format: docx will double up autonumbering in headings if number-sections: true is supplied in YAML and the reference-doc includes numbering.

[charliejhadley]

Bug description

Hello Quarto devs! Thanks for the ambitious project - it's very impressive.

I'll leave this up to you if you count this as a bug or expected behaviour. When combining number-sections: true with a reference-doc with numbering included it'll double up the numbers.

Steps to reproduce

Reprex making use of the attached reference doc

custom-reference-doc.docx

---
title: "Untitled"
format: 
  docx:
    reference-doc: custom-reference-doc.docx
number-sections: true
---

# First heading

# Second heading

## Subheading


---

Actual behavior

Expected behavior

Your environment

• IDE: Visual Studio
• OS: macOS 14.4 (23E214)

Quarto check output

Quarto 1.6.40
[✓] Checking environment information...
Quarto cache location: /home/vscode/.cache/quarto
[✓] Checking versions of quarto binary dependencies...
Pandoc version 3.4.0: OK
Dart Sass version 1.70.0: OK
Deno version 1.46.3: OK
Typst version 0.11.0: OK
[✓] Checking versions of quarto dependencies......OK
[✓] Checking Quarto installation......OK
Version: 1.6.40
Path: /opt/quarto/bin

[✓] Checking tools....................OK
TinyTeX: v2025.01
Chromium: (not installed)

[✓] Checking LaTeX....................OK
Using: TinyTex
Path: /home/vscode/.TinyTeX/bin/x86_64-linux
Version: 2024

[✓] Checking basic markdown render....OK

[✓] Checking Python 3 installation....OK
Version: 3.13.1
Path: /usr/local/bin/python3
Jupyter: 5.7.2
Kernels: python3

[✓] Checking Jupyter engine render....OK

[✓] Checking R installation...........(None)

  Unable to locate an installed version of R.
  Install R from https://cloud.r-project.org/

[mcanouil]

Thank for the report.

I would say there is no bug here.

Quarto does not use the styles from the reference document to number section.
The option works exactly as intended in the intended context.

To avoid this behaviour, this would require a complete rework of how numbering works.

Note that you would get the exact same thing using Pandoc directly:

quarto pandoc --from markdown --to docx -o document.docx --number-section --reference-doc custom-reference-doc.docx document.qmd

[charliejhadley]

That makes perfect sense - thanks for taking the time to reply! I'm going to close :)

[mcanouil]

I'm reopening because the maintainers might see this as an enhancement to make

[cderv]

Thank @mcanouil.

I don't think we can do something about this. Also because pandoc itself does not handle this differently.

number-sections: true should not be used with reference doc that already set number in their heading styles.

Unfortunately I don't see what enhancement we could do, especially with custom reference doc... 🤔

[mcanouil]

The style is likely controlled somehow in OpenXML, I'm guessing using OpenXML to set numbering instead of hardcoding it could be the enhancement, but it could be on Pandoc side.
The major hiccup is the deep expertise in OpenXML required. Unfortunately, Word and PowerPoint do not share the same OpenXML markups for many things as I discovered with simple text styling.
So, it would be a huge endeavour in my opinion.

[cderv]

I agree that if this was done, it should probably be upstream in Pandoc anyway