what sets the character size of a number?

In ListSiz.odt, AA has style List2, a font size= 14 pt (as specified by List2), and numbering style Numbering_abc.
Why does the label ‘a:’ have a size 12 pt?
ListSiz.odt

Why does the label ‘a:’ have a size 12 pt?

Don’t ask me for an explanation, but he doesn’t.

The letter in the 2nd line has 12 pt (see my appendix).

The numbering symbol is usually always the size of the paragraph.

ListSize 1.odt

Your way of customising and using lists is faulty.

Your rightfully customised List 2 by associating it with Numbering abc so that List 2 paragraphs will receive a number. However, you misuse the feature.

  • the list style, here Numbering abc, takes over the indents. Consequently, you must not set anything for Before text in List 2 lest you create inconsistencies and incompatibilities in the list item formatting (this is probably not intended by the developers; I had difficult time with it particularly when I wanted to change After text though it does not interfere with the list style, at least in principle). The inconsistency shows up when your list item is more than one line long. So revert your indents to 0 içn the paragraph style.

  • the list style defines all aspects of the numbering, notably the font attributes through Character style in the Customize tab. In your case you selected (or defaulted) to Numbering Symbols. If you didn’t fiddled with it, the font size is the same as the paragraph style.

    There may be a bug here because Writer reports a 12pt size in your document but the numbering is really 14pt as can be shown by adding the numbering in the item: the letters have the same height. I think this is caused by the fact that the font size is not explicitly set (and this is how it should so that the size is the one in the paragraph style). In the style dialog, 12pt is selected because this is the size in Default Paragraph Style which is inherited here.

  • you created a confusion by pressing on the numbered list toolbar button which is redundant with the use of your List 2 paragraph style, already configured for list numbering) and contradictory because your item will be formatted with Format>Bullets & Numbering instead of Numbering abc. You have the illusion of using Numbering abc because you customised Format>Bullets & Numbering to look like Numbering abc.

    To see the inconsistency, change Numbering abc in any visible way, such as change of indent, alignment position, separators, … The change is not forwarded to your list.

    To fix the issue, press the toolbar button to toggle off numbering, restyle to another style (e.g. Ctrl+0), reapply List 2.

  • also, more generally, you don’t seem to master styles and their interactions. You are encouraged to rigorously study their relationships.

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Thank you for the detailed explanation. Let me focus on one statement:
‘the list style, here Numbering abc, takes over the indents. Consequently, you must not set anything for Before text in List 2 lest you create inconsistencies and incompatibilities in the list item formatting (this is probably not intended by the developers’
The numbering style should not ‘take over the indents’, it should adjust them, eg, according to the level, relative to the indents set by the paragraph style.
This would prevent ‘inconsistencies and incompatibilities’ and nullify the warning in the documentation ‘The Numbering alignment option does not set the alignment of the paragraph’.

This is a complicated matter and I think the implementation is at least faulty if not buggy.

As I wrote, Indents are fully taken over by the list style Numbering anything. Don’t try to outsmart Writer with non-zero indents in the paragraph style and “clever” ones in the list style. This will fail and your document will be an unmanageable mess with unpredictable results (real experience).

Also list style indent are not relative to paragraph indents but to page margins. This may be where problems arise.

The Alignment attribute in the list style does not change the one in the paragraph style. They are two different things. The list style alignment tells where the number/bullet will be positioned relative to the Aligned at distance: at right of this position when left is selected (because the number is glued on its left over the reference location), at left or centred. Not intuitive due to the inversion.