[Solved] Page numbers off-center

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Jeff Root
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Joined: Thu May 17, 2018 7:23 pm

[Solved] Page numbers off-center

Post by Jeff Root »

Open Office 4.1.5. I'm laying out a book. Page format is
Mirrored. Gutter margin is wider than the outside margin.
No header, just page numbers centered in the footer.

I'm finding that the page numbers on even-numbered pages
are a bit to the left of center. For example, on page 16,
the center of the page should be between the 1 and the 6.
Instead, it is to the right of the 6. Odd-numbered pages
are correctly centered.

There are no spaces or other nonprinting characters after the
numbers which would move the numbers to the left. When I show
nonprinting characters, an end-of-paragraph symbol shows up
immediately after all page numbers.

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis
Last edited by robleyd on Thu Sep 23, 2021 4:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Tag [Solved]
Open Office 4.1.5 Windows 10
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RoryOF
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Re: Page numbers off-center

Post by RoryOF »

Check that the Footer Paragraph style doesn't have an indent specified on its Indents and Spacing tab definitions.
Apache OpenOffice 4.1.15 on Xubuntu 22.04.4 LTS
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RoryOF
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Re: Page numbers off-center

Post by RoryOF »

Also, verify that the controlling tab is a Centre Tab, and is in the correct position on both left and right pages.
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keme
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Re: Page numbers off-center

Post by keme »

Background
There are three ways to center footer/header content:
The right way: Push the tab key (the one above caps lock) once. The paragraph style used for header content has one "center tab" in the middle as the first tab stop.
The acceptable way: Press ctrl+E to align entire content to center.
The wrong way: repeatedly push space until the cursor is near the middle of the footer.

The three options above are sorted from good to bad. Incidently they are also sorted from least common to most common.

Additional sources of error are not uncommon. The most common is that your file has visited "Microsoft Word context".

Diagnosis
The varying alignment suggests that you have some content or settings which are off. Which one(s) that may be is hard to tell without material content.

To properly diagnose your case of page numbering misalignment, we need a file from you. Prepare the file as follows:
  • Open your offending document.
  • Select menu item File - Save as. Save your file as "Sample for inspection". This will now be (more or less) a copy of your original file.
    Important! Do not proceed until this save step has been performed and you see the "Sample ..." file name in the window header.
  • Double click in content area to ensure that you are not working in header/footer area.
  • Shortcut key ctrl+A selects all your content.
  • Delete key removes all your content.
    You should now have one page, with or without a page number "1" in the footer. Most likely that is all we need.
  • Shortcut key ctrl+S saves the sample file again.
  • Close the sample document
  • Post a reply here, and use the Upload attachment tab below the edit pane to attach your sample file.
Jeff Root
Posts: 60
Joined: Thu May 17, 2018 7:23 pm

Re: Page numbers off-center

Post by Jeff Root »

Thank you for your replies so far!

I noticed a couple of things:

I set special page styles for the first several pages of
the book. They do not have page numbers on them, so they
don't have footers. All pages that have footers and page
numbers except for the first such page are Default style.
The first page with a page number is page 7, which I gave
a style of "Contents", since it is the table of contents.

I imagine that that might affect the proceedure you gave
for preparing a one-page sample file.

The dialog for Page Style Default, Footer tab, has a
checkbox labeled "Same content left/right". It is not
checked. I don't know if it should be.

Also, it appears that I used the middle way of your three
ways to center the page number. Actually, the button on
the Styles and Formatting bar.

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis
Open Office 4.1.5 Windows 10
Jeff Root
Posts: 60
Joined: Thu May 17, 2018 7:23 pm

Re: Page numbers off-center

Post by Jeff Root »

> The dialog for Page Style Default, Footer tab, has a
> checkbox labeled "Same content left/right". It is not
> checked. I don't know if it should be.

So ..... I checked the box and the problem was fixed.

The built-in help didn't explain what "Same content" means,
so I had no idea what it was for. Now I have an inkling....

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis
Open Office 4.1.5 Windows 10
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robleyd
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Re: [Solved] Page numbers off-center

Post by robleyd »

Clicking the Help button from the Footer tab in the page formatting dialog should lead to a help page that includes:
Same content left/right
Even and odd pages share the same content.
See this Wiki article for a little more information.
Cheers
David
OS - Slackware 15 64 bit
Apache OpenOffice 4.1.15
LibreOffice 24.2.1.2; SlackBuild for 24.2.1 by Eric Hameleers
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RoryOF
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Re: [Solved] Page numbers off-center

Post by RoryOF »

While Page Headers and Footers react quite similarly, it is often the case that one does not wish "Same content left and right" for Headers. In laying out a book it is often the case that one might wish a left page to contain Page Number, then Title, and a right page to contain Chapter Title, Page Number (in that order). Sometimes Chapter Title is required to be replaced with a section title.

The detail of using Page Headers/Footers in OpenOffice is dealt with in these Tutorials

[Tutorial] Page styles and headers/footers

[Tutorial] "In-line" or "run-in" headings
Apache OpenOffice 4.1.15 on Xubuntu 22.04.4 LTS
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