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Using style separator is causing the numbering to disappear when in Print Layout view

Michelle Peters 115 Reputation points
2026-01-15T23:52:19.4433333+00:00

I am using the first level of numbering -- Heading 1 to format my document. I am adding a style separator after the first period and as soon as the style separator is added, my numbering disappears. If I change my view to draft, I can see the number. In Print Layout view, I cannot. I also cannot see it in Print Preview. For example, my paragraph looks like this:

  1. Sale and Purchase. This is a sale and purchase agreement. This is the rest of the paragraph and blah blah blah.

This is formatted in Heading 1 style. As soon as I add the style separator after Sale and Purchase. the 1. disappears. This is happening in a brand new document, in an existing document and with different numbering. I can see the number is still there when I switch to draft view, but in page layout view or Print Preview, the number is missing.

This can be replicated across multiple machines as well.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

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Moderator's notes:

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For business | Windows
Answer accepted by question author
  1. David Giambruno 125 Reputation points
    2026-01-19T01:43:35.4933333+00:00

    I found that saving the .docx document to the older .doc format resolves this issue. The numbers reappear, numbering is restored.

    Moderator's note:

    See also Stacy Brown's response on January 29:

    I have been following this issue here and on other vendor and legal technology boards. A new work-around was posted from one of our vendors, DocStyle. They say to try:

    • Work in Draft Layout while editing
    • Turn on Track Changes to print or PDF
    • Turn off Track Changes then save or send the file.

    So, it seems that turning on Track Changes makes the numbers of the affected Outline Numbering levels reappear.

    See also Charles Kenyon response on February 20 using the Show/Hide button.

    9 people found this answer helpful.
Answer accepted by question author
  1. Stefan Blom 337.8K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2026-01-16T00:05:32.83+00:00

    I can reproduce this. I format a text paragraph as a numbered Heading 1. As soon as I add the style separator, the heading number disappears. It is still present in the formatting, though, because it does show up if I create a table of contents. See the screen shot below.

    I did my test in version 2512 of Word (perpetual license, specifically Office 2021).

    At a later stage, I was able to reproduce the issue in my subscription version of Word as well.

    I recommend that you report this using the Help > Feedback > Report a problem command in Word.

    ImageHeadingAndStyleSepissue

    5 people found this answer helpful.
Answer recommended by moderator
  1. Suzanne S Barnhill 277K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2026-01-28T02:05:51.2733333+00:00

    5 people found this answer helpful.

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  1. Stacy Brown 55 Reputation points
    2026-01-29T16:21:41.58+00:00

    I have been following this issue here and on other vendor and legal technology boards. A new work-around was posted from one of our vendors, DocStyle. They say to try:

    • Work in Draft Layout while editing
    • Turn on Track Changes to print or PDF
    • Turn off Track Changes then save or send the file.

    So, it seems that turning on Track Changes makes the numbers of the affected Outline Numbering levels reappear. Can anyone experiencing the issues confirm that this works for you?

    9 people found this answer helpful.
  2. Kim Murdock 60 Reputation points
    2026-01-16T21:07:36.2633333+00:00

    Previously today I posted the following comment on the wrong question - too much searching!

    I've been struggling with this bug for several months and it's tricky to pin down.

    I work for law firms which often use [Run-In Sideheads]. I use the Style Separator in a macro that is used to pull two paragraphs together. That is, the Heading is one paragraph, and the text is another. The purpose behind this is to ensure that the text that follows the heading is formatted properly and there are no dueling indents. http://wordfaqs.ssbarnhill.com/RunInSidehead.htm

    Because it's automated, there's no danger of double Style Separators or Separators at the end of a document. None of the documents or templates in which the Style Separator resides crash. But as PCs are updated to the latest version of M365, they open a file that used to work only to find "the numbers have disappeared." And they don't print.

    Suddenly, a document that "worked" and printed properly, doesn't. The only change seems to be the version of M365.

    Starting last year this bug infected client PCs on which M365 updated to V 2511 Build 19426.20218. Reverting the PC to V 2511 Build 19426.20186 resolved the issue.

    The problem I have in using this as a hard and fast solution is that I have two different PCs with 32-bit M365 installed. On one, 20218 "works" and on the other, it does not. Reverting to 20186 restores the visibility of the numbers. I have also seen this dicotomy on two laptops running 64-bit M365.

    I checked File > Options > Display and toggled view hidden text on and off and it doesn't seem to matter if hidden text is set to be visible or not. If I turn on the Navigation Pane I can see the heading numbers there. If I turn on draft mode the numbers are visible. But in neither case will they print.

    And for the record--inserting Style Separator manually, without the macro--makes no difference.

    I would love to get to the bottom of this, but it looks like the only ones who can are the programmers at Microsoft.

    8 people found this answer helpful.

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