Atto Word Import not preserving bullet and numbered lists

Atto Word Import not preserving bullet and numbered lists

by Phillip Duncan -
Number of replies: 4

Does anyone have an idea for how to preserve the bullet or numbered list formats when you import a .docx file into Atto editor?

I am trying to import a list like:

1. List item 1

2. List item 2


But it drops the numbers like:

List item 1

List item 2


Thanks in advance!

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In reply to Phillip Duncan

Re: Atto Word Import not preserving bullet and numbered lists

by Eoin Campbell -

The Word Import plugin for Atto depends on the use of named styles in the Word document to do a good job of importing content and retaining the correct formatting. In Word, named styles are easy to insert for Headings, but not so easy for lists, hence the problem you are seeing.

  • To insert the named style "List Bullet" in Word, use the keyboard shortcut <Ctrl>+<Shift>+L.
  • To insert the named style "List Number", press <Ctrl>+<Shift>+S to open a floating "Apply Styles" pane, type in "List Number", and click the "Apply" button.
In the Word Home ribbon menu, the default icons for numbered and bulleted lists apply visual formatting, but do not set to paragraphs to the appropriate built-in named styles, which is a bit silly. I created a Word template which you can download and install that makes the process of applying named styles easier, see moodleBookStartup.dotm on the www.Moodle2Word.net website. You should install this template in your Word Startup folder, usually something like c:\Users\accountname\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Word\STARTUP\.

The screenshot below shows the MoodleBook ribbon menu, with the document in Draft view, the Style area pane turned on, and the style names highlighted.



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In reply to Eoin Campbell

Re: Atto Word Import not preserving bullet and numbered lists

by Phillip Duncan -

Thanks, Eoin

That has moved me along a good way.

I do still have some questions, though.

We have loads of pre-built manuals which have step by step instructions as numbered lists with graphics mixed in with the list, so finding an easy way to handle lists with interspersed images will save us hours of effort.

Here a simplified view of how they look in Word.  I've used the Moodlebook add-in tab to create this and applied the styles indicated.


The challenge is that, when I drag and drop the saved word doc 'Test moodle2.docx' into the content editor in Moodle, I get the following result:

1. The list numbering restarts from 1 (should be 3).

2. The image and continuation text for item 2 are no longer indented


I recognise that this may be something we have to live with, but would appreciate any hints you may have.

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In reply to Phillip Duncan

Re: Atto Word Import not preserving bullet and numbered lists

by Eoin Campbell -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

The implementation of Lists in Word is extremely complicated, and as a result, they are a pain to convert into HTML. Here is a suggestion for keeping lists looking acceptable when you want to have multiple paragraphs in a list item, especially with numbered lists.

  1. When a list item contains more than one paragraph, don’t use the List Continue style for the 2nd and subsequent paragraphs of the item.
    Instead, use a hard newline (press <Shift>+<Return> in Word) to force a new line, and insert the next paragraph on the next line, as in this example.
  2. When a list item contains an image, don’t put it in its own paragraph (not even with the List Continue style). Instead, use a hard newline (press <Shift>+<Return> in Word) to force a new line, and insert the image on the next line, as in this example.
    Moodle logo
  3. This approach ensures that list numbering behaves correctly when imported into a Moodle Book, or into the Atto editor.
The attached Word file shows the formatting used to achieve this result.
Average of ratings: Useful (3)
In reply to Eoin Campbell

Re: Atto Word Import not preserving bullet and numbered lists

by Phillip Duncan -

Great! That's worked for me, and we'll save loads of time turning our docx files into moodle lessons.


Your help is much appreciated, Eoin.

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