Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007 and 2010. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Compound Page Numbering.
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:
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 the Microsoft Knowledge Base. See this page:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/291283
If you check out the page, you'll note that it indicates that it applies to Word 2002 and Word 2003. Never fear; the same 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 and 2010. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Compound Page Numbering.
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2015-02-23 04:54:41
colin
I am producing a specification using the master doc feature but can find very little in the way of tutorial on how to go about it can any one help.
The document will have 9 sections of approx.70 pages.
2012-04-28 16:22:19
Penny Edwards
Thank you so much for the pointer to Microsoft support for compound page numbering. I have been trying for ages to create a number scheme with the section page number in the header and the document page number in the footer. I had hoped that the SEQ field would be the answer but I was frustrated because I could not use it in the header or footer. I had not thought to put it into the document itself.
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Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007 and 2010. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: 
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