If possible, open a new document to create your numbered style. Working with an existing document and all its in-use styles can be troublesome. It can be done, but changing styles that are already in use almost always has far-reaching repercussions. Admittedly, this advice isn’t always practical, but it’s the best way to start if you can.
You could create a new set of styles, but for our purposes, Word’s existing heading styles, Heading 1, Heading 2, and so on, provide a good foundation. Most everything you need is built in and can be easily modified. If heading styles are already in use and you must work in a production document, you’ll have to create new styles.
The existing heading styles (Heading 1, Heading 2, and so on) are based on the Normal style. All you have to do is add a numbering scheme to the top heading style and watch the settings trickle down. Always begin with the main level heading. In this case, that’s Heading 1. To edit Heading 1, do the following:
At this point, you’re ready to modify the Heading 1 style. First, click Customize. The resulting Customize Outline Numbered List dialog, shown in Figure D, is the heart of this technique. This is where you’ll define the numbering scheme for Heading 1 as follows:
Do not click OK — you still have to define the numbering style for the sublevels.
You just added a numbering scheme to the main heading style, Heading 1. Beginning with Heading 2, add the scheme to the sublevel headings, as follows:
Do not click OK yet — you’re still not done.
Right now, all eight sublevels are aligned with the left margin. It makes sense that you’ll want to indent at least a few subheadings. To indent sublevel 2, simply change the Aligned At setting in the Number Position section. For instance, Figure G shows this setting at .25.
You’re still not ready to click OK!
For most documents, you’ll need only a few levels, but Word offers nine. Format several, even if you don’t think you’ll use them. Simply select the appropriate number in the Level control and repeat the steps outlined above, updating the settings as necessary. When you’ve formatted all your number levels, click OK — finally!
Once you’re back in the Modify Style dialog box, don’t be in a hurry to click OK. First, uncheck the Automatically Update option (at the bottom right). You don’t want Word to automatically update any styles in your numbering scheme. Once you’ve unchecked this option (if necessary), click OK.
When creating the document, you can assign styles as you enter new text. Simply position the cursor at the beginning of a new line and choose the appropriate style from the Styles control on the Formatting toolbar. For the main heading, choose Section 1: Heading 1, as shown in Figure H.
Word will insert the appropriate number and components, as shown in Figure I. Simply type the heading text and press [Enter]. Figure J shows a Heading 2 sublevel, 1.1. If you add a second sublevel, as shown in Figure K, Word again generates the appropriate sublevel number, 1.2.
Inserted numbering
Sometimes, text comes before the formatting. In this case, you simply select the heading text and choose the numbered style from the Styles control. When you do, Word automatically inserts the formatted number. Figure L shows selected text after assigning the Heading 2 style.