Hello, I have a page numbering problem. The document I am creating is as follows: One document with multiple training briefs. Each training brief needs to have a page numbering scheme of page X of Y. I also need over all page numbering in the footer for the creation of a table of contents.

For example: Training brief 1 takes up 3 pages. So the over all page numbering in the footer should be page 1 then page 2 then page 3. However, I want at the top of each page of training brief 1 (in the header) to show that the Training brief itself is a total of 3 pages. That means the top of page 1 of training brief 1 would show page 1 of 3. Page 2 of training brief 1 would show page 2 of 3. Page 3 of training brief 1 would show page 3 of 3.

Then I would get to training brief 2. Training brief 2 would consist of 2 pages total. So the over all page number in the footer for training brief 2 would be page 4 and then page 5. Now, at the top of page 1 of training brief 2 you would see page 1 of 2 which is on over all page number 4. Then the next page would show page 2 of 2 which is on over all page number 5.

Ideally the header for each section would contain a unique training brief name, date enacted and the page X of Y numbering scheme. The footer for all pages would be a continuous numbering of all pages from 1 through X.

The table of contents would then show that training brief 1 is on page 1 and training brief 2 is on page 4. I have already found a solution for creating the table of contents properly.

I can not figure out how to get MS word to do the above page numbering or if it is even possible. I know I can create unique headers and footers by using section breaks but this only lets me create a unique header for each section. I essentially need a unique header on each page even when there is a page break not a section break.

The only solution I can think of so far is to have the over all page numbers in the footer. Then create manual page breaks where needed and insert the table that would contain the training brief name along with the unique page numbers in the flow of the text. That solution would be tedious and create problems when it would be time to update the text down the road.



Thanks for your help.

Jeremy

Hi Jeremy,

Basically, what you're after is havin two parallel numbering schemes within the one document:
• Page X of Y for each Section
• Page n for the document as a whole

Your TOC will use the latter, which is quite easy to create - it's simply a matter of inserting a page number field in the page header for brief 1. Before inserting that, you should unlink brief 1's page header from the previous Section, which will contain your TOC. Then you can format the page numbering to start at 1 in the brief 1 Section. For each subsequent Section, ensure the page numbering is set to 'continue from previous'.

For the Section-dependent Page X of Y numbering, you need a fairly complex field code:
{IF{SECTION} = 1 {IF{PAGE}= 1 "{SET Section1 {SECTIONPAGES}}{SET PageCount {={NUMPAGES}- Section1}}"} {QUOTE{IF{PAGE}<> PageCount {IF{={SECTIONPAGES}+{REF {QUOTE Section{={SECTION}-1}}}}={={PAGE}+Section1} {SET {QUOTE Section{SECTION}} {={PAGE}+Section1}}}} "Section Page {={PAGE}+Section1-{REF {QUOTE Section{={SECTION}-1}}}} of {SECTIONPAGES}"}}


If your footers are configured to continue from previous, everything should be fine if you just put the field code into just the first page footer; otherwise you'll need to add the field code to each fotter that is not so configured.

Note: The field brace pairs (ie '{ }') for the above example are created via Ctrl-F9 - you can't simply type them or copy & paste them from this message. Rather having to encode all of this manually, I've added to field code to the attached document - between the [] symbols.

Attached Files

DualXofYNumbering.doc (37.0 KB, 24 views)

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

I tried placing the code in and it does not seem to work correctly. I keep getting a syntax error. I did copy it from the correct place. Also it seems that when it did work, the first number which should be X was really giving me a Y total and the Y number which sould be the total pages of the section was numbering the section pages. I may be inserting the code incorrectly because this code is far beyond any of my microsoft office skills. Thanks.

Hi Jeremy,

I've updated the document attached to my previous post, with a revised version of the field in the footer (to support document-level X of Y numbering in the header a well) and the page setup as described previously. You should now be able to see how it all works.

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

I saw your updated document. It appears to number the pages exactly as I would need to do so in my document. The problem for me comes when I copy and paste the code from the footer (since this has the section X of Y page numbering) and insert it in to the header of my document. I receive a syntax error (Section Page !Syntax Error, ! of 2). I did not change anything in the code. I understood the direction on how to remove or change the word "section." My document is already completed except for adding these page numbers and I did use "new section" breaks between the individual training briefs so I don't think I used section breaks incorrectly.

Hi Jsh,

That suggests you put the field code into a Section 2 header that is not linked to Section 1's header. You have two options:
1. link Section 2's header to Section 1's header; or
2. add the field code to Section 1's header also.

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

Alright. I understand and did some testing. I think I have it working now. I had to remove a cover page and a section where the pages were numbered i-v. I was then left with just a table of contents which is not numbered and then the training briefs. It seems to be working properly now on the first four training briefs. Thanks.

Hi jsh,

As indicated previously, the field code was based on the assumption there was only one Section in the document prior to the one where the Section-Level X of Y numbering is to start. For a document with multiple prior Sections, the code would need more tweaking.

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

OK. I split my document up (separate documents for cover page, introduction, and then training briefs).

In the training briefs document I have one section, a table of contents, before the first training brief (the sections that needed section page X of Y).

It was working great up to page 7 and then fell apart. I copied the code in to the header of the ToC. I then copied it in to the header for each training brief section and it began updating properly showing page 1 of 2 then page 2 of 2 etc. but only for the first 7 pages of training briefs. On page 8 the training brief says page 2 of 2 and then on page 9 it says page 3 of 2 (this is a new section not connected to the previous section that has 2 pages total). Then on page 10 it says page 2 of 1 (this section only has 1 page). Then on page 11 it says page !syntax error, ! of 1 (this section only has 1 page).

I don't know what went wrong after page 7.

Hi jsh,

I am unable to replicate that behaviour in my test document. I suspect the problem has to do with your document's 'whole of document' numbering. Do all the affected sections have that numbering in their footer, and is it correct?

If you can post a sanitized copy of your document (eg with the content deleted and hard page breaks to maintain the overall structure) I'd be happy to take a look at it.

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