Header numbering in Google Docs

Question

Is there a way to automatically number headings in Google Docs?

It used to be possible with CSS but this feature isn't supported anymore in the new Google Docs version.

Answer 1

Actually it is possible even without editing the HTML/CSS. I'll give you an example with a blank document but once you'll figure out how it works you will be able to do it on already existed document. Also if you are not already using the keyboard shortcuts I would suggest you to start using them (in this example I'm using Mac's shortcuts, but you can easily find the correct ones for your own OS).

1. Create a new document
2. Apply Heading 1 (⌘⌥1)
3. Apply Numbered List (⌘⇧7)
4. Type "First" and press Return
5. Apply Heading 1 (⌘⌥1), type "Second" and press Return
6. Apply Heading 1 (⌘⌥1), type "Third" and press Return

At that Point you should have something that looks like this:

1. Get your cursor at the end of the First header
2. Press Return twice
3. Type "Hello World!"
4. Repeat the procedure for the rest of the headers

Now your document should look something like this:

As you might noticed the automatic numbering is still there and you can easily experiment by adding more Headers as you wish and even numbered sub-headers if needed. I'm not going into more details, but here you can check an example with nested numbered lists with correct formatting for Headers: