PapaTom

The method hasn't changed since well before 2008 so try to be a little open minded about old instructions. This has nothing to do with your current version of Word - just your current version of your document. What you need is an understanding in how and where footers reside.

Firstly, every Word document is composed of sections - separated by Section Breaks. A nice simple document contains only one section (and no section breaks). Every SECTION can be configured to have one, two or three different footers depending on the page setup settings you assign to it.

If you are demanding the same footer on every page:


1. Remove all section breaks from the document.
2. Configure the Page Setup > Layout settings for the WHOLE DOCUMENT to turn off the settings for "Different Odd and Even" and "Different first page"
Now you will have only one footer repeated on every page of the document so you can add the page number and see it on every page.

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Andrew Lockton
Chrysalis Design, Melbourne Australia

Thank you very much for your reply, Andrew. Just to give you the flavor of why I am so frustrated, your solution, from the very first step, does not match the commands on my toolbar. I do not have an item for "Page Setup," only for "Layout." And the "Different Odd and Even" and "Different First Page" options are not within the Layout menu, but within a menu that comes up only after I insert page numbers.


Anyway, that said, I was able to insert page numbers (thank you), but now I have two other issues:


1. I do not want a line separating my text from the page number. That line is forcing text from one page onto the next, messing up the formatting and pagination that I have spent hours and hours working out. How can I get rid of it?


2. This is a book I am writing, and I do not want the numbers to begin on the first page. There was always a very simple method of doing this and now it is making me pull my hair out. Any tips?

Different first page and different odd and Even are commands that apply exclusively to headers and footers; consequently, they only display if you are editing a header or footer.


It would be much easier to understand what you mean if you were to post an example.


Assuming that you are putting your page number in either the header or footer, then
1. open the header or footer
2. Go to the Design menu
3. Select different first page. This lets you have one header/footer for the first page of a section, and a different one for the rest of the section. Once that is don, just insert the page number after the first page, and you should be good.