28 Dec 07 Reset Page Numbering in OpenOffice Writer
How many times have you wanted to change the page numbering for your document but didn’t know how to? After 10 minutes of trying all options that you know, twice, to no avail? At the end of all that frustration and time wasting, you decide that, “Hey, maybe I didn’t really need to change the page sequence. Nobody will notice. Much..”
Fret no more, here’s help.
Before we talk about resetting the page number, let’s talk about page breaks. When doing word processing, inevitably you will need to start a new chapter/paragraph/sentence on a new page (like the figure on the right).
Less savvy users will simply spam the Enter key enough times until the cursor crosses over to the next page. Savvy users click on the Insert option in the menu bar. Then on Manual Break. In the dialog box, choose Page break. Experienced users use the key combination CTRL+Enter to bring the cursor to the next page immediately.
Needless to say, redundant enter keys are not recommended at all – especially if you are typing a report or a book. Using the “Experienced” method of the key combination helps you break to a new page, but it doesn’t help in changing the page number for the new page. Strangely enough, it is the “manual” method that will help you create a new page number for the new page.
When prompted with the screen that asks you to select the type of manual break (see figure below), make sure “Page break” is selected. Next, select the style of the page. When I have the time, may be I will explain the concept of page styles in another post.
For now, if you don’t know what your page style is, close this dialog box first. Then click on the menu bar Format > Styles and Formatting. A Styles and Formatting window will appear. Hover your cursor over the 4th button from the left. The tool tip should say “Page Styles”. Click on this button and the highlighted entry in that entry is the style of your page.
If you have not played with page styles before, the highlighted entry for you is probably default. Now, open the manual break dialog box again. This time, click on the Style drop-down menu and choose the entry that is your current page style. Once you do that, the options below the drop-down menu become active.
After selecting your style, click on “Change page number”. Doing so will make 1 appear as the default value below. You can change this number to any value you like. Click on OK and observe that the page number of your new page will become your specified value.
I’m using OpenOffice to write a book now and have discovered so many wonderful features in Writer that are so under-utilised. If you have any questions about OpenOffie Writer, please add it to the comments below. If I can answer your question, I’ll probably do a follow-up post.
Cheers!
P.S. If I recall correctly, this method probably works in Microsoft Office 2003 and earlier as well. It’s been a long time since I’ve touched MS Office. I prefer OpenOffice as it uses the Open Document Format (ODF). If you have always been using MS Office, do give OpenOffice a shot. It’s free!
Tags: odf, page numbering
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I’m also writing a book and have run into page number trouble. I’ve gone over everything in your article… Well written, btw.
Here’s my problem:
I converted .doc files to .odf. Before the conversion, the .doc had a page number offset. Now, I cannot for the life of me get rid of the page number offset. It messes up page numbering in the Master Document. I’ve tried:
1. Putting in an offset (it doesnt even notice my offset)
2. Copying the entire text to a new fresh odt (no change)
3. Copying paragraph by paragraph and checking the page number field for some reason made it so that the page numbers in the new document were not displayed; just a grey box for the field.
4. Reloading the styles, overwriting the styles from a properly behaving document, and any combination of the above.
grateful for any help,
Godspeed and Many Thanks
Swift Arrow
Edit that… I had just about given up hope!!!
Anyway, here’s a solution. Hope this helps people in the future:
When transitioning to Open Office in the middle of the project (like I did):
1. Open the .doc file in Open Office, and save as .odt
2. Open the new .odt file and select all text and clear formatting.
3. Go through the text and apply STYLES.
This much I had already done… now here’s the hard part.
Everything might seem fine, until you try to stitch everything together in one big Master Document, when you find out that it is behaving strangely.
4. Save everything, close.
5. Open your .odt, and create a new blank .odt. create all your styles in this new one, save it, close it.
6. Create another new blank .odt, in the styles and formatting window (press f11 to get it) select “Load Styles”, Check all that apply, check overwrite, click from file, choose your blank .odt with all the styles from step 5.
7. Now MANUALLY TYPE (not cut and paste) the first line of text into your new blank .odt.
8. Press ENTER to get new line.
9. Apply the appropriate style to the line that you typed (something like chapter title).
10. Copy and paste the REST of the document.
11. Save. Use this final .odt for all your master documents, and from now on.
This process creates a “Clean” .odt file, without hidden defects from it’s Word lineage. It should give you no trouble.
Thanks for the comments Arrow.
That’s one thing about word processing that always bugs me. Copy-and-paste always brings some unwanted (and invisible) artifacts from the old document to the new. But I’m puzzled why you had to save a blank file with the styles applied?
Have you tried pasting the text into the blank file using the “Paste Special” command? You can choose to paste the plain text version of the document which I think will remove formatting of any sorts.
Anyway, I’m glad you managed to solve your problem. Cheers
Ah, the decision to go to college at age 37 has made it necessaary for me to write research papers in both MLA and APA formats. Just figuring out styles and numbering tricks has been fascinating, to say the least.
I just wanted to point out that I always use notepad (you can use any other basic editing app for this if you wish) as a paste buffer. Pasting something into notepad clears the formatting. Then you recopy from notepad and paste it in its final destination. Not sure if that will simplify Swift Arrow’s instructions but it’s worth a shot.