Word 2010 blacking out numbering for Heading 3 in body and TOC

Anonymous
2011-06-08T17:59:36+00:00

My boss gave me a document to fix. Word 2010 has started blacking out (black box) the number for Heading 3 headers in the body and the TOC. I make the blocking go away by modifying the style numbering, but I can't get the numbering to work properly (won't let me set the numbering at X.X.X for Heading 3).

Has anyone seen this black-blocking on header level numbers (and do you know how to fix it)?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2011-08-16T10:52:02+00:00

And actually, here is a solution which works.

  1. Find a document which has the correct formatting in it.
  2. Save it as a template
  3. In the corrupted (for that is what it is) document go to the styles dialog box. The easiest way to do this is to use CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+S, otherwise you have to find your way through the poxy ribbon
  4. Hit the manage style button at the bottom of the box (right hand one of the three)
  5. Hit import/export
  6. in the right hand window of the box which appears, hit close file
  7. Now navigate to the uncorrupted document and select it.
  8. In the scroll box above navigate to the style you want to fix and click on it (single click)
  9. The copy arrow should now poin to the right, toward teh corrupt document
  10. Hit copy
  11. Say yes to everything
  12. Close all dialog boxes

This fixed it for me, hopefully it will work for you.

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Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 323.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2015-12-02T00:29:16+00:00

That may not be a permanent fix.

The problem occurs because the font characteristics in the list template have become corrupted and is best fixed by running a macro containing the following code:

For Each templ In ActiveDocument.ListTemplates

    For Each lev In templ.ListLevels

        lev.Font.Reset

    Next lev

Next templ

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Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 323.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2011-06-08T22:22:40+00:00

See the article "How to create numbered headings or outline numbering in your Microsoft Word document" on the following page of fellow MVP Shauna Kelly's website:

http://www.ShaunaKelly.com/word/numbering/OutlineNumbering.html

If you create a template to hold your numbering scheme, you can use that template as the basis for new documents (using File > New) and the new documents will then inherit your numbering scheme. To do that, see:

Creating a Template - The Basics (Part I) at:

http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/CreateATemplatePart1.htm

and Creating a Template (Part II) at:

http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/CreateATemplatePart2.htm

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  1. Stefan Blom 352.1K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2013-02-18T15:42:31+00:00

    Note that the Office product group is aware of the problem. The group is looking at the damaged document you posted.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-02-16T02:50:16+00:00

    OK, well this did not get resolved by doing any of the above.   

    Here is what I discovered to solve the problem.  I did not discover why it happened, but it appeared that Microsoft Word got very enthusiastic in adding font attributes to my fifth level heading style.

    Until now I have not had access to corrupt document so I have not been able to test my hypothesis regarding why it happens.

    There are a few actions that one starting to adventure with creating styles and templates without first having studied and understood the proper methodology to create hierarchic numbering in a document is intuitively led to do.

    Applying one of the lists from the multilevel list  library then, try to modify it by doing "modify" on one of the headings/title (choosing format, numbering). That modifies the document active list but not the library list and if not done from a top level heading, can create a conflict within the same list for that document.

    Trying to modify a list style by applying a library list over it (it saves it as a new style automatically but does not attach the headings/titles properly) and if it is not added to the library, when opening the document word seems unable to apply the alterations that were made to the library list when it was reapplied to the document

    Getting confused as to where change what. If trying to change the actual list, doing it through the adjust indents (which is the correct way for a list style but not for a library list because of the reason above) and saving it as a list style. In which case only that heading paragraph is now attached to this list style while the rest of the document hierarchy is governed by the library list or the previous list style.

    If indentation has been set both in the style definition of the heading/title and the list style, they will conflict and then it is likely for a beginner to modify the indents in the library list or style list or even from the menu adjust indents and not notice they are creating an additional list rather than fixing the original one.

    The solution for someone who does not want to go into the xml stuff, for a big document, is to create properly (not setting indents nor numbering, cascading H1 based on no style, or normal and H2 on H1 CREATING them in the right order H1, H2, H3,etc) a new title1correct, title2correct, and so on, to search and replace styles (title1  by title1correct).  Then to create a new list style to define indents and numbering and attach the titlecorrect styles to the appropriate levels.

    Usually that's sufficient for fixing it but if not, 2 more strategies can work:

    Putting the cursor on the first occurrence of H1 and applying the list style but making sure its the right name one)

    Doing search for all H1, clicking on "erase all" and right after, while the text is still highlighted, apply style H1. It remove unnecessary code. Do the same thing for the lower levels H. Since they are attached to the list style, they will automatically reset to the proper numbering.

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