Formatting Microsoft Word Numbered Headings

May 3, 2019 11:11 AM

I need to add a section to an existing document. Once the new section is added, I need to have the section incorporated as a numbered heading and then continue the numbering from there. Is there a way to do this without having to delete the existing numbering and starting from scratch?

Section 3.1 Heading 2
Section 3.1.2 Heading 3

New Section [I need this to be new Section 3.2]
New Section Subheading

Section 3.2 Heading 2 [I need this to be new Section 3.3]
Section 3.2.1 Heading 3

The document was created by some one else so I do not have the multilevel list formatting they used on my computer (if they even used a multilevel list, I can't tell). The numbering is not connected to the heading styles.

posted by BooneTheCowboyToy to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

Answering this question helpfully requires more information.

1. When you say "Microsoft Work" do you mean Microsoft Works, Microsoft Word or something else?

2. How sure are you that the numbering in your existing document wasn't originally typed in by hand, as opposed to being generated by the word processing program's inbuilt numbering features?
posted by flabdablet at 11:15 AM on May 3, 2019

Response by poster: I meant Microsoft Word, not Works (typo).

I'm not sure if they were typed by hand or how to tell; I am assuming not since the document is over 100 pages long, but I could be wrong.
posted by BooneTheCowboyToy at 11:21 AM on May 3, 2019

You will likely need to do some work with Styles to format the headings appropriately. It sounds as though the person who created the document did this haphazardly. You've got the right idea, but need to apply the Heading styles appropriately. All you're doing is adding a new Heading 2 (3.2) - the numbering should work, if Headings are applied correctly.
Also, do you really need a Section break? You can easily add a Page Break before to the Heading 2 style.
posted by dbmcd at 11:30 AM on May 3, 2019

Quick and dirty: do a copy-and-paste-format from, e.g., Section 3.1 to the equivalent line in your new section. Doesn't always work but is worth a try.
posted by praemunire at 11:54 AM on May 3, 2019

I have only successfully done this by applying a different list style to each section, using the section number as the preface to the number itself. I.e. I had a section where the number style was 2.x (2.1, 2.2., 2.3, etc.), then another section which was 3.x (3.1, 3.2, 3.3, etc.). If I moved sections around, I needed to change the section number, but as I added items within each section, they were numbered correctly.

Someone may have a better way - this was my clunky work-around. (Also, I was numbering questions in a multi-section survey, not numbering sections in a text).

Also, I wouldn't make assumptions about people doing things by hand. I know people who create columns with tabs.
posted by jb at 12:27 PM on May 3, 2019

The numbering is not connected to the heading styles.

For the sake of your own sanity and that of every person who touches this document from now on, it really, really needs to be.

In my opinion the right way to do this, if it hasn't been done already, is to create new styles for Section Heading and Subsection Heading that inherit from the existing Heading 2 and Heading 3 styles and also have the appropriate kinds of numbering turned on.

If turning on automatic numbering leads to numbering that appears to be doubled-up, that means the original numbering was done by hand and will need to be deleted. This is a time consuming pain in the arse but it should only need to be done once, and it also gives you the opportunity to find all those places where previous editors have screwed up by inadvertently duplicating section and/or subsection numbers.

I know people who create columns with tabs.

My dear departed mother, who came to word processing via typing and was maniacal about exerting control over layout for maximal clarity, was quite difficult to persuade not to create them with spaces.
posted by flabdablet at 12:33 PM on May 3, 2019 [2 favorites]

Best answer: I do not have the multilevel list formatting they used on my computer

If I understand correctly, the only multilevel list formatting that could be missing from your computer's installation of Word that could conceivably have anything to do with a document you've been given to edit is the template that that document was created from. But that doesn't matter; Word documents carry internally all the information they inherit from the template they were based on.

If you see no evidence of multilevel list formatting having been turned on in the document you're working with, the most likely cause is not that you're missing that document's template, but that the original author wasn't familiar with Word's numbering facility and simply failed to use it.
posted by flabdablet at 12:38 PM on May 3, 2019

Just to add that flabdablet is right in every respect, except that there is a way to do multilevel numbering using sequence fields, but that is even more of a PITA to set up (but absolutely bulletproof when done). If you don’t have a Word guru close at hand, do what flabdablet suggests and then try to make sure that anyone who edits the document in future sticks to it. Best of luck.
posted by Logophiliac at 3:48 AM on May 4, 2019