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
    2013-02-14T14:47:20+00:00

    Trying to edit the list format via Home tab | Multilevel List | Define New Multilevel List reveals that it has been damaged. For example, clicking the Font button shows the a message box saying "The number must be between 1 and 600." The Font dialog box opens and displays the font size as zero, and you can't change it; when you try and then click OK, a new error message pops up: "The number must be between 1 and 1638."

    Saving in *.doc format (after using a simple macro to set the font shading to white) appears to get rid of the black "blob" so that the number is visible again, but the error messages mentioned above still persist.

    As Petille007 wrote, the list has probably been created without a list style. For stability, you should always follow the instructions in the article at http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/numbering/numbering20072010.html.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-02-15T22:27:30+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.

    1. I saved my bad TEMPLATE in Xml format.  Only one style, in a multilevel list, was fouled up - Heading 5.
    2. I scanned the Xml using a professional PLAIN TEXT EDITOR (http://www.zeusedit.com), not Word, for the string Heading5 (note there is no space in the object name although the visible name in Word is Heading 5 with a space.
    3. When you initially open the file, the Xml is all in one huge long string, you will probably have to use a text editor that can reformat Xml, such as Visual Studio, or Xml Spy, or whatever.
    4. Heading5 is referenced several places.  It is clear where it gets referenced in the text of my template (I can see for example the dummy text I use to evaluate styles), and it is found perhaps 3 more times.
    5. Comparing the Xml for Heading4 to Heading5 where it is referenced in list levels, I see the following:

    Here is heading4 (Yes, I know, it says it is list level 3, because presumably list levels start with 0 because of geek assumptions)  This Xml for well-behaved Heading4 is fairly simple.  You can see things like the left indent is 1512 magic units (pixels?) and hanging indent, font, font size is 24 (which is approx. 12pt), etc.

    Depending on the stuff you have done to your styles, YMMV but there are typically not so many 'attributes').

    *What matters is between the two <**w:lvl>...</:w,lvl>*tags which represent the multilevel list (levels -get it?)

    ...

    ...

    <w:lvl w:ilvl="3"><w:start

    w:val="1"/><w:numFmt w:val="decimal"/><w:pStyle w:val="Heading4"/><w:suff

    w:val="space"/><w:lvlText w:val="%1.%2.%3.%4"/><w:lvlJc

    w:val="left"/><w:pPr><w:ind w:left="1512"

    w:hanging="1512"/></w:pPr><w:rPr><w:rFonts w:ascii="Calibri"

    w:hAnsi="Calibri" w:hint="default"/><w:b w:val="0"/><w:i w:val="0"/><w:sz

    w:val="24"/></w:rPr></w:lvl>

    ...

    ...

    Here is the corrupted Heading5, which I found right after Heading4.   Unlike the simple example above, it has a truly amazing number of bogus attributes associated with it - none of which I set.  See for example, w:imprint, w:vanish, w:specVanish.  Who knows what these are? Not me.  Presumably one or more of these is hosing up the style.

    ...

    ...

    <w:lvl w:ilvl="4"><w:start

    w:val="1"/><w:numFmt w:val="decimal"/><w:pStyle w:val="Heading5"/><w:suff

    w:val="space"/><w:lvlText w:val="%1.%2.%3.%4.%5"/><w:lvlJc

    w:val="left"/><w:pPr><w:ind w:left="1944"

    w:hanging="1944"/></w:pPr><w:rPr><w:rFonts w:ascii="Calibri"

    w:hAnsi="Calibri" w:cs="Times New Roman" w:hint="default"/><w:b

    w:val="0"/><w:bCs w:val="0"/><w:i w:val="0"/><w:iCs w:val="0"/><w:caps

    w:val="0"/><w:smallCaps w:val="0"/><w:strike w:val="0"/><w:dstrike

    w:val="0"/><w:outline w:val="0"/><w:shadow w:val="0"/><w:emboss

    w:val="0"/><w:imprint w:val="0"/><w:noProof w:val="0"/><w:snapToGrid

    w:val="0"/><w:vanish w:val="0"/><w:color w:val="000000"/><w:spacing

    w:val="0"/><w:w w:val="0"/><w:kern w:val="0"/><w:position

    w:val="0"/><w:sz w:val="20"/><w:szCs w:val="0"/><w:u w:val="none"

    w:color="000000"/><w:effect w:val="none"/><w:bdr w:val="none" w:sz="0"

    w:space="0" w:color="000000"/><w:shd w:val="clear" w:color="000000"

    w:fill="000000"/><w:vertAlign w:val="baseline"/><w:em

    w:val="none"/><w:lang w:val="x-none" w:eastAsia="x-none"

    w:bidi="x-none"/><w:specVanish w:val="0"/><w14:glow

    w14:rad="0"><w14:srgbClr w14:val="000000"/></w14:glow><w14:shadow

    w14:blurRad="0" w14:dist="0" w14:dir="0" w14:sx="0" w14:sy="0" w14:kx="0"

    w14:ky="0" w14:algn="none"><w14:srgbClr

    w14:val="000000"/></w14:shadow><w14:reflection w14:blurRad="0"

    w14:stA="0" w14:stPos="0" w14:endA="0" w14:endPos="0" w14:dist="0"

    w14:dir="0" w14:fadeDir="0" w14:sx="0" w14:sy="0" w14:kx="0" w14:ky="0"

    w14:algn="none"/><w14:textOutline w14:w="0" w14:cap="rnd" w14:cmpd="sng"

    w14:algn="ctr"><w14:noFill/><w14:prstDash

    w14:val="solid"/><w14:bevel/></w14:textOutline><w14:scene3d><w14:camera

    w14:prst="orthographicFront"/><w14:lightRig w14:rig="threePt"

    w14:dir="t"><w14:rot w14:lat="0" w14:lon="0"

    w14:rev="0"/></w14:lightRig></w14:scene3d><w14:props3d w14:extrusionH="0"

    w14:contourW="0" w14:prstMaterial="none"/><w14:ligatures

    w14:val="none"/><w14:numForm w14:val="default"/><w14:numSpacing

    w14:val="default"/><w14:stylisticSets/><w14:cntxtAlts

    w14:val="0"/></w:rPr></w:lvl>

    So, I scrape the stuff out of Heading4 between the w:lvl tags that seems reasonable, working under the assumption that I can tweak the style if I can just get the template to load, and I have the following xml for Heading5.  I changed the value of <w:sz to 20 because this heading is supposed to be 10 pt..

    ...

    ...

    <w:lvl w:ilvl="4"><w:start

    w:val="1"/><w:numFmt w:val="decimal"/><w:pStyle w:val="Heading5"/><w:suff

    w:val="space"/><w:lvlText w:val="%1.%2.%3.%4.%5"/><w:lvlJc

    w:val="left"/><w:pPr><w:ind w:left="1944"

    w:hanging="1944"/></w:pPr><w:rPr><w:rFonts w:ascii="Calibri"

    w:hAnsi="Calibri" w:cs="Times New Roman" w:hint="default"/><w:b

    w:val="0"/><w:i w:val="0"/><w:sz

    w:val="20"/></w:rPr></w:lvl>

    ...

    ...

    Basically, I replaced the entire <w:rPr>...</w:rPr> tag section and voila', my template opens and the style is corrected (enough).

    End Notes

    This hacking is clearly not for the faint of heart but way faster than fixing tons of templates or documents.   It is probably only doable in a template and NOT in a real gigantic document with possibly hundreds of thousands of lines of Xml.

    The following procedure/ rules must be observed:

    1. Save the offending template as a Word xml document.  Native to Word 2010, probably 2007
    2. Open the file created in xml with a TEXT EDITOR, not WORD.
    3. Find the stuff carefully, compare carefully, decide what needs to be eliminated/simplified.  Use the Xml from a working style as your new source (as shown above).
    4. DO NOT insert any extra spaces, random carriage returns,  or whatever, and be very careful to make sure your tags close as in the above example and that all the attributes are surrounded with double quotes as in the example.  For each tag, there will either be a closing /> in the same tag e.g. <w:val="1"/> or if the tag encompasses other tags, a closing tag for it will be at the end of the section as in the <w:lvl>......... </w:lvl> example above.
    5. I have no clue how hard it would be if you have multiple corrupted styles.  Presumably they will start to heal one by one as you make these repairs.  It is hugely helpful to have example text in the template document to see the stuff visually.
    6. Save your template as plain text, no special formatting etc. etc.  This is a setting WordPad for example.  NotePad should save it that way by default.  Both suck as text editors though,  I use Zeus, but Visual Studio or Ultraedit or whatever should be able to handle this.
    7. Reopen any documents based on the template and verify that all is well.

    Good luck.  I cannot provide technical support so please, don't ask.  Thank you.

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