Manual page numbering in footer

[lbenvp]

Hi everyone,

I’ve tried to find an answer to my question but I could not find it.
I want to manually define the page numbers (folio/page) on each footer, but it doesn’t seem possible to define text fields that will only be displayed in one of all page footers.
I’d like to avoid creating and using different copies of the same footer layout for each page because it also contains content I’d like to edit once for all pages (like the customer name, project title, etc…).
Did I miss something obvious?

Download example file

[RGB-es]

Not completely sure I’m understanding the problem, so let us know if the following helps to solve it.

You can use a variable (Insert → Field → More fields → Variables tab) and redefine it’s value any time you want on any place of the document. So the procedure will be like this:

1. On the first page go to Insert → Field → More fields → Variables tab → under Type select Set variable → select its format → give it a Name and a first Value → Insert [NOTE: you can check Invisible in order to, well, make it invisible on the page ]

2. Go to the page footer and select Insert → Field → More fields → Variables tab → under Type select Show variable → the variable you created. This will insert a reference to the variable that will display on any footer.

3. Now the key point: go to the second page and again select Insert → Field → More fields → Variables tab → under Type select Set variable → instead of creating a new variable select the one you created on point 1 and set a different value to it.

That’s all. See this attachment for a working example: variables.odt

[ajlittoz]

If your problem is akin to some document “structure”, i.e. the variable information appears only at precisely defined locations like first page, table of contents, first page of chapters, a specific chapter, … it may be simpler to define ad-hoc page styles. The footer is built once for each page style and if a change in made in it, it is automatically updated in every page using the style.

Switch to the appropriate page style may be automated from paragraph styles when they force a page break since a page style can be associated to the break. This way, with careful planning, you reduce the number of manual actions to the minimum.

If this answer helps, please tick the check mark on the left.

[lbenvp]

Thank you both for your help!
I applied the same method you suggested ajlittoz, just before I read RGB-es’s reply, but I didn’t really like to do it that way.

You definitely answered my question RGB-es, it took me a bit of time to understand the procedure and repeat it in my document but this is by far the best approach to solve this issue.

It’s too bad LO doesn’t natively allow to use the “folio/page” numbering.