How to remove an extra indent on numbered list

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I am working on a recipe for work and after 10, my numbered list gets a weird indent. I already made sure the position for 1, 10, and 1-10 were all the same. Even after reapplying the formatting this indent is still here. This isn’t here when I use the preset styles but I am adding “. )” after each number.

Any help is greatly appreciated!
croissants.odt (73.8 KB)

Please upload a real, ODF type sample file here.

I have updated the post, if you don’t see it, refresh your page. Thanks

Summarising @ajlittoz’s helpful answers:

List styles take ownership of the indents over paragraph styles … I strongly recommend you avoid mixing indent setting in paragraph styles and list styles. When doing so, you generally end up with an unmanageable mess.

Learn to use list styles . They are quite difficult to understand in the beginning but they provide you with a tremendous formatting/layout power. There is no equivalent in Word.

What defines the “logical” list is the list style , not the paragraph style.

Any style customisation goes through the side stylepane. The top toolbar in this pane has 5 buttons to select style category: paragraph, character, frame, page and list. Rule out the last icon (table “style”) because they aren’t really styles but kind of macros and they can’t be customised (in fact, they even ruin your added formatting).

Right-click on a style name and Edit or New from the context menu.

@eteb3 adds: I solved this by copying my 3-page document into a new file as unformatted text, then starting again with list styles from the beginning.

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The list properties for left indent suppress the paragraph’s properties for left indent. Apply a larger indent for them.
Note: You have manually formatted the list. Better: Use styles.
Screenshot (German/AE GUI): Set values from 1,27 cm to 1,50 cm (or similar). - Cheers
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See changes…
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I have this problem too. I’ve set a Numbering style, and tried changing the first line indent, but I see no changes. I’ve tested editing the font, and I do see changes.

It seems I can change the indent by dragging the top triangle on the ruler, but not by typing new numbers in the Edit Style > Indents & Spacing > First line box.

What am I doing wrong?

This is direct formatting. It takes precedence over styles. This is what “you’re doing wrong”.

To fix, start by eliminating your direct formatting. Then apply a style. Frequently, direct formatting on non-font properties (face, size, weight, colour, …) is quite hard to clear. One trick is to apply another style (in the category you target: paragraph, character , frame or list) then reapply your desired style.

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Thanks. I have tried to edit the style, but nothing happens:

  • I clear any direct formatting by cutting and pasting as unformatted text, and by applying a different style
  • I reformat as my desired style by double-click in the styles panel.
  • When I hover over the ruler, the top triangle shows “-0.64”.
  • I go to the styles panel and right-click to edit.
  • I see “First line” indent set at -1.00cm !
  • I change the first-line indent in the styles panel to -2.00, or +2.00, and click ok
  • Nothing changes in the document.

List styles tale ownership of the indents over paragraph styles. Though a prominent developer told me that a fix has been created to care for the interaction between list and paragraph styles regarding the indents (however, I think it is valid only for headings because there is a separate paragraph style per level), I strongly recommend to avoid mixing indent setting in paragraph and list styles. When doing so, you generally end up with an unmanageable mess.

If you can’t fix it yourself, attach your document or a representative sample.

Thanks, I’ll have a go.

I have three buttons towards the top right of the screen. If I hover, the tool tip names them as Toggle Unordered List, Toggle Ordered Llst, and Select Outline Format.

Would I be right that Outline Format is a paragraph style and so if I want to customise my list, I should use the dropdown on the Toggle Ordered List button?

(I see no way of customising list styles in Styles > Numbering 123 List Style )

As an FYI the result sought is the numbering style used in UK legislation, as here, across nearly the whole document.

((PS how do you get an empty line between paragraphs in comments?))

The easy answer first:

What you write ends up as HTML. There is syntax shortcut known as MarkDown (where an asterisk start italic mode, double-asterisk bold mode and others). But it is nevertheless HTML. Consequently I add <br> whenever I want spacing between paragraphs. Remember that HTML merges consecutive whitespaces (space, tabs, newline, …) into a single occurrence. Therefore entering several newlines has no effect beyond the first one.

These will lead to direct formatting and a very bad one. Because M$ Word has a completely faulty abstract model for lists, LO developers designed a “compatibility feature” trying to cope with M$ approach in order not to impose too hard an effort for switchers (in particular, not forcing them to read the manual, which IMHO is an error, leading to the belief that both suites are equivalent).

Using the buttons, you create a list belonging in the “universal” Format>Bullets & Numbering. But, since there is no way to tell Writer where a logical list starts and where another one begins, many tweaks have been applied to the otherwise neat list concept to mimic as best as possible Word behaviour. This ends up in an even less practical feature (at least when you try to design a consistent document exhibiting a neat structure).

Learn to use list styles. They are quite difficult to understand in the beginning but they provide you with a tremendous formatting/layout power. There is no equivalent in Word.

What defines the “logical” list is the list style, not the paragraph style. Consequently, if you have semantically different logical lists (warning: I don’t write several occurrences of some logical list), then create and apply different list styles. This even allows you to interlace two lists, each one following automatically its own numbering without interfering with the other – this is impossible in Word).

Because this is a menu to apply a list style.

Any style customisation goes through the side stylepane. The top toolbar in this pane has 5 buttons to select style category: paragraph, character, frame, page and list. Rule out the last icon (table “style”) because they aren’t really styles but kind of macros and they can’t be customised (in fact, they even ruin your added formatting).

Righ-click on a style name and Edit or New from the context menu.

Nothing fancy here. It is easy to do it with a custom style where you add Separators around the number in the style configuration (for every level).

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Thank you for all the detail. I’ve moved my text to a new doc, and made a new list style “Legislation”. Problem solved.


If I want to change the line spacing I assume this is a Paragraph Style? And from what you’ve said I can edit that independently of the list numbering, which comes first?