How To Get Page Numbers To Start On Page 2

How to start page numbering from a specific page in Microsoft Word

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In this short tutorial I will show you how to insert page numbering in Microsoft Word, but starting from a specific page.

Page numbering is a very useful option, especially when you're writing bigger documents like essays, dissertations, or books. If you have a table of contents, having your pages numbered can save you (and all other readers) a lot of time and effort in reading around.

And if you decide to go for a hard copy, page numbering is essential.

However, writing a bigger essay or a book also means you will have a cover page, a table of contents page and probably one blank page at the start, and you can't have your pages numbered from the table of contents.

That's why it's useful to have MS Word start numbering your document from a specific page. Even though it might sound hard to accomplish, it is actually quite simple and can be done in less than a minute.

Choose the page you want to start numbering from
Navigate the cursor to the beginning of that page and go to Page Layout > Breaks.

3. Choose the Next Page option. What this does is creates a section break and starts a new section on the page you requested.

5. Navigate to Insert > Page Number. Choose whatever you find pleasing to the eye. For the purpose of this tutorial, we will choose Bottom Of Page.

You will now see that all your pages, including the first ones, are numbered.

6. Now, while the page numbering editor is open, click Link to Previous and make sure it is not highlighted. This will stop Word from counting page numbers.

7.After that, delete the numbers from all the pages you don't want numbered.

8. For the final step, navigate back to Insert > Page Number > Format Page Numbers...

9. In the Page Numbering section choose Start At: 1. Close, and you're good to go!

Sead is a freelance journalist with more than 15 years of experience in writing various types of content, from blogs, whitepapers, and reviews to ebooks, and many more, across sites including Al Jazeera Balkans, TechRadar Pro, IT Pro Portal, and CryptoNews.