In Microsoft Word: Numbering paragraphs without indenting text?

(And yes, I did review the sticky – first page of it, anyway.)

In Microsoft Word, if you create a document with numbered paragraphs, all paragraph text, including that below the numbered line, will be indented to the right of the paragraph number. How do I disable that?

(I’m a lawyer; a complaint or other pleading is always done with numbered paragraphs – and having all the text to the right of the numbers just doesn’t look right.)

If you’re talking about the space between the number and the left margin, select the list, right-click it, and choose “Decrease Indent”.

If you’re talking about the smaller space between the number and the paragraph text, right-click the list and choose “Adjust List Indents”. Then set “Follow number with:” to either “Space” for a tiny space or “Nothing” for no space at all.

In my copy of Word (2003) you can change the default numbering style under Format / Bullets and Numbering / ‘Numbered’ or ‘Outline Numbered’ tab and hit ‘Customize’. Then change the indents under Number Position to get the effect you want.

That should fix it throughout a document. I’ve found the that auto-numbering formatting in word can occasionally flip-out and apply some insane formatting to the whole document so be careful.

Personally I just edit the numbered styles directly under the Styles and Formatting options, you can edit the indent on the style that all the numbered styles inherit from. Depends if you’re comfortable using and tweaking styles or not.

That worked! Thanx! :slight_smile: