usage of list styles and repair scenarios

[Dieter Gust]

1. I would like to know: Is the usage of list styles (I mean named list
styles not other list options) recommended for Word 2003?

Note: Microsoft developers themselves say "List styles were introduced in
Office
2007"(http://blogs.msdn.com/microsoft_office_word/archive/2009/06/25/multilevel-lists-and-list-styles.aspx). They have been introduced in Word 2003!
Why do they give this wrong information?

2. How should a reliable repair scenario for list styles should look like?

3. Word Auto text objects containing paragraph linked to list styles are
getting very spooky overrides (wrong indents, wrong numbering) from time to
time.
Are the mentioned overrides in auto texts a known bug of the auto text
feature?

My overall use case scenario and identified severe problems are:
1. If I extensively use "Restart Numbering" Word Lists (using list styles)
are getting increasingly unstable until all list styles become corrupted
(i.e. become suddenly linked to each other, or a paragraph style suddenly
shows a link to a "list template" instead of the link to the list style).

2. The Word repair functionality destroys all links between list styles and
paragraph styles, all repair messages are useless and the overall
functionality is useless as the list styles remain corrupted.

3. I cannot manually repair the list styles any longer (i.e. the missing
link to the corresponding paragraph style), as Word continuously ignores the
settings I define in the "Modify style" dialog. In addition Word itself
always overwrites my manually defined indents of the list styles.
Note: The Modify Style (List Style) dialog may be launched by any double
click on a list prefix in the document. This option is removed in Word 2007
and 2010. I wonder why.

4. The Deletion of list styles don't remove the numbering from the
corresponding paragraphs as the paragraphs then will be linked to (corrupted)
list templates (not list styles any longer)

5. Reassigning newly defined list styles to the corresponding paragraph
styles doesn't work for paragraphs containing the "spooky" restart numbering
marker. As a workaround I did a "research and replace" of the identical
paragraph styles (used for lists) which removes other "spooky" overrides but
also the restart numbering marker. I then have to manually reassign the
restart numbering option.

My workaround so far:
I redesigned the list style/paragraph style "Liste-a" where about more than
twenty restart numbering markers were needed in the document, in order to get
a automatic restart. This design seems to dramatically increase the overall
stability of lists.

Technical specification: Word 2003 SP 3, Documents: up 100 pages
Defined list styles:
x …x.x.x.x.x Heading 1 to 5 linked to 1/1.1/1.1.1 list style for heading
numbering
â— Paragraph style "Liste" linked to List Style ListeBulletZeichen
1. Paragraph style "Liste-1" linked to List Style "Listennummerierung"
a) Paragraph style "Liste-a" linked to 1/1.1/1.1.1 for Heading Numbering
– Paragraph style "Liste-Sub" linked to Liste-Sub
etc.
All levels for list styles are defined as separate list styles except "Liste
a" the corresponding list style is now linked to "1/1.1/1.1.1/ as level 6.
I'm very frustrated about the confusing list concept of Word. I checked of
course all the tips of Shauna and the tips from the Word MVP Website.
Especially the tip "How to safely update a document's styles from its
template"
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/MacrosVBA/UpdateStyles.htm
didn't work reliable for me with regard to named list styles and their links
to paragraph styles.

My overall impression: Microsoft Word developers (or I?) don't understand
the use case(s) for list numbering in long documents which may be updated by
modified templates from time to time. Word 2010 design only endorses the
ignorance: The UX simplification for list styles is a better approach only at
the first glance.

 

[Stefan Blom]

I wouldn't recommend anyone to use list styles in Word 2003. Instead,
carefully set up outline numbering with each level linked to a unique
paragraph style, as explained at
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/numbering/OutlineNumbering.html.

List styles may be more stable in Word 2007, and they do make it easier to
copy list formatting between documents, but I wouldn't trust them
completely. This applies, in particular, to documents that you are sharing
with people using earlier versions of Word.

 

[Dieter Gust]

I wouldn't recommend anyone to use list styles in Word 2003. Instead,
carefully set up outline numbering with each level linked to a unique
paragraph style, as explained at > http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/numbering/OutlineNumbering.html.
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Thank you very much for your answer I had feared.
The consequence is: Even in the twenty-first century MS Word numbering
features are useless seen from the point of view of a typical professional
document lifecycle scenario: A professional document lifecycle scenario
includes the use case for reliably updating documents by modified templates
which ma have changed numbering options.
As I learned from Word MVP website also is, that lists are not update save.
And the macro presented at MVP website doesn't cover named list styles.

And looking at the Word development blogs reinforce the chaos: They tell us
to use named list styles linked to paragraph styles (on the other hand they
hide the UI for list styles management with every new Word version 2007/2010
and then they explain how to "easily" remove numbering from a list entry by
pressing Backspace …
I cannot understand at all, after being part of the public echo of the word
numbering disaster for more than ten years that MS Word development seems to
resist on agonizing professional Word users
(http://blogs.msdn.com/microsoft_office_word/default.aspx).

I'm just testing list styles linked to paragraph styles in Word 2010: They
seem to be more stable (and update save by template updates). But after
“repairing†a typical Word 2007 document including lsits created by using the
famous numbering buttons I had about one Word crash for each action in order
to remove rests of direct formatting from list instances (which now included
a properly assigned linked list styles to paragraph style).

I think about starting a public petition: I can't be true that Software like
InDesign and FrameMaker clearly proof how reliable numbering features should
look like (and no crashes!!!) and Word professionals must explain again and
again and again workarounds how to get a reliable numbering for a certain
document only (I know of course Shauna's great tips) and still not having a
reliable and update save usage scenarios for lists.

Dieter