Numbered Paragraphs in Word (Microsoft Office)

Some formal documents require line or paragraph numbering. This is where the relevant items are numbered sequentially through your document, with the numbers appearing in the left-hand margin.

Whilst line numbering in Word is easy to configure (Layout > Line Numbers), there is no equivalent facility for paragraphs. Instead you need to use Numbered Lists, with a twist. The method below works well for typical documents, copes nicely with headings, tables and images, and has a simple way to include real numbered lists. It doesn’t mess up other document layout features such as headers, footers and text boxes.

1. Open your document
2. On the Home > Styles ribbon click the pop-out arrow
3. Create a new style called “Normal Num” with the following settings:
   1. Based On: Normal
   2. Following paragraph: Normal Num
   3. Format > Numbering: 1., 2., 3. (or whatever you want)
   4. Format > Paragraph: Left Indent = -0.63cm (note the minus sign)
   5. Format > Paragraph: Hanging Indent = 0.63cm
4. Now modify the Heading 1 (and Heading 2, Heading 3 or any other paragraph styles you want to number in the same scheme) to be based on “Normal Num”
5. Write your document, selecting the “Normal Num” style anywhere you would typically pick “Normal”.

If you want to put a numbered list within your document then you will need the following incantation:

1. Press Enter to create a new (numbered) paragraph
2. Press Backspace to delete the paragraph number
3. Now select a Numbered List format that is different from your paragraph numbering, such as the A., B., C. format
4. Finally select the Numbered List format that you actually wanted, such as the 1., 2., 3. format.

Enjoy!