Page Numbering in Word

Page numbering in Microsoft Word can be confusing. In this Quick Tip, we will teach you how to number pages on your Word document, including how to start numbering on specific pages.

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How to number your pages in Word video transcript:

Have you ever wanted to add page numbers a word document but just couldn’t figure out to make page numbering start on a specific page? We’re going to learn how to do just that.

Here I have a document taken from the internet. I have added a title page and a table of contents. But I want my numbering to start on the Better Service section rather than the title page itself.

I got this far with numbering by going to the Insert tab under the Header and Footer section and click on Page Number, then making my numbering selection.

To make Word’s page numbering system recognize this page as the first page of the document, we first have to split this document into two sections. This is where things can get confusing as you may already know.

Currently, the main body of this document is separated by a page break. I originally did this by pressing CTRL + Enter, but you can also insert a page break in the Insert tab or the Page Layout tab.

If we want these two sections to have the ability to have separate footers we need something more powerful than a Page Break, we need a Next Page break.

Do this by putting your cursor where you want this document to be split and then go to the Page Layout tab under the Page Setup Pane and click on Breaks then select Next Page.

Now when we select the footer by double-clicking we see Footer Section 2 … and same as Previous.

We don’t want this to be same as previous, so while the footer is selected you should see a Header and Footer Design tab. In the Navigation Pane, we want to unselect Link to Previous to unlink this footer from the previous section.

Now go to the Header and Footer pane in the Design tab, select page number, and click on Format Page Numbers.

Select Start At: Page One. And click OK.

Finally go up to the first section and delete the footer. And there we have it.

You can get rid of the header for the first section the same way.

Now you know how separate two sections of a word document allowing them to have separate footers and headers ultimately giving you the possibility to start numbering on any page you want.