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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  2. Anonymous
    2013-11-10T20:51:52+00:00

    I have tried all the fixes above and none of them works permanently. I like many others was delighted to find the control shift S, but found as others did that once the document was saved, the fix was gone after reopening the document.

    The solution has to do with understanding the bizarre method in which Microsoft implemented multilevel numbering for headings, which embodies both using the list style and the paragraph style for each heading, and most importantly, linking each level of the list style to a level in the heading style. None of this is intuitively obvious.

    For a new document, the first step is to set up the list files, after which the heading levels are formatted.

    For an excellent step-by-step guide on how to do all this, here is the link:

    http://shaunakelly.com/word/numbering/numbering20072010.html

    It is a complicated process, and I have not utilized it on a complete document for all nine levels, but it seemed to work for my need for a quick and dirty fix.

    BTW, utilizing these concepts, I was able to do a quick and dirty by following the steps for establishing the levels, associating them with the headings. Afterward I was able to correct, three different documents with the same phenomena, and also now am able to change the format of the heading without ending up with the bizarre message "must be a number between one and 600" that I received in my previous attempts.

    The only previous suggestion posted in this lengthy thread that will work as a quick and dirty fix is to save the document in Word 2003 format (i.e .doc) and limp along with editing the document in compatibility mode. But that really destroys the purpose of upgrading twice since were 2003, with the loss of utilization of a number of features implemented since that time.

    If this does not work for anyone, please let me know!

    matrixunloaded

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