Starting page numbers from page 3 onwards

With a dissertation, annual report or quotation, the cover page has no number, and neither does the table of contents. Numbering should start at 1 on page 3. You do this by splitting the document into two sections: one section without numbers and one with numbers.

As an example, we'll use the annual report of Bloemisterij Het Zonnetje: page 1 is the cover page, page 2 is the contents, and the text starts from page 3 onwards.

Step 1: insert a section break

1. Place the cursor at the end of the table of contents, so on the last line of page 2.
2. Go to the Layout tab and click Breaks (1).
3. Choose Insert section break (2) and then Next Page.

If there's already a regular page break between page 2 and 3, remove it first. Otherwise, you'll end up with a blank page.

Step 2: break the link

1. Double-click in the footer at the bottom of page 3 (or choose Header & Footer, Edit footer on the Insert tab).
2. Turn off Link to Previous (1). Now the footer of section 2 is separate from that of section 1.

Step 3: insert a page number and start it at 1

1. In the footer of page 3, click Page number and choose the position, for example centre bottom.
2. Click Page Numbering and choose Start at 1. Click OK.

Only want the cover page without a number?

Then you don't need sections. In the footer, turn on Different first page and leave the footer of page 1 empty. If you want page 2 to get number 1, set Start at to 0.

Pitfalls

• Headers and footers are linked separately. If you also want a different header from page 3 onwards, turn off Link to Previous in the header as well.
• On the very first page, you won't see Link to Previous. That's correct: the first section has no previous one.
• Is there still a number on the cover page? Go to the footer of page 1 and remove the number there. Because the link has been broken, page 3 stays numbered.
• See the hidden section breaks with the Nonprinting characters button on the Home tab (see A blank page at the end that won't go away).

More about headers and footers in Headers, footers and page numbers.