numbering questions

In order to accomplish this, you will probably want to create a template, which we'll do in the end.  In order to create the Q&A, start with a blank file.  Then do the following:

1.  Click here to open the styles pane.

2.  You may dock the pane, if you prefer.  This is what it looks like docked:

Notice the highlighted style is "Normal."

3.  We will first set our tabs for the Normal style.  Right-click the Normal style and select Modify:

4.  The Modify Style window opens.  Select Format>Tabs:

5.  The Tabs window opens.  We want to create two tabs:  a right tab for the Qs and As, and a left tab for the actual questions and answers themselves.  I will put the stops at 0.4" and 0.6", respectively, but you can play with the values as they are needed for your project.  Click in the box that says Tab stop position: and enter 0.4, under Alignment click Right, and then click the Set button:

6.  Now in the same way, we'll set the left tab.  Enter 0.6, click Left, and then click Set.

7.  Click OK to close the Tabs window.  Now, we'll change the Normal style so the paragraphs behave the way you want.  We'll have to do this again when we edit the List Paragraphs.  In the Modify Style window that should still be open, click Format>Paragraph and the Paragraph window for the style Normal opens:

These show the defaults for the Normal style.  Under Indentation>Special, change the indentation to None.  Then under Line spacing, change it to Single (you can also tweak these to the values you desire):

Note that my default Normal style has Left Indentation set to 0".  If yours does not (or has numbers other than 0" in Spacing Before or After, you may need to adjust those as well).

8.  Press OK to close the Paragraph window.  Press OK to close the Modify Style box.

9.  Now click on Numbering to create a List Paragraph:

You should notice that the style for the paragraph has changed to List Paragraph, that your margins have all changed, and that you have some form of numbering before this paragraph (1., a., i., etc.):

10.  First, we'll change the indents.  Right-click the number and select Adjust List Indents:

11.  The Adjust List Indents window opens.  Change the indents as needed (here it's 0, 0, Nothing):

Hit OK to close the window.

12.  Now we need to Modify the List Paragraph style to behave properly.  Right-click the List Paragraph style and select Modify (as we did with the Normal style above):

First, notice how under Properties it says, "Style for the following paragraph:" where it says List Paragraph.  This means that when you press Return, it will automatically create the next paragraph as a numbered paragraph.  This is not what you want.  You want to change this to Normal so you can create an Answer paragraph:

Now click the Format button, select Paragraph and make sure the indents are properly set.  As you can see above, my List Paragraph style has a left indent of 0.5".  I will change this to 0":

Hit OK to close the paragraph window.

12.  Lastly, we want these to become permanent properties of the template.  Click the radio button in the Modify Styles box that says New Documents Based on This Template:

Click OK to close the Modify Style window.

Okay.  This is how it works so far:

Notice:  1)  It did not automatically go to the number two when I pressed return, 2) The colons right tab aligns the colons of the Qs and As, and, 3) the left tab aligns the first letters of the text.  In order to continue with the second number, hit the Numbering icon again:

Then continue on:

Now, it looks like you need to create a new style for the next entries.

13.  To create a new style, click New Style in your Styles pane:

This will open up the Create New Style From Formatting window.  Name the style and alter it as necessary.  I will name it Others in the Room:

Notice I eliminated the tabs and set a left indent to match the left tab in our Normal style.  Also, notice how Style for following paragraph will make the paragraph after you hit Return another Others in the Room paragraph.

Back in the document, select OK to close the Create New Style... window.

Others in the Room will now be the selected style of the paragraph we are entering.

14.  Now type in your next couple of lines:

Now we need to go back to our number scheme.

15.  Click the numbering icon and it will continue at three:

Now you should have a document that works the way you want.  The last step is this:

16.  Delete all the text.  Go to File>Save As.  Select a location and the Save As window opens.  Under File name, enter the name for your template.  Under Save as type, select Word Template.  Click Save:

Now, whenever you open the template, it will create a new Word file that already has these tabs and numbering settings in it.

I hope this works for you.  Good luck!

The article at http://wordfaqs.mvps.org/QandA2007.htm explains how to set up a Q and A sequence. It would certainly be possible to add a number to the Q level, but the tabs are not possible, and I'm not sure how many spaces you could have in the number format. It may be that a table would work better, with numbered paragraphs in the first column and the Q and A paragraphs in the second.