How To Improve Stability of Simple List Styles?   

Hi,
Before developing my Word templates, I read all the material I could on Word 
numbering, especially that of the tremendously helpful mvps.org web site. 

I'm happy with the results, but I am concerned with the longer-term 
stability of my numbering styles, and would appreciate any suggestions from 
an expert. The following is my current design, and if there is anything else 
I can do to ensure stability of my numbered styles, I'd love to know. 

1) I only use simple numbered lists. I do not use any outline numbering or 
list styles. (I accomplish heading numbering entirely through SEQ fields, 
which is very reliable.)

2) For procedural information, I have defined two styles with numbering: "L1 
num" and "L2 num alpha" using gallery positions 1 & 2. The first is a numeric 
list that I use as level 1 and the second is an alphabetic list that I use as 
level 2.  

3) For metadata (hidden, internal-use styles), I have defined three sets of 
styles with label numbering (that is, text labels instead of numbers): 
"BaseHist," "BasePubs," and "BaseWork" using gallery position 7 for all 
three. The formatting for these styles is identical, except for the text 
label ("History," "TechPubs," and "Work"). I have defined three or more 
derived styles from each of these base styles, and they are identical to the 
base style except for the style name. For example,  "HistEdit," 
"HistProdInfo," and "HistProbRpt." So when I create metadata in the document, 
I apply one of the derived styles, which have the base style numbering label 
to easily identify the category (e.g., "History") and a style name that 
identifies the type of information (e.g., "HistEdit" for editorial changes). 

Generally, this seems pretty stable, but occasionally if I use the Organizer 
to copy the styles into a template, the link to the list template gets broken 
and the text labels and numbering disappears. Originally, I used three 
different gallery positions for the base metadata styles, but I had problems 
with that, so I changed them to use the same position (position 7). 

The template is in Word 2002.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

John

date: Mon, 29 Sep 2008 13:28:08 -0700   author:   JohnInNJ