I’m trying to use page number offset to get documents to start page numbering from something other than 1, problem is, if I enter ANY value into the offset field, then it just loads a blank, un-editable field.
Am I doing something wrong?
Yes. You should only use the offset when you enter a reference to another page. Say, you are on page 200 and you want to refer to a point made on page 195. You could then insert a page number with offset -5 to get 195. A cross-reference would be a safer way to do that, however. If you want to start page numbering with an arbitrary number, you do something totally different. Put the cursor at the bottom of the page preceding the page where you want to start numbered pages. Select Insert - More Breaks - Manual Break. In the dialog window, select Page break, select a page style for the next page(s)*, then you can tick Change page number, and then you can enter where you want the numbering to start.
Alternatively, put the cursor at the start of the page where you want the page numbering to start, select Format - Paragraph, select the Text Flow tab, below Breaks, tick Insert, With page style`*. Then enter the page number.
* Select a page style different from the style for the previous pages, with either header or footer enabled.
2 Likes
This worked beautifully thanks. I don’t understand what the offset is for though, could you explain that better?
EDIT: That helps a little, so in order for offset to work, the page has to exist in the document?
It seems like offset is kind of a dead function and there’s better ways to do anything that it could.
Page offset is an advanced function to get a page number relative to the current page, like in “see previous page” (offset -1) or “see next page” (offset +1) so that you can reference e.g. 5 pages before or after.
A page offset is not a numbering item. It is a reference. If the referenced page does not exist (it would be located before the start of the document or after the end), the field returns “void”.
What is confusing for newbies is the fact that the entry box for offset is immediately accessible whereas the page restart box is “hidden” under the manual break dialog (which needs more clicks).
1 Like
This is not a solution to your problem; please delete it and add as a comment. See This is the Guide…