Reverse Numbered List in Microsoft Word

Making Numbered lists in Microsoft Word is pretty easy and anyone with primary knowledge about Word would make one even without trying; like when you type “1.” followed by space, Word would automatically start a numbered list for you. But when it comes to making a reverse numbered list or a top 10 list with a count down style, Word provides no ability of making such lists out of the box.

So how could we make one? Microsoft Word provides a feature for developers to create Macros in Visual Basic programming language which we can use to manipulate data easily and in an automated way. Now, you don’t need to know about coding to make the reverse list, I will provide you with step-by-step instructions on what to do to create the Marco and then be able to use it from now and on to create Reverse Numbered Lists. (the Macro code credit goes to Word Tips website)

The code used can work with Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2007, and 2010 (by the time of this writing). The interface instructions to create these Macros differ between Word versions. I’ll provide you with instructions on how to do it with Word 2010.

Showing the Developer tab,

If the “Developer” tab in Word is not visible, do the following to  show it up:

1. From the menu, click “File” then select “Options”
2. Select “Customize Ribbon”
3. On the right side under “Customize the Ribbon” section, check the “Developer” checkbox.
4. Then click the “OK” button.

Creating the Macro,

1. Select the “Developer” tab
2. Click the “Visual Basic” button.
3. On the left, in the Project panel, click the plus sign next to “Normal” to expand
4. Then click the plus sign next to “Modules”
5. Double click “NewMacros”
6. Copy and Paste the following code to the Code window in the Visual Basic editor. (put the mouse cursor at the end of the document before pasting to keep the previously created Macros)

   Sub RevList()
   Dim ShowFlag As Boolean
   Dim Numparas As Integer
   Dim Counter As Integer
   
   Numparas = Selection.Paragraphs.Count
   Selection.MoveLeft Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1
   ShowFlag = ActiveWindow.View.ShowFieldCodes
   ActiveWindow.View.ShowFieldCodes = True
   DoList Numparas
   Counter = 1
   While Counter < Numparas
   Selection.Move Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=1
   DoList Numparas
   Counter = Counter + 1
   Wend
   ActiveWindow.View.ShowFieldCodes = ShowFlag
   ActiveDocument.Select
   ActiveDocument.Fields.Update
   End Sub
   
   Private Sub DoList(Cnt As Integer)
   Selection.Extend
   Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1
   If InStr(Selection.Text, "SEQ") > 0 Then
   Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=2
   Selection.Delete Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1
   Else
   Selection.Collapse Direction:=wdCollapseStart
   End If
   Selection.Fields.Add Range:=Selection.Range, Type:=wdFieldEmpty, _
   PreserveFormatting:=False
   Selection.TypeText Text:="=" & Cnt + 1 & "-"
   Selection.Fields.Add Range:=Selection.Range, Type:=wdFieldEmpty, _
   PreserveFormatting:=False
   Selection.TypeText Text:="SEQ RevList"
   With Selection.ParagraphFormat
   .LeftIndent = InchesToPoints(0.5)
   .FirstLineIndent = InchesToPoints(-0.5)
   End With
   Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=4
   Selection.InsertAfter "." & vbTab
   End Sub
   
   

7. Click the “save” button. Once you do that a new Macro has been saved with name “RevList”
8. Close the Visual Basic window.

Adding the Macro as a button in Word

1. So back to Word, click “File” from the menu then select “Options”
2. Select  the “Customize Ribbon” tab
3. In the “Choose commands From” section, select “Macros” from the drop down list.
4. In the box below it, look for “Normal.NewMacros.RevList” and select it
5. On the right side and under “Customize the Ribbon”, select “Main Tabs” from the drop down list
6. Select the “Home” tab
7. Click the “New Group” button
8. While the new group tab is selected, click the “Rename” button
9. Name this group whatever you like, if you like, name it “My Buttons”
10. While the “My Buttons” is selected (and that RevList macro selected), click the “Add >>” button
11. Now it will be automatically selected, so click the “Rename” button to rename Normal.NewMacros.RevList and give it the name you like, for example, “Reverse List”. Also it’s a good idea to assign it an icon, for example a down arrow icon.
12. Now click the “Ok” button. Then click the Ok button again for the Word Options dialog to save the changes.

What happened now is that you will see a button for the “Reverse List” macro added under the Home tab at the far right group of it.

Using the Reverse List button,

Write down your list in Word as paragraphs (you press Enter after each list item). For example:

Microsoft Windows 7

Microsoft Windows Vista

Microsoft Windows XP

Select the list and then press the our “Reverse List” button, and here you go, will see that a reverse list has been created like this:

3. Microsoft Windows 7

2. Microsoft Windows Vista

1. Microsoft Windows XP

Now if you wanted to add a new item in the list, anywhere in it (each list item should be a paragraph), do so then select the entire list and click the “Reverse List” button again, it will automatically reassign the numbers in the list. for Example, we added Microsoft Windows 2000 to the list:

3. Microsoft Windows 7

2. Microsoft Windows Vista

1. Microsoft Windows XP

Microsoft Windows 2000

Select the entire list, and then click the button, it becomes:

4. Microsoft Windows 7

3. Microsoft Windows Vista

2. Microsoft Windows XP

1. Microsoft Windows 2000

Advanced instructions,

Now, you are set to go with that, but if you wanted to change the “hanging indent”, you have to edit the Macro code a bit. Change the lines in the DoList macro where you will see the LeftIndent and FirstLineIndent properties which you can set there.