Word’s Multilevel lists: Numbering your heading styles

Video transcript– Video Duration: 3.53mins

Applying multi-level numbering

The headings in this document have multi-level numbering applied to them.

You can see it in the Navigation Pane.

If I click on chapter 3, here we can see the different levels of numbering applied to the heading and subheadings.

The hierarchical structure of the document is clear and obvious, and thisaidsits readability.

When you have applied styles to your headings it’s easy then to apply multilevel numbering.

Applying Multilevel numbering to your heading styles

Onthe Home tab, in the Paragraph group, select Multilevel list.

It is essential that you select this particular button; it’s where you can see 1. Heading 1, 1.1 Heading 2, 1.1.1. Heading 3.

If I click on it, it applies multilevel numbering to the document. By looking at the Navigation Pane, I can see at a glance that all of the headings in my document, where I have applied heading styles, have taken on the multilevel numbering.

Adding ‘Chapter’ as a prefix to a Heading 1 style

It is possible to change the appearance of numbered headings. Some people like to prefix their top level headings with the word ‘Chapter’.

Like this…

If you would like to apply this to your top level headings, or your Heading 1s, from the Paragraph group select Multilevel list once again. But this time, move down to the bottom of the pop-up window and select choose Define New Multilevel List… In this box labelled ‘Enter formatting for number’, click at the beginning of the number 1, and type the word ‘Chapter’ with a space. You can see in the Preview window the change to your Heading 1 level. Click onOKand the word ‘Chapter’ is incorporated into your Heading 1 style.

Again, look at the Navigation Pane and you can see the effect of the change for all your heading ones.

Want to remove multilevel numbering from your heading styles?

If you ever want to remove multilevel numbering from your headings, then this is the best way to do it:

From the ‘Paragraph’ group, select Multilevel list and select Define New Multilevel List…I’m going to click on the More button, in the bottom left corner. This gives you access to all of the options.

Just ensure that Heading 1 is selected and this box labelled Link level to style we’re going to change it from Heading 1 to (no style). We’ll now do the same for Heading 2, so we’ll click on theLevel 2 and in this Link level to style box we choose (no style) option.

  • Repeat this for Level 3
  • Continue this if you have further heading styles in your document.
  • When you’ve finished, click OK, and the changes will be made.

Now watch the video on ‘Word’s Table of Contents’.