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. Anonymous
    2017-05-08T17:19:49+00:00

    Thank you for such a helpful solution. I almost had exploded my head but then you came for rescue.

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-05-17T19:14:46+00:00

    Here's another situation where this 1 to 600 error appears:

    I had this happening to my custom style for body text and to other paragraphs that were not list paragraphs and had never been list paragraphs.

    My paragraph styles looked fine in a Word document. But often when I'd paste a copied block of text into an Outlook email, some paragraphs (most devastatingly my custom "body text" paragraph--the most common style in the document) would look like a single narrow vertical line all by itself on a line.  The entire paragraph was reduced to this tiny vertical line.

    Because this thread turns up in a search for that error, I'd like to record my fix when it occurs with a a different styling element.

    This web page gave me a clue:

    http://www.wordbanter.com/showthread.php?t=53439

    I looked at the style giving me the problems with pasting, by trying to modify it in my Styles list. I could open the modify dialog from the down arrow next to the style name in the styles list. I could switch to the Font option by clicking the Format button in the dialog. But when I tried to click to the Advanced tab in Font, the "1 to 600" would pop up in another dialog and I couldn't fix what was clearly the problem, because I could not dismiss that error message--it remained hovering over the Advanced tab, preventing me from fixing what I clearly saw as the problem:

    The Scale property was set to 0%.   I couldn't fix it because the dialog would pop up with the other tab selected and the error message appeared when I switched to the Advanced tab where the issue was. Because the error could not be dismissed, I could not fix the problem it was complaining about.

    What is confusing is that the scrunched-up letters effect only occurs when I paste the text, not when I view it in Word, so it is impossible to know just by looking at the document which styles are affected. I did some random testing, however. In several of my documents, many styles are affected.

    Anyway, I found a workaround. I put my cursor on the paragraph that needed changing. I then went to the ribbon above the document, Home Tab, Font section and clicked the little arrow in that section that points downward and to the right. This opens up the font dialog. This time I was able to switch to the Advanced tab and change the Scale from 0% to 100%.

    I closed the dialog with the Advanced tab still selected/visible.

    Once I did this in the ribbon, I could modify a specific style in my list and change that property easily (probably because the font dialog was now "set" to open at the Advanced tab).

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