Word bullet formatting changes in various sections on same page

[Matthew_Katz]

Matthew Katz

Email address removed

Reference case number: 1034530899

HP Envy

Word/Office 365

Windows 11

For some reason, as I'm creating a Word doc, the bullet spacing/formatting will "magically" change. And trying to adjust it back with the ruler doesn't work to make the bulleted sections uniform. 

I've tried turning off all autoformatting options, I've tried selecting different style headings, nothing seems to work.

I'm hoping this makes sense because it's really hard to explain without showing you the problem in action... but I spent about an hour with online customer support and they weren't able to help me.

So I'm hoping someone in the community knows what the heck I'm talking about and can show me how to fix this. 

[#2]

Hello! I'm a community manager here and while I can't answer your question directly, I hope you get an answer!

Just a quick note to remind you that sharing your case number will only help official Microsoft support representatives, and this is not an official Microsoft support community.

Just letting you know for future reference. If you've been instructed by a support person to share your case number here, please let us know so we can correct them for the future.

[#3]

@Eric Starker thanks for the speedy reply.

Yes, the MS rep told me to include the case number... she said folks in here (I don't know if any official MS folks actually answer questions or read these things) would be able to see the case history to better understand the problem. 

[#4]

@Matthew_Katz 

Thanks, the rep spoke incorrectly as this is not an official support community (that would be Microsoft Q&A), and anyone from Microsoft who might even respond (and yes, some employees do respond) would not be a support engineer and would be unable to access your case number. I'll let the team know.

Anyway, hopefully the community can answer your question!

[#5]

If you upload a copy of a file that exhibits the issue, one of us may be able to provide an explanation for the behavior

[#6]

@Matthew_Katz 

To ensure that bullets are stable, make sure that you set them up with paragraph styles. For example, if you need a single-level bullet which is indented from the left margin, you can apply the List Bullet style (on Windows, you can use the shortcut Ctrl+Shift+L).

If you need a multilevel list of bullets, follow the instructions in Shauna Kelly's article at https://shaunakelly.com/word/bullets/controlbullets20072010.html (the article applies to all "ribbon versions" of Word, that is, Word 2007 or later).

[#7]

Hello @Matthew_Katz ,

not sure what steps the MS support did, but when I have a problem with styles not holding, I know my MS Office installation is corrupted and I reinstall Office. Not via "Fix...", but a complete reinstall.

To troubleshoot the issue I first try to import the styles from a template/document I know has never had the issue. If that doesn't help and the document still misbehaves, I go directly to reinstall.

I now balance the effort/result scale: I stopped searching for the "why" and go directly for removing the issue, as searching for the why is for programmers and I am not one. That said, however, I am talking only about the Office 365 as it is this version that frequently manifests the issues you are describing. 

I am aware that this may not help your particular case, though, but I am adding it in case it might. 

L.

[#8]

@Matthew_Katz 

There have been some reports (seen in the Microsoft Community forum) recently on bullets behaving unexpectedly; in particular, there have been reports on unpredictable bullet indents. This issue has been confirmed by Microsoft. 

Note that setting up bullets carefully using styles does work around the issue. For more, see https://shaunakelly.com/word/bullets/controlbullets20072010.html.

[#9]

Thanks @Stefan_Blom, @Lenka_Kerumova and the rest of you who've offered suggestions. 

I just tried reinstalling and will be firing the app back up shortly. If that doesn't seem to solve the problem, I will post a Loom video of the problem in action so some of the earlier responders can see exactly what I'm describinh.