…a feature to allow renumbering of pages … be applied ad hoc.
As far as I know, no, it can’t be applied without introducing a new section with a break. If I am wrong, provide the exact procedure (I would appreciate it, seriously).
This is not a forum - it’s an Ask site - and it’s not expected to host lengthy discussion (unfortunately). You might join #libreoffice on FreeNode if you’d like to discuss something…
You still didn’t explain the ad hoc method that Word uses.
Mike Kaganski: You want to argue and be ‘right’? MS Word: insert section break. Open footer (or header). Insert ‘Quick Parts’ page number (macro). Right-click page number and restart numbering. Anywhere in document. Without displacing text.
Peter, this discussion reminds me of a favorite saying …
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig.
You are fighting a losing battle (been there, done that).
You are dealing with:
@PeterStrempel: I wanted to know how Word does that. You know, if one wants to improve, one needs to know how to improve. I’m sad to see someone thinking that my question is “wanting to argue and be right”. But you are free to think whatever you like.
If I understand correctly the case, it is a matter of using a tool in an organisation without having to think over the nature of the tool.
The relevant questions are: what is the “production”? how is it produced (workflow, people, …)?
From my experience, trying to change for a new tool without taking human factors and tool specificities into consideration is doomed to failure. The startegy “new tool, no change in habits” is wrong, if not suicidal.
Your main argument is about people: they would use the tool routinely and must not need to understand the arcanes of it while using it. This calls for a reasonable amount of automation in the process of producing letters, specifications, reports, proposals, … Add to that, you probably have a “graphic chart” as part of corporate communication. In MS Word, it likely translates into various style sheets, one for each type of document unless all are merged into a giant one.
Your people are accustomed to giving styles Date for the first line, then Addressee, then Subject, then Text Body when they come to the core of the letter. The style sheet may have some Heading n paragraph to emphasise structure of content. At the end, you may have Salutation for a formal good-bye and Signee.
With this scheme, your people already know that they have to click somewhere when they make a topic or structure transition. Jumping to a new page is one of these transition, which is cleverly achieved through a style in the sheet. It is even the only way to guarantee that all documents adhere to the rules defined in the chart, so that all look alike.
You can do the same with LO Writer and even better.
LO Writer has no style sheet per se, because styles are integrated into a document. But, it has a very powerful feature: templates. Templates contain not only styles but also text, such as company logo, legal information in the first page footer, pre-typed data like subject:, refers:, attachments:, reply address, … It is easier for the average Joe to delete unneeded paragraph than add a wanted one consisted with the graphic chart.
Your job is to design those templates and a short notice explaining what is not self-explanatory. Make experiments with administrative clerks to get their feed-back.
You may object that templates imply maintenance work. Yes and this an advantage. Put the templates on a server shared by everybody. Then, every update is immediately available and automatically used by all. When the comm guys fancy to change the corporate logo or the “official” font face, how do you presently make sure that everybody switches to the new rules at once and simultaneously without some black sheep using stale stylesheets?
As you see, it not only a matter of comparable or equivalent features, but before all, a matter of work organisation. Maybe the clerks do not need to understand what happens behind the stage, but you, as an IT learned skilled professional, must objectively evaluate the differences between both tools, make your benefit from them and design the required templates which will make people forget which tool they use and be happy in their work. You must anticipate the consequences of your choices. This is not easy and can’t be done pusillanimously in one day. It has a deep impact on company productivity since written communication is one of the chore works.
You did not tell what your deadline is.
OK. I agree that if I can make things easier for people, I ought to. But I still don’t know how to change page numbering between sections of a document. All the philosophy aside, how do I change from Roman to Arabic and then to something else–if I want to?
All the philosophy aside, how do I change from Roman to Arabic and then to something else–if I want to?
I thought that my second comment to your question (right below the question) tells you just that… And if my comment was unclear - I wanted to know what was unclear (again: I want it to be able to improve; of course, you might take me wanting to know as you like).
The closest equivalent to MSW sections is LOW pages. You must trigger a page break. Do it either with Insert>Manual Break to switch to a new page style or with a paragraph style containing the before break. In both cases you must play with styles (at least page styles).
In the style for ToC (which you had described as “Create second page as TOC page, create that as style”), use the page style dialog’s “Page” tab, and select “i, ii, iii, …” in “Page numbers” drop-down selector. Likewise, in the page style for actual content, you select “1, 2, 3, …” there.
In the first actual content paragraph (usually this is the first heading) paragraph properties, go to “Text Flow” tab, and use “With page style”, and “Page number” > 1. Another way to do this is to hover over the blue dotted page break line between the ToC and Content pages, click and select “Edit Page Break…”, and then use “With page style” and “Page number” > 1, like with the previous method.
Repost as an answer and I’ll delete this wiki. Regards.
Still can’t do what I want to, which is to restart page numbering after title page and contents page. Have you actually tried to do this yourself, Mike? I don’t want a new page before I restart numbering. Sorry to see that this is a forum for people who know it all and don’t know how to share, or people like me asking questions that get hostile reactions. My recommendation to my client is to avoid this product. Not worth the aggravation. Pity. I would like to have said go for it.
@PeterStrempel: your reaction makes me think of the horseman who buys a car and wants to drive it by sitting on the roof just as he rode his horse.
If you still are open to a try do you want me to attach a sample document?
Hey @PeterStrempel, I had the very same question. I am disappointed that you did not get a better answer. You asked about this several years ago, but hopefully you check back here from time to time. I have attached a sample document that uses the parameters you requested.
So after looking through this discussion, I played around in LibreOffice Writer, and found out that yes, there is a way to restart page numbering WITHOUT affecting the preceding pages. And it is actually quite simple. But it does require you to use at least two Page Styles.
(Btw, Page Styles in LibreOffice Writer are similar to “Sections” and “Section Breaks” in MS Word. For now let’s assume that you already have at least two Page Styles in your document, one for the Title Page and Table of Contents; and one for the actual Document Contents.)
We want to use Roman numbering (i, ii, iii) for the Title Page and Table of Contents. But in the actual Document Contents, we want to use Arabic numbering (1, 2, 3). And we want to restart the numbering at 1.
To do this, go to the first page of the actual Document Contents, where you want the Arabic numbering to begin. Place your cursor just in front of the very first character on the first line (regardless of whether or not it is a section heading). Then press on the backspace key (NOT the backspace-delete) to move the cursor to the very last position of the previous Page Style.
On the main LibreOffice Writer menu (at the top of the page), click on Insert/More Breaks/Manual Break… This will bring up the Insert Break dialogue box. Under “Type”, select “Page Break”. Under “Style”, select the Page Style used for the following section where you want the Arabic numbering to begin. Select the “Change page number” selection, and adjust the number to “1”. Press “OK”.
Now you need to enter the page number (using Arabic numbers) into the footer. To do this, go to the bottom of the page and click in the footer area.
(If you cannot click in the footer area, it means that the footer is turned off. To turn it on, go to the main LibreOffice Writer menu, click on Format/Page Style… This will bring up the Page Style menu. Click on the Footer tab, and select “Footer on”. Click “OK” to close the menu.)
Once the cursor is in the footer area, on the main LibreOffice Writer menu, click on Insert\Field\More Fields… Next, click on the Document tab. Under Type, select “Page number (unstyled)”. Under “Select” choose “Page number”. Under “Format” choose "Roman (i ii iii). Click on “Insert”. This will insert Roman numbering for the pages that use this Page Style.
I hope this is helpful Peter.
-Bob
@Baboq If the page style already defined the “look” of page numbering (Roman, alphabetical or else), just Insert>Field>Page Number is enough because the page style already advertised the kind of numbering. The “specialised” page number insertion is really necessary only when you didn’t define the type of numbering in the page style.
@PeterStrempel: Hi again Peter, I’m new to this and thought I could just upload the document for you to access. Turns out I can’t, but here is the link to the document in case it would be helpful.
Have a great day!
@Baboq
What is your document supposed to show? It is archetypal of “mechanical typewriter usage”: absolutely no style, vertical spacing with empty paragraphs (which results in page boundary desynchronisation as I have not the same font).
And anyway there are no page numbers, hence no restart. It could have been as well a .txt file.
