I created a lengthy document in Word 2003, saved what I had as a .doc on a flash drive, then opened it in Word 2010 (showing it as in compatibility mode). The page numbers I had inserted previously ended-up partially outside the the printable area of the paper (lower right corner position).



Changing margin widths did not correct the problem, so I went to Insert/Page Number and found "Remove Page Numbers" grayed-out.

I made a second copy of the document, saving in .docx format, and tried the same thing, but this time (in Word 2010) the "remove page numbers" had a red "X" through it.

The page numbers appear to be objects, as sometimes when double-clicking I get an object box, which can be dragged, but after saving, the document's page numbers revert to their original positions where they are only partially printable.

I even did a search of the document looking for "page1" with nothing found, apparently because it's an object and not searchable text.

Without doing a copy and paste into a fresh .docx document (probably losing much of my formatting), how do I remove the page numbers, and why is the "remove page numbers" button unusable in both .doc and .docx formats?

BTW, I no longer have access to the computer running Word 2003 that the document was mostly created on.

Edit to add: page numbers are NOT in the footer area, but above the footer line.

I do not fully understand what transpires when using a flash drive to save Word documents but, others profess on this forum to NOT use a flash drive on Word files. Apparently, it will corupt the file and cause problems such as yours.

When the other posters come online hopefully they will offer more details. In the interim, you can search this forum for FLASH DRIVE and you may come up with the details they offer.

Sorry I cannot be more informative.

See Page Numbers in Word 2007-2013.
Do not work on your document in any way while it resides on a flash drive.

Page numbers inserted in earlier versions of Word were in Frames. You need to find and delete them.

Page numbers are a function of Sections in that they can be reformatted, changed, and restarted at a section break.

Page numbers are almost always in the header or footer even if they appear in margins far removed from the header or footer area.

I hope this helps.

I did get the page numbers to open in a frame or object box, but not only was "remove page numbers" button not available, but the "Cut" command was also grayed-out.

I'm not seeing lots of backward-compatibility using 2010 to open something created in 2003, even after saving to .docx format to get out of "compatibility mode". Both machines are still running XP SP2, BTW....perhaps contributing to the problem, but both Word 2003 and 20010 were designed to run under XP.

A new WIN 10 machine is in my future shortly, along with Office 2016, just don't have the money to stay current, since I have the latest of everything at work and can't keep 3 home machines current.

I have never had problems with flash-drives corrupting anything, so don't really understand how the storage media can cause problems.

If, as your first post seems to suggest, the page # is in a textbox or frame, all you really need to do is click on the border of the frame of the object holding the page #, then press 'Delete'.

That said, the issue has nothing to do with compatibility between Word 2003 and Word 2010; just a lack of understanding about the different ways features such as page numbers might be inserted. The "Remove Page Numbers" function only works with page #s inserted via the "Insert Page Numbers" function during current editing session for the document; close & re-open it and Word won't remember that it's been inserted and, so, can't remove it that way.

As for Office 2016, you're better off staying with Office 2010 (IMHO) unless Office 2016 provides some added functionality you really need.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

I agree with Paul, especially about getting Word 2016 instead of Word 2010.

It is not that flash drives corrupt documents. It is that Word corrupts documents that are on flash drives unless the person using them safely removes them. This is currently the biggest cause of document corruption.

I'm not seeing "Delete" only "Cut", and it is grayed-out and non-functional.

BTW, I tried using section breaks rather than my original page breaks, and it achieved nothing, and since this document is time-sensitive, I'm running of time...I may just save as text, paste into a fresh .docx document and spend a few hours formatting it using the original as a guide...very frustrating for someone who is not a Word expert, and wish the application offered a "dummies" mode...99% of features I will never use, like for legal and scientific uses, just to cite a couple.

I appreciate the tip to stay with 2010 rather than going to Office 2016...I had read that 2016 would be needed for 64-bit Windows 10, but didn't save the link, and it might have been mis-information. I'll try the 2010 version first when the new machine arrives.

Without actually seeing a document with the problem pages #s, it's difficult to understand what the issue is. Can you attach a document to a post with some representative content (delete anything sensitive)? You do this via the paperclip symbol on the 'Go Advanced' tab at the bottom of this screen.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Sorry, but the entire document is confidential, involving a client and a sensitive business deal. The last time I approve vacation for the only Word expert in my SOHO,
when a project is nearing completion...she's in a remote area with no Internet, otherwise I would have emailed it to her to fix, and had flowers waiting when she got back.

But, I appreciate the offer. I have already pasted .txt into a new .docx file, and am about 1/3 finished reformatting it to it's original appearance, sans page numbers, which I decided I'll experiment with in the future when I'm not under the gun time-wise. They are not critical in this one, since every paragraph is numbered, and a missing page would be obvious.

And, a lesson learned about editing anything from portable media like flash-drive or CD-R.

Well, if you're not willing to let us seem what these mysterious page #s are, which I seriously doubt has anything to do with confidentiality, I can't see much progress being made.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Click on a frame, shape or textbox border. You will get sizing squares on the corners when you do this. To delete a selected frame, shape or textbox, press the delete key.

Manual page breaks are the bane of editors. Section breaks instead compounds the problem. Section breaks contain a lot of formatting.

That may work best. If possible, use styles for the formatting. Use page-break-before formatting for headings that you want to start a new page.

You may want to look into WordPad which comes with Windows and has none of those features.

I use Word 2010 (32-bit) on Office 10 (64-bit).