MS Word, the world's most popular text and layout editor, comes with a number of built-in numbered and bulleted list templates for technical writers. But you can also go ahead and custom-design your own lists for special document templates.
Let's imagine you're writing a "Poker User Manual" and you need a list that would have 4 levels of indentation following the main numbered entry, each starting off not with a number or a letter but with a bullet in the shape of one of the four suits - Spades, Hearts, Diamonds and Clubs.
This is how you can do it:
Open an MS Word document that you'll save and use as a template.
1. Select Format > Bullets and Numbering... from the main menu to display the Bullets and Numbering dialog box.
2. Click and select the "Outline Numbered" tab.
3. Click and select an appropriate numbered list. For example, select the third one in the first row; the one that has 1, 1.1, 1.1.1, etc. for list items.
4. Click Customize to display the Customize Outline Numbered List dialog box.
5. In the Level list, click 2 to customize the second-level list item.
6. From Number Style drop-down box, select New Bullet... to display the Symbol dialog box. Click and select Spades icon and click OK.
7. In the Level list, click 3 to customize the second-level list item.
8. From Number Style drop-down box, select New Bullet... to display the Symbol dialog box. Click and select Hearts icon and click OK.
9. Repeat the procedure to assign Diamonds and Clubs to levels 3 and 4 in a similar manner. Click OK to return to the Bullets and Numbering dialog box. Click OK once again to save your customized list.
Now every time you start a numbered list by using that list template and hit the tab (to indent to a new level) you will automatically have a playing card suit icon appearing as the bullet.
Experiment with other possibilities to make your numbered or bulleted lists fit the particular needs of your document template.
Dr. Ugur Akinci is a Fortune 500 Sr. Technical Communicator
http://www.technicalcommunicationcenter.com
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