Outline Number Disappears After Page Break Removal

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Ran into a weird problem today with Word 2007. I am editing a Word document using outline numbering and when I delete a page break in this one instance, the following outline number goes away. For example:

7.4.3 Instructor observations should be blah, blah blah…

…………………………………………Page Break………………………………………….
8.0 Procedure

When I delete the page break, becomes:

7.4.3 Instructor observations should be blah, blah blah…

Procedure

Notice that the “8.0” in front of “Procedure” is missing. I tried to duplicate the problem in another area of the document, but that area retains the numbering when I delete that page break. I also tried to close Word and re-open the document, but the problem stays.

Anyone willing to take this one on? Thanks.

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Hmm, can’t reproduce that here.

Can you post a ‘sanitized’ version of the document, which includes the content where you’re getting the problem?

Gary

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OK, here is the (heavily) sanitized version. The problem remains if you delete the page break just in front of section 8.0. However, if you delete the page break just in front of section 5.0, the problem doesn’t happen there.

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Interesting, when I delete the page break in front of section 8.0 here, it works fine – the heading remains numbered.

But I think a clue may have to do with the styles and formatting that you have applied to the page breaks themselves: Some of the page breaks have Heading 1 applied to them, and some of them have Normal style applied to them. A potential source of the problem is that your section headings have Heading 1 applied to them (and then have numbering applied as direct formatting over that) – right next to page breaks that also have Heading 1 applied to them.

First thing to try: Apply ‘Normal’ style to all of the page breaks (may be easiest to do if you change the document View to ‘Draft’), and see if that makes a difference.

Second thing to try: This document features a numbering outline, but it’s not set up as an outline (what’s called “multilevel list”, starting with Word 2007). If you look at the Heading 1 and Normal styles, they don’t have numbering associated with them – so all of the numbering in this document is directly-formatted, on top of the style formatting – this is not the ideal way to do this.

The best thing to do would be to set up a multilevel list, and associate that list with Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3 etc., so you can produce the paragraph numbering simply by applying the styles – this will prove much more reliable. For some tips on setting up a multilevel list, search this forum for ‘multilevel list’.

Alternatively, look at the list of styles for this document – there’s already a (custom) set of styles called ‘Normal1’, ‘Normal 2’ etc, which appear to have the multilevel list numbering associated with them – so you could try using these styles, instead of Heading 1 and Normal.

Hope this helps,
Gary

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Thank you very much for providing me with a list of solutions. I am not the originator of this document, so I don’t know what thought processes went into creating it.

Your suggestion about the multilevel list is interesting. I had no idea that was even a feature. I will look further into it.

One question about this though, then I will leave you alone Do you know if there is a way to strip all styles from this document and then apply the multilevel list to the document?

Again, thank you very much for your time.

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Glad to help.

There may be a quicker way, but a simple way to delete unwanted styles would be to display the Styles pane (you can do so by clicking on the small square ‘Dialog Launcher’ box which is at the bottom right corner of the Styles group on the Home tab). For each style you want to delete, hover your cursor over the name of the style in the list, then click on the dropdown arrow that appears, and then click on ‘Delete’. (Note that you can’t delete key built-in styles such as Normal, Heading 1 etc.)

A quick way to start a multilevel list would be to create a paragraph with Heading 1 style applied to it, then, with your cursor in that paragraph, click on the small Multilevel List button, which is the third button from the left on the top row in the Paragraph group on the home tab.
Among the predefined List Library icons, you should see one that has 1 / 1.1 / 1.1.1 etc numbering, with the Heading style names as well. Click on that button. The multilevel list will then be associated with the Heading styles. You’d then need to edit the properties of the Heading styles to produce the formatting (such as font color and font size) that you need.
There’s more to multilevel lists, but that might suffice for getting started.

Gary

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I am familiar with the problem–although I did not see it in your file. So I don’t have a solution for you. Just a few comments: I think your document was created in W2003 or in W2007/10’s compatibility mode.

In W2003 & before, page breaks are in the following paragraph and have that style. In your document, the page breaks before heading 1s are in the heading 1 style, for example. I have never tried to figure out why, but sometimes, deleting a heading style page break changes the style of the following text to normal–causing the paragraph to lose any multilevel list numbering. I “fix” this by watching for it to happen and reapplying the style.

In W2007/10, page breaks are in their own paragraphs. You can identify them by the 2 (ruler) inch dotted line with a pilcrow (¶) at its end. They can be deleted without affecting the following paragraph. I like this improvement. But if someone really needs to use the old style page break, the can checkmark the line Split apart page break and paragraph mark in the Layout Options section of Word Options > Advanced.

HTH,
Pam

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