One of Microsoft Word’s most annoying problems is weird bugs that have never been fixed. I’m sure Microsoft has an explanation for this that sounds perfectly fine, but it’s one of those things that is annoying to anybody who lives in the real world. It’s doubly annoying when non-computer literate users see it and get frustrated because they expect it to “just work,” a certain way.

To duplicate

Open a Word Document. Start typing in a list of items. Use “Bullets and Numbering” to create a list on the first item. This it the important part, if it’s done after the list is totally created it doesn’t always cause a problem. Once you get down to ten (sometimes less,) items, the entire sentence is indented over about five to six character spaces.

To Fix

In Word 2003 (office 2003) and Office 2004 for Mac

1.) Go to the line that is having problems
2.) Click at the very beginning of the text
3.) Right click, select “Bullets and Numbering”
4.) Click the tab named “Numbered”
5.) Click the “Customize” button
6.) In the field labeled “Number Position” choose “Right.” If it says Right already, you didn’t click in the right spot in Step #2.
7.) Okay Changes and it should all be good now

In Office 2007 (Word 2007) and Office 2008 (For Mac)

1.) Highlight your entire bulleted list
2.) Right Click and Choose “Bullets and Numbering”
3.) Click on the “Numbered” tab
4.) Choose one of the two “Numbered” Lists
5.) Click “Customize”
6.) Change “Number Position” to “Right”
7.) Click OK and everything should be fixed
Select define new numbering format, and change the alignment to right. Okay your changes.