want to map their Heading 2 to My Numbered 1. They > might want to map some of the Heading 3 and some of their Heading 4 to My > Heading, but typically not. Our documents use certain standardized > headings, and they'll map their content to be inside one of the existing > headings. But almost never will any of their Headings go to my > Numbered's. They are used for fundamentally different purposes. > > So, any sort of auto-mapping by my templates of their Headings to my > Numbered styles would be seen by my users as obnoxious. They want me to > leave their existing styling alone OR they want to paste in unformatted. > They do NOT want me auto-converting. > > Soooo, it is best if my style names are unique, unlikely to match the > style names of paragraphs being pasted in. So, the standard names are > certainly a poor choice. > > > But, as noted in a different note, I do have this working now... with a > few bizarro caveats (there's more inexplicable behavior from Word being > exhibited that I cannot even begin to describe accurately). So, thanks > for all the feedback! > > But I will stick with my assertion in the subject of this thread! ;^) > > Brian > >
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"Charles Kenyon" <wordfaq[ at ]nospam.addbalance.com> wrote in message news:up43otitGHA.4372[ at ]TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
[Quoted Text] > > Numbering in Word _is_ complex. The seemingly simple methods are broken. > Here are some old discussions that were put together a while back.
Wow! Thanks for those. I had no idea how broken Word is... I know the UI sucks, but I didn't know attempts to force it to work could so easily result in Word crashing. (And Word's been crashing a lot lately, so I am worried.)
BTW, many of these threads are from 2000! MS has known about these bugs for years! I am amazed that mighty Microsoft hasn't been able to overhaul something that should be relatively straight-forward in all these years. Sad.
> Nope, it is best if you supply a template that has your numbering scheme > attached to the built-in heading styles. You can give those styles > additional names. You can use Heading 6 - Heading 9 for your headings if > you want.
So, your conclusion from all those threads is that numbering with anything other than the magical Heading styles is doomed to failure?
Are there known issues with Word crashing due to usage of numbering with other than Headings? Certain things that consistently fail? Or just a general trend that all attempts with other than standard Headings never seem to work out?
Maybe I should tell my users to just hand-number everything, because Word numbering is wholly unreliable. However, so far, my three numbered styles are performing well in testing.
BTW, is there an easy way to purge all List Templates that are NOT in a gallery slot out of a document? After reading all these horror stories, I'd like to clean up my master template.
Thanks,
Brian
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It is something that is apparently in the core program and not easily fixed. I don't know whether Word 2007 will be any better. -- Charles Kenyon
Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word
Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide
See also the MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/ which is awesome!
My criminal defense site: http://addbalance.com --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn from my ignorance and your wisdom.
"Brian" <TargetedConvergence[ at ]newsgroup.nospam> wrote in message news:%23RSTgajtGHA.5044[ at ]TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
[Quoted Text] > > "Charles Kenyon" <wordfaq[ at ]nospam.addbalance.com> wrote in message > news:up43otitGHA.4372[ at ]TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl... >> >> Numbering in Word _is_ complex. The seemingly simple methods are broken. >> Here are some old discussions that were put together a while back. > > Wow! Thanks for those. I had no idea how broken Word is... I know the UI > sucks, but I didn't know attempts to force it to work could so easily > result in Word crashing. (And Word's been crashing a lot lately, so I am > worried.) > > BTW, many of these threads are from 2000! MS has known about these bugs > for years! I am amazed that mighty Microsoft hasn't been able to overhaul > something that should be relatively straight-forward in all these years. > Sad. > > >> Nope, it is best if you supply a template that has your numbering scheme >> attached to the built-in heading styles. You can give those styles >> additional names. You can use Heading 6 - Heading 9 for your headings if >> you want. > > So, your conclusion from all those threads is that numbering with anything > other than the magical Heading styles is doomed to failure? > > Are there known issues with Word crashing due to usage of numbering with > other than Headings? Certain things that consistently fail? Or just a > general trend that all attempts with other than standard Headings never > seem to work out? > > Maybe I should tell my users to just hand-number everything, because Word > numbering is wholly unreliable. However, so far, my three numbered styles > are performing well in testing. > > BTW, is there an easy way to purge all List Templates that are NOT in a > gallery slot out of a document? After reading all these horror stories, > I'd like to clean up my master template. > > Thanks, > > Brian > >
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Numbering was one of the areas of concentration for Word 2007; whether it got pushed aside in favor of the new UI remains to be seen.
-- Suzanne S. Barnhill Microsoft MVP (Word) Words into Type Fairhope, Alabama USA Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so all may benefit.
"Charles Kenyon" <wordfaq[ at ]nospam.addbalance.com> wrote in message news:OyMKSsjtGHA.324[ at ]TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
[Quoted Text] > It is something that is apparently in the core program and not easily
fixed. > I don't know whether Word 2007 will be any better. > -- > Charles Kenyon > > Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word > > Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of > Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide > > See also the MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/ which is awesome! > > My criminal defense site: http://addbalance.com > --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- > This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies > and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn > from my ignorance and your wisdom. > > > "Brian" <TargetedConvergence[ at ]newsgroup.nospam> wrote in message > news:%23RSTgajtGHA.5044[ at ]TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl... > > > > "Charles Kenyon" <wordfaq[ at ]nospam.addbalance.com> wrote in message > > news:up43otitGHA.4372[ at ]TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl... > >> > >> Numbering in Word _is_ complex. The seemingly simple methods are broken. > >> Here are some old discussions that were put together a while back. > > > > Wow! Thanks for those. I had no idea how broken Word is... I know the UI > > sucks, but I didn't know attempts to force it to work could so easily > > result in Word crashing. (And Word's been crashing a lot lately, so I am > > worried.) > > > > BTW, many of these threads are from 2000! MS has known about these bugs > > for years! I am amazed that mighty Microsoft hasn't been able to overhaul > > something that should be relatively straight-forward in all these years. > > Sad. > > > > > >> Nope, it is best if you supply a template that has your numbering scheme > >> attached to the built-in heading styles. You can give those styles > >> additional names. You can use Heading 6 - Heading 9 for your headings if > >> you want. > > > > So, your conclusion from all those threads is that numbering with anything > > other than the magical Heading styles is doomed to failure? > > > > Are there known issues with Word crashing due to usage of numbering with > > other than Headings? Certain things that consistently fail? Or just a > > general trend that all attempts with other than standard Headings never > > seem to work out? > > > > Maybe I should tell my users to just hand-number everything, because Word > > numbering is wholly unreliable. However, so far, my three numbered styles > > are performing well in testing. > > > > BTW, is there an easy way to purge all List Templates that are NOT in a > > gallery slot out of a document? After reading all these horror stories, > > I'd like to clean up my master template. > > > > Thanks, > > > > Brian > > > > > >
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Paragraphs don't have to be headings to use heading styles. If you prefer, you could equally well use the List Number styles. But if you're creating custom styles with names like My Heading, you can't blame us for assuming they're headings. The main thing is that they need to be properly linked to a correctly set up outline list.
-- Suzanne S. Barnhill Microsoft MVP (Word) Words into Type Fairhope, Alabama USA Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so all may benefit.
"Brian" <TargetedConvergence[ at ]newsgroup.nospam> wrote in message news:On3CI7htGHA.2160[ at ]TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
[Quoted Text] > > "Suzanne S. Barnhill" <sbarnhill[ at ]mvps.org> wrote in message > news:u4TfW0WtGHA.4748[ at ]TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl... > > If you have set up the Heading styles correctly, then when you paste in > > text > > formatted with those styles by other users, they will take on your > > formatting. > > <chuckle> You two say that like such behavior is so reliable! Not in my > experience. > > But actually, more to the point, my numbering styles are not logically > "headings" of chapters, parts, or paragraphs as is intended for the
Heading > 1-9 styles. My template is designed for a one- to two-page document. Only > "My Heading" is intended as a heading, and it doesn't really use > numbering... it just serves to break up the numbering. The "My Numbered > 1-3" styles are just intended for lists. > > For example, a My Heading might be "Alternatives", and the content of that > segment of the page might be a numbered list, using style My Numbered 1. > The next segment might have My Heading "Procedure", and it would list the > steps out, starting again from #1, using the My Numbered 1 style. If it > needs some sub-steps nested under the major steps, then it might also use My > Numbered 2 style. > > People often cut n paste from various sources into our documents. Very > rarely, if ever, will they want to map their Heading 1 to My Heading. And > almost never will they want to map their Heading 2 to My Numbered 1. They > might want to map some of the Heading 3 and some of their Heading 4 to My > Heading, but typically not. Our documents use certain standardized > headings, and they'll map their content to be inside one of the existing > headings. But almost never will any of their Headings go to my Numbered's. > They are used for fundamentally different purposes. > > So, any sort of auto-mapping by my templates of their Headings to my > Numbered styles would be seen by my users as obnoxious. They want me to > leave their existing styling alone OR they want to paste in unformatted. > They do NOT want me auto-converting. > > Soooo, it is best if my style names are unique, unlikely to match the style > names of paragraphs being pasted in. So, the standard names are certainly a > poor choice. > > > But, as noted in a different note, I do have this working now... with a few > bizarro caveats (there's more inexplicable behavior from Word being > exhibited that I cannot even begin to describe accurately). So, thanks for > all the feedback! > > But I will stick with my assertion in the subject of this thread! ;^) > > Brian > >
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"Brian" <TargetedConvergence[ at ]newsgroup.nospam> wrote in message news:%23RSTgajtGHA.5044[ at ]TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
[Quoted Text] > > "Charles Kenyon" <wordfaq[ at ]nospam.addbalance.com> wrote in message > news:up43otitGHA.4372[ at ]TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl... >> >> Numbering in Word _is_ complex. The seemingly simple methods are broken. >> Here are some old discussions that were put together a while back. > > Wow! Thanks for those. I had no idea how broken Word is... I know the UI > sucks, but I didn't know attempts to force it to work could so easily > result in Word crashing. (And Word's been crashing a lot lately, so I am > worried.) >
It's not the UI that is the problem, but the fact that they made some fundamental design flaws in the document structure with regard to numbering, back in Office 97. Unfortunately, having introduced those design flaws, it is almost impossible for them to change the document structure without causing severe compatibility problems when opening Word documents in different versions, so they have been (rightly in my view) very hesitant to make such changes. Instead, they have been trying progressively to apply sticking-plaster solutions onto the UI in every version since to hide the underlying structural fault. Their success is, as you can see, somewhat limited...
AFAIK, the same underlying structure is still in Word 2007, but I haven't yet had time to see if they have done anything to make it work more consistently.
-- Regards Jonathan West - Word MVP www.intelligentdocuments.co.uk Please reply to the newsgroup Keep your VBA code safe, sign the ClassicVB petition www.classicvb.org
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"Suzanne S. Barnhill" <sbarnhill[ at ]mvps.org> wrote in message news:uumleHktGHA.2160[ at ]TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
[Quoted Text] > Paragraphs don't have to be headings to use heading styles. If you prefer, > you could equally well use the List Number styles. But if you're creating > custom styles with names like My Heading, you can't blame us for assuming > they're headings. The main thing is that they need to be properly linked > to > a correctly set up outline list.
Sorry... "My Heading" is indeed a Heading... but it rarely corresponds to the Headings in external documents. And "My Heading" isn't numbered... but I've included it as level 1 in my outline list in order to restart numbering in my lists. My list styles are named "My Numbered 1", "My Numbered 2", and "My Numbered 3". Three levels for a numbered list. I also have "My Bulleted 1" and so on for three levels of bulleted lists.
Both of those lists were nightmarish to get setup. But with all of your help, I seem to have them working.
My situation has some odd circumstances that I think will help me have fewer problems. I'd like to run it by you guys... see what you think...
We are using Office 2003's XML format (rather than the old binary format). We don't really save the whole Word document... we just save the contents of the "entire document" XML tag... plus some of the section settings (along with some other data into a SQL Server database). When opened, that saved contents gets reinserted into a document freshly generated from the template each time.
So, I think stray List Templates generated by users naively using the Numbering Formatting dialog will get stripped away quite consistently. True? Or are they encoding those List Templates in the main body's tags somehow?
So, rather than musical chairs over time, my users will experience instant numbering cleanup when they save (we save and then reload the doc, so they can see what they really saved).
However, based on my experience, I think there's some List Template State that also lives in the running executable, not the file. Thus, there may be some unclean stuff that won't go away until they restart our app and MS Word. Not sure... but it sure feels like there's some cruft that transcends documents. (not sure I should use that term in reference to Word)
Anyway, I'm hoping things continue to work... though I suspect I've just been lucky so far... and the luck will hold out until next week when I install at a different site.
Brian
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Hi Brian,
[Quoted Text] > We are using Office 2003's XML format (rather than the old binary format). > We don't really save the whole Word document... we just save the contents of > the "entire document" XML tag... plus some of the section settings (along > with some other data into a SQL Server database). When opened, that saved > contents gets reinserted into a document freshly generated from the template > each time. > > So, I think stray List Templates generated by users naively using the > Numbering Formatting dialog will get stripped away quite consistently. > True? Or are they encoding those List Templates in the main body's tags > somehow? >
The list templates should be in the information just preceding the <body> tag. Near where the styles are kept. I'm not sure what you mean by the "entire document" tag...
> So, rather than musical chairs over time, my users will experience instant > numbering cleanup when they save (we save and then reload the doc, so they > can see what they really saved). > > However, based on my experience, I think there's some List Template State > that also lives in the running executable, not the file. Thus, there may be > some unclean stuff that won't go away until they restart our app and MS > Word. Not sure... but it sure feels like there's some cruft that transcends > documents. (not sure I should use that term in reference to Word) > The GALLERIES are stored in the Registry HKCU. From my cursory scans of this thread, I think that's one of the obstacles you've been struggling with. Best is if you can avoid using the Galleries (Bullets and Numbering previews) totally.
Cindy Meister INTER-Solutions, Switzerland http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 17 2005) http://www.word.mvps.org
This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :-)
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