Skipping Numbering

If you are working with numbered lists in your document, you already know that the numbered list is nothing more than a series of numbered paragraphs. There may be times when you want to have a paragraph or two in the middle of a list, and then have numbering pick back up after the unnumbered paragraphs.

There are two primary ways you can accomplish this within Word. This is the first method:

1. Format your numbered list as you normally would, but make sure the paragraphs you want to be unnumbered are also included in the list. This means that those paragraphs will, for the moment, be numbered.
2. Select the paragraphs you don't want to have numbered—the paragraphs within the numbered list you just created.
3. Display the Home tab of the ribbon.
4. Click the Numbering tool within the Paragraph group. The numbering is removed from the paragraphs you selected in step 2, but the sequence continues with the paragraph following those you selected.

The second approach is similar:

1. Format your numbered list as you normally would, but make sure the paragraphs you want to be unnumbered are also included in the list. This means that those paragraphs will, for the moment, be numbered.
2. Place the insertion point at the very beginning of a paragraph you don't want to have numbered.
3. Press the Backspace key. Word removes the numbering from the paragraph, but the sequence continues with the very next paragraph.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for each paragraph you want removed from the numbering sequence.

There is a major difference in the effect of this approach and the previous approach. In this second approach the numbering is removed (step 3), but the indent of the paragraph remains the same as the other paragraphs in the numbered list. In the first approach the numbering is removed (step 4), but the paragraph indent is returned to what it was before you first created the numbered list.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (11776) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Word in Microsoft 365, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Skipping Numbering.