Sorting Lists (Macro Methods)

This Microsoft Word Tips & Microsoft Word Help page provides examples and discussion on using Word's Line Numbering feature. This page is born of a brief détente between two bitter foes (a separate story) and the fruits of a quest to display line numbers in the right hand margin like in the text sample shown below.

Note: Steps, illustrations and descriptions in this tips page are applicable to a standard U.S. English installation of Word 2007 and Windows XP. Results with Word 2010 or other operating system/installation language may vary.

With the exception of a few suggestions for mimicking line numbering by anchoring a textbox containing appropriate numbers in the header, a Google search came up empty and returned nothing to suggest how this could be achieved using Word's line numbering feature. The solution requires a bit of Word trickery.

The "key" is enabling a right to left script language such as Hebrew or Arabic.

Close Word
Click "Start" then "All Programs"
Click "Microsoft Office" > "Microsoft Office Tools" > "Microsoft Office 2007 Language Settings"
Select "Hebrew" in the "Available editing languages" field
Click "Add" then click "Ok"
Reopen Word

When a right to left script language is enabled the Word user interface (UI) reflects (at least) two changes.

A pair of controls are added to the Home>Paragraph group that are used to set text direction.
A "Section direction" option is added to the Page Setup>Layout dialog.

In the example shown above the text is separated by a continuous section break into two sections. I displayed non-printing characters and an empty paragraph to clearly show the section break.

In Section 1, the quotation (or the portion in italics), the lines are numbered. The text is "right aligned, left to right text," with the section direction set to "Right to left." However, it is the section direction setting that determines line number placement. Applying these settings are shown in the following illustrations:

Setting text direction

line numbering 5

Setting section direction

line numbering 6

Setting line numbering options

In Section 2 in the example text above, the credit lines (or the portion in roman text), line numbering is not enabled.

The follow illustrates several examples of left to right and right to left script text with line numbering displayed. I included non-printing characters so you will see the section breaks."

The first example is English left to right script, left aligned, with the section direction set left to right.
The second is English left to right script, left aligned, with section direction set right to left.
The third is Arabic right to left script, right aligned, with section direction set right to left.
The last is Hebrew right to left script, right aligned, with section direction set left to right.

These examples clearly show that it is section alignment that determines in which margin line numbers are displayed. The display is not dependent on or affected by either text alignment or text direction.

Remember though, it is not section alignment alone. For line numbers to appear in the right margin you must set the section alignment to right to left "and" have a right to left script language enabled.

This can be demonstrated using VBA in the following manner.

Close Word
Click "Microsoft Office" > "Microsoft Close Word Office Tools" > "Microsoft Office 2007 Language Settings"
Select "Hebrew" in the "Enabled editing languages" field
Click "Remove" then click "Ok"
Open and new Word document and open the Page Setup dialog. The "Section direction" option is no longer available.

Enter a few lines of text

Open the VB Editor and paste in and execute the following code:

VBA Script:

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Sub Demo1()
  With ActiveDocument.Sections(1).PageSetup
    .SectionDirection = wdSectionDirectionLtr
    .LineNumbering.Active = True
  End With
lbl_Exit:
  Exit Sub
End Sub

See: Installing Macros for instructions on how to set up and use the macros provided in this Microsoft Word Help & Microsoft Word Tips page.

Line numbering appears in the left margin.

Now change the section direction to right to left using using the following line in the VBE Immediate window

VBA Script:

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ActiveDocument.Sections(1).PageSetup.SectionDirection = wdSectionDirectionRtr

Now change the section direction to right to left using using the following line in the VBE Immediate window
The line numbering is gone (trust me)!!
Save the document, close Word and enable a right to left script language using the steps provided earlier.
Reopen Word and the saved document. Viola!!

That's it! I hope you have found this tips page useful and informative.

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Line Numbering(A Microsoft Word Help & Tip page by Gregory K. Maxey)

Line Numbering
(A Microsoft Word Help & Tip page by Gregory K. Maxey)