Maximum outline level

Question

I have word 2003 and it has a limited number of outline level (I believe somewhere near 8) which is quite annoying to me.

1. Has 2010 expanded the maximum number of levels possible in outline?
2. Has the user interaction in outline view changed in any way (especially did Microsoft cripled in any way the nice interaction of the mouse with the outline levels including shift + mouse roll to hide/unhide)?

Answer 1

Unless you work for a government organisation where obfuscation appears to be intentional, it is difficult to see why you would want even more outline levels than the 9 available. Documents with more than four levels are virtually unreadable.

Answer 2

Graham,

When you hear something that seems absurd to you, consider that the speaker might have a different perspective than the one you are using to make your judgement.

Just possibly, the person asking the question is not interested in using his outline to convey information to others. Possibly he or she is organizing his or her thoughts. It is exceptionally easy to organize up to several hundred thoughts as long as you have a feature that word outline has....which is that one can readily select the extent of the outline one views in any hierarchial manner.

Answer 3

1. Word 2010 has outline levels 1...9, the same as in previous versions.
2. The outlining interface is basically the same in Word 2010 as in previous versions (including Shift+mousewheel). The Outlining toolbar has been replaced by the Outlining tab of the ribbon.

Answer 4

I found that using word in *outline view* is one of the best way to organise ideas.

Using zoom (ctrl+mousewheel) makes it readable at any level very easily.

There is never in that usage any intention of viewing it in "normal view"

Unfortunately, it is very easy to have more that 9 level deep which is extremely annoying especially because if you push a tree (holding it at at near top level level) down one level, some of the lowest nodes don't get pushed down after 9 levels which means they get "flattened" together with a previous level so you lose information (the level information) without noticing it (if that branch is not expanded).

Answer 5

Have you considered OneNote - which is intended to organize ideas?