zero page number

users
#1

I have a book in which I want to insert page numbers. I've tried dividing
the book up into front information and the actual book contents and I want
to start numbering from page 1 as the first page of the actual contents.
There are four pages before the book starts, including a blank page on the
left hand side.

I can't find a way to divide the book up into two sections, one of which,
the first four pages, has no footer, the second of which does, and then I
can start numbering from 1. So I have added the footer, inserted page
number field and put in -4 in the page number field window. Now the first
page of the book contents has a 1 at the bottom, but the previous (blank)
page has a zero which I can't get rid of. Is this a bug or have I missed
something?

Using version 5.0.3.2 on Windows 7

#2

I have a book in which I want to insert page numbers. I've tried dividing the book up into front information and the actual book contents and I want to start numbering from page 1 as the first page of the actual contents. There are four pages before the book starts, including a blank page on the left hand side.

This is very standard, of course - with the front matter either being unnumbered (or part of it so) or being numbered separately, in a different style. Front matter often uses lower case roman numerals, with the body having the usual arabic numbers.

I can't find a way to divide the book up into two sections, one of which, the first four pages, has no footer, the second of which does, and then I can start numbering from 1. So I have added the footer, inserted page number field and put in -4 in the page number field window. Now the first page of the book contents has a 1 at the bottom, but the previous (blank) page has a zero which I can't get rid of. Is this a bug or have I missed something?

I don't know whether this is a bug, but there is a way to achieve what you want without this problem.

Footers (and headers) are a property of page styles. As you need different behaviour in different parts of your document, you should use different page styles for the different parts - here one for the front matter and another for the body of the document. The page style for the body will have a footer with page numbers, whereas the page style for the front matter may have either a footer with no page number or no footer at all.

Once you have created the two page styles, insert a manual page break at the juncture:
o Apply the page style for the front matter to the document. Do not worry that this will - temporarily - apply to the entire document.
o Put the cursor at the end of the front matter.
o Go to Insert | Manual Break... .
o Select "Page break".
o Under Style, select the page style for your document body from the drop-down menu.
o As you want page numbering of the body to start at 1 instead of at 5, tick "Change page number" and select the starting number - 1 - from the thumbwheel.

I trust this helps.

Brian Barker

#3

Hm. My original post was via Nabble as I don't save posts to the users
forum and Nabble doesn't want to quote Brian properly so I'm trying to
post this by replying to the copy of Brian's email which I received and
adding the users forum.

First and most important, thanks, Brian for your answer. It seemed easy
but it wasn't for various reasons. One is that the original document is
on my wife's computer where Libreoffice is the Swedish version, and
Swedish translations of interface terms aren't always intuitive! As a
consequence I originally added Sections instead of Styles (before
getting your reply).

Now I have taken a new copy of the original document from Scrivener and
moved it to my computer, where Libreoffice is the English version.

Remaining comments inline below.

Brian Barker [via Document Foundation Mail Archive]
<mailto:ml-node+s969070n4188397h45@n3.nabble.com>
12 Jul 2016 14:20
>I have a book in which I want to insert page numbers. I've tried
>dividing the book up into front information and the actual book
>contents and I want to start numbering from page 1 as the first page
>of the actual contents. There are four pages before the book starts,
>including a blank page on the left hand side.

<snip>

I don't know whether this is a bug, but there is a way to achieve
what you want without this problem.

Footers (and headers) are a property of page styles. As you need
different behaviour in different parts of your document, you should
use different page styles for the different parts - here one for the
front matter and another for the body of the document. The page style
for the body will have a footer with page numbers, whereas the page
style for the front matter may have either a footer with no page
number or no footer at all.

Once you have created the two page styles, insert a manual page break
at the juncture:
o Apply the page style for the front matter to the document. Do not
worry that this will - temporarily - apply to the entire document.
o Put the cursor at the end of the front matter.
o Go to Insert | Manual Break... .
o Select "Page break".

I didn't understand that inserting a manual break would not only divide
the document into two regions but add a blank page. So I now had five
pages of front matter, but I managed to remove one of them. One thing I
would like to know: supposing I needed to do this again between two
sections of the content pages, but didn't want a blank page between them
- not very likely, I know, but anyhow - how could I do that?

o Under Style, select the page style for your document body from the
drop-down menu.
o As you want page numbering of the body to start at 1 instead of at
5, tick "Change page number" and select the starting number - 1 -
from the thumbwheel.

All this worked fine. So once again, thanks, Brian.

#4

I didn't understand that inserting a manual break would not only divide the document into two regions but add a blank page. So I now had five pages of front matter, but I managed to remove one of them. One thing I would like to know: supposing I needed to do this again between two sections of the content pages, but didn't want a blank page between them - not very likely, I know, but anyhow - how could I do that?

Adding a manual page break at some point in the text will not create a blank page. But if you already had your four pages of front matter separated from the body of your document by an existing page break - as seems obvious - then adding a new page break will make two breaks and yes: an intervening empty page. You just need to remove the existing page break, which you can do easily with a single Backspace either before or after you add the new one, to achieve what you need.

All this worked fine.

Good-oh!

Brian Barker