Hello. I have Linux Mint 17.3 "Rosa", and LibreOffice for document work, and am having trouble with LibreOffice page numbering. I am helping my husband write a novel. In doing so, I have typed a Title page, Table of Contents, and 364 pages of content. When I first typed the MS, I had enabled the default footer (in the Insert drop down box), and then (also from the insert drop down box) inserted page numbers at the bottom of each page. But sometime after I typed the MS, the page numbering got messed up: instead of showing the proper page number on each page, I suddenly had each page numbered as "1"; if I changed that to make each succeeding page have its own number, all the other pages, both before and after the page I was working on, would have that new page number. If I put in a page number without using a footer, then the page number would move with the content as I typed. If I try enabling the footer the line and cursor pointer skips down to the third page of the content -- I thought this might be because of the Title and Table of Contents pages, which are not to be numbered, so I moved them to a separate document, and then erased them from the MS, then tried again to number the pages using the default footer, then inserting the page number, but this didn't help. I'm at a loss at to what to do now. Can anyone help me?
Trouble with LibreOffice page numbering
- Thread starter Phylly
- Start date
If you open your footer (on any page) - delete the page number that you manually typed. Then select the following menu item:
Insert->Field->Page Number
That should put the correct page number in the footer for all pages.
This page of LibreOffice's documentation should also help:
https://help.libreoffice.org/Writer/Inserting_Page_Numbers_in_Footers
Insert->Field->Page Number
That should put the correct page number in the footer for all pages.
This page of LibreOffice's documentation should also help:
https://help.libreoffice.org/Writer/Inserting_Page_Numbers_in_Footers
Hi @Phylly... I hope that @JasKinasis' suggestion solved the issue for you. You may need some further help with LibreOffice Writer as you pursue this project, and the LibreOffice developers have quite a bit of information available online. There is specific help for Writer available here, and you can download the full User Guide for all of the LibreOffice products here.
Google also provided a lot of helpful info from other people who have used LibreOffice Writer to publish their work. Some folks offered free book templates that might be useful to you. I searched for using libreoffice to write novel with good results. I'm not a writer, so I learned quite a few things just with some quick browsing.
It looks like LibreOffice Writer should be quite capable of doing this project in a professional manner. Good luck!
Cheers
Google also provided a lot of helpful info from other people who have used LibreOffice Writer to publish their work. Some folks offered free book templates that might be useful to you. I searched for using libreoffice to write novel with good results. I'm not a writer, so I learned quite a few things just with some quick browsing.
It looks like LibreOffice Writer should be quite capable of doing this project in a professional manner. Good luck!
Cheers
This is what I originally did when I first started typing the MS, but when I found that it had been messed up, I deleted the footer (and therefore the page numbers), and tried it again, just as you said. But instead of getting an MS with appropriate page numbers for each page, I get all the pages number with the same number.
Thank you, atanere, I will check these out and see what happens.
Thanks, jasKinasis and atanere; so far as I can tell with a quick read, none of these touches on my problem, though I'm sure they will help me with the functions I have never had to use or don't understand, but I think I have figured out another way. I started with a fresh, new document, adding a default footer and inserting a page number, I then copied the entire MS and pasted it into the new document and saved it under another name. I'm in the process of working out old manual page numbers, so I will get some chance to see if this works. If not, I'll back up all my documents to CDs and do a new download of LibreOffice.
I don't think you need to re-install LibreOffice... I don't think it is misbehaving, although I know it seems like that. I like your idea to start fresh and either import or copy/paste into a new document. It seems like manual page numbers are a bad idea with an on-going project subject to maybe many changes and edits. I don't think I'd worry about footers or page numbers until the whole manuscript is entered in and complete. Even then you may have quite a bit of proofreading and/or editing to do before turning into more of a "finished product."
While I don't think you need to re-install LibreOffice, you might want to update it, if you haven't already. LibreOffice should update with the system updates for Linux Mint... so if you have run those, you should be up to date with LibreOffice too.
I'll try to go download a small book from the web in text or .doc format and see if I can figure out anything with page numbering. Looking at LibreOffice Writer seems that page numbers can be separate from footers too, though I'm not sure that is a better idea, and it probably isn't.
Cheers
Have already updated; I try to do any updates within a day or two of notice, and I know LibreOffice was updated just a few days ago. As to the page numbering, if one doesn't use a footer when putting in the page number, then the page number will move with the text as it is typed; so if you want the page number to stay in place, you must use a footer (at least, according to what it says in the Help/Index).
When you update the operating system, Linux Mint, it often does not contain the very latest edition of a program. So, LibreOffice likely will have a more recent edition than what Mint will update to, but don't worry about that too much. They are not far enough off to be a significant problem, and the difference in versions is not going to solve your problem. All versions will handle page numbering... you've just got to find the right way to tell it what you want to do.
Yes, I understand about putting the page number in the footer (or header). But the book is still a work-in-progress. You don't really need the page numbers yet, do you?
Have you checked YouTube videos? They seem to have a lot on this topic:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=footer+page+numbers+libreoffice
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=footer+page+numbers+libreoffice
I take it that you want "Page 1" to be several pages into the document.... skipping over the Title, Table of Contents, etc. Some of these videos seem to explain that, but the Writer version may be somewhat different so you might have to look around for similar tools in your version. Some of the videos are for OpenOffice, but they should also be quite similar to LibreOffice.
Cheers
I'm sorry, but that all means nothing to me; the best I can do to answer your question is: (from LibreOffice Help):
Inserting Page Numbers in Footers
You can easily insert a page number field in the footer of your document. You can also add a page count to the footer, for example, in the form "Page 9 of 12"
To Insert a Page Number
To Additionally Add a Page Count
Inserting Page Numbers in Footers
You can easily insert a page number field in the footer of your document. You can also add a page count to the footer, for example, in the form "Page 9 of 12"
To Insert a Page Number
- Choose Insert - Footer and select the page style that you want to add the footer to.
- Choose Insert - Fields - Page Number.
To Additionally Add a Page Count
- Click in front of the page number field, type Page and enter a space; click after the field, enter a space and then type of and enter another space.
- Choose Insert - Fields - Page Count.
I appear to have confused you, @Phylly , regrets. I said
I did not expect the document to mean anything, it is very technical.
Look at the page numbering at the bottom, right-aligned for odd pages, left-aligned for even pages.
Is that the sort of thing you were looking to do? It can be done totally within Footers, and without Fields.
If you have something else in mind, that is fine
Wizard
I did not expect the document to mean anything, it is very technical.
Look at the page numbering at the bottom, right-aligned for odd pages, left-aligned for even pages.
Is that the sort of thing you were looking to do? It can be done totally within Footers, and without Fields.
If you have something else in mind, that is fine
Wizard
I can sympathize with @Phylly.... I've been fiddling around with page numbers off and on a good part of the day today, and it can be quite a pain. The problem is that none of us know what we're doing, but we're trying to help figure it out. The LibreOffice Writer is a complicated and sophisticated program capable for use by professionals. It is similar to the struggle to use GIMP or Photoshop for graphic editing or creation. When you master these tools, they don't seem so hard.
So, I'm hoping to attach two test files in Writer .odt format. They are they same document, the book of Genesis from the Bible, but the page numbering is different. Test1.odt is similar to Wizard's example.... numbering beginning on the first page with Page 1. Test2.odt is more like a novel or book.... the Title page and Table of Contents have no page numbers, and Page 1 actually starts with the text on the 5th page of the document.
I'm still pretty strongly recommending that @Phylly wait until the document is completely typed up before trying to set the page numbers or other formatting. My worry is that the numbering may shift unexpectedly. (Isn't that what already happened?) Let us know the numbering scheme that you are trying to achieve for the novel, and we can try to make an example or describe how to set it up. By the way, I did find the YouTube videos helpful, even if not perfect.
Okay, here goes... nope, failure due to file type. The forum will not allow the .odt files. Will try a PDF instead....
Cheers
So, I'm hoping to attach two test files in Writer .odt format. They are they same document, the book of Genesis from the Bible, but the page numbering is different. Test1.odt is similar to Wizard's example.... numbering beginning on the first page with Page 1. Test2.odt is more like a novel or book.... the Title page and Table of Contents have no page numbers, and Page 1 actually starts with the text on the 5th page of the document.
I'm still pretty strongly recommending that @Phylly wait until the document is completely typed up before trying to set the page numbers or other formatting. My worry is that the numbering may shift unexpectedly. (Isn't that what already happened?) Let us know the numbering scheme that you are trying to achieve for the novel, and we can try to make an example or describe how to set it up. By the way, I did find the YouTube videos helpful, even if not perfect.
Okay, here goes... nope, failure due to file type. The forum will not allow the .odt files. Will try a PDF instead....
Cheers
Thank you for you tests, @atanere, but both turned out like books/MS's (perhaps because of the pdf's?). Yes, the numbering could shift, and yes, that is what happened before, but do to the way we are editing (page by page), and then immediately printing the corrected page, I must have the page numbers now. But I hope to make it into a pdf soon, and (so far) the pdfs don't move once made.
I appear to have confused you, @Phylly , regrets. I said
I did not expect the document to mean anything, it is very technical.
Look at the page numbering at the bottom, right-aligned for odd pages, left-aligned for even pages.
Is that the sort of thing you were looking to do? It can be done totally within Footers, and without Fields.
If you have something else in mind, that is fine
Wizard
Oh, now I see. Sorry for my mixup. Actually, I'm centering the numbers -- according to LibreOffice Help the numbers can be either the way you did it, or centered if preferred.
From these instructions you posted, the only thing different (for me) is that on the first page of my document, I click near the bottom of the page and a little pop-up box appears with a "plus sign" (+) that I use to add a footer. That action puts a blinking cursor allowing any input.... so then I use Insert > Fields > Page Number... and it puts a "1" there automatically. I can center the page number then also. The pages are all numbered sequentially.
The thing you should NOT do is overwrite that number that is put there automatically. If you type your own "1" then you will have a "1" on every page. (I think that is one of the problems you've had.)
Because you are continuing to add/edit to the document, if you discover the page numbers shifting, you can delete your footer and start it again fresh from the first page. I think that will correct any shifting of the numbering.
This is the simplest method I see with page numbers. It means that your Title Page, Table of Contents, Forward, and any of that is NOT part of the text of the novel. They can be part of the document (I tried to show that in Text2.pdf) but it really makes the numbering more difficult (it needs a manual page break before the numbering begins, but it's still tricky).
Another thing that influences the look and function of each page is "styles and formatting" settings. For example, if you have a Title Page, instead of the default style, it could be "First Page" style.... which allows no headers or footers. There is an "Index" style page format too, but I don't know the details of its formatting. These things can play a part in the page numbering if you have them included, but it might be easier for you if they are separate documents.
And what you really have to satisfy is the requirements of the publisher you are going to work with, if you are going to submit the novel to them in digital form. They may be very picky about format. But if you're going to print yourself, all you need is that each page prints and looks like you intend.
Off to work.... ugh.
Cheers
