Front matter, body matter

mcdon47 · January 16, 2020, 10:51pm

I know how to do the front matter in lower case Roman numerals (i, ii, iii, iv, …)
For the body matter, on the right page I want to start the page number in Arabic (1, 2, 3,…)

The useful Writer Guide online has instruction on page 115. However, the manual break only seems to set the body matter as ‘i, ii, iii,…’ - lower case Roman numerals and not as Arabic number 1, 2, 3.

Is there something missing in Writer Guide? How do I set the front matter using the Roman numerals and the body matter using the Arabic number?
Thanks.

[Windows 10; LO 6.2.8.2 (x64)

Hrbrgr · January 17, 2020, 7:13am

Can this help? From page 89

gabix · January 17, 2020, 8:50am

You need to understand page styles. In addition to ajlittoz’ answer, read this tutorial and this tutorial.

ajlittoz · January 17, 2020, 7:19am

Front and body matters clearly define two “independent” parts in your document. Therefore you need two page styles.

You can used built-in Default Style for the body (it is intended for that).

If your front matter is only one page long, use built-in First Page; otherwise, either create a custon Front page style or modify First Page so that it does not automatically switch to Default Style at end of page.

Once you have your page styles, modify their Page tab: the Layout settings has a Format drop-down menu from which you can choose how the page number is displayed (arabic, Roman, alphabetic and others).

To show the community your question has been answered, click the ✓ next to the correct answer, and “upvote” by clicking on the ^ arrow of any helpful answers. These are the mechanisms for communicating the quality of the Q&A on this site. Thanks!

mcdon47 · January 17, 2020, 10:54pm

Thank you for your response. I’m afraid your comment is quite cryptic. I do understand page styles but please explain HOW I can create two page styles? I guess it is selecting ‘first page’ and default’? I did that but all I get are Roman numerals from i to v (for the Front matter and I want to reserve five pages for it) and then for the body matter it still shows ‘i’ onward (still in Roman numerals). If I change it to Arabic number, the front matter also change from Roman numeral to Arabic number!