Why are outline numbered list limited to 9 levels?

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I'm always suspicious of people who say they need more than nine levels
because I've found so many of them that think they need Heading 1 for the
first heading (at a given level), Heading 2 for the second, etc. It's a bit
more difficult to believe, but some people will even set up outline
numbering levels for simple lists, setting the numbering to start from 2 on
Level 2, 3 on Level 3, etc. So I try to probe a bit to bring out any
information that might confirm that this misconception is involved.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Stefan Blom]

Being suspicious is (sometimes) a good strategy, I suspect. <g>

--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP


in message

I'm always suspicious of people who say they need more than nine levels
because I've found so many of them that think they need Heading 1 for the
first heading (at a given level), Heading 2 for the second, etc. It's a bit
more difficult to believe, but some people will even set up outline
numbering levels for simple lists, setting the numbering to start from 2 on
Level 2, 3 on Level 3, etc. So I try to probe a bit to bring out any
information that might confirm that this misconception is involved.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

Too many list levels would be equally confusing for the writer, I

believe.

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[That70sHeidi2]

I'd like to bring this up again and remind people that sometimes we ARE
working on Government documents. Not a big help to limit our level numbering.

And it's actually pretty easy to understand when you realize your
correspondence and or Requests for Additional Information have to refer to
the specifications in Section 2.5.1.1.4.6.2.1.2.1. Or to the government
regulations cited in that Section. It's actually really handy to have so many
levels, and I honestly can't believe that they would limit such a thing when
it'd probably be easier NOT to limit how many levels a user can create.

Because our TOC only is required to show to four places, I will number these
manually and hope that no one rearranges or deletes any Level 10 or Level 12
items. I've now wasted an HOUR on this problem.

 

[Tom Willett]

Who is less than helpful? And why?
Don't make us waste an hour trying to figure it out.

: I'd like to bring this up again and remind people that sometimes we ARE
: working on Government documents. Not a big help to limit our level
numbering.
:
: And it's actually pretty easy to understand when you realize your
: correspondence and or Requests for Additional Information have to refer to
: the specifications in Section 2.5.1.1.4.6.2.1.2.1. Or to the government
: regulations cited in that Section. It's actually really handy to have so
many
: levels, and I honestly can't believe that they would limit such a thing
when
: it'd probably be easier NOT to limit how many levels a user can create.
:
: Because our TOC only is required to show to four places, I will number
these
: manually and hope that no one rearranges or deletes any Level 10 or Level
12
: items. I've now wasted an HOUR on this problem.
:
:
:
:
: "F. James Little" wrote:
:
: > Is there any way to add more levels to a outline numbered list?

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

The limit of nine no doubt goes back to some inbuilt programming limitations
(the same that limited the MRU list to nine documents). Although it might
now be possible to program more than nine levels, the numbering might well
not be backward-compatible.

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