Repairing Styles and Numbering in a 220-Page Compliance Handbook
Northbridge Assurance maintains a 220-page compliance handbook that five authors edit in turn. Every heading was formatted by hand - bold, 14 pt, spacing before - because the original author disliked Word's blue Heading styles. When the team tries to insert an automatic table of contents, Word reports 'No table of contents entries found.' Clause numbers are typed manually as well, and after a recent insertion the numbering in Section 4 repeats 4.3 twice. Style Inspector shows 'Direct Formatting' over 340 paragraphs that are visually headings. Two sections need landscape orientation and different margins, and the cover page must have no header while the rest of the document carries a confidentiality footer. A reviewer also reports that the TOC page numbers are wrong by one or two pages after edits, though the field was updated last week. The team wants a maintainable structure before the next audit cycle in six weeks.
1. How do you make the 340 visually formatted headings feed an automatic TOC without changing how the handbook looks, and why is clearing direct formatting alone insufficient?
Read the worked answer
A heading contributes to a TOC because its paragraph style, or its outline level, is Heading 1–9, not because it looks bold or large. Use this sequence:
- Redefine Heading 1 and Heading 2 to match the approved look - font, size, color, spacing before/after, keep-with-next, and the correct outline level (Paragraph > Outline level: Level 1 or 2). Modify the style, not sample text.
- Apply the styles to the 340 paragraphs. Home > Editing > Select > Select Text with Similar Formatting can grab a whole set, then one click applies the style.
- Clear direct formatting that would override the style: Ctrl+Space for character formatting and Ctrl+Q for paragraph formatting. Applying a style does not remove direct formatting already on the text, so the heading may still look wrong until this step.
- Insert References > Table of Contents > Automatic Table, then Update Table > Update entire table.
Clearing alone fails because the paragraphs remain Body Text with no heading outline level, so the TOC field has nothing to collect. Appearance and structure are separate properties, and the TOC reads structure.
2. Diagnose the repeated 4.3 and explain how to rebuild clause numbering so it survives insertions and deletions.
Read the worked answer
Typed numbers cannot renumber, so first determine which kind of number is present. Click the number: if it is gray and List Tools appear, it is an automatic list; if not, it is text. Then check Set Numbering Value and whether the list was set to Continue previous list after the insertion. A duplicate often means either a typed 4.3 or a list that restarted when it should have continued.
The durable fix is a multilevel list linked to heading styles:
- Define New Multilevel List. For level 1, link to Heading 1 and use '1'; for level 2, link to Heading 2 and include the level-1 number ('1.1').
- Use legal-style numbering if the handbook requires 4.3.2.
- At the start of Section 4, use Restart at 1 or Set Numbering Value only if that section must restart; otherwise let the list continue.
- Remove all typed numbers and never type a number inside a heading.
Then test by inserting a new clause in Section 4 and confirm that later clauses renumber and any cross-references update.
3. The cover must have no header, the landscape sections need different margins, and the TOC numbers are drifting after edits. What is the correct section/header design, and what actually causes the page-number drift?
Read the worked answer
Use section breaks, not page breaks, wherever page setup changes:
- Put the cover in its own section and the body in the next. On the cover, either enable Different First Page if it is the first page of its section, or unlink the cover header and delete its content.
- Insert Next Page section breaks before and after the landscape pages. Set orientation and margins for that section only; do not choose Whole document in Page Setup.
- In each new section, turn off Link to Previous in the header and footer before editing. Otherwise the change propagates backward and the cover loses its blank header. Build the confidentiality footer in the body section and leave the cover footer empty.
TOC page numbers are cached field results. They drift when pagination changes after the last update - edits, font substitution, or a section restarting page numbering. Update the entire TOC at final proof, and check Page Number > Format Page Numbers for restarts. If Update fields before printing is enabled, confirm users allow the update; otherwise the printed copy can still carry stale numbers.