Participating Frequently

Answered

Numbering in list doesn't work – it stays at 1. for all paragraphs

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
September 30, 2020
4 replies
11555 views

Hi all, don't know if this is a known issue or not:

I'm am setting up numbered lists and want to save them as a paragraph style. The weird thin: As soon as I save the style, all numbers in the list switch to 1. Even if I just use the default settings from InDesign and then just try to save these as a style. What am I missing here?

Correct answer hammer0909

That's because by default when you create a numbered list and save it as a style, the style records the bullets and numbering properties always starting at 1. You need to edit the style and go to the Bullets and Numbering section and change the mode to "Continue from Previous".

T

Thomas36026368kyft

Participant

I figured it out (well my collegue actually did). It is pretty simple. Just don't select the whole the text but just have your blinker at the start of the list and then create the list.

I selected the whole list at firts and InDesign seems to think that every line is a new start of a list.

hammer0909

Correct answer

Community Expert

That's because by default when you create a numbered list and save it as a style, the style records the bullets and numbering properties always starting at 1. You need to edit the style and go to the Bullets and Numbering section and change the mode to "Continue from Previous".

S

Scrambledeggs

Participating Frequently

When I have the style set to "Continue from Previous" it starts the new list on the number after the previous list, which I don't want. Each new list should start at 1. But when I select "Start at 1", every item in the list is numbered "1", unless I place the cursor in the first item on the list, go to paragraph > bullet and numbering > restart at one. But it doesn't work as a style.

James Gifford—NitroPress

Legend

This was awesome! I have two lists on the same page and I was either getting the second list starting at 6 or all the bullets in the second list showing 1. Right-click and "restart numbering" did the trick. Thanks!

That works and is the basic way to restart numbering as needed, but it's kind of a sloppy override, like spot text formatting, and should be avoided in all but the simplest one-shot documents. It can't be "managed" in any way except by direct modification of that paragraph's style and overrides.

Consider two things that are sort of skimmed over in this thread:

Create a named list for each style and type/instance of list, rather than assigning all lists to one name or (worse/never!) just the [default] list numbering style. Naming each list type allows separate configuration and more control as the list is used across multiple instances in a document.
Use the NUMBERED and NUMBERED-1 style pair for each list type, with a child style that resets the numbering to 1 in a clean and controlled fashion rather than a local override. This gives maximum control of list formatting at the very minor expense of managing that child style.

Barb Binder

Community Expert

Would you mind sharing a screen shot of the numbering properties of the style in Paragraph Style Options > Bullets and Numbering after saving the style? Use the Insert Photos button on the toolbar in your reply (mountain range icon).

~Barb

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training

m4tzeAuthor

Participating Frequently

So this is what happens:

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Typing list and selecting Numbered list (or whatever it's called in the english version)

1. First paragraph

2. Second paragraph

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Then I select this, click on the paragraph style panel, and save it. Immediately the numbering changes:

1. First paragrah

1. Second paragraph

Working on the latest version under MacOS Catalina.

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