I have had two friends come to me because of the same problem. One work
around I've found is to use the Outlining toolbar. But it still bugs me that
the tab button no longer works!

"Cindy W." wrote:

I seem to have the opposite problem as some of you. I can't seem to get my
automatic numbering to work. I have to type a numbered list and then click on
the numbering icon on my toolbar to apply the formatting for the numbered
list. I used to only need to type: "1. xyz" then hit my return key and it
would automatically format this first line and format the next line just like
it. Now, no matter what I have selected, I can't get this to automatically
format the numbered lists the way it used to. Word is ignoring my
customizations and selections in many cases besides this. I have just
recently had MS Office 2003 Professional loaded on my computer from our IT
folks.