Paragraph Numbering

[writerhoward]

Is there a way to have only non-blank paragraphs in a selection numbered?

Thanks,
Howard

[Þorvarður]

Hello Howard,

Yes, you can do this with a simple macro.
Here is such a macro that will work on a selection. It first inserts list numbers. Then finds the numbers in empty paragraphs and replaces them with a return.

Make sure you have a list style with this name (it's an original Nisus list style) and that for this list style numbering continues across document content. If you ever changed the original style, you'll then have to modify the Find and Replace part accordingly for the macro to work.

Number non-empty paragraphs.nwm.zip

(2.83 KiB) Downloaded 480 times

[martin]

Þorvarður macro might do the trick, but personally I would come at this from a different angle and ask the question: do you really need those blank lines? To state it a different way, instead of using newlines to create blank lines, why not use paragraph spacing or soft returns? Either of those will not trigger list items for the blank lines.

[writerhoward]

Thank you both for your replies.

Martin, if I do it your way, how can I get the automatic paragraph numbering to apply only to a selection, not the whole document?

[martin]

Martin, if I do it your way, how can I get the automatic paragraph numbering to apply only to a selection, not the whole document?

From this question, it's become clear to me that you're talking about paragraph numbering that appears not in the main text, but as numbers running alongside the main text in the margin (eg: using the menu View > Line Numbers > Show Paragraph Numbers This Section). Both Þorvarður and I incorrectly assumed you were asking about list item numbering, which people sometimes inaccurately call paragraph numbering.

Now that's clear, the answers will be different. I can still recommend using paragraph spacing or soft returns to prevent numbering for otherwise blank lines; that is still a good strategy. However, paragraph numbering is not as flexible as list item numbering when it comes to controlling which bits of text are numbered and which are not. Paragraph numbering can only be controlled on a per-section basis. That means you'll need to insert a section break any time you want to change whether paragraph numbering is enabled or not.

I hope that helps. Please let me know if you have any further questions.

[MathiasF]

Using extensively "Paragraph numbers" (see Menu entry "View" "Linenumbers" "Show Paragraph Numbers This Section" for disambiguation - this seems to be a nearly forgotten but very useful feature).

We need a paragraph formatting feature telling "no paragraph counting" (respectively "Don't count Lines of this paragraph") and of course also "Don't print them" for certain (selected) paragraphs. Ideally at the style level and at the direct formatting level !

By the way, this line and paragraph numbering feature belongs in the "format" menu. Pretty near to the "Page Setup" (presently in the file menu) which also is to be viewed as a Page/Section formatting feature.

My gut feeling is that the existence of this useful, existing (but not completely polished) feature is completely unknown, and therefore, there are no requests. But it is extremely useful when discussing precisely texts like norms, contracts, legal and the like.