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Subject:RE: Bullets n' numbering - can they coexist? From:"Rich, Charles" <crich -at- FSC -dot- Follett -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 15 Mar 2001 14:14:08 -0600
Ken Wasden [kwasden -at- QSTRATEGIES -dot- COM]writes
What I want to do is be able to put bullets on the left side of
the numbered/custom outline numbers. Is this possible? My boss
likes the lookof it... from an online example of a functional
spec found at http://www.hut.fi/~manu/oht/documents/tm.html
-------------------------
Ken, good news. You can do what your boss wants you to do fairly easily. I
caught this message in the middle of the thread, and do not know what
software you are using. Below are two ways of combining numbers and bullets,
with HTML and in MS Word. The process can be a bit more complicated if you
are dealing with something like Interleaf, but the basic idea is the same.
The HTML Method
---------------
Luckily HTML was designed to allow for indented bullet lists. To get the
effect the authors of the sample you quoted above you simply have to nest
lists within other lists. In other words, your outer list consists of the
numbered list, with a bulleted list nested under one of its points, which in
turn can have another list (bulleted or numbered, your choice) nested within
one of its bullets, and so on. Each time a list is nested within another
most browsers will indent it one step (though how many pixels there are in a
step varies from browser to browser).
I'll step you through an example. Let's say we want a numbered list with
bulleted subpoints under several of the items, and one of those has further
steps. For this we need two different list styles, an ordered list which can
be enumerated or alphabetic, and an un-ordered list with or without bullets.
The HTML tags for these are <OL> for ordered list and <UL> for un-ordered
list, and both have within them <LI>s or list items. We start our outer, or
first level list, like so (forgive me if the listserver blocks out the
HTML):
<OL>
<LI>This is point one. You can change from numeric to alphabetic by adding
type="a, A, i, or I"
<UL>
<LI>a=lowercase alphabetic
<LI>A=uppercase Alphabetic
<LI>i=lower case Roman numerals
<LI>I=upper case Roman numerals
<UL type="circle">
<LI>Un-ordered lists also have options. Type can be disc
(the default), circle, or square.
</UL>
</UL>
</UL>
Theoretically, this "nesting" of lists can go on forever, though I wouldn't
recommend going more than three layers deep, if for no other reason than it
looks weird.
Wrangling Lists in MS Word
--------------------------
MS Word can be a bit more difficult when dealing with forms, mostly because
it doesn't auto indent nested lists, doesn't automatically re-number nested
lists, and actually doesn't even seem to realize that this is what you want
to do (go figure).
If the following steps are carried out in the right order, though, it will
work.
1. Set the outer, or far left bit of information to be a numbered list by
clicking the little number icon on the lower right side of the menu or
select Format|Bullets and numbering from the main menu.
2. For your first indented level, hit enter, which will give you the next
numeric point, and then either right click the new point and select Bullets
and Numbering, or select Format|Bullets and Numbering from the main menu.
Choose the bullet you want from the Bullets tab of this menu and choose OK.
3. Back in your document, place your cursor on the line next to the new
bullet and click the Increase Indent button.
One slight variation on this is if you want numbered points on your second
level as well. In this case you will need to right click the second level
point and select Bullets and Numbering, where you will need to click the
restart numbering radio button to set you second level point to 1. Once you
have returned to the first level you will have the unpleasant task of
telling Word where it left off.
1. Right click on the erroneous next first level point (it will be wrong,
trust me) and select Bullets and Numbering.
2. Select the Restart Numbering radio button.
3. Click the Customize button and change the Start At value to the number
you want this point to be.
4. Click OK and you're set.
I hope this helps you, Ken. If not, e-mail me and we'll see what we can
figure out.
Charles Rich
Technical Writer
Product Development
Follett Software Company
IPCC 01, the IEEE International Professional Communication Conference,
October 24-27, 2001 at historic La Fonda in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA.
CALL FOR PAPERS OPEN UNTIL MARCH 15. http://ieeepcs.org/2001/
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