atw: Re: Word renumbering woes

My approach to Word numbering is "horses for courses", and always based on
the premise that I will not be permanently in the environment to maintain
whatever I set up.  In this scenario, I think there are at least three
levels.

Macros and/or SEQ fields may be the best fix for someone who understands
them.  I think you could impose them on a TW team or an individual TW
without too much trouble where you are keeping a core of highly skilled Word
people around. If I was doing a very long document over a long period of
time, I would use SEQ fields, or even manual numbering, in the case of
procedures, for numbers within the text.  For headings I use default outline
numbering (with the proviso of never changing the style on the fly).  

If you have competent but not highly skilled users, and will be abandoning
them, then I would suggest you set up very clean and beautiful list styles,
teach them how to use styles.  If you have someone vaguely competent to
maintain the templates, then you can lock the styles down so that average
users cannot mess up the styles by updating them.

If you have all and sundry using the buttons on the ribbon, and no way
whatever of controlling them, I would teach them how Microsoft says it
should be done by using the Microsoft PowerPoint training.  The buttons are
remarkably effective for one-off documents where users stick to normal
template and manual formatting.

ck

-----Original Message-----
From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Suzy
Sent: Tuesday, 14 July 2009 11:36 AM
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: atw: Word renumbering woes

Gee, phew.
I would dispell a couple of myths in this thread, a) that list 
templates are the source of the problem and b) that List Galleries 
are the way to go.

a) The way to stable numbering is using named listtemplates, but 
you can't do this via the UI.  Word will assign an index via the 
UI thought, and then you need to link each level to your style 
name.  It will be fairly stable.  I suggest you define all nine 
levels of your outline list series (ie List, List 1, List 2,...) 
as paragraph styles but do not define the numbering, just the 
paragraph and font settings.  Then Modify the first level style 
(List) and define the nine outline levels via it's list levels 
(each style provides the opportunity to define number for nine 
levels and link to the style).

I have posted better instructions a few times on the Word PC list 
- have a look in their archives for outline lists.

b) I know Margaret is no lightweight in Word, so I'm not saying 
this lightly. And I must confess that once I had completed my 
research on list numbering (5 years ago) and developed a reliable 
solution I never went back.  So maybe something has occurred with 
List Galleries to make them more reliable since I did my research 
but I wouldn't trust them.  So apologies Margaret if you have 
discovered some new stability here that I am unaware of.

Everything I read back then, and which I have now incorporated 
into my style builder tools is to avoid the List Gallery.   I 
found that MVPs like John McGhie, Jay Freedman, and others had 
spent a lot of time and energy trying to achieve some stability 
via the List Galleries and eventually came to the conclusion that 
it was not possible.  The List Galleries will modify as soon as 
you need to modify a list style or paragraph; or when you 
introduce a document which includes outline lists with modified 
List Gallery settings, the Galleries will change;  this is why 
when you make a small change to an adhoc use of a list style or 
paragraph that all of sudden all the other uses in your document 
change too.  This is because they are linked to the List Gallery - 
and when it changes, they will change.

ListTemplates are the remedy not the problem.  But you have to 
name them if you want total control - and you can only do this via 
VBA.  And even then, you still need to have good work practices, 
ie only paste text from external sources using the Paste 
Unformatted functions (because new text which uses outline list 
settings will corrupt your outline lists if they inadvertently use 
the same listtemplate.

This area of Word isn't really for the average user, but I've 
suggested some changes to your code and included a function Steve 
Hudson posted a while back - you can use this to name your list 
template if you decide you want to go down this road.

I would change the first line of your code to be without the List 
Gallery reference and add a call to the function above which 
assigns your name to the list template:

MyLTName = "MyList"
GimmeMyListTemplate (MyLTName)
Set MyListTemplate = ActiveDocument.ListTemplates(3)

With MyListTemplate.ListLevels(3)

Here is the function:


Public Function GimmeMyListTemplate(ListTemplateName As String)
'From Steve Hudson
Dim lt As ListTemplate
Dim m As Integer

On Error GoTo ErrorHandler
m = 0
    For Each lt In ActiveDocument.ListTemplates
        m = m + 1
     If lt.Name = ListTemplateName Then
        Set MyListTemplate = lt 'don't need this unless I define 
styles now.
        Exit For
     End If
    Next
    If MyListTemplate Is Nothing Then
    m = m + 1
        Set MyListTemplate = 
ActiveDocument.ListTemplates.Add(OutlineNumbered:=True)
        MyListTemplate.Name = ListTemplateName
    End If
    Set MyListTemplate = Nothing
 End Function

This way your listtemplate will stay independent of the list 
gallery.

(If you decide this isn't for you but you still want to try this 
out, I am available to do some small projects.  You can contact me 
off list if you would like me to set up a series of templates for 
you - suzy.davis@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx).

regards
Suzy


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