Example of Interrupted Ordered Lists

NOTE: This example was prepared using Microsoft Internet Assistant for Word, Version 2.0 beta.

This is How Internet Assistant Converted It

This is an example of Normal,P tagged text.
  1. This is an example of the List, Numbered (OL) tag.
  2. This is the second paragraph of the OL.
  3. This is the third paragraph of the OL.

This is an indented paragraph under the third item.

  1. This is supposed to be the fourth paragraph of the OL.
  2. This is supposed to be the fifth paragraph of the OL.
  3. This is an unordered list item (UL).
  4. This is the second UL item.
  5. This is supposed to be the sixth paragraph of the OL.

This is the next Normal,P paragraph.

As the example shows, Ordered Lists can be interrupted with Unordered Lists, but not with other plain formatting. While the flaw is in HTML and not Internet Assistant, I would have liked a more automatic way to convert the proper numbering when they are encountered. My current method is to reset the number value in the separated portion of the list using the HTML "start" code: <OL start=n> where n is the number at which you want the list to restart.

How It's Supposed to Look

View the source code on the example below to see what I mean. The desired effect was only possible through a manual edit using the new Windows 95 WordPad program. The indented paragraph under the third item was retagged as BLOCKQUOTE and the second portion of the list was restarted in the OL coding. Since Internet Assistant ignored the start of the bulleted list, that was also added, along with item number six.
  1. This is an example of the List, Numbered (OL) tag.
  2. This is the second paragraph of the OL.
  3. This is the third paragraph of the OL.
This is an indented paragraph under the third item.
  1. This is the fourth paragraph of the OL (manually edited to restart numbering).
  2. This is the fifth paragraph of the OL (does not need modification if it follows the re-started list because it will increment based on the value of "Start=").
  1. This is the sixth paragraph of the OL.

While this manual re-work is still not perfect, it does clear up a lot of problems caused by either version of Internet Assistant. Perhaps the next build of Internet Assistant Version 2.0 will address this issue.