[Solved] Put page number at center top of page

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chrijeff
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[Solved] Put page number at center top of page

Post by chrijeff »

I am working on a (very) long text doc., which began as a Word project. Word lets you decide where your page numbers will be, and I had them at the center top of the page. Now that I've converted to OO, they're all over on the left side. I'd like to either get them back to the center, or alternate left/right, like in a book. I tried the "Format" icon, but it was very confusing and I ended up having to close the document without saving. Suggestions?
 Edit: Changed subject, was Page numbering 
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Last edited by Hagar Delest on Sat Feb 19, 2022 1:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Tagged [Solved].
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FJCC
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Re: Page numbering

Post by FJCC »

You should be able to center the page numbers by placing the cursor just to the left of the page number and pressing the Tab key. You can do this on any page that has a page number.
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John_Ha
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Re: Page numbering

Post by John_Ha »

chrijeff wrote:I am working on a (very) long text doc., which began as a Word project.
Be sure to save the document as a .odt file and not as a .doc file. You may need to tidy up things like this after the first save to .odt and trhey are then fixed.

If you save as a .doc file you may find they change back after each save and the changes you make do not "stick".

See [Tutorial] Differences between Writer and MS Word files for a description of differences and for why you should always work in, and save Writer files as .odt, Calc files as .ods, Impress files as .odp etc.
LO 6.4.4.2, Windows 10 Home 64 bit

See the Writer Guide, the Writer FAQ, the Writer Tutorials and Writer for students.

Remember: Always save your Writer files as .odt files. - see here for the many reasons why.
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RoryOF
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Re: Page numbering

Post by RoryOF »

In OpenOffice, page Headers and Footers have predefined tab positions. The first tab centres the text, the second moves it to the far margin. It is frequently not necessary to redefine these tab positions. Be aware that you may have to change the First line Indent to zero on the paragraph style used for the text to get nice alignment.
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keme
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Re: Page numbering

Post by keme »

The "page numbering layout selector" in Word does not have an exact equivalent in Writer. There is a "Pagination" plugin available which does mostly the same, but I am not sure whether it is compatible with recent versions of the software.

Essentially, what that Word function and Writer plugin will do are 3 things:
  • Enable page header or footer.
  • select a position for the page number within that header or footer.
  • Insert a page number field.
You can easily perform these 3 steps manually.

Note that pagination is built on fundamentally different structures in Writer vs. in Word. Anything that "breaks the flow" in the page header/footer department (e.g. no header/footer for title page, different layout for index pages) will add sections when you move to Word context, and page styles into Writer context. Those autogenerated elements are not straight replacements for each other, so there will be cases when "alien" formatting builds up. This will accumulate with every transition. For your case, this may be the main reason to heed John_Ha's advice.

Also, if you - after changing storage format - find that page numbering does not behave as expected, don't hesitate to ask again. Some unfortunate combinations may easily work your doc into an unmanageable mess. "Formatting residue" must be cleared. If you can't manage it by yourself, in most cases we can help
.
chrijeff
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Re: Page numbering

Post by chrijeff »

Okay, if I can "perform these steps manually," how do I go about it?
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FJCC
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Re: Page numbering

Post by FJCC »

You can insert page numbers with these menu selections. The term header may be replaced by footer
1. Select Insert -> Header and select the page style that will have the header. Unless you have set up different page styles, pick the Default style.
2. Place the cursor in the header and use the Tab key to position it in the center or the right edge.
3. Select the menu Insert -> Fields -> Page Number
If the inserted field shows Page Number, turn off the menu item View -> Field Names.
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robleyd
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Re: Page numbering

Post by robleyd »

You might also find [Tutorial] Page numbering a useful source of information.
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cmlivengood
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Re: Page numbering

Post by cmlivengood »

FJCC wrote:You can insert page numbers with these menu selections. The term header may be replaced by footer
1. Select Insert -> Header and select the page style that will have the header. Unless you have set up different page styles, pick the Default style.
2. Place the cursor in the header and use the Tab key to position it in the center or the right edge.
3. Select the menu Insert -> Fields -> Page Number
If the inserted field shows Page Number, turn off the menu item View -> Field Names.

THANK YOU!!!

I just thought you might like to know know that someone is still getting help from this post.

CM
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Hagar Delest
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Re: Page numbering

Post by Hagar Delest »

Thanks for letting us know!
The best metric to estimate the efficiency so far is... the lack/end of recurrent questions about it. But there are still users who don't bother reading the tutorials or other discussions.
So it's good to know when there are positive feedback.
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