How do I change the page count in Writer?

I’d like to use a Title Page style for my first page. I would also like to put a “page # of #[total]” in the footer. So far, it seems the two use cases are mutually exclusive.

If I go for the Title Page style, my page count includes the 2 additional pages it inserts into my document (Title + hidden blank page for printing), inflating the count. If I want to add other pre-body content like a Table of contents, it inflates further.

On the other hand, If I want an accurate page count, I must sacrifice having any pre-body content. Title page would have to be separate, as well as Table of contents, which I don’t want 90% of the time.

Is there a simple solution to modifying or offsetting the page count in Writer?

EDIT: Tried using sections to see if it would somehow change the page numbering as per a proposed workaround, but no luck. Attached the files used to test this.

test1.odt

See also: Separate page count for each style?

No sure it will help, but to comment that I had similar trouble with a big document. It started with the cover page and the TOC, then the introduction, page 1, to conclsuion, page 30, followed by the Annexes (40 more pages).

I also wanted to include in the footer of the core part of the document a “Page x of y” counter and I used a formula for the total number of page. Since I could not calculate automatically the number of pages in the annexes, I had to update the formula manually every time the annexes was increasing (“Page-30” → “Page-35”, etc.).

Until I found the solution from this answer: Separate page count for each style?

I simply added an empty space at the end of my conclusion and bookmarked it (as EndOfDoc). Then I replaced in the footer the formula by the bookmark refered as page. That is all…

Hi @TJMeneses,

Take a look at the answer to this question for information on how to (off)set the page count in Writer:

Okay, now that I understand the question a bit better, would it be possible to put the result of a calculation in the header or footer? So something like:

($total_pages - 2)

For your purposes, it seems like the ideal thing would be to be able to mark some pages as not to be included in the general page count.

Thinking even more broadly, in a book, for example, one might want to have some un-numbered front and back pages (including the Title page), perhaps a brief forward or introduction (numbered in lowercase roman numerals), and then the text of the book proper. In this situation, you might almost want to be able to define different sections (Introduction, Book content, Indicies/Footnotes in the back, etc…) and have each section have its own page numbering and count.

That gives me an idea: What happens if you use different sections for the pages? Any luck that the page numbering starts over (or can be configured to start over?)

Thanks for the suggestion @qubit1, but my specific concern was how to offset the page count i.e. total pages in the document, as opposed to the page number.

Ah, okay. Now I understand. (I have to rush through these q’s if I want to make a dent in them!)

Sorry, I’m very unknowledgeable (probably not an actual word) when it comes to Sections. Could you describe how to set this up?