How Can I Apply My List Styles To A New Document?

For easy reuse, create the list style in a template file (*.dotx). See http://shaunakelly.com/word/numbering/numbering20072010.html. Note that the article uses the built-in heading styles as an example, but you should use a different set of nine paragraph styles (unless you are setting up a list of headings, of course).

Thank you.

Is there a reason Word wont let us create our own styles that we can just apply by click in the drop-down list? 

Also, is there a way I can set what default styles will be available for every new document and what will appear in the style gallery?  My style gallery is filled with styles that I couldn't imagine every using unless I set up a new business of creating invitations to children's birthday parties.

List styles (like any styles) reside in a document and/or template. Once a document contains a list style, even if it originated from a template or was added directly to the document, you will see the list style at Home tab | Multilevel List (look in the "List Styles" category).

I do not recommend using the list gallery with numbered paragraph styles, if that is what you are asking, because numbering may change unexpectedly when you change style sets. Set up a template instead.

To copy the number format of document A to another document B, you may find it easier to revert the process: Instead of copying the numbering to document B, copy other content into (a copy of) document A and apply numbering to text as desired. Alternatively, once you have set up the numbering in your template, create a new document based on the template and import existing content via the Insert File dialog box (Insert tab | Object | Text from File). In both of these cases, applying numbering will be a lot easier if you have set up numbering properly with styles (refer to Shauna Kelly's article).

Interesting.

When I create a new document (and before I started playing with this), the document has a long set of Styles available.  A whole bunch in the gallery and many more under show all in the style list.  Where do these come from?  Are they permanent or can I delete the many, many styles I will never use?

On a new document, if I click Multi-level list, at the bottom under "List Styles", I see the two list styles I created.  You seem to be saying that I can't just click on one of these and incorporate the List Style into my new document.  I don't doubt you, but then, why does Word display them?  What purpose does it serve if I can't use them for anything?

Are you referring to the styles in the gallery on the Home tab? In that case, the answer is, no, most of these are built-in styles which can't be deleted. You can choose to hide them in a given document by right-clicking the style and selecting Remove from Style Gallery on the context menu. (Note that the style gallery only lists paragraph and character styles.)

In the Styles pane (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+S), you also see paragraph and character styles, only, and these can be shown or hidden via the Style Pane Options dialog box (click the Options link at the bottom of the pane). The settings you select can be transferred to your template if you select "New documents based on this template" before clicking OK in the dialog box.

The "List Styles" (at Home tab | Multilevel List) that you created reside in the location where you created them, which often means in the current document. You can copy them to a template using the Organizer dialog box. However, creating a list style directly in a template is usually easier.

To open the Organizer dialog box, you can click the Organizer button in the Macros dialog box (Alt+F8). Or you can click the Import/Export button in the Manage Styles dialog box, which you can open by clicking the Manage Styles icon in the Styles pane.

This just doesn't make sense to me.  I spent about 15 minutes creating a template for a document.  It uses both content control fields and a nice multi-level list.

I now want to create a new template, using only the same multi-level list as before.  There has to be an easy way to apply the list I just created to a new document.  For example, when I created the multi-level list (using Shauna Kelly's tutorial), I named the new list.  What's the point of naming it if it then "disappears" into the new template/document?  I guess that I can just pull up my first template, cut out the extraneous stuff, and then save it as a new template.  But that's such an ugly way to get to where I want.  

So, now I'm in a new, blank document.  If I click the drop-down arrow at Multi-Level List, there is an option for "List in the Current Document".  If I hover over that, I see a good Heading set up.  However, if I click that, the Heading styles are nothing at all like what was in the "List in Current Document" box.  As usual with Word, it's a fairly random set of styles, with silly fonts and colors.  

So, I click Multi-Level list again, and then "Define New List Style".  I go through that rigamorole, and click ok.  No change to the document.  My headings are still randomly formatted.  

If you want to create a new template that contains the multi-level list from the original template, make a copy of that template, then use File>Open to open the copy and delete anything that you do not want in the new template (such as the Content Controls) and then save it.  There's your new template.

There is another way, using the Organizer. With a little practice, this will take less time than it takes to read the steps.

• Open the new template to which you want to copy the list style and its associated heading styles.
• Press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+S (or click the dialog launcher arrow in the bottom right corner of the Styles group on the Home tab) to open the Styles pane.
• Click the Manage Styles button (third from the left at the bottom of the pane).
• In the Manage Styles dialog, click the Import/Export button to open the Organizer.
• The currently open template will appear on one side of the organizer, and (usually) Normal.dotm on the other side. Click the Close File button under Normal.dotm; when it changes to an Open File button, click it again.
• In the Open dialog, select the older template that contains the list style, and click the Open button.
• In the list of styles in the older template, click the name of your list style. That will automatically also select all the heading styles that are linked to the list style, if they don't exist in the new template.
• Click the Copy button.
• Click the Close button.
• Save the new template.

  
  One caveat: The formatting (font, color, alignment, maybe cap/small cap) of headings in documents based on either template will depend in which theme and variation is selected in the Design tab. Choosing a different variation will probably disconnect all the heading styles from the list style -- don't do it!

Using File | Save As to create a new template with the desired numbering formatting is the approach I recommend, because it is easier than copying numbered styles between files. Any undesired content brought along in the process must be deleted from your new template, as you have noticed.