Why does "continue numbering" behave unexpectedly?

Question

I have an example document that uses nested numbered lists that are continued (the sample document is much simplified, but it shows the same problem).

When I want the last list item to continue the numbering at the same (very first) level, the indentation changes and the number is not what it should be. Maybe I just don't understand the concepts as the online documentation is very poor. It could be a bug in list management, also.

So here is how the numbering looks like before trying to fix the last number (item marked red):

And here is how it looks after I tried to continue the numbering for the last list item (item marked red). I expected the item to be "2.":

Unfortunately I have no idea how to provide the test document.

Alternate explanation of the problem

If I have two concurrent numbered lists (outlines), how would I format such avoiding direct formatting as much as possible?

Example:

1) First Step of some procedure A (A1), possibly with sub-steps

2) Step A2

1) First step of procedure B (B1), possibly with sub-steps

3) Next step of procedure A (A3), ... ...

(the list may change between procedure A and procedure B multiple times)

I suspect that LibreOffice has a bug where the actual numbering format, and not the levels of the outlines determine which counters are incremented. Even after reading the long manual, I didn't understand the concepts behind.

Answer 1

Can't really explain the strange numbering you encountered, as I was unable to reproduce the effect. However, the "Alternate explanation of the problem" concerning how to provide interleaved lists with proper numbering for each list can be addressed using List Styles.

In the example shown below, I created two new custom List Styles, entitled "Numbering α" and "Numbering β" (with intentionally distinctive notation after each number). To start, I double-clicked Numbering α in the "Styles and Formatting" pane to start an α list.

To start a β list, I got the insertion point to a blank line and double-clicked Numbering β.

Then, whenever I wanted to continue a list or switch from one list to the other, I would double-click the appropriate List Style as needed.

Also, if the insertion point is on an item from, say, list α, double-clicking Numbering β switches the item to the other list, with any subsequent items in each of the lists renumbered as needed. (Note: if a document has a very large quantity of list items, you may need to hit F9 or select Tools > Update > Fields for renumbering to be properly displayed.)

Creating and customizing new lists is pretty straightforward; you can right-clicked in the empty area of the "Styles and Formatting" pane, select "New...", and tweak stuff for a new list as needed. For specific info, see the "Creating custom (new) styles" and "Working with list styles" sections of Writer 6.0 Guide : Chapter 9 - Working with Styles.