Word 2010 Multilevel list - Numbers disappear

Based on your description, it certainly sounds as if "Automatically update document styles" was enabled in the Templates and Add-Ins dialog box. With that option selected for the affected document, the style definitions from the template will be re-applied each time you open the document.

Can you reproduce the problem in any document that you create in Word, or does it affect a particular (set of) document(s) only?

Automatically Update is switched off in all our templates - we produce and share a vast number of documents with third parties under very tight time scales.  Therefore all the "helpful" options in Word are either neutered by Group Policy or Template design.

This issue has to be a bug.

We have worked with the same numbering system and broad spectrum of templates for 10+ years, mainly in Word 2000.

Only after upgrading to Word 2007 we've seen this issue - IIRC the multilevel numbering systems/ logic where updated within Word with Office 2007?

So here's the *sigh* IT is tiring bit.  The problem only appears in some documents edited in a particular manner...

The user has to remove numbering from a numbered clause (using a numbered heading style) using [BACKSPACE] to remove the numbers instead of applying a non-numbered heading style.  At this point the document may or may not corrupt...if it does the user will reopen the document and all or some of the numbered heading styles will lose their numbering - it simply evaporates...

Copying the content only to a fresh template and reapplying the heading styles involved fixes the problem.  Attempting to repair with the document or the styles "in situ" has no effect.

That to me suggests that Word 2007 has corrupted the heading styles involved within the original document.  I suspect that Word is trying to update the styles (but not all the time) and this causes the error - even though automatic updates are disabled.

It's not the end of the world - but it took me months of head scratching to come up with this suggestion. 

Remember we do not permit any of our templates or documents to apply automatic updates.

Obviously, suppressing numbering for one paragraph shouldn't break the numbering for the whole list. This indicates document or template corruption. See https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/918429.

First of all, though, make sure to clear not only "Automatically update document styles" (in the Templates and Add-Ins dialog box) but also "Update automatically" (in the Modify Style dialog box for each of the numbered paragraph styles).

All the automatic updates are cleared/ switched off; we work on complex documents on very tight timescales so all Word's "helpful" features are turned off as a rule.  Including auto-correct and auto format disabled by Group Policy.

Unfortunately this problem has only surfaced in this version of Word, which means a colleague and I now have the task of reeducating 300+ users to edit and format documents without reaching for the [BACKSPACE] key they've used for the past decade...

I agree about the document corruption - the numbering falls apart and we can only rescue the documents by copying the content to a fresh instance of the base template and leaving the EOF marker in the broken document.  Question is why it all implodes in the first place?

Also the plot has thickened as we've now raised a call with Microsoft support - we have an important document style that will be used for high value transactions and this has displayed a number of problems during the early stages of its development, mainly:

• Using [RIGHT CLICK] restart numbering on a numbered list crashes Word; or
• Using [RIGHT CLICK] restart numbering on a numbered list corrupts numbering - numerals are replaced by random symbols for the numbering level involved.

My suspicion is that Word's new Re-set Numbering hidden marker is corrupting the numbered styles involved, though why this should is a complete mystery at the moment.  

Whether or not this problem is related to our vanishing numbering is up for discussion, however, it looks like Word's numbering is as gnarly as ever.

Thanks for the follow-up. As you wrote, this may be one issue or several issues put together.