Hi,
I'm sorry this is so long, but I can't think how to describe the problem
more briefly.

I'm working on a book. I made a template, manual.dot. In manual.dot, I
defined a style, EXERCISE (for questions at the end of each chapter, a la
math and physics books), that formats a paragraph as a numbered list item
with the number indented -0.3 into the left margin, otherwise just body
text. I used this template to create several chapters. I opened another
document, with the same template, as a master document and inserted the
chapters.

I noticed that the exercise numbers did not restart with 1 in each chapter.
In retrospect it was silly, but I created a new style, FIRST EXERCISE,
identical with EXERCISE except that I checked reset for the list properties.
Using the master document, I changed the style of the first exercise in each
chapter to FIRST EXERCISE. It didn't work--numbers continued from previous
chapters. I reformatted the first question in each chapter to EXERCISE style
and deleted FIRST EXERCISE style. I deleted FIRST EXERCISE from manual.dot,
too.

I reopened the master document and selected the first exercise in each
chapter. Using format bullets and numbering, I clicked reset for each first
exercise. Surprisingly, the style FIRST EXERCISE reappeared in the list of
styles. Every time it reared its ugly head, I deleted it. The document
looked OK. I saved it and went to bed.

Next day I opened the master document and discovered that all exercises now
had a large, bold number at -0.75 into the left margin (same size and place
as for my heading level 2, probably not a coincidence.) I closed the master
document and checked the individual chapter files. Every exercise had a
bullet, not a number, and was indented to the right about 1.0. I checked
manual .dot and found that EXERCISE style was still OK as I wanted it: body
text with the number at -0.3.

I deleted the master document and created a new one. Same problem as with
the original one. I opened a chapter file and reformatted an exercise as I
wanted it: body text, number at -0.3, and assigned that to EXERCISE. I
inserted that file into a brand new master document based on manual.dot. All
exercises are now bulleted and indented about 1.0 to the right of the
margin.

I have no idea what's going on here or how to fix it. If you can help,
you'll save what little is left of my hair, which would be a good thing.

Thanks,

Elbert