Word: section renumbering gets undone when/after I save and close document

Question

I have a document I am editing in Word (version Microsoft® Word for Microsoft 365 MSO (Version 2212 Build 16.0.15928.20196) 64-bit). It has sections with the first section having number 1. It has to start from 0 instead. I click on "set numbering value", change 1 to 0, and all sections get automatically renumbered. I save the document and close Word. When I open it again, it again shows 1 as the start as if nothing happened. This document, or previous versions of it I guess, have been edited (i) as a shared OneDrive document in desktop Word, (ii) as a shared document in Edge and (iii) as a local document in desktop Word. I played with changing numbering styles but that didn't help. Anything else I can try to get the renumbering to stick?

Answer 1

I tried to replicate your issue, but my saved doc reopened with '0' as my first number value. Not surprising - multilevel lists and multiple parties involved make for a very complicated formatting structure. In these circumstances, the hidden formatting can get very sticky and I have not always been successful undoing it.

No guarantees, but here a few things you can try, from easy to drastic:

• Make a custom Multilevel list that starts with zero and apply that to the entire doc (Multilevel List drop down and choose Define New Multilevel List).
• If that doesn't work,strip all the formatting (select all and use the Clear All Formatting button), then apply the formatting you want. Despite the title of this function, it does not completely strip the document, but it may undo what's holding you up. This will likely require a fair amount of effort to clean up if your doc is long and the new formatting doesn't apply uniformly
• Lastly and requiring the most amount of effort, strip all the unformatted text and paste it into a new word doc. On a couple of occasions, even that has brought sticky formatting along with it and I have had to paste my text into excel to lose the embedded formatting and then copy it out of excel and into a clean word doc. Then you can begin to rebuild the formatting you want it.