Word 2010 Multilevel list - Numbers disappear

Anonymous
2013-02-18T18:03:37+00:00

I am using Word 2010 with Windows 7.

I have an 82 page document that has headings numbered with a multilevel list.  I use a defined styles for each level and have used outline functions to assign levels to each heading.  Once the style is set and levels assigned I have used the multilevel list to give each a number.  In numerous heading levels I had to set the number using the 'set numbering value'.

Once I completed the entire file I created a .pdf of the file and saved the file.  I also restricted the styles to just those used in the document.

When I open the file about half of the numbers are gone.

This has happened twice.

I really need help!

thanks.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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  1. Stefan Blom 353.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2014-12-21T13:56:02+00:00

    If you are saying that deleting one paragraph mark deletes all numbered paragraphs, then your document must certainly be corrupt.

    Losing a paragraph number for a single numbered paragraph can be fixed with Ctrl+Q, assuming that numbering has been correctly defined with a paragraph styles attached to each numbering level. See http://shaunakelly.com/word/numbering/numbering20072010.html for assistance.

    Note that there isn't a general problem with copying styles through the Organizer; the problem I was referring to is with copying numbered styles, and it is well-documented, especially in the old Microsoft newsgroups. Of course, chances are that the bug has been fixed so that copying numbered styles now works flawlessly. If so, that is great.

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-02-26T18:31:06+00:00

    Did you have track changes on? I encountered the same problem as you today. The problem stopped happening when I turned off track changes.

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-03-13T16:02:40+00:00

    Thank you! This is clearly a bug within Word 2010. Of the fix options presented in this thread, yours both 1) works consistently and 2) can be reduced to a set of instructions that can easily be given to end users.

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  4. Stefan Blom 353.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2015-03-13T22:33:54+00:00

    If the problem is being caused by "Automatically update document styles," then it isn't a bug; Word is working as designed. It's just that you shouldn't leave that option selected unless you really want to use it.

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  5. Anonymous
    2015-04-17T11:08:20+00:00

    This looks like a serious "bug" from here, where we use Word 2007:

    Our scenario is...

    Firm Style applied to documents - fully automatically numbered with the numbering based on heading styles (rebuilt from scratch for Word 2007 as per best practice as advised by MVPs).  This has been a VERY robust approach for us in the past under Word 2000.

    All automatic update settings are switched off - just in case someone edits a heading style and the numbering then starts to wander off in an odd direction.

    User edits a document and manually deletes the numbering attached to a numbered clause, instead of applying a non-numbered paragraph style i.e. Normal or Body Text.

    We now have a paragraph/ clause within the document that has a numbering style attached and no numbering (remember all auto update settings are disabled).

    Our user saves and closes the document, user reopens the document and all or some of the numbering vanishes from the numbered heading styles/ paragraphs within the document.

    Reapplying a clean set of heading styles from our Normal.dotm through organizer will correct the problem temporarily - ie. until the document saves, closes and reopens.

    To fix the problem completely we correct the manually updated clauses (apply Normal style and then copy all of the affected documents content (minus the final paragraph marker) into a fresh instance of the affected documents base template.

    So my questions are...

    Has anyone seen this before in Word 2007?

    Am I correct in my assumption that this is a Word issue - arising from the manual update of the clause numbering which then corrupts the Word file?

    Will the issue "follow" us to Word 2013?

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