Right-click a page number field, choose EditFields/format Arabic. Numbering starts at 1. How to start at some other value, such as 0?
Easy: setting the offset to -1 starts the numbering at 0.
NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER (yes, seven times) play with the Offset setting in a field unless you are fully aware of the consequences. Depending on the context of the field use, you may end up with a void content! The Offset is meant to reference pages (in the case) beyond the current page. It will return the number of the requested offset page if it exists. Think of it as a way to retrieve the number of the previous page (with offset -1) or any other page in relative position “offset” to the current page.
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Is this a bug? A known one? I have set this offset in a template and, so far, it works.
The Offset field is not intended to change the page number but to reference another page. To be convinced, use an offset of -1 on the first page or +1 on the last page. Since these pages do not exist you get an “empty” result. This offset is analogous to “See next page” or “See previous page” and should be used for that.
The only reliable page renumbering method is to request a different starting value in a manual page break. It is made for that.
When you use page number offset for the pagination, there will be errors in cross references (like ToC and index). Cross references will use actual page numbers, not the offset ones displayed on the page.
In simple documents (not using several page styles), right-click in the very first paragraph (beware if you use empty paragraph to achieve vertical spacing – this is a bad harmful habit) and select Paragraph.
Go to Text Flow tab. In section Breaks, check both boxes labeled Insert and With page style. Default values in drop-down menus are OK. You can now choose your starting page value.
Note that you can’t start at zero because 0 means “continue the standard sequence”. You can’t have negative page numbers either.
In more complex documents, you need to Insert>Break>Other break to be able to force a page number change.
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