Jsttoomuch

Let me start by saying I'm a high school Business Education teacher and this problem is happening on at least three of the computers in my lab of 26. We using Word 2003, SP3 with Windows XP, SP3.

The textbook tells my students to turn on outline numbering and begin keying the outline shown in the book. It has worked fine for the 5 years I've been teaching this book and it still works fine on most of the computers but I have three that are all doing the same thing.

When the students turn on outline numbering, it gives the number 1 and they key the first text. When they press enter, it should give a 2 but it doesn't. They have to go in and turn outline numbering back on and choose the "continue previous list" option. I've tried everything I know of to fix it. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

wagnerlip

Those 5 computers may have something changed at Normal.Dot file. The Normal.Dot is loaded upon launching Word. It rules several things for margins, tabs, formats, styles, etc. Your problem on those 5 computers seem to be related to some of those items. Try to reinitialize this file for "factory default" and see what happens. Here some text from Word2003 help contents:

The Normal template (Normal template: A global template that you can use for any type of document. You can modify this template to change the default document formatting or content.) opens whenever you start Word, and it includes default styles, AutoText, macros, toolbars, and other customizations that determine the basic look of your document.

On the File menu, click Open, and then navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\user name\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates.
If no templates are listed in the Open dialog box, click the arrow next to the Files of type box, and then click Document Templates.

Double-click the Normal.dot file to open it. To be certain that you're working in the default template, check to see that Normal.dot appears in the Word title bar.
Make any changes you want, using the menus and dialog boxes just as you would to change default settings for a document, but remember that any changes you make to Normal.dot will be applied to documents that you create in the future.
When you have finished, on the Standard toolbar (toolbar: A bar with buttons and options that you use to carry out commands. To display a toolbar, click Customize on the Tools menu, and then click the Toolbars tab.), click Save .
Note If Normal.dot is renamed, damaged, or moved, Word automatically creates a new version (which uses the original default settings) the next time that you start Word. The new version will not include any customizations you made to the version that you renamed or moved.