Word custom list: preserving paragraph attributes in target paragraph

Question

I have just completed the process of creating my own custom multi-level list in Word 365. It seems to be working perfectly, except that there is one aspect of it that seems problematic to me for which I’m hoping someone has a solution.

I have looked at Different line spacing between different list levels but it doesn't address my particular question.

Among the styles in my new custom list, I first have the one which is my new link style. Then, within the definition of that new style, for each of the nine levels I have a paragraph style which contains the formatting information for the list entry at that level. So far so good. But the following is where I am running into an inconvenience.

Because, per instructions, each of the nine individual styles paired with the nine levels of the list is defined as a paragraph type style, they thereby must contain attributes for the spacing before and after the paragraph. So in working with my new list, when I have a document open that contains lines to which I wish to assign list levels, when I identify a line in that document that I want to be a list level, I do so by assigning to it the paragraph style that is associated with that list level in the definition of my custom list. The essential aspects of that process perform as expected, and the line of text to which the style was applied becomes a new level of the custom list. However, a side effect of this process is that whatever has been entered in the definition of the associated style as the amount of space before and after the paragraph is also applied to the line in the document to which I am applying the style. Within the target document that I am editing, sometimes the target lines of text to which I wish to apply that list level are defined with different amounts of space before and after the paragraph in which they are contained. But applying the style to make any particular line a list entry also replaces the amount of space before and after that target line with the amount of space defined in the paragraph style for that outline level.

Is there any way to define or apply the paragraph style that is associated with a list level in such a way that the attributes of how much space before and after the paragraph in the style definition are not applied to the target line in the target document, so that the target line becomes a list level entry as intended but its before and after spacing attributes are not overwritten by the corresponding paragraph entries from the style definition?

Thank you.

Answer 1

No, because properly done, you are applying a paragraph style which will contain those spacing attributes.

However, assuming you follow the directions given in Shauna Kelly's page on numbering, you can create a new style, based on the style for the level you want, that has the spacing you want and use that style to apply the numbering instead.

See my answer here for an overview of that method together with links to videos demonstrating it.