Numbering in Word

We have had recent requests to number paragraphs both within tables and as text. Normally we would set a heading numbering (say Heading 1) then each paragraph would be formatted as as Heading 2. The alternative is to have a numbered list. This numbering would apply throughout the document.

The recent documents have been very large and split into separate files. How do I get the numbered paragraphs to start at a specific number e.g.3.2.1 both within text and cells in a table? Is there any online sites,guides I can use?