https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Add-or-remove-line-numbers-b67cd35e-422c-42eb-adc9-256ca9802e22
Thanks.... but I already know how to do that, and those suggestions do not appear to help assign line numbers to text which is in a box.
Let me explain what I am doing.
I have divided a page into two boxed columns, the one on the left being about four inches wide and the one on the right about two inches wide. Those columns run the full length of the page.
Then I have cut and pasted ifirst column (the one on the left) the entire text of a novella for my students to read, and my plan is to have the column on the right for their notes and also for me to have definitions for the words they will not know in the text of the story, with most of the "definitions" being less definitions than references to pages and lines elsewhere in the story where they will find the same word, in order to allow them to make an effort to figure out the meaning from the context, since multiple references to the unfamiliar word will help in determining its meaning from context.
Of course to do this I need to be able to refer to the page and line where they will find the words elsewhere in the story, meaning I need to have all of the text of the story line numbered. While it is simple to do when the text is not in columns in boxes, once it is in columns, the normal way of using line numbering appears not to work at all, leaving lines numbered neither in the columns nor outside. And putting things in columns is needed in order to get the notes to the RH side either defining the unfamiliar words or referring students to other places in t text where they will find the words again.