Compound Page Numbering

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated November 9, 2024)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365


Jonathan wondered if there was a way to use two page-numbering schemes within the same document. He has a document that is made up of several sections, and he wants a running header similar to the following:
Page: 27    Effects of Product A and Product B (Page 1 of 5)
The page number at the left is the absolute page number for the document, and the page numbers at the right represent the relative page number and total number of pages in the current section. It would seem that such numbering would be possible, particularly since the same sort of numbers routinely appear on Word's status bar. Not so, however. The page numbering used in Word is a section attribute. This means that you can control the page numbering on a section-by-section basis, but you cannot have two distinct numbering schemes in the document. At least, Word does not provide distinct fields that you can use for such a purpose. These are the only page number fields provided by Word:
  • PAGE. This field indicates the current page number. If you don't modify it (by restarting it for the current section or changing the starting page number), then it represents the current page number for the document as a whole.
  • SECTIONPAGES. This field indicates the total number of pages in the current section. If your document consists of a single section, then it represents the total number of pages in the document as a whole.
Using these two available fields, it is impossible to do what Jonathan wants, since he needs a third field—one that represents the absolute page number for the current section. There are, fortunately, two workarounds you can use to accomplish the desired result. The first workaround involves the use of the SEQ field, and the second involves the use of PAGEREF fields. The workarounds are quite involved, and the details are best deferred to an archived page originally on the Microsoft Knowledge Base. See this page:
https://www.betaarchive.com/wiki/index.php/Microsoft_KB_Archive/291283
The page has been retired (apparently) from the Microsoft site, and if you check the archive page, you'll note that it indicates that it applies to Word 2002 and Word 2003. (Yep—over 20 years ago!) Retired or not; old Word versions or not, the techniques described in the article also apply to later versions of Word just fine. (The steps that implement the techniques may require a bit of adjustment, but shouldn't be a big problem for most Word users.)

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (11640) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Drawing Borders

Adding borders around cells is a common formatting task. You can make the task more intuitive by actually drawing the ...

Discover More

Relative References to Cells in Other Workbooks

When you construct a formula and click on a cell in a different workbook, an absolute reference to that cell is placed in ...

Discover More

Getting Rid of Spaces in Cells

Importing data into Excel that was generated in other programs can have some interesting side effects. For instance, you ...

Discover More

Learning Made Easy! Quickly teach yourself how to format, publish, and share your content using Word 2013. With Step by Step, you set the pace, building and practicing the skills you need, just when you need them! Check out Microsoft Word 2013 Step by Step today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Updating Fields Automatically

You can place dynamic fields into many parts of your document. If your document contains a lot of fields, you might ...

Discover More

Locating Locked Fields

A field can be locked or unlocked, and its condition controls whether it is updated automatically or not. If you want to ...

Discover More

Inserting Custom Properties with Fields

If you define a group of custom properties for a document, you may want a way to display the contents of those properties ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 7 - 7?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)


This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the ribbon interface (Word 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the menu interface.

Videos
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.