Roman numerals in forepages?

How can I enter Roman numerals in forepages in LibreOffice 7.0.4.2 on a Mac? Or can it be done? I tried googling how to do this, but the version of LibreOffice I use doesn’t have those commands.

Page

Choose Format - Page Style - Page tab.

Page Numbers

Select the page numbering format that you want to use for the current page style.

You need to create a page style for the forepages. It can be identical to the default page style except the name and, in the Page tab under Layout settings > page numbers, set the page numbers to roman numerals. Set the first page to Forepages style by double clicking the style in Page Styles.

When you want to leave the forepages to start the body of the work, click Insert > Breaks > More breaks and choose

  • Page break
  • Under Page style choose Default page style
  • Tick the box Change page number
  • OK

RomanNumeralsForepages.odt (47.2 KB)

@ZedReyland
You find a step by step explanation for your question in http://openoffice-uni.org (6 languages).

This was not helpful. I was hoping for a simple step-by-step procedure.

Zed Reyland

The development crew should add commands such as “forepage numbering” and “automatic page numbering” to the drop-down menus, not hide them as hacks which you have to find out from someone who’s “in the know”. It would certainly save many of us authors and editors a lot of time and frustration.

Or maybe, it helps to refer to the Writer Guide, download from English documentation | LibreOffice Documentation - LibreOffice User Guides

You can modify the sample in this comment, hot keys for drop caps - #6 by EarnestAl

What do you expect? That Writer implements YOUR formatting scheme. And what happens when your requirement is different because you want to issue a different document.

Writer is based on very sound principles which don’t limit artistic creativity. Any such “commands” locks you into a rigid layout where you must accept the design choice and can’t deviate from it.

Very easy: read the documentation before diving unprepared into Writer. Over all, accept that Writer is different from what you think you know about document processing (every application has its view about it) and avoid initially to transpose your previous routine. This way, you won’t be disappointed, or frustrated.