Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Two Page Numbering Schemes in the Same Document.

Two Page Numbering Schemes in the Same Document

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated May 16, 2020)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


3

Depending on your needs, you may want to create two independent page-numbering systems within the same document. This is not unusual, particularly in technical documents. For instance, in the header of each page you may want to show something like 'Page 2 of 7,' which means you are on the second page out of seven in the current section. On the footer of the same page, you may want something like 'Page 34,' which means you are on the thirty-fourth page of the entire document.

It doesn't work to just specify that the numbering in headers restarts at 1 in each section and the numbering in the footers continues from the previous section. While you can independently link headers and footers with their counterparts in the previous section, you cannot do that with page numbering. Page numbering is handled on a section-by-section basis; you set it once for each section, and it affects the page numbers used in all headers and footers for that section.

Since page numbering is a section attribute, you cannot have two distinct numbering schemes in the same section. Word does not provide 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, the same as the results of the NUMPAGES field.
  • NUMPAGES. This field indicates the total number of pages in the entire document.

Using these fields, it is impossible to do develop two numbering systems, because the PAGE field is the only field that represents an actual count that increments with each page.

Those familiar with fields may also think about using the SEQ field. This field is very useful for many purposes, but directly counting pages is not one of them. You cannot use a SEQ field in your header or footer. Doing so results in an error indicating that the SEQ field can only be used in the main document.

This means that you need to actually come up with some way to run two independent counters. One counter will serve as the page number within the current section, and the other will serve as the page number for the entire document. There are several ways that you can tackle this problem, but the solutions tend to be rather involved. For that reason, I will describe the first solution here, and then provide links to the other solutions.

To place two numbering systems in a document, follow these general steps:

  1. Make sure that you separate the sections in your document using a Next Page section break.
  2. Make sure that the headers and footers of each section are not connected to those of the previous section.
  3. Make sure that the page numbering for each section restarts at 1.
  4. Just before the section break, at the end of each section, add a bookmark as follows: Section 1 bookmark is A, Section 2 is B, ... Section 26 is Z, section 27 is AA, Section 28 is BB, etc.
  5. In the header of each section put the following text and compound field (the curly brackets indicate fields, which are added by pressing Ctrl+F9):
     Page {page} of {pageref {section \* Alphabetic}}
  1. Update the fields in what you just entered. Word displays Page 1 of 3, Page 2 of 3, etc., where the first number is the page number in the section and the second is the total number of pages in the section, i.e., the page number where the bookmark is located. (The {section \* Alphabetic} field is an alphabetic representation of the section number, thus the reason that letters of the alphabet were used in the bookmarks in step 4.)
  2. In the footer of section 1 place {page} of {numpages}. This just gives the page number and the total number of pages in the document.
  3. In the footer of section 2 place the following compound field, which gives the number of pages in the previous section plus the page number of the current section:
     {= {pageref A} + {page}} of {numpages}
  • In the footer of section 3, place the following compound field:
  •      {= {pageref A} + {pageref B} + {page}} of {numpages}
    
  • In the footer of each subsequent section, place an increasingly long field-based formula, following the same pattern shown in step 9. You want each formula to result in the total count of pages in all sections prior to the section in which the footer is located, along with the page number within that particular section.
  • This may seem like a lot of work, but there is currently no way around it in Word. There are variations that you can try, as listed in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base articles.

    Word 97: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/155199
    Word 2000: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/212313
    Word 2002 and 2003: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/291283
    

    WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (782) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Two Page Numbering Schemes in the Same Document.

    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

    Using Overtype Mode

    When you type information into a document, what you type normally is inserted just the left of the insertion point. Word ...

    Discover More

    Preventing Printing

    Want to prevent your worksheet from being printed? You may be out of luck, as a determined person may be able to find a ...

    Discover More

    Underlining Text in Cells

    Want a quick way to add some underlines to your cell values? It's easy using the shortcuts provided in this tip.

    Discover More

    Create Custom Apps with VBA! Discover how to extend the capabilities of Office 2013 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Access) with VBA programming, using it for writing macros, automating Office applications, and creating custom applications. Check out Mastering VBA for Office 2013 today!

    More WordTips (menu)

    Using a Macro to Change the Formatting of All Instances of a Word

    If you have a word that you need to make sure is formatted the same way throughout your document, there are several ways ...

    Discover More

    Formatted Merging

    When you use the mail-merge capabilities of Word, the information merged takes on the formatting of your source document, ...

    Discover More

    Consistent Formatting Between Word Versions

    When you upgrade from one version of Word to another, you may be surprised to find that your documents, all of a sudden, ...

    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 2 + 8?

    2023-01-03 16:27:51

    Gordon Geise

    Formulae in subsequent footers *appear* to work but page number does not increment: the first number (that is, pageref A + 1, or pageref A + pageref B + 1) remains a fixed number throughout the entire section, despite the section page numbers in the header incrementing correctly as expected.


    2021-10-15 11:09:23

    Jessica

    Thank you, Allen! This worked beautifully. I do now have the same issue as the previous commenter, Luis. My table of contents now displays page 1, the section page number, for each entry instead of the page number for the entire document. I have not found a workaround online. Do you have any tips? Thank you.


    2021-07-08 12:18:21

    Luis Castanheiro

    Allen, thank you for this solution. It worked well, but now I have another issue. with the dual numbering scheme, the table of contents displays the section page numbers instead of the page number of the whole document. so it shows all heading 1 as page 1.

    how can we modify this behavior?

    Thanks


    This Site

    Got a version of Word that uses the menu interface (Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the ribbon 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.