[Solved] Column number in footer of a 2 column page

[mshahriar]

Hi,

I have a word document which contains two columns per page. In the footer section of each page, I want to show the column number, not the page number. That is the left column of the first page will show number 1, the right column 2, left column of 2nd page will show 3, right column 4 and so on. Is this possible by any means?


Thanks.

[RGB]

Two quick "work-around":
1- Set the page style to have columns and to be "right only". Then, in the footer insert two page number fields and with a double click on the second set an offset of 1.
Pro: it's easy
Con: last column in last page will not show the number

2- Set the page style to have columns and to be "left only". Then, in the footer insert two page number fields and with a double click on the first one set an offset of -1.
Pro: Every column will be numbered.
Con: you will have a blank first page inserted automatically. When printing, you must print from page 2 to end.

[mshahriar]

@RGB
Thank you. This is wonderful. I had been trying to do this for a long time but failed. This reliefs me. Thanks again.

[mshahriar]

One more question, can we achieve this using page layout Mirrored?

[RGB]

That's more difficult...
You can fake the "page numbering" using a number range inside a frame, and anchoring the frame to the page, but you need to manually copy that frame to every page: Anchoring the frame (or simply inserting the number range) inside a footer will not help because the number range will not "evolve".

ColumnNumber.odt

Numbeing columns

(22.61 KiB) Downloaded 1029 times

AFAIK there is no other way because you cannot call the page number field for field calculations: using "PageNumber*2-1" for left columns and "PageNumber*2" for right columns should be enough... but it is not possible.

[mshahriar]

Thank you again, though I tried a lot but could not figure out how to copy or insert frame that you mentioned. Anyway, many thanks for your effort.

[RGB]

Sorry for the late answer.
If you click on the frame to select it (you'll see green dots around it) you just need to copy and then paste it in the new page. With a right click on the frame -> Frame -> Type you can control the frame position: I set the vertical position so it fall in the (absent) footer place.

[mshahriar]

Thank you, I got it.

[avviedale]

Many thanks to RGB for solving a longstanding frustration for me.