"clear direct formatting" doesn't work

Using LO 4.1.5.3 on Win7 Pro 64. I often have to work with existing documents that have been directly formatted and try to apply styles to them. Very often, applying the style changes the character formatting, but does not change the paragraph formatting.

For example, the directly applied ‘Indent before text’ is 2cm. I set the style to 1cm and apply the style to the paragraph, but the paragraph is still set to 2cm. RMB and “Clear direct formatting” has no effect. I try changing to a different paragraph style and back again, still it is 2cm. CTRL-M and Format|Clear Direct Formatting likewise do nothing. I have saved the original DOC as an ODT and tried all the above again, but still it doesn’t clear it. I am faced with directly editing every paragraph individually. Why doesn’t this work?

I have just found the answer. The offending paragraphs are numbered, and the numbering style has its own indent settings which appear to take priority over the paragraph style.