Like any word processor, OpenOffice.org's Writer automatically adds numbers and bullets to paragraphs for you. Unlike typical word processors, however, Writer does not make lists a part of paragraph styles. Instead, lists have styles of their own. These styles are called numbering styles. It's a rather misleading term, though, because it refers to both numbered and bulleted lists, but never mind.

By splitting lists and paragraphs, Writer gains several advantages. First, the split removes many users' confusion regarding whether they are configuring lists or paragraphs. Second, it is more economical, because one list style can be applied to multiple paragraph styles instead of defining the same format separately for each paragraph. Third, and most important of all, separating list styles from paragraph styles gives list options more room for custom settings without burying them deep in the menus.

In addition, Writer's numbering styles are more dependable. Unlike other word processors, Writer places bullets and numbers in fields, which is why they display in a gray backgrounds in your document (select File -> Page Preview to see how they'll look when you print). One of the uses of fields is for variable information. So, by using fields for lists, Writer makes its lists more or less immune to corruption. For example, if you want to:

you usually can do so without problems. In fact, Writer encourages you to do so by offering a custom tool bar for lists.

Accessible in several ways, Writer's numbering styles are both highly convenient and highly customizable. Not only do they give you the tools to create several types of lists, but you also can use the same tools for a time-saving trick or two.

You can use automatic lists in several ways:

For your own convenience, automatic application is recommended.

Numbering styles support three different types of lists:

In addition, you can use numbering lists for a couple of tricks that do not directly involve lists.

Bulleted and numbered lists each have five numbering styles pre-defined. For bullets, they're called List, while for ordered lists they're called Numbering. These styles are useful as examples and have corresponding paragraph styles pre-defined to which they can be assigned. However, descriptive names, such as lower case letters in blue, are much more convenient.

Each of the three types of lists has at least one tab in the numbering styles window from which you can choose a pre-defined design. In addition, bullets have the Graphics tab. If you want to customize styles, however, your main concerns are the Position and the Options tabs. The Position tab includes similar settings for all types of lists.

However, if you want to customize your lists, the Options tab is the one that matters. Its available options change with the type of list you're making.

The Position tab contains options for how list items are positioned on a line of text. The tab's options especially are important for single-style outline numbering. However, all list types can use the options on the Position tab:

If you want to create a numbered list quickly, you can select the style from the Numbering style tab. The pre-defined choices for numbered lists often are all that you need. For anything out of the ordinary, go directly to the Options tab and use these settings:

You can select a pre-defined bullet from the Bullet tab. If you want something more elaborate, you can select a bullet from the Graphics tab. These bullets are the same ones found in Tools -> Gallery -> Bullets. The bullets on the Graphics tab are most suitable for on-line work, but I suggest you avoid using them. As a friend remarked, the available choices are "so mid-Nineties" that they seem quaint. Fortunately, more interesting tools are available on the Options tab.

If you select Bullets in the Numbering field, you then can select the character style to use and the particular character for the bullet. In an ordinary font, you can select various characters for a bullet. However, if you set the character style to a dingbat set--a font in which characters are replaced by pictures--you can be even more creative. Just remember that if you open the document on another machine, it needs to have the same dingbat font to depict the bullets properly.

Incidentally, if your document might be opened in MS Word, change the character style to one that MS Word can access. The default Bullets character style uses StarSymbol to create bullets and generally is not available to MS Word. Alternatively, you might want to use the Adobe Type Manager in Windows to load StarSymbol.

You also can create a bullet style by selecting Graphics or Linked Graphics in the Numbering field. Selecting Graphics embeds the graphic you select in the document, while Linked Graphics references the separate graphics file. Which one to select depends on circumstances, but basically, you should select Graphics to keep the document self-contained or Linked Graphics to control file size.

In both cases, the choice of graphic for a bullet deserves some thought. In most cases, the graphic is going to display at a relatively small size, so too complex a picture is out. Similarly, if the document is printed in black and white, the contrasts of a colored graphic probably are going to be lost. Usually, you'll want a simple graphic with strong contrasts in colors.

In both cases, too, the options are the same. Once you select the graphic, you can adjust its display width and height, selecting the Keep Ratio box to keep the proportions the same. You also can use Alignment to change how the graphic sits on the baseline. Be prepared for some experimentation before you find the best way to display the graphic as a bullet. Too large a graphic can distort the lines in the list item, while too small a graphic may be invisible and therefore not worth using at all.

To create an outline numbering style, select one of the pre-defined formats on the Outline tab. If you only need three to five outline levels, one of the pre-defined formats may be all you need. However, if you need more, move directly to the Options tab. There, your choices are the same as for a numbering style. The difference is that you can make the choices for each outline level, selecting the one to work on from the list on the left of the window. If you want, you also can set the options in the Positioning tab separately for each outline level.

By default, each outline level starts at the number set in the Start at field. However, if you want numbering to continue from level to level, you can select All levels -> Consecutive numbering instead.

As an alternative to defining each outline level separately, select 1-10 as the level and define the style once. Then, associate it with a new paragraph style, and use the Condition tab of the paragraph style to format each outline level with an existing paragraph style, such as the Headings 1-10. This alternative usually is much faster to do than formatting each outline level separately.

No matter how you apply numbering styles, as soon as you start a list, Writer switches to list mode. List mode is marked by its own tool bar that slides out from the blue arrow on the right of the Object tool bar. This tool can get lost if you are placing a list in a table, which has its own tool bar, but keep clicking on the blue arrow, and you'll get to it.

List mode's tool bar contains the functions you need for managing lists. Many of the buttons on the tool bar are for single-style outline numbering. These tools are similar to those for headings on the Navigator, allowing you to change the level of the current paragraph and reposition it. Frankly, though, they're not as well organized on the tool bar. Moreover, outline numbering usually is easier to manage using the Tab key to descend an outline level and Shift+Tab to ascend a level.

Interspersed with the outline numbering buttons are three basic buttons:

Armed with these buttons, you can wrangle any list that you care to create.

Outline numbering can be used for more than lists. A bullet style with a graphic can be used as any sort of recurring graphic, such as a Warning in technical documentation. The graphic can be placed beside text or in a separate paragraph above it. However, if it's placed in a separate paragraph, leave a space after it. Otherwise, Writer detects the paragraph as blank and, unhelpfully, deletes the graphic. Numbering styles also can be used as an alternative to autotext. Set the Numbering on the Options tab to None, and enter up to fifty characters of text in each of the Before and After fields. As with a recurring graphic, you need to add a space each time you use the paragraph style to which the autotext is assigned.

Occasionally, you may notice a momentary stumble in OpenOffice.org's handling of lists. An especially common one seems to occur when changing from one list style to another. However, these stumbles always correct themselves after two or three presses of the return key. In the worst cases, applying another style then reapplying the numbering style corrects any problem. Far more frequently, the lists are trouble-free.

This robustness is one of Writer's main advantages over MS Word, whose lists inevitably become hopelessly jumbled if you do any of these tasks. In fact, the way to overcome these problems in MS Word is to forget about automatic lists and manually place bullets and numbers in fields. With OpenOffice.org Writer, however, you have the convenience of automatic lists and the stability of fields automatically. If you're a compulsive list-maker, like me, you'll be surprised at the time you save because of this single difference.