Numbering pages every two pages but incrementing by 1

[rdentato]

I’m trying to find a way of numbering only the right pages of a book but having the number progressing by one.
Something like this:

     left     right          left     right
  +--------++--------+    +--------++--------+
  |        ||        |    |        ||        |
  |        ||        |    |        ||        |  etc...
  |        ||      1 |    |        ||      2 |
  +--------++--------+    +--------++--------+

Left pages are special (but not empty) and shouldn’t be counted. They sometimes contains text (as they should normally do) sometimes pictures and sometimes the two pages are to be considered as one (a sort of splash page).

I tried with styles, variables, formulas etc but I still have no idea on how to do it.
I’d like a solution that would still allow creating the table of contents, cross-referencing and so on.

Any clue on how I could do it?

Thanks.

[Craig22]

Hello,

You can create your own numbering.
See here Title “Fields”
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Documentation/Publications#LibreOffice_Writer_Guide
or download this from the same side

WG6017-Fields.pdf

Page 8 in the book.

[ajlittoz]

The page number counts pages and there is no way to contrive it to do differently. Also you can’t replace the page number with a formula because LO Writer has no such page number user-accessible variable.

There might be however a workaround, provided you don’t mind cross-references to have the same “page number” on both the left and right “pages”.

The idea is to use a landscape format twice as large as your “page”. E.g., if your “page” is A4 portrait", your document page is A3 landscape with two columns. Be aware, though, that you’ll get a single page-wide header and footer. To insert a chapter title or any other data atop or afoot your content, you must repeat it twice so that it “aligns” with the columns.

This workaround is fine as long as you don’t print your document, notably if you intend duplex printing, because of the order in which the “pages” are sent to the printer.

You didn’t explain what special means for left pages. In the proposed workaround, columns form a single text flow, i.e. text begins to fill the left column (virtual left “page”), then the right column and breaks to left column on next page, etc. If your left pages should not be part of text flow, the workaround is different. So please, edit (don’t use an answer) your question to describe how special your left pages are.

EDIT Special pages

From your description, this could be handled through custom page styles.

“Normal” text: use your “standard” page style with 2 columns

Pictures on left: either put the pictures in a frame with suitable anchor and wrap options in your “standard” page style (but it may be difficult to constrain text only on right page), or create a custom page style with a single column and margins set such that the “column” is located on the right page. In the second case, you only have to position the picture frame(s) in the left part without special wrap option.

Double splash page: another custom page style with a single column covering the whole sheet (minus the external margins, of course).

[rdentato]

Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately this is intended to be printed. I was hoping to get something from formulas but it seems I simply can’t do it.
My fault, I will probably have to use a more complex DTP software to achieve this result.