Add Headings to Writer > Tools > Chapter Numbering

[MosheAriel]

I am developing a template to use for a Medical Analysis App called “Body Code”. I have been practicing on my wife, Veanna, using kinesiology testing, with some symptoms she has. I quickly found that each Category has several Sub-Categories, and each of these can have more Subcategories. It is crucially important, in doing an accurate analysis, to keep track of where we are within these Categories. And then I’m ten or more levels deep, and some of the results of the kinesiology testing require that we go back to the Home page and Decode from there.

So I quickly ran out of the standard 10 headings, and I’m now 24 levels deep, and will probably end up going deeper. I have been creating Headings, and creating macros and key assignments to them, but I can’t assign numbers to them like the Standard 10 Headings. So I have to insert Heading Level numbers by hand.

It would be really great if I can add as many Standard Headings as I need and have the numbering added automatically.

Thanks so much for your kind help.

[ajlittoz]

I think your need goes beyond typography where 10 levels are largely sufficient. Needing more means a poorly organised book.

What you’re trying to achieve is akin to a decision tree where further questions depend on the answers of previous ones.

I wouldn’t use Writer for that. And since you “require that we go back to the Home page and Decode from there”, this suggests hyperlinks. Have you considered composing your template directly in HTML?

In HTML, you create numbered lists with <ol> (up to the next </ol>), each item being delimited by <li> … </li>. I have not checked if HTML limits the number of nested lists. Return to home position is done with <a href="...">Return to home</a>.

You can also break your decision tree into several HTML pages to make creation and maintenance easier but you lose the initial numbering unless you pass it explicitly to the called page.

[MosheAriel]

Thanks so much for your suggestions ajlittoz. I really love LibreOffice, and I really appreciate this forum and the help you all provide. I have not found your suggestions helpful in the past though, I am sorry to say. You led me on a complex, wild goose-chase some months ago, when I needed a solution to a major project. Thankfully, finally one of the other members gave me the solution, and it was so simple.

It is the same here, and again, I’m sorry to say this, because I really do appreciate that you are a dedicated contributor to this forum. As before, and now in this issue, you only offer criticism but no help.

I’m not writing a book, I’m taking very detailed notes of very complex medical issues. I only needed a way to automatically add heading numbers beyond the tenth heading. After pondering on the situation I came to a very simple solution of connecting my Headings 11 paragraph to an outline numbering system and my problem is solved. This may not be the best, or the only way to solve my issue, but it is working beautifully, for as many deeper levels that ten, that I might need.

I have only very reluctantly posted this criticism for your response ajlittoz, and I do sincerely apologize that I felt the necessity to do this. But I am doing some really important work with a new app, and it really can change people’s lives for their better health. I need solutions, that are as simple as possible. Writer is an amazing program and has so much functionality that it is something that I can never hope to learn everything about it. But I do not need to be criticized for my document, or directed to write a document in HTML of all things. Writer has the solutions almost always.

So please take note of this offer of sincere criticism. I have only the greatest respect and appreciation for all who participate in this forum and I do not mean to put a negative cast on anyone.

Thanks and God Bless us all.

[ajlittoz]

I didn’t mean to criticise your work. I emphasised word book to illustrate the fact that you’re not writing a book (generic term for the type of documents which Writer is intended for). It is something different and I still feel Writer is not the best tool for it.

However, if you found a way to pass over to 10-limit, I am very curious to experiment with your solution. As far as I know, the outline level is exhaustively set from a fixed drop-down menu with choice between Text Body (not in outline) and 1-10. What you do is to attach a list style to some paragraph style, thus getting a numbered list item with at most 10 levels. But this will not comply with your requirement of displaying more than 10 levels (i.e. the “chapter” number with its 10 levels followed by the item number with its 10 levels) because there is no way to insert a field before the list number.

Oh, you can but it is really not user-friendly because you must use cross-references into some frame positioned at left of the list item number. And you go for real complications with anchor, wrap, … And anyway, any cross-reference to the list item will be limited to its own number without the “outer context”.

So, please, give more details about your solution.

[MosheAriel]

Hi ajlittoz, yes, please understand that I only wanted a Heading 11, for example, to show up as H-11. So I created Paragraph Styles and called them Heading 11, Heading 12, etc. and then connected them, under the Outline and Lists tab to a number style that I created to add the heading names. Of course these are not actual headings, but that was not my need, I just wanted to set up speed keys to the macros to print out the Heading 11, or 12, or 13 with the heading scripts. And that works. No big deal.