OT: autonumbering in Word, was:Career advice--which application to focus on: FM or Word?
Jon Harvey
JHarvey at cambridgesoft.com
Fri May 19 12:25:44 PDT 2006
Hi Lin,
The great realization I had about Word is that the autonumbering feature
is NOT an attribute of the paragraph style like it is in FrameMaker.
Instead, think of the paragraph styles as being attributes of the
autonumbering feature. In turn, think of the autonumbering as an
attribute of the overall documentation design. When Adobe and Microsoft
designed their autonumbering features, they thought about it in two
entirely different ways.
That being said, I'll try to offer some instructions on using the
feature in Word(let me know if you get stuck).
1. Create all your heading styles first, but DO NOT apply any
autonumbering to them, just format the font and paragraph attributes.
Also, when you create your heading styles, be sure that they are based
on "No Style"
2. Go to Format>Bullets and Numbering. To keep from messing up the
autonumbering, this is the ONLY way to modify the autonumbering in your
document, never go through the paragraph styles.
3. In the Bullets and Numbering box, go to the Outline tab and click the
Reset button to clear out any previously existing numbering formats.
Then select any one of the numbering boxes (except of course the 'None')
and click Customize.
4. Starting at level 1 and ending at level 9 (or however deep you want
your numbering), delete all the content in the Number Format box. This
will remove the default numbering system.
5. Starting at level 9 and working backward, select {1,2,3) in the
Numbering Style box and select the corresponding level number in the
Starting At scroll box. For example, select '9' for level 9, '8' for
level 8, etc. The only reason you want to do this is to keep things from
getting confusing in the next few steps. Go back through each level and
ensure that the only thing that appears in the Numbering Format box is
the shaded level number.
6. Starting again at level 9, put your cursor in the Numbering Format
box (BEFORE the '9') and select '8' in the Previous level number box.
'8' appears in the Numbering Format box before the '9'. If you want to
separate the two numbers type a dash, period, or whatever you want.
7. With level 9 still selected, repeat step 6 over and over, selecting
'7','6','5', etc from the Previous level number box. Make sure your
cursor is where you want the number to appear before you select the
number. When you are done, the box should show "1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8.9" for
level 9.
8. Repeat steps 6 and 7 for levels 8,7,6,5,4,3,2 and 1 in order.
9. check your work. Click through the level box for each level, 1-9. You
should see:
1.
1.2
1.2.3
1.2.3.4
1.2.3.4.5
1.2.3.4.5.6
1.2.3.4.5.6.7
1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8
1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8.9
10. Click the "More" button on the right side of the Bullets and
Numbering window and locate the "Link Level with Style" box.
11. In the Level list, select level 1.
12. in the "Link level with Style" box, select "Heading 1".
13. Repeat steps 11-12 for level 2 and Heading 2, level 3 and Heading 3,
etc. For levels 2-9, make sure the "Restart after level box is checked
and the correct number appears in the corresponding window. For example,
you want level 2 to restart after a level 1 heading.
14. Select "Apply changes to: Whole list".
15. Remember in step 5 changing level 9 to '9", etc? Go back through all
the levels and change them to 1 in the Starting at box.
16. After all is said and done, click the OK button to close the
customization and bullets and numbering windows.
17. To use the autonumbering feature you just created, just assign
headings 1,2, etc. to whatever paragraphs you want.
So, is autonumbering in Word a pain? Yes. Does it work? Yes, but it is
easy to mess up. BTW, you can also assign autonumbering to tables,
figures, examples using similar steps.
.......................Jon
-----Original Message-----
From: Lin Surasky [mailto:Lin.Surasky at retalix.com]
Sent: Friday, May 19, 2006 12:36 PM
To: Jon Harvey
Subject: RE: Career advice--which application to focus on: FM or Word?
Okay, that's not fair. You have my curiosity peaked.
How DOES it "actually" work, as opposed to how it works (or not) for me
and other unenlightened users?
If it's not too complicated to explain in writing, would you mind? This
is one of those things I'm dying to learn, even though I don't use Word
at all anymore. I just know it has to work, but I've never had success
and it drives me crazy!
Thanks
-Lin
> -----Original Message-----
> From:
> framers-bounces+lin.surasky=retalix.com at lists.frameusers.com
> [mailto:framers-bounces+lin.surasky=retalix.com at lists.frameuse
rs.com] On Behalf Of Jon Harvey
> Sent: Friday, May 19, 2006 9:22 AM
> To: Diane Gaskill; framers at FrameUsers.com
> Subject: RE: Career advice--which application to focus on: FM or Word?
>
> I agree with most of what you have said about Word. For large
> documents, you are often better off using a piece a cardboard
> and a crayon than having to resort to Word. However, I've
> found that Word's autonumbering feature works better than
> most people (including me) have complained about. I used to
> get extremely frustrated with it until I quite literally had
> an epiphany one day and realized how it actually works.
> After some testing, I was able to set up a 300-page document
> with paragraphs that were autonumbered six levels deep: x.,
> x.x, x.x.x,----, x.x.x.x.x.x that also included autonumbered
> figures and tables. It was also quite stable, things didn't
> magically mess up. I was so happy with my new discovery that
> I almost took the rest of the day off.
>
> The biggest problem I have found with Word's autonumbering
> feature is that it is documented so incredibly poorly and
> isn't very intuitive.
> And, although it does work, the same feature is so much
> easier to understand and use in FrameMaker.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: framers-bounces+jharvey=cambridgesoft.com at lists.frameusers.com
> [mailto:framers-bounces+jharvey=cambridgesoft.com at lists.frameu
sers.com]
> On Behalf Of Diane Gaskill
> Sent: Friday, May 19, 2006 8:12 AM
> To: framers at FrameUsers.com
> Subject: RE: Career advice--which application to focus on: FM or Word?
>
> Word is also a memory hog. It uses more than twice as much
> RAM as FM at launch and sucks up more as time goes on. It
> often runs out of memory and sends error messages about no
> longer letting you undo anything. If you are working in a
> Word doc over 150 pages or so, you are definitely taking
> chances and are likely to experience Word literally slowing
> down and eventually grinding to a halt.
>
> The Word autonumbering bug is horrendous to put it nicely.
> Bulleted and numbered lists are reformatted for you while you
> sleep (whether you want them to be or not). When you open
> the doc again, numbers have changed to bullets, numeric lists
> are now alpha lists and start with e instead of 1, or if you
> are lucky and they are still numbered, they start with 430
> instead of 1.
>
> This is not a joke folks, I see this every day at work. We
> have created some workarounds, but to answer Steve's
> question, it is NOT worth it.
> Fortunately, we have also have FM, and are beginning to
> convince the powers that be how much more stable and efficient FM is.
>
> Diane
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: framers-bounces+dgcaller=earthlink.net at lists.frameusers.com
> [mailto:framers-bounces+dgcaller=earthlink.net at lists.frameusers.com]On
> Behalf Of Steve Rickaby
> Sent: Thursday, May 18, 2006 2:39 AM
> To: framers at FrameUsers.com
> Subject: Re: Career advice--which application to focus on: FM or Word?
>
>
> At 16:15 -0400 17/5/06, Ron Miller wrote:
>
> >If I experiment with style changes, Word creates a new style
> like Body
> +
> blue font + 6 pt line spacing. It handles numbered lists very
> poorly and it is quirky and seems to lack any coherent use
> model. Frame on the other, while not perfect (what software
> is) and certainly less intuitive at least does what you want
> it to do and doesn't try to do so many things you wish it wouldn't.
>
> I think the key difference can be summed up by saying that
> Word takes a lifetime to master to the degree at which it can
> be used to produce results comparable to those that can be
> produced quite easily with Frame. It can be done, but is it worth it?
> --
> Steve
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ron Miller
> Sent: Wednesday, May 17, 2006 1:15 PM
> To: John Posada
> Cc: Framers at frameusers.com
> Subject: Re: Career advice--which application to focus on: FM or Word?
>
>
> I agree with John, tools are always changing, but that said,
> if you have a choice, Frame is just so much more solid than
> Word. I've been working on two projects recently. In one I'm
> in Word and I'm having the hardest time just sticking to a
> template. If I experiment with style changes, Word creates a
> new style like Body + blue font + 6 pt line spacing. It
> handles numbered lists very poorly and it is quirky and seems
> to lack any coherent use model. Frame on the other, while not
> perfect (what software is) and certainly less intuitive at
> least does what you want it to do and doesn't try to do so
> many things you wish it wouldn't.
>
> Ron
>
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