[Solved] Page numbering starting at zero instead of 1

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Mugsy
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[Solved] Page numbering starting at zero instead of 1

Post by Mugsy »

I needed to start page numbering on Page 5 (after the cover & ToC, etc), so in the footer I set the starting page number to "1" by setting the "Offset" to "-4" (Insert | Field | More | Page | Offset).

This works well (no more page number on the cover), but now it starts with Page "0" on the ToC. :cry:

Every "solution" I've found online either doesn't apply (older versions only) or tells you to just "insert a blank page" before page one. :roll:

How do I either fix or "suppress" this (or even hide numbering on just that one page?) TIA
Last edited by Hagar Delest on Thu Mar 28, 2019 9:17 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: tagged solved
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RoryOF
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Re: Help. Page numbering starting at zero instead of 1.

Post by RoryOF »

Forget about using the page offset. Page numbering tutorial is at
[Tutorial] Page numbering
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Mugsy
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Re: Help. Page numbering starting at zero instead of 1.

Post by Mugsy »

Thx, but I've already read that and it doesn't help.

It mentions setting "Text Flow" and setting the starting page, but the field to do that is disabled when it is in the footer. :(
Last edited by Mugsy on Tue Mar 26, 2019 10:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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RoryOF
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Re: Help. Page numbering starting at zero instead of 1.

Post by RoryOF »

Read the tutorial again. Page numbering does not work as you are thinking.
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Mugsy
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Re: Page numbering starting at zero instead of 1

Post by Mugsy »

All the tutorial says (and I saw this before posting) is:

Code: Select all

    Go to the first paragraph of the page to be renumbered, right click and select Paragraph to edit its properties (not Edit Paragraph style).
    Go to the Text Flow tab, in the Breaks section, adjust the page number.
This appears to do nothing, and even if it did, I need my page number in the Footer. But if you try to do this in the Footer, The "Breaks" section is disabled. :(
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Re: Page numbering starting at zero instead of 1

Post by RoryOF »

Did you read the entry that starts
Having pages with or without numbering
As said above, the page number is linked to the page style. Therefore, if you want parts with numbering and some without, you need different page styles.
You can have a look at: [Tutorial] Page styles and headers/footers (and the wiki of course).
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Re: Page numbering starting at zero instead of 1

Post by Mugsy »

Okay, I've made some progress. Here is what I've done so far (that appears to be correct):

1. Right click just before the first Title on my desired page 1 and select "Paragraph" (giving me Popup with "Text Flow" tab.)

2. On "Text Flow" tab, in "Break" section, I check "Insert" (leave set to "Page" & "Before".) Check "With Page Style" below, change drop-down to "First Page", check "Page number" and leave it set as "1".

3. Document now (internally) recognizes my page 5 as "(Page 1)" on the toolbar/page count. Nothing new appears yet on document itself.

If I now try to insert the "Page Number" in the Footer, it works (starting with "2" on my page 2 but nothing on my page 1) BUT it also inserts page numbers (1-4) on my preceding pages (cover, ToC, etc.) before starting over. :(

I'm almost there. What am I missing? TIA
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Re: Page numbering starting at zero instead of 1

Post by RoryOF »

You need two distinct Page Styles. The first page style will be applied to pages 1-4, the second to pages 5 - the end.

Turn on /View /non printing characters (that same command turns it off). Click cursor before the first text on Page 5 (not in the header) /Insert /Manual Break /Page Break, drop Style dropdown to PageStyle2 (probably Default will be OK), and insert 1 as the Page number. In the header on page 5 /insert /fields /Page number

You may not need a header on Pages 1-4, or if you do, do not /Insert /Field /Page number.

Where I write Header, Footer could be used instead or as well.
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Re: Page numbering starting at zero instead of 1

Post by John_Ha »

As a pedantic point I think that a page must have a page number greater than or equal to 1. A page number of 0 is used internally for something - I forget what.
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Re: Page numbering starting at zero instead of 1

Post by RoryOF »

Page number 0 in the above settings indicates that OO should continue with existing page count, not start renumbering.
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Re: Page numbering starting at zero instead of 1

Post by Mugsy »

RoryOF wrote:You need two distinct Page Styles. The first page style will be applied to pages 1-4, the second to pages 5 - the end.

Turn on /View /non printing characters (that same command turns it off). Click cursor before the first text on Page 5 (not in the header) /Insert /Manual Break /Page Break, drop Style dropdown to PageStyle2 (probably Default will be OK), and insert 1 as the Page number. In the header on page 5 /insert /fields /Page number

You may not need a header on Pages 1-4, or if you do, do not /Insert /Field /Page number.

Where I write Header, Footer could be used instead or as well.
I don't know if it's because I'm using a newer version (v6.1.2.1), but I am not offered any options when inserting a manual page break that way. No popup to change the Style. It simply inserts the hard break. :cry:

I've already seen the videos before I posted this questions instructing me to do that.

FOLLOW-UP: Ok, I must use the "Break" under "Insert | More Breaks | Manual Break" (not "Page Break") to get the Style popup. "PageStyle2" is not listed as an option but "Default" is available. This (happily) gets me a "1" on my first page, but the preceding pages still have 1-4 on them. I'm not sure how to suppress footers on just those first 4 pages.
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Re: Page numbering starting at zero instead of 1

Post by John_Ha »

If you want to add or delete a footer, or if you want to change a page number, you MUST ADD A PAGE BREAK AND YOU MUST CHANGE THE PAGE STYLE so as to make the change.

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.

Showing that a problem has been solved helps others searching so, if your problem is now solved, please view your first post in this thread and click the Edit button (top right in the post) and add [Solved] in front of the subject.
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Mugsy
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Re: Page numbering starting at zero instead of 1

Post by Mugsy »

Thanks, I figured out the issue. You supplied a lot of information that doesn't exactly apply. My page breaks already show. Setting the Style on that first break that allowed me to restart page numbering from "1" on my 5th page. :super:

I think something that was complicating the issue is that each of the first 4 pages have a hard break after them (cover, dedication, preface and ToC). At most, I was able to change the style to set the page number to "0", but I needed to suppress page numbering on those pages entirely w/o affecting the entire document.

The "Manual Break" (which is different from "Page Break") seems to have been the missing element. Now that I have that in there, I was able to simply delete the page number field from the preceding pages without affecting anything after the Manual Break.

I finally have what I need. Thanks for the help.
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