Desperately seeking solution: In Word 2013, I need to fill the first field in my page number (i.e., the chapter number) from a style that is not a Heading 1 thru Heading 9 style. That is, the first page needs to be numbered "A-1," but the "A" must come from a style I created called "AppHdg0" because Headings 1-9 are already in use in the document for other things (it's a very long, complex engineering document with 12 appendixes). Is it possible to do this? I don't see an option for creating the chapter number for the page number from anything other than Headings 1-9. Thank you!

The ordinary Chapter numbering for page numbers relies on the built-in heading styles. Those styles are special: Why use Microsoft Word’s built-in heading styles? by Shauna Kelly

1. You may be able to create styles that will work by basing them on the built-in heading styles. I have not tried this.
2. Numbering should be done using styles attached to numbering following the instructions given in How to create numbered headings or outline numbering in Ribbon Versions of Word by Shauna Kelly
3. You could also incorporate a StyleRef Field in your header/footer as a part of your page number. See Useful StyleRef tricks by Suzanne Barnhill, MVP.

Thanks so much. I will try that.
Headings 1-9 were modified by my company’s template team years ago so I have no control over that, unfortunately.

Cross posted at Creating a page number from a non-Heading style

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You can set this up with SEQ fields; see TOC Tips and Tricks.

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Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

In a word - No. You do need to use one of the Heading series for your Appendix number.

The workaround of using Seq fields or a second outline series for Appendix heads is a poor substitute because the TOC won't pick up the (styleref field augmented) page numbers correctly and the figure/table captions will require additional work too.

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Andrew Lockton
Chrysalis Design, Melbourne Australia

Hi Andrew,

So your response is that neither the method suggested by Stefan nor the one I suggested is a perfect solution?

Do you know whether styles based on the heading styles will work? I do not know. I know that they work as well as the heading styles for some other purposes. I've been very busy lately or I would have tested this.

Charles, the styleref and seq fields are not ideal solutions, just workarounds needing advanced knowledge to re-create something a lot easier with heading styles.

The benefits of using the built-in heading series numbering for the Appendixes are:
- page number prefix appears as part of the TOC page numbers
- captions can be done with the GUI and not require fiddling field codes and restart switches
- cross-references can be inserted by finding with the heading and/or numbered paragraph categories

To be fair, a document that requires more than 8 heading levels (+ one for Appendix) is a rare beast and the document structure should be reconsidered but they do exist. In engineering firm documentation it is not uncommon for authors to want to add appendixes with around 5 numbered heading series which ideally would be a continuation of the heading series.

The built-in limit of 9 outline levels has been a thorn in the side ever since I started using Word in the 1980s. I've learned to live with the workarounds but do vary my approach from time to time as requirements change. My current approach is to use a template with 6 numbered heading levels + 2 numbered Annex levels + 1 numbered Appendix level to use my limit of 9. If authors require additional heading levels beyond any of these, they are instructed to use unnumbered styles and can choose to add Seq fields prefixes if they wish.

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Andrew Lockton
Chrysalis Design, Melbourne Australia

The original post said that all the headings were in use for other purposes. Thus, the need for klutzy workarounds.

Setting up chapter/page numbering by using the built-in headings will always be easier.

However, note that there is a specific switch that you can use with the SEQ field to include page numbers in the TOC, so this really does work. For example, you can use that approach to add custom numbers or letters; see TOC Tips and Tricks.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional