I have a document with chapter headings that are numbered 1., 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2., 1.4, 1.5, 3., 1.6… eventually, the main level goes back to 2. and the numbering becomes consecutive, 2.1, 2.2, etc.
I’ve been reading for the last half hour and nothing seems to address what is wrong or how to fix this. When I open Chapter Numbering on the first chapter header, 1., it is level 1. On the next chapter, 1.1, it is level 2 as are all subsequent chapters.
Any ideas?
How you use/set the Tools - Chapter numbering feature?
Please upload a small sample file here.
Sorry, I’m not sure what you are asking. I don’t have a small sample file to upload.
Why? Delete the content from a COPY of your original file. Leave only empty lines in the text body. We need only the capter titles (not the text of the titles, but the structure of the titles. You can modify the text of the titles…
We can guess only - without a sample file -, what you did about the chapter numbering in your file.
The Chapter numbering works fine for me in all of installed LO versions.
This generally happens when you mess up chapter numbering with list numbering (by using a toolbar button). Chapter numbering should only be enabled with Tools>Chapter Numbering. Any additional fiddling with a toolbar button will create conflict between two independent features.
For complete analysis, attach a sample file.
I think it is rather obvious that I did something wrong. I expected I was not the only person to have done something wrong and that it would be an obvious error. I guess not.
One thing that occurred to me is that I last updated this document years ago and there may be compatibility issues from older revisions of Writer.
Anyway, here is a copy of the problem.
CTP_ChapterNumberingError.odt (20.8 KB)
Your document is over-plagued with direct formatting (formatting directives added manually over paragraph or character styles). You don’t seem to use character styles either.
If you look carefully, you’ll notice that your problematic Heading 1 headings are numbered “n.” with a final dot while your Tools>Chapter Numbering requests “n” without dot. This is a clear indication that you have applied some excess list numbering manually. As direct formatting takes precedence over style formatting, you now have a heading numbered under Format>Bullet & Numbering sequence counter while Heading 2 are still under chapter sequence number. These are two independent sequences. List numbering doesn’t communicate with chapter numbering. What you get is as expected according to the Writer specification.
How to fix?
Numbering direct formatting can’t be cleared with Ctl+M. You must follow a specific procedure on every faulty heading:
PS: has your document ever been in contact with M$ Word? You have “strange” character styles in the style dictionary, the kind of which created while converting from .doc.
That did the trick. Thank you.