Suppress numbering on level 1 (chapter) heading but make it feed into level 2 heading style

Anonymous
2012-09-03T17:10:12+00:00

Hi,

A friend of mine is writing a thesis using Microsoft Word 2010. He would like to have his heading styles look like this:

Heading1 (This will be his chapter heading. If it was displaying a number it would be 1)

1.1 Heading 2

1.1.1 Heading 3

So any formatted text would look like this:

First chapter heading

he wants to format this with the Heading1 multilevel style without showing the numbers

1.1 First heading within this chapter

he wants to format this with the Heading2 mutlilevel style and inherit the chapter number from the chapter he's writing in (although he doesn't want to display the number on the chapter's title)

1.2 Second heading within this chapter

again he wants to format this with the Heading2 mutlilevel style and inherit the chapter number from the chapter he's writing in (although he doesn't want to display the number on the chapter's title)

1.2.1 A sub heading within section 1.2

this would be formatted using the Heading3 mutlilevel style and should inherit the chapter number from the Heading1 multilevel style (which wouldn't be displaying the chapter number), and the Heading2 level number (in this case 2)

Second chapter heading

2.1 First heading within this chapter

2.2 Second heading within this chapter

2.2.1 A sub heading within section 2.2

and so on...

He has created a new multilevel list style that shoes no number for Heading1, then starts with Heading2. When formatting the Heading2 multilevel it was not possible to choose the Level1 number format to display in the Level2 style - and understandably so. He would then like to include the chapter numbers when captioning his figures and therefore his table of figures. If he wanted to show the number on his heading1 style multi-level, then this would be easy. However, he wants to suppress the number from appearing on his Heading 1 mutilevel lists; but display in sequence from thereafter.

As you can probably guess from this, his problem arises when including the chapter number in his captions doesn't work properly. Because he has chosen not to display a number on Heading1, Word is picking his chapters up at the Heading2 style.

Can anyone offer any suggestions please? I've tried everything I can think of. Maybe I've missed something. Maybe he has to include the numbering on his chapter headings (Heading 1 multilevel style, currently not displaying a number) in order for these to pick up properly.

I hope I've given you enough information and I've explained what he wants to do. If not, please don't hesitate to ask.

Many thanks

Karen

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Answer accepted by question author
Stefan Blom 353K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2012-09-03T22:52:09+00:00

The easiest way is to click the number for a Heading 1 paragraph (you'll see that Word select the number for all Heading 1 paragraphs in the document) and then apply hidden formatting, for example by pressing Ctrl+Shift+H.

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Answer accepted by question author
Stefan Blom 353K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2012-09-05T08:33:57+00:00

Instead of outdenting level 1/Heading 1, you can change what Word adds after the now hidden number. By default, Word uses a tab, but you should change it to nothing at all. Place the insertion point in the first Heading 1 paragraph of the document. Click Home tab | Multilevel List | Define New Multilevel List. Click More (if necessary) to all options of the dialog box. In the "Follow number with" box, choose "Nothing." Click OK.

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  1. Anonymous
    2017-12-14T05:57:25+00:00

    Simply brilliant! Thanks a lot Doug.

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  2. Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 323.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2017-12-14T03:20:30+00:00

    Modify the paragraph formatting of the TOC1 style so that it has a negative indent before the text.  With the appropriate size of indent, the space will be moved into the margin area of the document so that the text of the item is aligned with the margin.

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-12-14T01:14:43+00:00

    Actually Stefan, I think the problem lies not with the hidden Heading number but with the table of contents itself.

    For instance, I created a simple document with three Heading 1 headings, namely Heading A, Heading B and Heading C. I then set the "Follow number with" of the "Define new Multilevel list" to "Nothing". In the headings, there is no space between the number and the text. HOWEVER, in the table of contents, a space is automatically added between the number and the text of the heading. Is there a setting in Word somewhere to prevent this from happening?

    Meanwhile, as a workaround*, one can always manually delete the extra spaces from the table of contents after having regenerated it and prior to printing the document.*

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