Tiered numbering - Is this a bug?

In your editing you are probably typing over code when you delete. Try editing the paragraph carefully, putting the cursor exactly on the first letter of the first word of the paragraph.

Another thing you can try is using text boxes to keep the section headings/chapter headings pure from any editing of the paragraphs. If you choose 'moves with text' these text block will move as your paragraph moves. To create the next section header click on the light blue box in the text box. This creates a new text box that continues from the previous one and should continue the list style.

Or you can do it the opposite way, with the text of the paragraph in a text box and the Section header in the main text layer.

Kurt

Hello Daniel

it's difficult to be sure if you have discovered a bug or not.

It isn't the easiest thing in the world to achieve tiered heading numbers in Pages. It's such a common requirement to write documents with tiered heading numbers that I'm surprised there isn't a built in template that we can start from. I'm not sure it is the easiest or best way but I decided to start from scratch and define a combination of my own Paragraph and List Styles. Here's what I did from memory, maybe it will help you overcome your issues.

1. Define Body Text Paragraph Styles For Each Level

To start with I created body text paragraph styles for all the tiered levels of my sections. In my case I called them Body Text Level n where n was the tier number. I wanted different indentations for the paragraphs at each level with my document. If you don't want this then you can skip this step and just use a built in style like Body Text.

2. Define Heading Styles For Each Level

I defined a paragraph styles for the appearance of the text in my headings at each level. In my case, I simply wanted them bold and decreasing in size the deeper the level. I just called them Heading Level n where n was the level. I also adjusted the After paragraph spacing so there was a nice gap between my heading and the following body text.

3. Define Your Own Outline List Style Based on The Built In Legal Style

I followed the instructions on Page 120 of the pdf User Guide accesible from the Help Pages and defined my own Outline list style based upon the Legal list style built into a blank template. I selected continue from previous in the List section and at each level I put the number indent back to zero and made adjusted the text indent to reflect the fonts I was going to use.

I also made sure that in the More part of the Text Inspector, I set following paragraph style to be Body Text. You can only seem to set this once for the entire list style and not for each level. I set it to Body Text 1. The reason I did this is that I didn't want another heading to start after I'd just typed one out.

Then I defined this as a new list style. The reason I created my own list style was so that the heading numbers wouldn't get mixed up with other numbered lists in the body of my document.

4. How To Use Your Styles

I don't understand why but you seem to be able to use paragraph and list styles in combination. I would type my heading and click the style for the appropriate heading level. After that I would click the list style that I created and adjust the indent level in the list part of the inspector. The numbers keep in sequence due to the fact that my list style is only being used on paragraphs that are headings. Also the numbers in the list match the font used for the heading.

I then type in the body text following the heading and click the appropriate paragraph style for the level.

As you edit the document, the heading numbers sometimes get confused. Normally all you need to do is click on continue from previous and it all gets put right again.

I'd be interested to know if this is of any help to you.

Messing with paragraph styles messes up the formatting of the indents as well as the numbering.

Have you tried using character styles instead? Character styles are only applied to the selected text and are great for keeping your paragraph (and numbering and indents) intact.

Kurt

Daniel

Have you defined your own list style based upon the Legal list style and used this to number your headings? That's the only difference I can see between what you describe and what I did.

You never need to use start at except at the first chapter heading with the technique I suggested. All you have to do is adjust the indent level and ensure continue from previous doesn't become unselected.

Why does it get confused?

I don't think that it is really maintaining a logical association between all the paragraph headings. It seems to me that when you apply a list style to a paragraph it just renumbers everything based on the indent level until it reaches one with start at or the end of the doc.

From your description, I think what might be happening is that you are breaking the continue from previous chain. If you say start at 1 you can indent to level 9 and it will still be numbered 1.

Why doesn't the "indent level" get stored as part of the paragraph style?

I have no idea but paragraph and list styles are separate things. The indent level seems associated with the list style. As I said in my earlier post, you apply the paragraph style then apply the list style afterwards.

I recommend that you try to solve this problem in a small one-page document instead of your large one. You can then visualise the effect of all your changes on one page. When you experiment on the large document style changes seem catastrophic and it gets very frustrating as you know. This has solved 99% of my style problems in the past.

I wish Pages had a proper outlining feature that allowed you to define a proper document structure but it doesn't.

The reason your tiered indents don't seem to be saved is that with your method, instead of continuing a single tiered list, you're inadvertently starting a new tiered list every time you manually edit a subsequent paragraph (and consequently, your previous tiered settings are continuously being changed). Your first list starts at the first level, then instead of continuing the list with a second level, you're apparently starting a new tiered list, but starting it at the second level.

If you have an indent scheme in mind, set up your tiered indents for the various levels before you start typing your list. Then start your list and choose the indent level for the paragraph you're currently in. At the end of that paragraph, just hit <return> for the next paragraph, choose the desired tier level, and commence typing. Don't reset the insert cursor position manually.

Daniel

I don't dispute that you are experiencing a problem and it may well be a bug in Pages. Even if it is, there is little chance of you getting it fixed in time to make your document work. Styles sometimes get confused. I've found that it is sometimes quicker to start over rather than wrestle with it.

Reset the style on ALL your headings back to body text. This will as you have discovered remove the list formatting.

Now define your own List style based upon legal and follow the sequence I suggested preferably on a one page document first to get to see how it works. Then go through and fix the formatting of your headings by applying the appropriate heading style followed by the list style, adjusting the indent level and ensure continue from previous is selected.

This is the method specified in the manual. It works.

Good luck.