Outline Numbering (word exits outline mode when I press the enterkey)

[Jamie Ledwell]

I am trying to create an outline in Word. I click on 'Bullets and
Numbering' and select a format on the 'Outline Numbered' tab. Word
creates a roman numeral 1 correctly. I type my first heading and press
the 'enter' key expecting it to create roman numeral 2. It doesn't it
just exits out of the outline back into paragraph mode. What am I
doing wrong? I've tried this and get the same results in both Word
2000 and 2007. The only way I've found I can get it to stay in outline
mode is to keep an extra character to the right of the cursor, when I
press enter.

Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[Lene Fredborg]

When you press Enter at the end of a paragraph, the new paragraph will be
applied the style that has been selected in “Style for the following
paragraph†in the Modify Style dialog box for the style in question. This
way, you can modify a style to switch to any of the styles found in the same
document. Thus, if you wish, you can set Heading 1 to switch to Heading 2.
However, it is most efficient to set the style for the following paragraph to
the one that will be needed in most situations.

As I understand your description, you create your outline by applying direct
formatting to the paragraphs. You should instead use styles that have been
set up correctly. The following article explains how to set up outline
numbered heading styles:
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/numbering/OutlineNumbering.html

Se also “Why use Microsoft Word's built-in heading styles?â€:
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/numbering/UseBuiltInHeadingStyles.html

--
Regards
Lene Fredborg - Microsoft MVP (Word)
DocTools - Denmark
www.thedoctools.com
Document automation - add-ins, macros and templates for Microsoft Word

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

As Lene suggested, you probably selected one of the outline numbering
formats that is linked to heading styles (that is true of the format that
begins with a roman numeral), and the "Style for following paragraph" of all
the heading styles is Normal (the following style for most other styles is
the same style, Normal following Normal, Body Text following Body Text,
etc.). What you are accomplishing by adding the space is this: instead of
creating a new paragraph, you are splitting the existing one, and so the
style is preserved.

You can modify the heading styles so that Heading 1 follows Heading 1 and so
on down the hierarchy; if you take this route, be sure to also remove the
"Keep with next" formatting for some of the lower-level styles (you could
leave it for, say, Heading 1 and Heading 2); otherwise all your paragraphs
will be chasing one another from one page to the next.

A better alternative is to link the numbering scheme to different styles. In
the Bullets and Numbering dialog, with your desired numbering scheme
selected, click Customize. In the Customize Outline Numbering dialog, click
More. With Level 1 selected, change the style for "Link level to style" from
Heading 1 to List Number. Then select Level 2 and change the style to List
Number 2, continue through as many levels as you need. (The built-in List
Number series goes only to List Number 5, so you'll have to create new List
Number styles if you want more than five levels.)

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[Jamie Ledwell]

As Lene suggested, you probably selected one of the outline numbering
formats that is linked to heading styles (that is true of the format that
begins with a roman numeral), and the "Style for following paragraph" of all
the heading styles is Normal (the following style for most other styles is
the same style, Normal following Normal, Body Text following Body Text,
etc.). What you are accomplishing by adding the space is this: instead of
creating a new paragraph, you are splitting the existing one, and so the
style is preserved.

You can modify the heading styles so that Heading 1 follows Heading 1 andso
on down the hierarchy; if you take this route, be sure to also remove the
"Keep with next" formatting for some of the lower-level styles (you could
leave it for, say, Heading 1 and Heading 2); otherwise all your paragraphs
will be chasing one another from one page to the next.

A better alternative is to link the numbering scheme to different styles.In
the Bullets and Numbering dialog, with your desired numbering scheme
selected, click Customize. In the Customize Outline Numbering dialog, click
More. With Level 1 selected, change the style for "Link level to style" from
Heading 1 to List Number. Then select Level 2 and change the style to List
Number 2, continue through as many levels as you need. (The built-in List
Number series goes only to List Number 5, so you'll have to create new List
Number styles if you want more than five levels.)

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USAhttp://word.mvps.org

Thanks Lene and Suzanne for all the help. It was very appreciated. I
got it going.