Here are the fields I entered, with the values showing

     (a) 

     (b) 

     (c) 

Here are the codes for those fields:

{ LISTNUM   \L7  \S1 }

{ LISTNUM   \L5  \S1 }

{ LISTNUM   \L7  }

{ LISTNUM   \L7  }

{ LISTNUM   \L5  }

{ LISTNUM   \L5  }

{ LISTNUM   \L7  }

Notice how at the L5 level, the values continue from where they left off at the last L5 entry, whereas at the L7 level, they don't - they start over, even without any \S1 argument. This happens even if you first enter all the level \L7 lines first, then insert some level \L5 lines -- the \L7 lines all change to where they start over after any \L5 line.

What to do about this? Is this just a bug in the Word code, or is it something I'm doing or not doing right?

Hi Robert

You're much more likely to find people who work with fields for numbering in an end-user venue, rather than one that specializes in writing code. So I'm moving your question to the TechNet forum (IT Pro).

If this were automatic numbering, then I'd say to check the outline numbering definition of the numbering style. If you look at that dialog box (choose the menu point to define a new list or list style) you'll see there's a checkbox for re-starting the numbering, and the level which triggers the restart. If ListNum fields follow the same internal logic, then it's probably the list style definition that's controlling the behavior (and thus not a bug).

Cindy:

I'm not aware of how to find the "menu point to define a new list or list style". I went to the Quick Parts>Fields>ListNum field and found nothing like that there.

Cindy, Here's what I looked at:



The problem here is that you are applying level 7 before a level 5. Word is very picky about the hierarchy of list levels. You will see the same thing happening if you set up an ordinary multilevel lists, for example the built-in "1 Heading 1, 1.1 Heading 2, 1.1.1 Heading 3" list format shown at the Home tab | Multilevel List gallery.

The easiest way to work with multilevel lists is setting them up using styles as discussed in the article at http://shaunakelly.com/word/numbering/numbering20072010.html. If you want to, you can then use LISTNUM fields in conjunction with numbered paragraphs.

If you must use fields, and only fields, then note that SEQ fields are better. They offer full control over numbering.