Well, if you specify 2 for "Count by", Word will display line numbers
2, 4, 6, 8, etc. Similarly, if you specify 3, Word will display
numbers for the third, sixth, ninth, etc. lines. This is by design.
If you want a custom format for line numbering, you'll have to do the
following:
On the View menu, click Header and Footer. Word positions the
insertion point in the header.
On the Insert menu, click Text Box. Draw a text box in the left
margin. Adjust its height so that it fits exactly within the top and
bottom margins of the page. Remove the border. Set the top and bottom
margins of the text box to zero.
In the text box, make sure that text has the same font, font size, and
line spacing as the text of the main body of the document. Type ENTER
multiple times so that you fill the text box vertically. Then enter
the desired numbers. For example, you can type 1 for the first line, 3
for the third line, 5 for the fifth line, if this is what you want.
Note that the success of the above method depends on how you indicate
new paragraphs in your text. If you are using first line indents, it
should work fine. (In this case, empty paragraphs work fine, too --
but their use is not recommended in Word documents.) On the other
hand, if you are using Spacing Before (or After), you may have to set
Line Spacing to a fixed amount (for body text as well as the text in
the text box), or your custom line numbers may not match text lines
properly.
