Public Sub RestartListNumbering(Optional Scope As Range)
'(c) 1999-2004 Word Heretic steve@wordheretic.com
' Everyone has permission to redistribute and use this code at will,
' providing the (c) notice is left intact.
'Restarts list numbering, 97-XP, all list implementations

Dim KillScope As Boolean

If Scope Is Nothing Then
     Set Scope = Selection.Range
     KillScope = True
End If

'Use first listpara

With Scope.ListParagraphs
     If .Count > 0 Then
          With .Item(1).Range.ListFormat
               .ApplyListTemplate .ListTemplate, False
          End With
     End If
End With

'Destroy our objects

If KillScope Then Set Scope = Nothing
End Sub

Sub ListNumber()
' Macro created by John McGhie
With Selection.Paragraphs
     .Style = "List Number"
     With .First.Range.ListFormat
          .ApplyListTemplate .ListTemplate, False
     End With
     With .Last
          .KeepWithNext = False
          .SpaceAfter = 10
     End With
End With
End Sub

Problems and workarounds

There are two basic problems with applying a restart using the code above or the Restart Numbering command:

• The list formatting is no longer directly determined by the style. If you reset paragraphs to style in order to tidy up formatting, your restarts will be lost. For the same reason, if you update the style you might find that the paragraphs that have been restarted don't update their numbering format to match.
• The restart marker can be lost or moved on copy and paste. Unless you are working in Word 2003 with the document protected for styles, when you paste earlier in the same document the restart marker moves with the pasted text, leaving the original list you copied from continuing from whatever previous list Word finds. If you paste into a different document, you will probably find that the pasted lists do not restart where you expect.

Steve Hudson has produced a number of macros to address these and other problems - in particular his RestartListsAfterHeadings macro solves the problem of lost restarts by recreating them based on the document outline structure. Another strategy would be to mark the restarted paragraphs in some way, so that after they are reset to style or pasted the restarts can be reinstated. The following code illustrates a possible approach to this.

The first macro finds all items numbered 1 for the List Number style and marks them with a temporary bookmark. This code could be run before copying text containing lists to the clipboard, and before any change to the style. If the paste is to be to a different document, similar code would need to be run there (using a distinct bookmark sequence).

Public Sub MarkRestarts()
' Sample code to mark restarted List Number paragraphs
Dim ListItem As Paragraph
Dim n As Integer ' bookmark id
n = 1
For Each ListItem In ActiveDocument.ListParagraphs
   If ListItem.Style = _
        ActiveDocument.Styles(wdStyleListNumber).NameLocal Then
      If ListItem.Range.ListFormat.ListValue = 1 Then
         ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Add "restart" & n, ListItem.Range
         n = n + 1
      End If
   End If
Next ListItem
End Sub

Even if the source list loses its restart, it will retain the bookmark, which allows the restart to be reapplied as follows:

Public Sub ReapplyRestarts()
' Sample macro to reapply restarts lost by a copy and paste
Dim aBookmark As Bookmark
Dim RestartPoint As Range
For Each aBookmark In ActiveDocument.Bookmarks
   If aBookmark.Name Like "restart*" Then ' it's a restart point
      Set RestartPoint = aBookmark.Range
      RestartPoint.Collapse wdCollapseEnd
      RestartPoint.MoveEnd unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=-1
      With RestartPoint.ListFormat
         .ApplyListTemplate .ListTemplate, ContinuePreviousList:=False
      End With
      aBookmark.Delete
   End If
Next aBookmark
End Sub
     

After a paste into a different document, or an update to the style, you would need first to reset the paragraph formatting, so as to reapply the correct numbering scheme for the current document, and then reapply the restarts which will have been lost on the reset. The final example illustrates this.

Public Sub ReapplyLists()
' Sample macro to correct errors after paste
' to another document and style changes
Dim aPara As Paragraph
Dim aBookmark As Bookmark
Dim StyleName As String
Dim RestartPoint As Range
' reset the paragraph formatting of the style if the paragraph
' should be numbered in this document
For Each aPara In ActiveDocument.Paragraphs
   StyleName = aPara.Style
   If ActiveDocument.Styles(StyleName).ListLevelNumber > 0 Then
      aPara.Reset
   End If
   Next aPara
' reapply restarts to bookmarked paragraphs and tidy up
For Each aBookmark In ActiveDocument.Bookmarks
   If aBookmark.Name Like "restart*" Then ' it's a restart point
      Set RestartPoint = aBookmark.Range
      RestartPoint.Collapse wdCollapseEnd
      RestartPoint.MoveEnd unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=-1
      With RestartPoint.ListFormat
         .ApplyListTemplate .ListTemplate, ContinuePreviousList:=False
      End With
      aBookmark.Delete
   End If
Next aBookmark
End Sub