Automatic numbered list setting for paragraphs containing a certain style

hi, i have a big file containing thousands of questions, references and answers

each question paragraph has a unique style for the questions (and they obviously all end with a question mark :))

i have to assign a progressive number to each question

to assign this list numbering i haven’t found anything faster than manually clicking on each question and pressing menukey+n to continue the previous numbering

but I have to do it for each question, file is hudge and i’m not ending up anymore (and can’t believe there’s no way to automate the process to do less manual work)

so, question is: is there a way to automatically assign a number list only to the questions? (maybe because they are unique paragraphs ending up with a question mark, or due to their question style distinction from the rest or maybe because the previous answer ends up with an end paragraph followed by an empty paragraph?) any ideas?

Yes if your questions have received a paragraph style not used for anything else.

First create a list style (this term is very badly chosen because it defines in fact a sequence number and its formatting).

  1. display the side style pane if not already there (otherwise F11 or under MacOS Styles>Manage Styles

  2. click on the fifth icon from left in the toolbar to display the list styles

  3. predefined styles are listed

    If you don’t use any other list, you can do with Numbering 123. In which case skip to step 5.

  4. right-click on Numbering 123 and New to create a clone. Give it a name of your own like Question 123.

  5. click now on the leftmost icon in the toolbar to go back to paragraph styles

  6. right-click on the paragraph style used for your questions and Modify

  7. go to Outline & Numbering tab

  8. set Numbering style to Question 123 (or Numbering 123 – see remark in step 3)

You’re done. All your questions get a sequential number.

CAUTION! If your question spans several lines you may want to adjust left indent so that the number hangs left of paragraph margin. Don’t change paragraph style indent because the list style takes over all left settings. For that, edit the list style parameters in Position tab.

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great! solved, thank you so much for your detailed and helpful answer!! (seems i need more points to upvote but many many thanks :wink: