What does "Restart numbering after" do in Outline Numbering?

[New Daddy]

[Word 2003]

What does "Restart numbering after" do in Outline Numbered List do when you use only bullets?
I was having trouble with the indents in a multi-layer outline numbered list that only uses bullets (i.e., no numbers). The output in the text wouldn't adhere to the number position and text position, no matter what I tried. Out of desperation, I unchecked the "Restart numbering after" for all levels, and voila! All of a sudden, the indentation corrected itself to conform to my settings.

Does anyone know what this happened? All is well that ends well, but I just want to understand Word's behavior better for next time.

[HansV]

I don't know if there is a satisfying explanation for that, especially since we don't know what the document looked like. My best guess - but it's no more than that - is that unchecking 'Restart numbering after' forced Word to recalculate the indents from scratch.