Page Numbers are Zeros

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated February 24, 2022)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

Dave has a customer to whom he sends documents periodically. When they leave Dave's desk, the pages are all numbered properly. When his customer opens the documents, the page numbers, located in the footer of each page, are all zeros. Dave wonders why this occurs and if there is a way to fix it.

There are a couple of reasons this could be happening. The simplest explanation is that the fields that Word uses for your page numbers are not automatically updated on the target system. The easiest way to see if this is the issue is to open the header or footer, select the page number, and press F9. You can also choose Tools | Options | Print tab (See Figure 1.) and make sure the Update Fields check box is selected. Print the document and the page numbers should be updated.

Figure 1. The Print tab of the Options dialog box.

If neither of these techniques changes the page numbers from zero, it could be because of a strange little bug in Word 2000. This occurs if there is a combination of tables and floating graphics in your header or footer. You can find more information on this esoteric mix of conditions and how it can affect your document by visiting this Web page at the Word MVP site:

http://wordmvp.com/FAQs/Numbering/PageNumber0.htm

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (320) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.

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. Learn more about Allen...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Saving Changes when Closing

If you write a macro that makes changes to a document, you may want that macro to save those changes. There are several ...

Discover More

Drawing a Table

There are several ways you can create tables in a document, but one of the most unique (and perhaps most fun) is to ...

Discover More

Keeping Words in the Custom Dictionary

The spell checker that is part of Word allows you to create and use custom dictionaries to expand how the checker does ...

Discover More

The First and Last Word on Word! Bestselling For Dummies author Dan Gookin puts his usual fun and friendly candor back to work to show you how to navigate Word 2013. Spend more time working and less time trying to figure it all out! Check out Word 2013 For Dummies today!

More WordTips (menu)

Turning Off Default First Page Numbering

Ever want to change the default settings for how Word handles page numbering? Word doesn't make this as easy as you would ...

Discover More

Adding Page Numbers

Ever want to add page numbers to your document? Word allows you to control many aspects of page numbering. Here's how to ...

Discover More

Using Only Odd Page Numbers

Do you need to number the pages of your document using only odd page numbers? Word doesn't provide a way to do this, but ...

Discover More

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.

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is two more than 7?

2022-05-22 22:14:49

Joel

Thank you thank you! :) This is still useful!

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.