Page Numbering in OpenOffice.org Writer (a tutorial)

[Paul]

Page numbering seems to be something that trips up a lot of new OOo users. Hopefully, reading through this will help make things clearer


Let's start with something simple, putting a page number onto a blank page using the stylist:

You can add a page number wherever you want on a page, this tutorial will show you how to put a centered page number in the footer.


1. Open a blank text document
2. Press F11 or click on the stylist button to open the stylist
3. Click on the 4th icon from the left in the stylist (Page Styles)
   
   The available page styles are listed, they are:

   Default
   Endnote
   Envelope
   First Page
   Footnote
   HTML
   Index
   Left Page
   Right page

   You can add your own customized styles to this list later if you want.
   
4. The page style Default will be highlighted. Right-click on it and select Modify
5. Select the Footer tab
6. Click in the Footer on check box to place a tick there. The other footer options will become active. Click OK to accept changes.
7. Scroll down the page and click inside the footer to put your cursor there. The text boundaries for the main body of text and the footer will have adjusted to accomodate the new page layout.
8. Type "Page " (Page<space>)
9. From the Menu bar select Insert > Fields > Page Number. A number 1 in a grey shaded box will appear in the footer aligned to the left, so you will see "Page 1".
   
   

   Depending on your settings you may see the text "Page numbers" shaded grey instead. This is the name of the field. To toggle between the name and the contents of the field select View > Fields or press Ctrl+F9

   
   
10. If you want, you can also insert the total number of pages here so that (if your document has 3 pages) the footer will read "Page 1 of 3", "Page 2 of 3" etc
    
    • Place your cursor after the shaded 1
    • Type " of " (<space>of<space>)
    • Select Insert > Fields > Page Count. At this stage the footer will read "Page 1 of 1" as there is only 1 page in your document.
11. Now click on the 1st icon from the left in the stylist Paragraph Styles
12. Provided you haven't moved the cursor out of the footer, the Footer style will be highlighted. Right-click on it and select Modify
13. Select the Alignment tab
14. Click on the Center (American spelling) radio button and click OK

Now any time the Default page style is used in this document the page number and count of the total number of pages will be displayed in the centre of the footer.

Of course, you could follow the same procedure to add page numbers to other Page Styles if you want. In my next post I'll show how to use Page Styles in your document.

[Paul]

OK, that sorts out getting a page number onto pages.

There are other ways to achieve this, but I try to use the Stylist whenever possible. A few extra moments doing it 'right' at the start can save hours later.

What about if you want some pages in your document NOT to have page numbers but some should? e.g. you want a title page without page numbers but the rest should be numbered?

Code: Select all

Page 1 - no number
Page 2 - "Page 2 of 3"
Page 3 - "Page 3 of 3"

Now we need to use other Page Styles in the stylist...

1. Make sure your cursor is in Page 1
2. Open the Stylist (F11)
3. Click on the Page Styles icon (4th from the left)
4. Double-click on the First Page page style
5. Scroll down to the bottom of the page. You will notice that the footer box has disappeared.
   DON'T PANIC
6. Enter enough text to fill the page, then scroll down to the bottom of page 2 where you will see the text "Page 2 of 2" If you continued entering text into page 3, in the footer of page 3 you would see the text "Page 3 of 3"

What we've actually done is applied the "First Page" page style to page 1. This page style automatically applies the "Default" page style to the page following it.
So page 2 has the "Default" page style applied to it, which is where we have already set up the page numbers.

The feature of setting certain page styles to follow on from one another can be found here:

1. Right-click on the Page Style name
2. Right-click on it and select Modify
3. Select the Organizer tab
4. The page style shown in the "Next Style" box is that which will follow a page of the style you are modifying.
   To see how this works read this post "I made earlier".

In my next post I'll show how to number different sections of a document separately.

[Paul]

So, we've seen that what is displayed in the header or footer depends on the Page Style.

If we want to number some pages of the document separately, then we need to assign different page styles to these pages too.

An example, let's imagine that we have a project that has 2 parts. Pages 1-3 form Part 1 of the project document, pages 4 & 5 form Part 2 of the project document. We want the pages to be numbered like this:

Code: Select all

Page 1 - no number (Part 1)
Page 2 - "Page 2 of 3" (Part 1)
Page 3 - "Page 3 of 3" (Part 1)

Page 4 - "Page 1 of 2" (Part 2)
Page 5 - "Page 2 of 2" (Part 2)

We've already completed the pages for Part 1.

Now let's create a new Page Style called "Part 2":

1. Open the Stylist (F11)
2. Click on the Page Styles icon (4th from the left)
3. Right-click on the Default page style and select New
4. The Organizer tab will be shown. In the Name box type "Part 2" (without the quotes)
5. Click on the Footer tab and click in the Footer on check box to place a tick there. The other footer options will become active. Click OK to accept your changes.
   
6. At the end of Page 3 select Insert > Manual Break > Page break
7. Under Style select the new page style you have just created Part 2 from the drop-down box.
8. Click in the Change page number check box to place a tick there.
   The box below will show the new page number that will be used from the first page of this new page style.
9. Click OK to insert the Page Break
   
10. Scroll down the page and click inside the footer to put your cursor there. The text boundaries for the main body of text and the footer will have adjusted to accomodate the new page layout.
11. Type "Page " (Page<space>)
12. From the Menu bar selct Insert > Fields > Page Number. A number 1 in a grey shaded box will appear in the footer, so you will see "Page 1".
    
    

    Depending on your settings you may see the text "Page numbers" shaded grey instead. This is the name of the field. To toggle between the name and the contents of the field select View > Fields or press Ctrl+F9

13. Place your cursor after the shaded
14. Type " of " (<space>of<space>)
15. Press F2, the Text formula bar will appear at the top of the window with an equals symbol already entered for you.
16. Type "page-4" and press enter.
    You will now see "Page 1 of 1" in the footer.
    
    Now enter enough text to fill the page and start the next page and you will see that the text in the page we were on updates to "Page 1 of 2" nd the following page displays "Page 2 of 2".

There are a couple of things to be aware of:

• Pages 2 & 3 (of the whole document) will read "Page 2 of 6", "Page 3 of 6" etc. unless you change the "Page Count" field (which is called "statistics" when you display the field).
  
• In order to display the correct number of "total pages" in Part 2 of the document it was necessary to insert an offset (page-4) which subtracts 4 from the total number of pages.
  So if more pages are inserted into either Part of the document the "Page Count" field will have to be manually edited.

To do this:

1. Part 1: Press Ctrl+F9 (to show field names) and delete the Statistics field.
2. Press F2, the Text formula bar will appear at the top of the window with an equals symbol already entered for you.
3. Type "page-2" (or whatever the correct offset is) and press enter.
   
4. Part 2: Press Ctrl+F9 (to show field names) and double-click on Insert Formula page-4
5. An "Edit Fields: Variables" box will appear. At the bottom the formula you entered is displayed which can now be edited.
6. When you have finished editing click on OK and Press Ctrl+F9 (to switch field names off again).

The other thing that may happen is that the numbers may not always update as you would expect. If that happens press F9 to manually update them. This I'm not 100% sure about - it may be a bug from a previous version that is now fixed

[Paul]

IMO, starting numbering at a number other than 1 is a mystery unless someone shows you how.

You think you've cracked it using the "offset" until you run into this problem:
http://www.oooforum.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=149

There is a bug report about this:
http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=16047

This issue provides a link to another guide where there are these instructions for starting page numbering at a number other than 1:

1. Place your cursor in the header or footer of your document.
2. Insert the page number, click Insert > Fields > Page Number. The page number will be 1.
3. Place your cursor in the first paragraph in the text area, or type a paragraph of text if your document is blank.
4. Click Format > Paragraph (or right-click and choose Paragraph from the pop-up menu) to display the Paragraph dialog box.
5. Click the Text Flow tab. In the Breaks section, select Enable (OOo1) or Insert (OOo2), With Page Style, and the page style you are using for the first page of the document.
   
6. The Page number field is now active. Type the page number you want to start with. Click OK to close the Paragraph dialog box.
   
   Do not set a starting page number that is an even number or you will get a blank page after the first page.
   However, you can change the options so that this blank page doesn't "print" in Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org Writer > Print (remove the tick from "Print automatically inserted blank pages").

[annoyed...]

I just spent three hours writing an essay. I just spent two hours after this trying to implement: a header for the first page, a different one for the essay itself, and then no header/page numbers showing on the last page which is a bibliography.

Well, I follwed the instructions here, to the letter over and over again, and what keeps happening is that it is creating a first page header, followed by a default header which runs though the body, but, when I try to assign a different header to the last page (the biblio, separated by a page break!), it assigns this style now to the default style, thus eraseing it!

[Paul]

when I try to assign a different header to the last page

I think this may be where you're going wrong If you edit the header, it will affect all pages which use the page style you're modifying regardless of any manual page breaks you have inserted.

To have different headers for first page, body of document, last page, you need at least 3 different Page styles.

You could use the existing First Page and Default page styles, but you probably need to create at least 1 new page style which I'd suggest calling "Last Page" or "Biblio".

HTH ,

[jonnybecker]

Hi,

In order to display the correct number of "total pages" in Part 2 of the document it was necessary to insert an offset (page-4) which subtracts 4 from the total number of pages.
So if more pages are inserted into either Part of the document the "Page Count" field will have to be manually edited

If I have understood it correctly, this means I have to increase(insert) the page number manually in Part 3 for the case below:
I want the page numbers in Part 3 be continued from Part 1, without worrying if some more pages are inserted in Part 1.

Code: Select all

Page 1 - no number (Part 1)
Page 2 - "Page 2" (Part 1)
Page 3 - "Page 3" (Part 1)

Page 4 - "Page 1" (Part 2)
Page 5 - "Page 2" (Part 2)

Page 6 - "Page 4" (Part 3, page numbers continued from Part 1)
Page 7 - "Page 5" (Part 3, page numbers continued from Part 1)

If I'm wrong, how can I continue the page numbering from Part 1 in Part 3 dynamically?

cheers
jonny

[Paul]

Hi jonnybecker,

Hi,

I want the page numbers in Part 3 be continued from Part 1, without worrying if some more pages are inserted in Part 1.

Code: Select all

Page 1 - no number (Part 1)
Page 2 - "Page 2" (Part 1)
Page 3 - "Page 3" (Part 1)

Page 4 - "Page 1" (Part 2)
Page 5 - "Page 2" (Part 2)

Page 6 - "Page 4" (Part 3, page numbers continued from Part 1)
Page 7 - "Page 5" (Part 3, page numbers continued from Part 1)

In your example above, you only show the page number (not the total pages "of X"). This simplifies things a bit.

However, there is a problem if you've created the document following the instructions above:

• At the end of Page 3 select Insert > Manual Break > Page break
• Under Style select the new page style you have just created Part 2 from the drop-down box.
• Click in the Change page number check box to place a tick there.
  The box below will show the new page number that will be used from the first page of this new page style.
• Click OK to insert the Page Break

This means that you have reset the page number to 1 starting with the fourth page of the document. It is then difficult (impossible?) to link back to the page numbers before the reset.


It seems that it's only possible to dynamically continue page numbering from Part 1 in Part 3 if you know the number of pages in Part 2.

So, instead of the above, for Part 2 in your example I would not have a header or footer for that page style and instead of using page number fields, would manually type the page numbers at the top or bottom of the pages in Part 2.

Then, for Part 3 I would create a new Page Style (Part 3), and when inserting the page number create an offset equivalent to the total number of pages in part 2 (i.e. -2 in this example).

You would be able to increase the number of pages in Part 1 without having to modify Part 3, BUT if the number of pages in Part 2 increases you would have to manually type in the extra page number(s)

The problem really is that I don't know a way of linking page styles together i.e. linking the page style used in Part 1 with Part 3. Anyway I hope this helps

[Guest]

Hi,

thanks for the help. But my intention was to avoid manual intervention, to keep everthing dynamically.

What if I skipped Part 3 and instead used Part 1 again?

Code: Select all

Page 1 - no number (Part 1)
Page 2 - "Page 2" (Part 1)
Page 3 - "Page 3" (Part 1)

Page 4 - "Page 1" (Part 2)
Page 5 - "Page 2" (Part 2)

Page 6 - "Page 4" (Part 1, page numbers continued from Part 1)
Page 7 - "Page 5" (Part 1, page numbers continued from Part 1)

Tried this, but the numbers continue from Part 2. I get on Page 6 - "Page 3" and so on.

Any ideas how to avoid this?

thanks
jonny

[Paul]

Yes that's the result if you have reset the page number in Part 2 by following the guide above.

If you "skipped Part 3 and instead used Part 1 again" (not having reset the page number as described in my previous post) you would get:

Code: Select all

Page 1 - no number (Part 1)
Page 2 - "Page 2" (Part 1)
Page 3 - "Page 3" (Part 1)

Page 4 - "Page 1" (Part 2) If pg numbers manually typed or edited
Page 5 - "Page 2" (Part 2) If pg numbers manually typed or edited

Page 6 - "Page 6" (Part 1)
Page 7 - "Page 7" (Part 1)

Any ideas how to avoid this?

No, I spent about an hour and a half earlier trying different things to achieve this. Unless I'm missing something obvious then I don't think it can be done

Of course it can be done with 2 separate numbered documents as the page numbers don't relate to one another. Or, you could put Parts 1 & 3 together (so the numbers follow on) then put part 2 at the end of the document, then all the content would be together (not in the right order) and page numbers could be generated automatically.

I don't know what your document is for so I realize that may not be practical.

BTW you may not have received an email that you've got this reply because you weren't logged in for your last post. If you check "Log me on automatically each visit" when logging in then you shouldn't have to do it each time and you will receive email notifications when one of your posts is replied to.

[drivingmenuts]

OK, so assuming we've done everything correctly to this point, how does one change the page number on an already established page?

Or am I just not reading this carefully enough?

For example: I built a cover page for a document, which has no header, and then created the first page of the report which starts with page 1. Later, I find that I should have started with some arbitrary other number (say 3) because there will be material inserted later that I'm not producing.

[Paul]

Hi drivingmenuts,

This should be fairly straightforward

1. Press Ctrl+F9 (to show field names)
2. The field "Page Numbers" will be shaded grey
3. Double-click on it
4. The "Edit Fields: Document" window will appear
5. In the Offset box (bottom left) type the number you want to offset by. So, if you want the first page to be "3" enter an offset of 2
6. When you have finished editing click on OK and Press Ctrl+F9 (to switch field names off again)

HTH,

[zhmei]

thank you, thank you, thank you!
thank you for taking your time and writing such priceless tips for us OOO newbies!
:mrgreen:

[drivingmenuts]

Sorry for not getting back to you sooner, but thank you. That helped very much.

[Jutta]

Hi!

I want to change a document so that the page numbering begins with 12. (It's not a document I created myself.) I did what you described in yuor posting form Jan 24, and it worked, but only from page 12 to 15. The following pages have no numbers at all.

In the Help section it says that you can change the number of a page, but only if a page with this number exists in the document. Is there something I can do?

Jutta