Standard Text before a Sequence Number

Jeannie would like to add some sequential lists to her documents using SEQ fields. She knows how to do this, but she wants the lists to have some standard text in front of the sequence number. For instance, she may want the text “Interrogatory No. ” (with the trailing space) to appear just before the sequence number. She wonders about the easiest way to do this in Word.

There are a few approaches you can use. If you simply want to insert the text before the SEQ field, perhaps the easiest way to do it is by finishing up your document with the SEQ fields all in place. Then you can use the Find and Replace capabilities of Word to search for the SEQ fields and place your text before them. Follow these steps:

1. Press Alt+F9. Word displays the field codes in your document.
2. Press Ctrl+H to display the Replace tab of the Find and Replace dialog box.
3. In the Find What box, enter “^19 SEQ” (without the quote marks). If you have multiple independent sequences in your document, you may want to follow this text with the name of the sequence you want to find.
4. In the Replace With box, enter “Interrogatory No. ^&” (without the quote marks).
5. Use the controls in the dialog box to step through instances of the Find What text or to replace all instances, as desired.

Note that in step 3, the ^19 code is what Word uses for the opening field brace.

If you prefer a more integrated approach to adding the sequence numbers, with the text already in it, then you'll want to look at creating a Building Block that combines the leading text with the SEQ field. Build one in your document the way you want it, then select it and create the Building Block entry. (How you create Building Blocks is covered in other issues of WordTips.) When you later want to insert numbers for your interrogatories, you simply need to insert the Building Block entry you created.

Finally, you may want to consider using a different numbering approach than using SEQ fields. You could, for instance, use multilevel lists, which allow you to precede numbers with text of your creation. If you display the Home tab of the ribbon, you can click the Multilevel List tool in the Paragraph group. Word displays a gallery of list styles you can choose from. However, if you click Define New Multilevel List, Word allows you to create your own list style that can include leading text of your choice. You can then use the outline-numbered list to do your numbering. You can find more about this feature of Word at Shauna Kelly's website:

https://www.shaunakelly.com/word/numbering/numbering20072010.html

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (11184) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Standard Text before a Sequence Number.