Line Numbering

[Alex]

I have a very long document in which every line is numbered. I now need to
take some of the line numbers out, i.e. instead of line numbers 1, 2, 3, 4,
5, 6 I now only need line numbers 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 numbered. Short of
manually altering 30,000 lines, is there a quick way of renumbering, only
giving every 5th line a number?

 

[Jay Freedman]

I have a very long document in which every line is numbered. I now need to
take some of the line numbers out, i.e. instead of line numbers 1, 2, 3, 4,
5, 6 I now only need line numbers 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 numbered. Short of
manually altering 30,000 lines, is there a quick way of renumbering, only
giving every 5th line a number?

Go to File > Page Setup > Layout and click the Line Numbers button in the
dialog. Change the "Count by" box from 1 to 5 and click OK.

In Word 2007, to get to the dialog, click the Page Layout tab of the ribbon,
click the Line Numbers button in the Page Setup group, and choose Line Numbering
Options; in the dialog, click the Line Numbers button.

 

[Peter T. Daniels]

The fact that "manually altering 30,000 lines" is an option brings up
the awful possibility that the lines weren't numbered with the Line
Numbers tool.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

On the Layout tab of Page Setup, click the Line Numbers button and change
the "Count by" setting from 1 to 5.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[Alex]

Thank you, it is working. However, within the document there are a number of
blank lines and these are somehow being counted as lines as well. is it
possible just to number the lines with text in them and not to include the
blank lines? Thanks once again.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Those are not "blank lines"; they're empty paragraphs (which you will see if
you display nonprinting characters). Delete them and substitute Spacing
Before/After in your paragraphs (a quick way is to use Ctrl+0 to add 12
points Spacing Before).

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[Lhynard]

For me, it's not that simple. I am writing a very long poem. Poems come in
lines and stanzas, not sentences and paragraphs. After each line I need a
carriage return, and after each stanza, I need a blank line/space. Because
word treats a carriage return as a new paragraph start, I cannot use the
"spacing before after paragraph" feature, because I cannot teach Word to
recognize the difference between a line break and a stanza break. I only want
spacing between stanzas.

Thus, the line numbering feature fails to work for me, because it counts the
spaces between stanzas, which is really sad if I insert a stanza somewhere,
seeing as this poem is thousands of lines long.

 

[Lhynard]

I don't think so..., which is why I hate the line numbering feature.

 

[Jay Freedman]

You don't "need" a paragraph mark at the end of each line, you need a line break
(Shift+Enter) which starts a new line without starting a new paragraph. There
should be a paragraph mark only at the end of each stanza, and there the Space
After will take care of the proper spacing. And then line numbering will work,
too.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so all
may benefit.

 

[Lhynard]

Aha! That will solve the problem then. Thanks. I didn't know you could put in
a line break without a paragraph break.