How do I turn this smartform into a multilevel list in Word?

January 30, 2020 12:02 PM

I was asked to take text from smartforms and create an editable outline/spec document for updating forms with automatic numbering for newly-added parts + a table of contents and appendix. Seems like a thing I should be able to do in Word, but the numbering conventions aren't matching up, nothing is automating the way I thought it could, and I'm. So frustrated. Please help me to not throw a computer out a window?

So I watched a couple Youtubes and figured I could designate Styles for each level of the list and "create a new multilevel list" with rules set up for the numbering. However, the numbering conventions in the Smartform don't seem to work with Word's list options.

I cannot change the numbering as it's used in the smartform.

Here's what it looks like:

Form Name
   1.01 Section Title
    1.0 Prompt
      1.1 Detail
      1.2 Detail
      1.3 Detail  

  1.02 Section Title
    1.0 Prompt
      1.1 Detail
      1.2 Detail
      1.3 Detail

  Form Name
   2.01 Section Title
     1.0 Prompt
      1.1 Detail
      1.2 Detail
      1.3 Detail 
 
2.02 Section Title
  1.0 Prompt
      1.1 Detail
      1.2 Detail
      1.3 Detail  

Form Name
  3.01 Section Title
    1.0 Prompt
      1.1 Detail
      1.2 Detail
      1.3 Detail 

...all the way up through section 7.10

Based on the various Youtube tutorials I've watched, I thought it would work to assign  "Styles" to each part, i.e.:
(HEADING 1) 1.01 Section Title
(HEADING 2)   1.0 Prompt
(HEADING 3)  1.1 Detail
(HEADING 3)  1.2 Detail
(HEADING 3)  1.3 Detail  

Etc. It kind of worked for a while but to be honest I'm not exactly sure how I got as far as I did. The closest I've gotten is that everything looks good EXCEPT the "Prompt" numbering continues when I want it to re-start from 1.0 after each Section Title. So I have Section 1.01 Prompts 1.0 through 12.0, and then Section 2.01, Prompt 13.0 (want it to be Prompt 1.0)

-Is this doable? How? (I'll take links to tutorials I may have missed--googling around for these resources is bleak.)
-If it's not doable, any other ideas for how to create the document they want?
-Am I allowed to just quit my job and head for the hills? Don't answer that one.

Thank you!

posted by adastra to Computers & Internet (3 answers total)

You can always hightail it towards the hills!!! But this is hopefully an easy fix. Automatic numbering is not governed by styles. You'll need to right click the top of each list (so the first prompt under each heading level 1) and select "Set Numbering Value". You'll then choose "Start new list" and set the value as 1.0.

I'm hopeful that will suffice if you've only got 7 level 1 headings. If not, you may be able to do it with styles, but I don't know how off the top of my head.
posted by quadrilaterals at 1:00 PM on January 30, 2020

You can do this in the "Define new Multilevel List" popup window, by setting the options in the "Number Format" section for each of the levels. For the first list level (HEADING 1 in your question) you just take the auto number in the "Enter formatting for number" box and type ".01" after it, assuming the smartform uses that same ".01" convention for all titles.
posted by smokysunday at 3:04 PM on January 30, 2020

Response by poster: I think quadrilateral's advice got me where I needed to go with this queston for now, thanks!

Still not sure this is the right approach for this document but I'm staying on level ground for now.
posted by adastra at 8:56 AM on January 31, 2020