Insert dynamic numbers into text

Question

I have a word document with a collection of questions. I attach a screenshot:

Now when I change the orders of my questions or insert another one, I have to manually update the numbers. When using the numbering tool in the ribbon it does not really help to get dynamic numbers. I would like to update the x.1 or x.2 dynamically when a new question is inserted before. When I mark a number and click on numbering it puts the number in front and changes the whole format (and doesn't make the 1.1 dynamic):

So how can I get the Question 1: and Question 1.1, Question 2.1, 2.2 into dynamic numbers? So that all I have to do at the end is to mark everything and hit F9 or so.

Answer 1

The simplest method is to use a style-based multi-level list.

The method for setting up such a list is given for Windows versions of Word by Shauna Kelly in How to Create Numbered Headings or Outline Numbering. For Mac computers, this procedure was set out by John Korchok in Outline Numbering in Word. It is important that you read one of those articles and follow the directions. I summarized those directions in my answer here.

Here is an example of the MultiLevel List dialog to achieve what you want.

Because of a bug in recent versions, the Heading titles may not appear in the list in the dialog but must still appear in the Link level to style box in the dialog. Such a dialog box is shown below.

Here is a temporary link to the document with this numbering.

It is important to apply numbering in this scheme by applying the related styles, in this case Heading 1 and Heading 2. These styles were both modified to appear the same as regular text in the document. Both were modified to have Body Text as the style following.

Here is a link to my download of a different (multiple choice) setup of questions and answers.

If you insert a new question (of either level) it will be numbered properly and following questions will renumber.