Bullet hanging indents

[Vrin]

Hi - I'm working with Word 2003, trying to set up a document with three
levels of bullets. I managed to set up the bullets just fine using Shauna
Kelly's "How to control bullets in MS Word" but when I go to use the bullet
styles the hanging indents do not match what I set up in the Numbering dialog
box. They are somehow conflicting with the settings in the Format Paragraph
dialog box.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks!
Vrin

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

First-line and hanging indents set in the Bullets and Numbering dialog
always override those set in the Paragraph dialog.

 

[Vrin]

Hi Suzanne,

Yes, that's what I thought. However, when I set the "Aligned at" to .4, the
"Text Position-Tab Space After" to .65, and the "Text Position-Indent at" to
..65, the second line of text is actually more like .67.

I'm having trouble pinpointing where this is happening and how to make the
second and subsequent lines of text line up with the first line of text after
the bullet.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!
Vrin

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Does the discrepancy appear the same at various Zoom ratios and also on the
printout?

 

[Vrin]

Hi Suzanne - Yes, it does. I'm stumped on this one - I can't figure it out.

Thanks,
Vrin

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Try setting all the indents in the Paragraph dialog to 0". Then go into the
Bullets dialog and change them to something entirely different from what
they currently are. Then go back and change them to what you want them to
be. Does that help at all?

 

[Vrin]

Hi Suzanne - Once again you have solved my problems. Following these steps
seems to have eliminated the problem I was having with hanging indents. Word
strikes again! Sometimes it's almost incomprehensible to me how Word gets
hung up in its own settings.

Thank you,
Vrin

 

[Vrin]

Hi Suzanne - I spoke too soon. This appeared to fix the problem, but then
somehow indents are magically appearing back in the Paragraph dialog box.
There appear to be some built-in settings that I don't know how to change.
Even though I clear all the Paragraph settings, then re-set the indents using
the Numbering dialog box, the paragraph settings keep re-appearing once I
close out of the Numbering dialog.

Any other suggestions would be very much appreciated.

Thanks!
Vrin

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

The Paragraph dialog settings should reflect what you've set in Numbering.
If they don't, make sure that you don't have "Automatically update document
styles" checked in Tools | Templates and Add-ins. That's the only thing I
can think of that might be tampering with your style definitions.

 

[Vrin]

Hi Suzanne, Thanks for following up. I don't have the "Automatically update"
button checked anywhere - that always creates too many problems for me. I
actually think I figured out the problem - somehow the style includes a tab
setting of .6 in addition to the .65 setting, which was causing the first
line of text to indent to .6 while subsequent lines of text were indenting to
..65. Once I removed the .6 tab from the style, all other lines lined up.
Woo hoo!

You may be hearing a lot from me in this discussion forum as my 8 chapter
document begins to come together, with 8 different authors created in 8
separate documents. All with outline numbering and many fun formatting
challenges for me... By the end of this I should be able to set up shop as a
technical writer and charge high consulting fees!

Thanks again for all your help,
Vrin

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

actually think I figured out the problem - somehow the style includes a
tab

setting of .6 in addition to the .65 setting, which was causing the first
line of text to indent to .6 while subsequent lines of text were indenting to
.65.

That would do it, all right.

By the end of this I should be able to set up shop as a

technical writer and charge high consulting fees!

Most of us got our start right here! (Of course, the high consulting fees
don't always follow.)