TechTarget Article: Numbered and Bulleted Lists in OpenOffice Writer

I've written a fairly comprehensive article for techtarget on lists.

See also this post on how to do numbering with fields. Fields are a more reliable but more complex approach.

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Comments

[Robert]

Personally, I think the biggest issue most people have with numbering (and lists; lists are just simplified numbering) is that there are four separate systems in OOo. Yes, four! And if you attempt to intermix them, the results can be puzzling and frustrating. The article you wrote, while excellent, mentions just one of the four ways. For reference, the four ways are:

* Manual numbering
* Manual formatting
* Style formatting
* Outline numbering

[Nathan]

Re: restarting numbering

I came up with a different way to restart numbering that works for me. Maybe it will help you and others, also.

For this example, I will use the following levels for the numbering of my outline:
Level 1 - I, II, III
Level 2 - A, B, C
Level 3 - 1, 2, 3
Level 4 - a, b, c

Solution: Basically, I demote everything one level and make level one have no numbering (maybe use it as a heading or title for this particular set of numbers).
Level 1 - None
Level 2 - I, II, III
Level 3 - A, B, C
Level 4 - 1, 2, 3
Level 5 - a, b, c

This is helpful to me when doing things such as notes for a course. I can make the title of the first lesson be level one, then start my regular outline with level two. When I want to start a new outline for lesson two, I just type the title of lesson two at level one of my outline. Level two will automatically restart for me.
Level 1 - Lesson 1 Title
Level 2 - I, II, III
Level 3 - A, B, C
Level 4 - 1, 2, 3
Level 5 - a, b, c

Level 1 - Lesson 2 Title
Level 2 - I, II, III
Level 3 - A, B, C
Level 4 - 1, 2, 3
Level 5 - a, b, c

If I wish to, I can get really creative with this principle and use it with headings & outline numbering.

Hope this helps.

[Hire Technical Writer]

Thanks Solveig and Robert for sharing your knowledge on listing and numbering on OpenOffice. You have inspired me a lot to start using OpenOffice for my writing purposes.