US Patent Application - Paragraph Numbering

[Alan Stempel]

The rules of the US Patent and Trademark Office specify
how a US patent application is to be formatted and the
pages laid out. While not required, numbering of
paragraphs is desirable and permitted, if done in the
very specific manner described below. The question is,
how can one do this using Word 2002? I suspect that
without a fairly complex macro it cannot be done.

Thanks for any help.
Alan Stempel
(e-mail address removed)-ingelheim.com
==============================


The following is taken from Rule 52(b)(6) of the US
Patent and Trademark office: "The paragraphs of the
[patent application] may be *** individually and
consecutively numbered using Arabic numerals, so as to
unambiguously identify each paragraph. The number should
consist of at least four numerals enclosed in square
brackets, including the leading zeros (e.g., [0001]).
The numbers and enclosing brackets should appear in the
right of the left margin as the first item in each
paragraph, before the first word of the paragraph, and
should be highlighted in bold. A gap, equivalent to
approximately four spaces, should follow the number. Non-
text elements (e.g., tables, mathematical or chemical
formulae, chemical structures, and sequence data) are
considered to be part of the numbered paragraph around or
above the elements, and should not be independently
numbered. If a nontext element extends to the left
margin, it should not be numbered as a separate and
independent paragraph. A list is also treated as part of
the paragraph around or above the list, and should not be
independently numbered. Paragraph or section headers
(titles), whether abutting the left margin or centered on
the page, are not considered paragraphs and should not be
numbered."

 

[Jay Freedman]

Hi, Alan,

No macro, not much complexity...

Create a SEQ field that looks like this (press Ctrl+F9 to create the field
braces):

{ seq para \# "[0000]" }

Here the word para is just a name for a numbering sequence; you can have
many separate sequences running simultaneously just by giving them different
names.

While the field is selected, press F9 to update it -- it should appear as
[0001]. Type four spaces after it. Select the whole thing (but not the
paragraph mark), press Alt+F3 to open the New AutoText box, and enter a name
such as ParaNum.

Now, each time you start a paragraph that should be numbered, start typing
"para". As you get to the fourth character, Word will show a tooltip to
suggest the AutoText entry named ParaNum. Press Enter or Tab to accept it.
(If you don't see the tooltip, finish typing paranum and press F3 to insert
the AutoText of that name, or select it from the Insert > AutoText menu.)

If you insert a new paragraph number before one or more existing ones, the
later ones will need to be manually updated. Just select all (Ctrl+A) and
press F9.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://www.mvps.org/word

The rules of the US Patent and Trademark Office specify
how a US patent application is to be formatted and the
pages laid out. While not required, numbering of
paragraphs is desirable and permitted, if done in the
very specific manner described below. The question is,
how can one do this using Word 2002? I suspect that
without a fairly complex macro it cannot be done.

Thanks for any help.
Alan Stempel
(e-mail address removed)-ingelheim.com
==============================


The following is taken from Rule 52(b)(6) of the US
Patent and Trademark office: "The paragraphs of the
[patent application] may be *** individually and
consecutively numbered using Arabic numerals, so as to
unambiguously identify each paragraph. The number should
consist of at least four numerals enclosed in square
brackets, including the leading zeros (e.g., [0001]).
The numbers and enclosing brackets should appear in the
right of the left margin as the first item in each
paragraph, before the first word of the paragraph, and
should be highlighted in bold. A gap, equivalent to
approximately four spaces, should follow the number. Non-
text elements (e.g., tables, mathematical or chemical
formulae, chemical structures, and sequence data) are
considered to be part of the numbered paragraph around or
above the elements, and should not be independently
numbered. If a nontext element extends to the left
margin, it should not be numbered as a separate and
independent paragraph. A list is also treated as part of
the paragraph around or above the list, and should not be
independently numbered. Paragraph or section headers
(titles), whether abutting the left margin or centered on
the page, are not considered paragraphs and should not be
numbered."