LO Writer page numbering question

[cscj01]

I am using LO Writer to develop a complex document that will become a PDF. Here is my situation. I will have 4 separate documents of 5 pages each. The first document needs pages numbered 1-5. The second document needs pages numbered 6-10, etc. When I export each of these as a PDF and then use PDF-Shuffler to join them as one PDF document, the pages will be numbered correctly. I thought I could just enter the numbers (without doing an Insert>Page Number), i.e., 1 in footer of page 1, 2 in footer of page 2, etc. However that doesn’t work because all pages end up with the same number. I tried to use Insert page Number and start the Footer paragraph style on the Text Flow tab with the correct page nuber on the first page of each document, i.e., 6 on document 2, 11 on document 3, etc. That doesn’t work either because I have to specify Insert, Page, Before,With Page Style checked and = Default Style, and Page Number checked and the starting number, but my page number starts with 1 no matter what I specify for the Page Number.

I am on Ubuntu 18.04 and LO version 6.0.7.3. I really need help on this.

[gabix]

I tried to use Insert page Number and start the Footer paragraph style on the Text Flow tab with the correct page nuber on the first page of each document,

You need to apply such a setting to the very first paragraph of the document, not to the footer. And this is a case when you should use adhoc formatting without modifying the style (otherwise every paragraph will start with a new page).

[cscj01]

I tried this with eachof the 5 documents: applying the settings to the first paragraph in each one. The numbering still started with 1.

[ajlittoz]

Your first paragraph in every file certainly has a distinctive property: a title, a heading, an introduction, … This property is unique in that you have no other paragraph in the same file with this intended meaning. Then give a specific paragraph style to this paragraph (think of it as a semantic markup).

You can then customise this paragraph style. In the Text Flow tab, check Insert Page break Before paragraph; check also With page style , select which page style will follow (it is likely that Default Style is a sensible choice if you don’t use custom page styles), check Page number and fill in the desired starting page number.

This is the solution if you intend to keep the documents separate. The inconvenience is you must update the starting page number in every document in case you add/remove pages in a preceding one.

An other solution is to create a master document and to “include” your component documents. Page numbering will be managed by the master document and pages numbered sequentially across the collection. Read the freely downloadable Writer’s guide about it (or the built-in help).

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[Grantler]

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to join them as one PDF document, the pages will be numbered correctly.

If you don’t number the pages at all (probably the easiest way for you?) only join your PDF documents into one and then let them number by pdf24.org. Be aware that you have to upload your entire content to this URL. Numbering is easy and fast there…

The more elegant ways are shown in the other answers, but for laid back persons…

[cscj01]

This worked like a charm. I suppose I’ll never understand LO Writer enough to do some things that should be easy but are not. On another project, I am writing a book and decided to use a Master Document.with separate documents for each chapter. I thought the writing would be the hardest part. No way! Trying to get LO Writer to do what I need is a constant struggle. That alone makes me want to give up on the book. Oh well, at least your suggestion got me a straightforward solution to this issue. Thanks you.