Word 2010 - list number style wont restart at 1

Click in the first level 1 item in your list. Click Home tab | Multilevel List | Define New Multilevel List (yes, the command is misleading). In the dialog box, verify that level 2 is set to restart after level 1, that level 3 is set to restart after level 2, etc.

Also, how are you applying your list? Was it created with a list style? With a paragraph style for each numbering level?

Thanks to your hints, I have found what I was looking for.

It shouldn't have to be so painful.

As you say,"the command is misleading".  After initially creating a list style, I was tearing out my hair trying to find a way to modify it.

It is even more confusing in German, which is the language of my Office 365 GUI.

As a result of my many attempts, my document is now littered with different list styles.

They don't seem to have names, nor can I find a way to delete the superfluous ones.

How can I get rid of the ones I don't want?

When similar ones exist, how can I tell which one I am using?

I have tried to isolate the list style I want to use by adding it to the library, but then I am unable to change it.  Any change I make creates a new list style, which is *not* in the library.

I have removed my original list style from the library, mde the needed changes and recomitted it to the library.  Even after selecting large portions of the document and applying this list style, severly portions of the selection are still using other list and/or paragraph styles.

How can I apply this style without having to select and check each paragraph individually?

Furthermore, even after doing this on an individual paragraph basis, I still had a 3rd level list which failed to restart! 

I finally had to select the entire document to apply the desired list style: heaven help me should this happen to a document with non-list elements.

Most frustrating is that this is even necessary at all.

As I mentioned in my original post, in earlier versions of Word (e.g. Word 2000) numbering worked as one would expect.  If numbered paragraphs were interrupted by a different style, the numbering would automatically restart, and one could still format them (IIRC either individually or at the style level) to continue the previous numbering if that was needed.

What is the use of Word 2013's default use in numbering formats of restart with a number based on the previous list?

Wouldn't this be that exception rather than the rule?

If it makes sense to use restart at all, why defeat it by adding a starting number other than 1?

By forcing one to edit the start of each new numbered group by hand, It makes ordinary numbered styles useless for all but the simplest applications.

I am a heavy user of outlining in Word, which is very useful for large and complex documents.  Nonetheless, I don't want to have to create a new numbering style and corresponding formats for each differently styled document, regardless of size and complexity.  Sometimes one has to deal with "inherited" documents, which don't necessarily use the styles and structures one would use when starting from scratch.  The document which led me to look up this post is 3 pages long, and the amount of effort required to format it properly is completely disproportionate.

Numbering has always been tricky in Word. The user interface for numbering is certainly more confusing in the ribbon interface (misleading commands, as mentioned previously, is only part of this), but the underlying mechanism hasn't changed. (What has changed is that the numbering is more stable compared to older versions of Word, assuming that you follow the "rules" in Shauna Kelly's article.)

When numbering is attached to paragraph styles, level 1 items don't restart (unless you manually restart them). If you use a list style without paragraph styles for each numbering levels, the default is to restart level 1 when there is "intervening" text. Are you seeing something different?

I recommend setting up a template. It's necessary when you want to reuse outline numbering in Word.

I am now using multi-level lists, but still can't get this to work.

Numbering has been broken at least since Word 2010, if not 2007.

Numbering has been broken since Word 97, in that the simple buttons and menu controls in Word do not give a response that you would expect in heavily-edited documents. The technical term is "spaghetti numbering."

Numbering in Microsoft Word

The best solution is to use multilevel lists set up according to the instructions on Shauna Kelly's site (even when you just need multiple lists rather than multi-level lists). You have to follow all of the instructions, step-by-step.

I suspect that is why Stefan is recommending setting up a template. You do it once for the template and base your future documents on that template. (It is how I handle it.)

Once you have the template, things work fine.

The best solution is to use multilevel lists set up according to the instructions on Shauna Kelly's site (even when you just need multiple lists rather than multi-level lists). You have to follow all of the instructions, step-by-step.

I suspect that is why Stefan is recommending setting up a template. You do it once for the template and base your future documents on that template. (It is how I handle it.)

Once you have the template, things work fine.

I have used Shauna Kelly's procedure, and finally have things working.  Still, this is way too much work for a short, inherited document, and I don't understand why ad hoc numbering no longer works the way it used to.

Templates are fine, but they don't help me to fix poorly structured documents I inherit from others.

I'm glad you got it sorted.

You have probably been lucky before. Ad hoc numbering has been unpredictable for years.