Removing a Multilevel List

Beth has a document that she inherited from someone else in her office. It has a multilevel list within it, and she wants to remove the list. However, Beth cannot seem to find a way to do this, so she is looking for the easiest way to remove the list.

Ultimately, the answer depends on what is meant by "remove." If you want to delete the list entirely, then simply select the list and press the Delete key or Backspace key. If that does not remove the list (delete it), then you'll need to check if the file is read-only or if some other restriction is in place.

However, if by "remove" you mean you want to remove the list formatting that has been applied to the list, so that it is regular text, there are a couple of things you can do. The common first step, however, is to select the entire list or the portion of the list you want to affect.

Once selected, take a look at the Home tab of the ribbon. In the Paragraph group you should see that the Numbering icon is highlighted. (Yes, the Numbering icon is highlighted, not the Multilevel List icon. Go figure.) At this point there are two paths you can choose. You can either click the down-arrow next to the Numbering icon, or you can click the down-arrow next to the Multilevel List icon. Either way, the next step is the same—choose the None option. Word removes the numbering.

The frustrating thing is that even though the numbering has been removed, the indentation used by the multi-level list is still evident. To get rid of that, the best way—assuming the unnumbered list is still selected—is to press Ctrl+Q. This clears any paragraph-level formatting from the list, which includes any indents.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (8697) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Word in Microsoft 365.