Most of the house, seminar or final work will probably be created using Microsoft Word. However, the numbering should only start on the third page, not at the beginning of the title page and table of contents. This often drives many students to despair. Fortunately, the Microsoft Office Word processor, which comes pre-installed with many Windows operating systems, offers the correct function.
Set the page numbers with the page layout
Our instructions are based on the latest version of Word, which is often supplied with operating systems such as Windows 10. The easiest way to set the page number is to use the options in the page layout menu. First, move the cursor with your mouse to the end of your text on the second page. Now select the “Layout” tab, click on “Breaks” and then on “Next Page”. If your text has shifted, you can put it back in the right place by deleting the paragraph break with the backspace key.
Next, double-click at the bottom of the third page to open the footer there. In the menu you can now deactivate the item “Link to previous”. Now click on the “Page number” item in the same menu to insert one as normal. But instead of numbering all pages, the numbering only begins on the third page with page number 3.
How do you start on the third page with page number 1?
For this you go in Word first as described above, insert a break after the second page and open the footer on the third page. You detach this again from the footer on the previous pages. Now go back to “Page Number” in the menu at the top and select the sub-item “Format Page Number”.
In the pop-up window that opens, enter the page number 1, or any other page number you want to start with, in the “Start at” field at the bottom.
Now the pages in your Word document will be numbered consecutively from the third page, starting with page number 1. Of course, the method described here is also suitable for starting page numbering from another page or using different variants of page numbers. For example, if you want to use Latin numerals in your introduction, let Word count the pages of the introduction and insert a break at the end of the introduction. Then detach the footer of the following page and start with Arabic numerals, for example.
Quick guide: How to program the page numbers in your Word document
1. Place the cursor on the page after which you want the page numbers to start.
2. In the tab you now select the item “(page) layout”, click on “breaks” and then on “next page”.
3. Double-click the bottom edge of the next page to open its footer.
4. In the footer menu, turn off the Link to Previous setting
5. The sub-item “Page number” allows you to insert the page number here.
6. If you want to start with a different page number than the page number of the document, go to “Page number” and “Format page number”
7. In the “Start at” field, enter the number you want to start with.
