https://discuss.asciidoctor.org/Heading-7-not-handled-tp710p713.html
Rob,
The same is true for AsciiDoc Python. In fact, Asciidoctor supports one more level than AsciiDoc (heading 6).
My advice is that once you get that deep, you are better off using a block title (i.e., label) rather than a heading. An open block is a great way to get the output you are expecting.
Here's an example of an open block used for this purpose:
```asciidoc
.[[pseudo-section]]Pseudo Section
--
This is an open block with a title and refid.
It's kind of like a lightweight section.
It may contain other blocks and paragraphs.
--
```
Here's how it's rendered:
```html
<div class="openblock"><div class="title"><a id="pseudo-section"></a>Pseudo Section</div>
<div class="content">
<div class="paragraph">
<p>This is an open block with a title.</p>
</div>
<div class="paragraph">
<p>It’s kind of like a lightweight section.</p>
</div>
<div class="paragraph">
<p>It may contain other blocks and paragraphs.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
```
Another approach is to use a floating (i.e., discrete) heading. This allows you to insert a plain heading that isn't seen as a section, but still has an auto-generated id. It still has the be between heading 1 and 6.
Here's an example of a discrete heading:
```asciidoc
[float]
====== Pseudo Section
This text is a sibling, not a child, of the discrete heading above. The discrete heading level does not have to follow the section level hierarchy.
```
AsciiDoc doesn't attempt to validate intents. By that, I mean that if you don't insert syntax it recognizes, it just assumes it's regular content. It would be very expensive (and quite complex) to attempt to validate all permutations of syntax that fall outside of the AsciiDoc syntax...and probably catch stuff it shouldn't.
What I do see as a possibility is to have a separate validator program in the Asciidoctor ecosystem that looks for these types of errors and beyond-the-edge cases. That's also something that a tool might address (in the same way that a Java IDE provides validation warnings). Another way to know you've gone outside the syntax is to have a good syntax highlighter. When using VIM, for instance, I know a heading 7 is invalid because the syntax shuts off after heading 6.
At the very least, I think the information and recommendations I wrote in this e-mail should go into the user manual. Could you point me to the place in the Spring docs where a heading 7 is used so that I can look at this from a reader's perspective?
Let me know what you think about these suggestions.
-Dan