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Cannot change non-heading outline level

Anonymous
2011-12-09T19:07:03+00:00

I am working in Word 2010 off a template provided by my publisher that includes a set of pre-defined styles. I want to make a minor tweak to two of them to change the outline level. In both cases, I simply want the text that they style to show up in the Navigation pane. And yet, in both cases, when I go in to modify the style, the Outline level option is greyed out.

Note that in neither case is the style one of the built-in headings. I already know I cannot change the outline level of those. One of the styles is based on another custom style, which is in turn based on Normal. The other is based on (no style). In both cases, it does not seem to make sense that the outline level would be greyed out.

Any help would be appreciated.

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  1. Stefan Blom 340.9K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2014-08-13T10:04:12+00:00

    When you create the TOC, do the following: Click References tab | Table of Contents | Custom Table of Contents. In the Table of Contents dialog box, click the Options button. In the Table of Contents Options dialog box, type in the levels that you want for your styles. By default, Heading 1 has level 1 assigned, but you can change that easily.

    For more, see http://wordfaqs.mvps.org/TOCTips.htm#TOCOptions.

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  2. Stefan Blom 340.9K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2013-03-18T07:27:44+00:00

    The outline level for the built-in heading styles (Heading 1, Heading 2, etc.) can't be changed. That's by design. Usually, you don't have to change the levels, and if you must, you can make use of custom styles.

    Also, note that you can change the levels for headings in a table of contents, without changing the outline levels, if that helps.

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-12-09T19:35:48+00:00

    Yes, I can change everything else about the styles. The outline level is the only thing greyed out.

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-03-18T03:10:51+00:00

    I just finished writing a book, but the outline level of my heading styles is greyed out.  Everyojne tells me I should be working with Adobe Indesign.

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  5. Anonymous
    2017-02-02T14:38:28+00:00

    I am too experiencing this issue in the document that uses numbered styles for headings.

    Here are the steps to reproduce the issue with the Outline level becoming inactive in the Paragraph dialog box.

    I. Check that Outline level is active:

    1.1 Open the document with numbered headings; if you had an opened document, close it and open again.

    WARNING When the document is opened, do NOT click any heading in the document.

    1.2  On the Home tab, in the Styles group, click dialog launcher to open the Styles pane.

    1.3 In the Styles pane, click Heading 1, and then select Modify.

    1.4 In the Modify Style dialog window, slick the Format expanding button, and then select Paragraph.

    Outline level option will appear active.

    II. Now locate any heading formatted with the Heading 1 style in the document, click on that heading, and repeat steps in I.

    The Outline level list becomes inactive.

    Why is that?

    Well this is the world we live in And these are the hands we're given...

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