Word 2000 Page Number Question

[doctorgonzo]

I'm having serious problems with a document in Word 2000. The document has columns, which necessitates the insertion of section breaks. Fine. The problem is that the page numbers in the footer of the document start over anew for each section. So after the piece with the columns, the page numbers start over at 1, 2, 3, etc. This is not good. I can't find a way to make it ignore sections for page numbering purposes and just number the pages consistently throughout the document. Ideas?

[pam123]

Yeah but you won't like it.
"Unformat" the document and then reformat from scratch ( do this with a copy ).
That way you can set it up exactly as you want.

[glfredrick]

Are you sure that you need section breaks?

I just tried it and was able to number pages that had two columns without any breaks.

Word is funny about how you set up the page, and how you insert page numbers. I've found a couple of undocumented glitches in every version since 95.

Here is what I generally do:

Page setup, make sections "continuous" -- un-check "different first page" and "different odd and even". Set margins, set for whole document on both tabs (1st and 3rd).

Then, to insert page #, select "View header and footer" then click in the header of page 2. Go back to the menu (not the dialog box that pops up! That is the glitch.) and click on insert page numbers. Format them the way you like, and use "Start with" even if you are starting with page 1. Also, if you need a number on the bottom of page 1 and the top of the rest, un-check "show number on first page" but still start numbering with 1 (or whatever).

Click OK to exit dialog, then type in manually the desired page number at the bottom of first page (footer). Click close to header and footer dialog. Page numbers will now appear at bottom of page 1 and top of the rest, with NO section breaks. Word will automatically change the check box in the Page Setup menu to reflect the different first page -- let it do that. If you select, it won't work (a second glitch).

I'm not sure if this is exactly the answer you are looking for, but it is something that I use every day in my work, and it is something that Microsoft doesn't know how to do. I've spend multiple hours on-line with them trying to figure this fix out -- so far, I'm the only one that seems to know it (at least as far as MS is concerned).

[doctorgonzo]

Yes, I do need section breaks for the multiple columns we need. Formatting the entire document over again would not be something the user wants to do! It's ultimately going to be hundreds of pages with column sections on just about every page listing votes, not fun to reformat.

I did manage to figure out a way of doing it by going to every footer and change the page numbering to "Continue from previous section". However, what I don't get is this: for some documents with sections, this step doesn't need to be taken. The attached files probably explain this best.

One of the pictures is the screwed up document. It says "Footer - Section X" for every footer, clearly showing that each section has a different footer. In a document that works correctly, though, there is no "Footer - Section X". There seems to be just one footer for the entire document regardless of sections. I want it to look like the second document, but I have absolutely no idea how to get it to look like that.