Usually, you want the first page (or cover page) of a document to not have a page number or any of the header or footer text that the rest of the document has. In Microsoft Word, when you insert page numbers or headers and footers these settings are applied to the whole document, including page one.
If you need to start your page numbering from one but only from the second page of the document then you will have to do it yourself. You can avoid putting a page number on the first page using section breaks but this is a bit overkill for such a simple thing, there are much easier ways to do this. You can either use a Cover Page or Change the Footer Setting.
If you need to start your page numbering from one but only from the second page of the document then you will have to do it yourself. You can avoid putting a page number on the first page using section breaks but this is a bit overkill for such a simple thing, there are much easier ways to do this. You can either use a Cover Page or Change the Footer Setting.
Using a Cover Page
This is probably the easiest and most convenient method. Cover pages are Building Blocks, pre-prepared document elements that can be dropped into your document whenever you need them. Wherever you are in your document a cover page will always be inserted at the start and it will be the first page. Cover pages are independent of the rest of the document and do not comply with either the page numbering or headers and footers.
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| Word Cover Pages |
To insert a cover page, click the Insert tab and then the Cover Page control. Choose a cover page from the gallery and don't worry if you don't like the look of it when it appears, just click again and choose a different one. Most of the Word cover pages have input boxes where you are prompted to enter document information and are really easy to use. You can delete any element on the cover page that you do not want and you can design your own cover page if you don't like the standard ones.
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| Document with a Cover Page |
Change the Footer Setting
If cover pages don't float your boat and you're not bothered with section breaks (who is?) then change the footer setting. Or the header setting if you number at the top of the page. There are three steps to complete which you can do in any order:
- Insert your page numbers. This will number pages from page one.
- Set Different First Page. The pages are still numbered from page one but the first page (i.e. page number one) does not show the page number.
- Format the Page Numbers. Start the numbering from zero. The first page is number zero but it is not shown, the second page is number one and it is displayed.
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| Page One is Page One |
Step One. Insert your Page Numbers. To insert your numbers click the Insert tab and then Page Number (pretty obvious, huh?) Choose where and how you want the page numbers displayed. You will see that the first page is page one which is no good because you want page one not numbered and your second physical page to be number one.
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| Different First Page |
Step Two. Set Different First Page. If you can't see the Header & Footer Tools tab then double-click the top of the document to open it up. Click Different First Page in the Options group. Now you have a blank in the footer for page one.
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| No Footer on Page One |
There is no footer on page one but the second page footer is no good because the second physical page should now be marked as page one. But it's page two. No worries, we're now going to change the numbering so that it starts from zero and therefore the second page will be shown as page one.
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| Page Two is Page Two |
Step Three. Format the Page Numbers. Start the page numbering from zero so that the first page is number zero but it is not shown. The second page is number one and it is displayed.
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| Format Page Numbers |
Click Format Page Number in the Page Number control. The Page Number control is on both the Header & Footer Tools tab and the Insert tab.
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| Start Numbering from Zero |
To set your page numbering to start from zero, click the Start at option button under Page numbering and enter a zero value. All done, page two is now shown as page one and the first page is not numbered. All this sounds far more complicated than it really is. Try doing it a couple of times and it will be dead easy. Honest.
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| Page Two is Page One |
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