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: Setting the Starting Line Number.

Setting the Starting Line Number

by Allen Wyatt
(last updated January 12, 2022)

If you are working on a very long document that uses line numbering, you may have stored parts of the document in different files. When you print those files, you don't want the line numbers to start over at 1 for each file you print. To adjust the starting line number for a document, follow these steps:

Select the Page Setup option from the File menu. You will see the Page Setup dialog box.
Click on the Layout tab. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Layout tab of the Page Setup dialog box.

Click on the Line Numbers button. You will see the Line Numbers dialog box. (See Figure 2.)

Figure 2. The Line Numbers dialog box.

Adjust the starting line number by changing the number in the Start At box.
Change the line number increment value (Count By) if desired.
Click on OK to close the Line Numbers dialog box.
Click on OK to close the Page Setup dialog box.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1631) 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: Setting the Starting Line Number.

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...

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