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Page Numbers

In Writer, a page number is a field that you can insert into your text.

To Insert Page Numbers

Choose Insert - Page Number to insert a page number at the current cursor position.

If you see the text "Page number" instead of the number, choose View - Field Names (Ctrl+F9).

However, these fields will change position when you add or remove text. So it is best to insert the page number field into a header or footer that has the same position and that is repeated on every page.

Choose Insert - Header and Footer - Header - (name of page style) or Insert - Header and Footer - Footer - (name of page style) to add a header or footer to all pages with the current page style.

To Start With a Defined Page Number

Now you want some more control on page numbers. You are writing a text document that should start with page number 12.

  1. Click within the first paragraph of your document.

  2. Choose Format - Paragraph - Text flow tab.

  3. In the Breaks area, enable Insert. Enable With Page Style just to be able to set the new Page number. Click OK.

The new page number is an attribute of the first paragraph of the page.

To Select the Page Number Format

You want roman page numbers running i, ii, iii, iv, and so on.

  1. Double-click directly before the page number field. You will see the Edit Fields dialogue box.

  2. Select a number format and click OK.

Using Different Page Number Formats in Headers and Footers

You need some pages with the roman numbering format, followed by the remaining pages in another format.

In Writer, you will need different page styles. The first page style has a footer with a page number field formatted for roman numbers. The following page style has a footer with a page number field formatted in another look.

Both page styles must be separated by a page break. In Writer, you can have automatic page breaks and manually inserted page breaks.

  • An automatic page break appears at the end of a page when the page style has a different "next style".

For example, the "First Page" page style has "Default Page Style" as the next style. To see this, you may press F11 to open the Styles window, click the Page Styles icon, right-click the "First Page" entry. Choose Modify from the context menu. On the Organiser tab, you can see the "Next style".

  • A manually inserted page break can be applied without or with a change of page styles.

If you just press Ctrl+Enter, you apply a page break without a change of styles.
If you choose Insert - More Breaks - Manual Break, you can insert a page break without or with a change of style or with a change of page number.

It depends on your document what is best: to use a manually inserted page break between page styles, or to use an automatic change. If you just need one title page with a different style than the other pages, you can use the automatic method:

To Apply a Different Page Style to the First Page

  1. Click within the first page of your document.

  2. Choose View - Styles (F11).

  3. In the Styles window, click the Page Styles icon.

  4. Double-click the "First Page" style.

Now your title page has the style "First Page", and the next pages automatically have the "Default Page Style".

You can now for example insert a footer for the "Default Page Style" only, or insert footers in both page styles, but with differently formatted page number fields.

To Apply a Manually Inserted Page Style Change

  1. Click at the beginning of the first paragraph on the page where a different page style will be applied.

  2. Choose Insert - More Breaks - Manual Break. You see the Insert Break dialogue box.

  3. In the Style list box, select a page style. You may set a new page number, too. Click OK.

The selected page style will be used from the current paragraph to the next page break with style. You may need to create the new page style first.