Tip of the Week: Numbering Above a List

Ever need to set two or more tables side by side in your layout? Here are three methods for getting the job done.

This tip was sent to Tip of the Week email subscribers on March 17, 2016.

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Ever want to make a numbered list where each number appears above the rest of the line?

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If your list has fewer than 10 items in it, you don’t have to fake it by manually typing in the numbers and adding extra paragraph returns. Instead, use a character style to position the numbers above the list items.

For the list paragraph style, specify a character style for the numbers.

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If you want everything to align on the left, remove any Left Indent or First Line Indent.

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In the character style, apply a large negative Tracking value to pull the text after the numbering back to the left. This is why the trick only works with lists less than 10 items long (once you get to double digits, the numbers appear tracked over each other).

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Then apply Baseline Shift to move the numbers up (you may need to then add additional Space Before/Space After in the paragraph style to make room for the numbers).

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This article was last modified on July 20, 2021

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