Start Word page numbers after the cover and contents
Page numbers start on your contents page, and removing that one footer wipes the numbers off every page. How do you start page 1 at the introduction?
A dissertation writer on r/Office365 described a familiar problem: numbering began on the contents page, and attempts to remove it could erase every page number. The workable structure is a separate section for the main text. That section can start at 1 while the cover and contents use different footers.
The steps below use desktop Word for Windows and numbers in the footer. If yours are at the top, work in the header instead. Save a copy before restructuring an established template, especially one with university branding or separate left- and right-page layouts.
Page numbers for the cover, contents and main text
Consider an example with a cover, two contents pages and the introduction. If the first three pages should have no visible number, use two sections: front matter, then main text. If the contents must display i and ii, use three: cover, contents, main text. These are example layouts, not a universal thesis requirement.
| Part | Unnumbered front matter | Roman-numbered contents |
|---|---|---|
| Cover | No visible number; section 1 | No visible number; section 1 |
| Two contents pages | No visible numbers; section 1 | i, ii; section 2 |
| Introduction onward | 1, 2, 3…; section 2 | 1, 2, 3…; section 3 |
Your submission rules may count an unnumbered title page as part of the Roman sequence. In that case, the contents may need a different starting value. Write down the required visible number for each boundary page before editing; hiding a number and excluding a page from the count are different decisions.
Create the boundary before the introduction
Turn on Home → ¶ to see the document’s breaks. A manual page break moves text to another page but does not establish a new section. If a Next Page section break already sits before the introduction, reuse it. Otherwise, remove any manual page break at that exact boundary and place the cursor before the introduction’s first character.
Choose Layout → Breaks → Next Page under Section Breaks. The main text should begin on a new page in a new section. Continuous breaks are intended for changes within a page; Next Page fits this boundary. Microsoft’s section-break instructions also note that Word for the web cannot add section breaks. Open the file in desktop Word for this part.
Do not create a section for every page of the thesis. A section is useful where numbering, headers or layout need to change. In the two-section example, all the introduction and chapters can remain together until a layout change, such as a landscape table, requires another boundary.
Keep the body’s footer when you clear the earlier pages
Double-click the footer on the introduction’s first page. Turn off Link to Previous in the Header & Footer tab. This makes the body’s footer independent of edits to the preceding section’s footer.
Check the area you are editing: unlinking the header does not unlink the footer. Microsoft’s instructions for separate headers and footers treat them independently. If Link to Previous is unavailable, check whether you actually created a section break; two pages can still belong to one section.
For a template with a special first-page footer, or different odd and even footers, repeat the unlinking in each body-footer variant that must be independent. Those variants link to their own counterparts in the preceding section. The Link to Previous documentation explains that turning off one type does not separate every other type.
Once those links are off, return to the front matter and remove the page-number field from each footer type used there. Leave any required wording or logos in place.
Set the main text to Arabic page 1
Return to the introduction’s footer. If it has no automatic number, insert one using Page Number and a bottom-of-page style. If a number is already there, keep it and open Page Number → Format Page Numbers.
- Choose the 1, 2, 3 number format.
- Select Start at and enter 1.
- Close the footer and check that the introduction displays 1 and its next page displays 2.
For Roman-numbered contents, add the extra boundary after the cover and unlink the contents footer too. Insert an automatic page number there if you previously removed it, then select the i, ii, iii format and required starting value. Keep the main text’s Arabic format and restart. Microsoft documents both settings in its guide to numbering different sections. On Mac, also check Show number on first page in the page-number dialog when the body’s first page needs a visible number.
A useful checkpoint is the pair of pages on each side of the boundary. In the example, the last contents page reads ii and the introduction reads 1. The next body page must then read 2. Checking only the first 1 can miss a footer that exists on the first page but nowhere else.
When the first number or alternate numbers disappear
If the introduction is blank but its next page reads 2, inspect Different First Page. Turn it off if the body does not need a special first-page design, then make sure the ordinary footer contains a number. If that special design is intentional, keep it and insert an automatic number in the first-page footer as well.
For a document with only one cover page, Different First Page may be all you need: hide the cover’s number and leave the second page as 2. To make that second page show 1, set the section’s starting value to 0. Microsoft describes this single-cover method; it does not hide several contents pages.
If numbers appear only on alternate pages, inspect Different Odd & Even Pages. Open a missing page’s footer and insert a number there with Page Number → Current Position. Word’s odd/even footer procedure places numbers separately on both types. This preserves a layout with page numbers at opposite outer edges.
Continue numbering through landscape tables
A wide table can have a different page orientation without beginning a new numbering sequence. To rotate only selected content in Windows, open Layout’s Page Setup dialog, choose Landscape and apply it to Selected text. Microsoft’s landscape instructions distinguish this from rotating the whole document.
If a one-page table follows body page 7, the intended run is 7, 8, 9: portrait text, landscape table, portrait text again. A two-page table instead occupies 8 and 9, with the following portrait page at 10. These example sequences show why entering a fixed starting number for every new section becomes awkward when the table grows.
Click in the landscape section and open Insert → Page Number → Format Page Numbers. Select Continue from previous section. Repeat in the portrait section after the table if that section also restarts. Leave the first main-text section set to Start at 1; otherwise its numbering can continue from the front matter.
Continuous numbering does not require identical footer content. Word’s numbering property documentation confirms that continuation overrides the specified starting value. The footer can therefore have its own layout while the displayed number continues the sequence. Turning Link to Previous back on is not the control that selects that sequence.
Resolve blank pages, then refresh the contents
An Odd Page or Even Page section start can leave a blank page to reach the required side of a spread. That may be intentional for binding. If no such requirement applies, use the Page Setup dialog’s Layout tab to change Section start to Next Page. Microsoft provides the Windows and Mac paths for changing the break type.
Deleting the boundary is a different operation. Word combines the sections and uses formatting from the section that followed the break, as its deletion documentation explains. Removing a boundary around a landscape table can therefore change more than the blank page. Preserve boundaries that still carry a required layout change.
Finally, click inside the automatic contents table and choose References → Update Table. Update page numbers only if headings have merely moved; update the entire table if heading text or entries changed. A manually typed contents page cannot be recalculated by this command. These are the two scopes in Microsoft’s table-of-contents update instructions.
Compare the introduction’s entry with its actual page number, then inspect the pages before and after the landscape table. Save, reopen and check those boundaries again. The example is complete when the introduction remains 1, later pages run in order, and the contents directs readers to those same numbers.