HELP! Microsoft Word’s Restart Numbering Doesn’t Work

Actually, it does. Sort of. Some of the time, anyway. But if Restart Numbering has you pulling you hair out (hey, at least you’ve got some to pull), here’s a handy work-around. I won’t say it works 100% of the time, but it has resolved most of my restart numbering problems.First-off, let’s look at the ‘normal’ way of restarting numbering in Word.

1. Position the cursor at the start of the numbered list item.
2. Right-click and select Restart Numbering from the context-menu.
3. When the dialogue box pops up, set the numbering to restart at whatever number you want. Usually, I need to restart the numbering at 1.

Now, when that doesn’t work, you’ll find that the number list does not respond at all to the Restart Numbering option. So here’s what you should do:

1. Restart the numbering in the ‘normal’ way, described above.
2. Undo the restart numbering (press Ctrl + Z or choose Undo from the Edit menu).

Ta-da! The numbering restarts correctly. Well, sometimes it does.