Word 2007 will not restart numbering in Windows 7

I've been using Office forever. Word 2003 and 2007 have their problems providing stable renumbered lists using XP Pro, but Word 2007 in Windows 7 won't even try to do it.

I've turned off as many autoformat options as may affect numbering or styles, but still no luck. I refuse to manually number scores of lists in a 200-page document.

Any ideas?

Have you checked the page numbering options [insert-page number-format page numbers]?

Freelancer60 said:

I've been using Office forever. Word 2003 and 2007 have their problems providing stable renumbered lists using XP Pro, but Word 2007 in Windows 7 won't even try to do it.

I've turned off as many autoformat options as may affect numbering or styles, but still no luck. I refuse to manually number scores of lists in a 200-page document.

Any ideas?

Click to expand...

This isn't a perfect solution - I don't know one - but it should speed up this annoying task.

Say you have your large document, containing many lists, many of which will have numbering that follows on from an earlier list rather than starting with 1.

1. Highlight all the items in the first list to which this problem applies.
2. Right-click, and go to Numbering > Set Numbering Value...
3. Make sure Start New List is selected (it should be, by default).
4. Alter the value under Set value to: to 1.
5. Click OK.
6. Without doing anything else, go to the next list that has the numbering problem and highlight all the items in it.
7. Type Ctrl-Y.
8. Hopefully, hey presto.
9. You will, however, have to do this for every list that has the problem.

Hope this reduces the workload enough to help

there are several way to try and get Word to renumber lists:

1. Your method.
2. Right-click on the first item and select Restart Numbering.
3. Right-click on an entire highlighted list and select Restart Numbering.
4. Place the cursor on the firsat item, press Enter. Right-click on the first line which now has nothing but a number, select restart numbering, and press Delete.

From past experience, I know that under everything we see, Word consecutively numbers all lists front to back in the document. Restarting every numbered list is a fundamental function that SHOULD work, but often doesn't.

Thanks for you suggestion.

Nothing is working...

Freelancer60 said:

Nothing is working...

Click to expand...

The method I gave works OK in Word 2007 for me. Is it really proving impossible to reset the list numbering in your document?

The ethod you describe works well using Word 2007 and XP Pro; it does not work when using Word 2007 and Windows 7. There is no change in the numbering of the second list in the document, and there are scores more of the same. I've been a technical writer for nearly 20 years, and this function is an absolute necessity.

It appears i will have to either replace Windows 7 64-bit with XP Pro (moving backwards sucks) or I can try running Word 2007 in an XP window in Windows 7. I'll install the virtual PC and see what happens. For me, this is a showstopper of major proportions.

Thanks again.

I have tested my method with Word 2007 running under Windows 7 x64 Enterprise - no problems, so it isn't anything to do with 7. I am wondering if your document has some strange hidden formatting (we all know what Word is like for introducing these little traps and tests) that is preventing the renumbering.

What happens if you try opening a new document, type a few items, leave a few lines, type a few items, leave a few lines, type a few items, and then try numbering things as individual lists each starting with 1? Does that work OK?