Page numbering sending me crazy.

[JackyAnn]

So I spend a long time getting page numbering right for the book. I have first chapter as page 1 etc. The only way I could do it was to offset the number. I had roman numerals where needed in the front matter and send the file with TOC as I wanted it to my friend to check.

Page 1 has bizarrely ended up as page 79. It was page 1 when I sent the documents to her.

all other page numbers are messed up and even in pdf form (we did odt, pdf and she seems to have tried to create an epub to send back to menot realising you do not have page numbers and headers) for her all the page nos are changed.

How can a pdf change like that? I used the export function. I saw it all correct and now it is not in any form. I think tools-outline numbering is correct. Last night this pdf opened with correct page numbering for me on my Chromebook both in L0 and as a pdf in my Chrome browser.

I made two files and included the front matter by inserting a document. It changed the page numbering and had to redo all of it. This has taken forever. But I KNOW I saw it all correct in the pdf form I sent and the ODT.

Surely a pdf with file embedded could not change page numbers???

Yet, mid air and on my Chromebook it is as if Gremlins got to work in the night.

The friend then says page numbering messed up and it has even changed in he sourrce file and pdf on my laptop. Gremlins???

I used the function to offset page numbers and had roman numerals at the start of the book and ordinary ones for the chapters. It took forever as the function to update the index is missing in L0 5.

Friend using a PC. I am using a Chromebook but how can the whole thing in PDF form, change mid-air? She says LibreOffice crashed three times for her and doesn’t usually.

Now she is saying she might use WORD but couldn’t that add to the problem?

Page 1 was start of first chapter. (Was going to delete on first page once we checked TOC.)

TOC has it as page 1 but it is page 79 and page 2 as 10 etc…(9 pages front matter.)

ALL was correct in the ODT file I sent.
ALL was correct in the PDF I exported in libreoffice and sent.

So how on earth does page 1 become page 79? (If page nos began at 1 at the start it would be page 9. It was NOT page 89 when I sent it and went to bed.

It is 3 am so apologies if this is a bit muddled. Just in shock as it is so much work down the drain. You cannot imagine how difficult it was to get this all right and ready to send for checking.

I had to change a lot manually by offsetting as making TOC meant the TOC included itself as pages and became page 1…No way to update the index. I had to change things manually, but they were all changed and correct in what I sent.

I would like to send the file for someone to see but the friend is reluctant for this to happen as is a whole book.
We are co writers so have to respect her wishes but tbh I am past caring.) I do not understand what happened.

This whole process took me days and days and I am in despair here. (Also very, very tired…)

[mikekaganski]

The only way I could do it was to offset the number

here the problem begins. Offsetting a number is guaranteed to bring problems: offsetting page number is a way to reference a different page (like in “see page {here goes number of the page offset by N}”), not to change current page.

The correct way to set some page number is using page break with page style in the page’s first paragraph, and set desired page number there in the paragraph properties dialog.

[JackyAnn]

Mike… I tried to do that and could not do it. I ended up offsetting as each time I made toc it included itself as page 1

[mikekaganski]

That just suggests some user error - and that needs addressing. I advise you to post a question on that (with a problematic file), and solving that. It’s unreasonable to try solving problems resulting from incorrect use of functionality, without addressing the root of the problem.

My guess is that you somehow made your TOC use a paragraph style(s) not meant for that; or that you modified your paragraph (styles) on ToC to have outline level other than body text.

[ajlittoz]

The symptoms you describe suggest bad configuration of both page and paragraph styles. Also, co-writing is a difficult matter requiring strict procedure. In particular, at no moment the document should be saved other than .odt otherwise you add conversion issues.

Also you may have problems with manual formatting vs. styling. I think of the various page breaks used to switch page styles and force page numbers. In complex or long documents, you should exclude any manual formatting and rely only on styles.

Try to reduce the size of your document (on a copy of course) to the minimum still exhibiting the problem and attach it to your question. To anonymise content if desired, replace it with “lorem ipsum”.

[Cookievore]

Quote: “Surely a pdf with file embedded could not change page numbers?”

I’m almost certain that the PDF part of that document wasn’t changed by gremlins ,-) But with which viewer did you check the content of the PDF? LO? Then you saw most likely the embedded part while the real PDF content allready was malformed. It degenerated in that moment as you saved to PDF.
In general it’s a good idea to pass a document as PDF to fellows. It should ship with all that is needed to display the content as it was intended by sender. Even with embedded fonts that are not present on the target system. Of course this won’t work in case the source (the LO file) has allready a problem.

[goldofthesun]

I’ve also had challengs with pages in LO. Not an answer to your specific problem, but try the page number add on for future documents: https://extensions.libreoffice.org/extensions/page-numbering-addon
It will ease the pain a little!