I am using MS Word to write technical requirements and I have the following
problem that I could use assistance with.

Our requirement documents are divided into sections based on functionality
(hardware, firmware, software, etc). The requirements are numbered and
the requirement numbers are referenced by our development and test
organizations (e.g. test cases are mapped to the requirement numbers).

Here's the problem...New requirements are added as additional features are
introduced to the product. So I need a way to number the requirements that
won't cause a change to the numbering of existing requirements. This
precludes the use of numbered lists. Also, the numbering mechanism would
have to continue its numbering across multiple editing sessions. I've done
this in the past using FrameMaker by using Counter variables.

Anyone have any suggestions?

You can use a macro with the following code:

Dim NextNumber As Variant
NextNumber = System.PrivateProfileString("c:\Numbers.txt", "Numbers",
"Number")
If NextNumber = "" Then
NextNumber = InputBox("Enter the starting number.", "Numbers", 1)
End If
Selection.InsertBefore NextNumber
Selection.Collapse wdCollapseEnd
System.PrivateProfileString("c:\Numbers.txt", "Numbers", "Number") =
NextNumber + 1

Assign it to the keyboard or to a toolbar button to make it easy to use.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

"twistedsw" wrote in message
...
I am using MS Word to write technical requirements and I have the following
problem that I could use assistance with.

Our requirement documents are divided into sections based on functionality
(hardware, firmware, software, etc). The requirements are numbered
and
the requirement numbers are referenced by our development and test
organizations (e.g. test cases are mapped to the requirement numbers).

Here's the problem...New requirements are added as additional features are
introduced to the product. So I need a way to number the requirements
that
won't cause a change to the numbering of existing requirements. This
precludes the use of numbered lists. Also, the numbering mechanism would
have to continue its numbering across multiple editing sessions. I've
done
this in the past using FrameMaker by using Counter variables.

Anyone have any suggestions?