[Solved] Begin page numbering on page 8

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

[Solved] Begin page numbering on page 8

Post by Jeff Root »

A book with about 100 pages wants the page numbers centered
in a footer, but not on the first 7 pages, which are:

1 Half title
2 Blank
3 Title
4 Copyright
5 Acknowledgements
6 Dedication
7 Table of contents

What is the preferred way to do it and why is it preferred?

Where do I set the spacing between the bottom of the text
(or illustration) and the footer?

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis
Last edited by Hagar Delest on Mon Jul 23, 2018 9:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: tagged [Solved].
Open Office 4.1.5 Windows 10
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RoryOF
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Re: Begin page numbering on page 8

Post by RoryOF »

Good details on Page Numbering, which is linked with Page Styles, are given in
[Tutorial] Page numbering
and
[Tutorial]Page styles and headers/footers

Your first seven pages should (probably) be in First Page style, the balance of the book in Default page style (probably).

The spacings between headers/footers and the text area are set on the Header/Footer tab on the Page Style.

You ask
why is it preferred
The answer is, because it works this way in Open/Libre-Office.
 Edit: You may need to adjust First Page Style so that next page (Page Style - First Page: Organizer tab, Next Page) is First Page, not Default.

We can deal with the numbering when you have the first 7 pages as you wish, and the numbering starting on page 8 (probably showing as 8)

Play with your page numbering on a small test file, not on your main work. 
Apache OpenOffice 4.1.15 on Xubuntu 22.04.4 LTS
John_Ha
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Re: Begin page numbering on page 8

Post by John_Ha »

See Chapter 4 - Formatting Pages in the manual.

You may find this explanation helps your understanding.

You can get full information on Page Styles, Page Breaks and Page Numbering in Chapter 4 - Formatting Pages of the Writer Manual. Also see the Writer Tutorials where you will find [Example] Document structure and numbering and [Tutorial] Page numbering.

Be sure to download the two files in [Example] Document structure and numbering and format the example file - it will help you immeasurably.

It's all about Page Breaks.

It is very useful to make Page Breaks visible by Tools > Options (Preferences on Mac) > OpenOffice > Appearance > scroll to Text document > tick Section boundaries > choose a colour for Page and column breaks. Page Breaks now show on the screen as a thin coloured line and identify all Page Breaks. This is the default setting on later installations where Page Breaks appear as a thin blue line.

Also be sure to Set View > Non printing characters ..., to ON to see the paragraph breaks.

Page numbers

Page Numbers follow on sequentially from the previous page and there is nothing stored in the document to tell you what a given page number is because, apart from where a change is made, each page number is calculated by how far away from "its start" it is.

If you want to change the Page Number you must insert a Page Break and set the new Page Number. Go Insert > Manual Break > Page Break..., and a small pop-up window allows you to change the Page Number for the first (and hence subsequent) page(s) following the Page Break.

The Page Number you set is stored as an attribute of "the first paragraph on the page following the Page Break where the change in number is made". It can be seen, and changed, by placing the cursor in "the first paragraph on the page following the Page Break" and going Format > Paragraph > Text Flow .... The value " 0 " here means "page number follows on from the previous page number". Any value 17, 23 … etc means that this page starts at 17 or 23 etc.

There is an exception. If you define Page Style Fred to have a "Next Style Bill" then when you insert a Page Style Fred, the next page will automatically become Bill. In this case there is no Page Break between Fred and Bill, and Bill's "start" for numbering is Fred. Format > Paragraph in the first paragraph of Bill has no pagination information.

Page Styles – changing headers, footers and/or page formats

The Page Style following a Page Break can be exactly the same Page Style as the page before the Page Break or it can be a different Page Style.

If you want to change a header, change header text, change a footer, change footer text, change the page number, hide page number etc, you must insert a Page Break and you must select a Page Style which makes the change you want.

If you want to change the Page Style you must insert a Page Break and set the new Page Style. Go Insert > Manual Break > Page Break..., and a small pop-up window allows you to choose the Page Style for the first (and hence subsequent) page(s) following the Page Break.

Page Styles (and hence changed headers and footers); Page Breaks and Page Number are an attribute of "the first paragraph on the page following the Page Break where the change in number is made" even if the paragraph is empty or is a Heading (or is a table at the very top). Note that Heading means a Heading 1 or a Heading 2 etc, and not a Page header as in header/footer.

You can also manually insert or delete a Page Break; manually choose the Page Style (and hence change headers and footers); and manually change the Page Number; by placing the cursor in "the first paragraph on a page following a Page Break" and going Format > Paragraph > Text Flow > Breaks ... (or in the table, and going Table > Properties > Text Flow...) where all these options can be changed.

You can also delete a Page Break by Backspace, or by deleting highlighted text which includes the Page Break.

Debugging problems with page numbers or page styles, headers and footers

Debug Page Style changes / changed page numbering / changed header problems by placing the cursor in "the first paragraph on the page following the Page Break where the change in number is made" and going Format > Paragraph > Text Flow > Breaks .... What is the document telling Writer to do following the Page Break? If you see nothing there to cause the change, the document has become corrupted and (much!) more diagnosis is required. Remember if the Page Number here is " 0 " it means “page number follows on from previous page ...”

Be aware that there is no Page Break between different Page Styles if the second Page Style (Bill) is defined as the Next Style in the first Page Style(Fred). See Fred and Bill above.

Two words of caution

1. You can go Format > Page ..., and edit the format of the page in which the cursor is currently located. However, you are actually editing that page's Page Style, so all other pages which use that same Page Style will also have their formats changed.

2. Do not manually change the page number by editing any paragraph, not even the first paragraph on a page. You must only edit "the first paragraph on the page following the Page Break where the change in number is made". If you edit any other paragraph to change page number your document will go horribly wrong.
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.
Jeff Root
Posts: 60
Joined: Thu May 17, 2018 7:23 pm

Re: Begin page numbering on page 8

Post by Jeff Root »

Thank you both.
RoryOF wrote: The spacings between headers/footers and the text area are set
on the Header/Footer tab on the Page Style.
It would have taken a while before I looked there.

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis
Open Office 4.1.5 Windows 10
arvchristos
Posts: 15
Joined: Fri Jun 08, 2018 10:47 am

Re: [Solved] Begin page numbering on page 8

Post by arvchristos »

For your first request, numbering starting from the n-th page, check this extension I created:

[Page Numbering Addon](https://extensions.libreoffice.org/exte ... ing-addon/)

I created an extension for this purpose, currently searching for new features to add.
Libreoffice 5 and openoffice 4 on Archlabs
John_Ha
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Location: UK

Re: [Solved] Begin page numbering on page 8

Post by John_Ha »

arvchristos wrote: check this extension I created: [Page Numbering Addon]
See Page Numbering Addon Scripting Framework Errors
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.
arvchristos
Posts: 15
Joined: Fri Jun 08, 2018 10:47 am

Re: [Solved] Begin page numbering on page 8

Post by arvchristos »

Thank you John_Ha for the pointer! I had posted a wrong link that is now fixed.
Libreoffice 5 and openoffice 4 on Archlabs
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