Numbered lists in Word are incredibly useful for organizing information, outlining documents, or structuring ideas. However, if you’ve ever created a list with more than nine items, you may have encountered a frustrating formatting issue. Here’s why it happens, and how to fix it.
How to Align List Numbers in Word
By default, Word aligns list numbers based on their first digit, which works fine for single-digit numbers but quickly becomes problematic as soon as you hit double digits. Ideally, list numbers should be aligned by their decimal points (or last digit) to ensure all digits line up neatly regardless of length.
However, Word’s default setting does the opposite. This misalignment becomes even more pronounced when you move into triple digits, resulting in a disjointed list that’s difficult to follow.
But don’t worry—this issue can be resolved in just a few steps by adjusting the number alignment inWord’s list formattingsettings. Here’s how you can do it:
And that’s it! Your list numbers will now align properly, ensuring a consistent and professional look for your document, regardless of the number of items on your list.
Aligning Lists With Roman Numerals
A pitfall of aligning list numbers to the right is handling Roman numerals. Roman numerals change length less predictably than Arabic numbers, so aligning them to the left can result in a similarly uneven appearance. For instance, the numeralIis much shorter thanVIII, which can make the list look disjointed.
In such cases, I’ve found that it’s best to align the list to the left and then adjust the formatting for single-digit items. Here’s how to do it:
This will add a margin to the single-digit items, making the spacing equivalent to those with more characters.
With these steps, your list numbers will align perfectly, no matter which numeral style you choose. The list number alignment is a small eyesore, but thankfully, it has a simple solution.
