I am having difficulty starting page 1 of my manuscript on the 9th page of my book
I’m clicking on page eight inserting a manual break
choosing default page style and changing the page number before the desired next page but it is not working.
Can someone help me as to what I am doing wrong. Thanks for your help!
Please give more details about your document. Basic information: OS name, exact LO version (as reported by Tools>About LO) and save format.
What are your first 8 pages? Are they also numbered, kind of first chapter?
Are pages 9+ a “continuation” (layout-wise) of the preceding pages or something completely different?
Basically, Insert>More Breaks>Manual Break is the way to go.
If you still can’t fix it, attach a sample file.
Thank you for your response
I am using W11
writer ver 25.2.7.2
The first 8 pages are the front end -title, copyright, TOC, dedication, foreword, and prologue
The next page is chapter one, and I want to start page numbering there
I have used the recommended sequence successfully many times in the past but this time it does not work.
That should work.
Does it work not using a template? Open a new blank document and enter 7 page breaks (Ctrl+Enter). On the 8th page insert a manual break with a change of page number. Click Insert > Page Number and OK. Has the page number restarted at 1? If that works there might be an issue with the template, post a sample of the template using the Upload icon.
If the above still does not work, does it work in Safe mode? Click Help > Restart in safe mode > Continue in Safe Mode and try with a new blank document again. If it works OK then it might be an issue with the user profile. Back up the user profile before doing anything, I prefer the manual method listed in the link.
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If you do have to reset your user profile, after doing that, on starting LibreOffice, I would suggest that you click Tools > Options > LibreOffice > View and tick the box Force Skia software rendering. Allow LibreOffice to restart. It might fix some crashes such as in Office writer constantly crashes after opening odt file
Note that the tests use Default Page Style for all pages, this is only for the test. Usually, you would create a new page style for the front matter so, for example, they could have roman numerals for page numbers or other different settings that you don’t want in the body of your book.
Here is a sample with page styles as follows: Title, Front Matter, First Page (start of Chapter 1), Default Page Style.
BookWithLayout131672.odt (15.6 KB)
Thanks for your help
Please clarify what you mean by not using a template?
How do you backup your user profile in free writer? I cannot locate the Tools > Options > LibreOffice > View menu under Libre tools to Force Skia software rendering*
I have re downloaded office writer thinking it might be a corrupted file in the software but that didn’t help.
I have also tried fixing the frustrating page numbering problem on my desktop pc with the same negative results
If I send you a copy of the front end of my book could you please examine them to see what the problem might be?
Thanks again.
In Writer, a template is a special document with extension .ott. It contains initial text and style definition.
When you open such a template, it creates an untitled ordinary document (with extension .odt). This renaming and changed of file extension guarantees that you don’t overwrite your template by accident. The ordinary document remains linked to the template. If you later modify styles in the template, these styles will be forwarded to the ordinary document next time you open it. This allows for style update (indirectly document formatting) and keeps your dependent document synchronised with the latest formatting state of your template.
As you see, a Writer template is not what laymen call a template. It has more features and expressiveness.
The question above is relevant if you follow the Writer workflow when .ott templates are used. If you don’t base you .odt documents on .ott templates, skip the question.
Of course. But a single page is not enough. Keep the cover page and 1 or pages of front material and end the sample with 1 page of the first chapter.
In case you consider your text as private or confidential, replace it by nonsense.
I assumed that you were using a template because you said that it had worked previously. If you weren’t then maybe still test.
%APPDATA%\libreoffice\4 , paste it in the address bar and press Enter.user folder and paste it in a different location, preferably in a folder that you have named something like LibreOfficeBackup, rename the folder to user2026-02-05 (the date on which you pasted it).To reset your user profile, instead of step 4, simply rename the user folder in place to user2026-02-05. Start LibreOffice and it will create a new profile; you could then close LibreOffice again and copy folders from user2026-02-05 into user to restore templates, wordbook, etc.
The breadcrumb trail refers to the menu, if you cannot see the menu then click the menubar icon to toggle visibility. The image below shows the menubar icon in the Tabbed interface.
Alt+F12 (maybe Fn+Alt+F12) will also open the Options dialogue.
Yes. You can private message me, or enter some random text to replace your words and upload it here. You can type lorem and then press F3 (maybe Fn+F3) to get a few paragraphs of lorem ipsum text to fill where your text would normally be.
I have received a sample through private mail under non-disclosure agreement.
The main problem is exclusive direct formatting and lack in basic knowledge of fundamental features like header/footer activation, field insertion, …
I recommended to start by reading available documentation. There are too many shortcomings to address.
Thank you for your help after your expert analysis of those front end pages.
I will use your recommendations to learn more about styles.
FYI info I had recently updated my manuscript and it was rejected when I tried to republish because KDP had changed their software to reject the use of the lucida calligraphy font, which had been used in six instances since the book was first published in 2022. I deleted and replaced the lucida calligraphy words but it left some old code fragments in the which again prevented a successful republishing of the uploaded PDF.
Four days ago, Member Steve Richards came up with a solution to the lucida error problem.
He advised me to convert the odt file of my book to a .txt file. Doing so would eliminate all formatting including the lucida fragment nasties remaining in the odt file that had not been eliminated when I replaced the lucida calligraphy words.
The text file would then be copied into a new odt document, that I would have to be reformatted. It worked and I was able to export a PDF file that was accepted by KDP.
Unfortunately it resulted in the numbering problem which prevented me from starting page numbering on page 9.
Thanks again for your time in helping me.
That’s typically the kind of problems which can be prevented by the use of styles. But it is not magical. You must follow a very strict formatting strategy: no formatting is done outside styles.
From an author’s point of view, consider styles are “understanding annotations”, i.e. they hint at what you mean: main discourse, heading, comment, note, understatement, foreign word, … These can be style names. And as you notice, there is no clue about font face, size, weight, colour, indent, margin, …
You use styles to translate these notions important to you, the author, into typographical attributes (face, size, colour, spacing, position, background, bullets, numbering, …). And if your text contains no direct formatting, replacing Lucida with WhatSItsName in styles is 100% reliable because you know the change will hit all occurrences.
If you’re familiar (conditioned?) by M$ Word, this requires a mindset adjustment because Word is deficient in styles. It has only paragraph ones. Writer adds to them character, page, list and frame. Character styles are used inside paragraphs to change the significance of a word. Say you apply Emphasis; it will be shown italic. Once again, note that the style is not named “Italic” because the publisher might opt for highlighting important words in red and your “Italic” name would then confuse you. In Word, you can’t but apply direct formatting. And this will catch you.
This is the last resort method when everything else failed or would require too heavy a burden.
Styles are perfect tools to separate contents from appearance, author from artist.
