What the heck am I doing wrong with MS Word page numbering?

[superboyac]

Word is driving me insane again.  Why does every seemingly simple task turn into a pain in the ass??

Anyway, I'm trying to do page numbering in the following way:
1) No header/footer on the first page
2) The table of contents will be numbered with small roman numerals (i, ii, iii, etc.)
3) The rest of the document will start at '1' and continue from there.

Now I had this working fine at first.  But I started fiddling around with the header/footer, and now the page numbering doesn't work anymore for some reason I can't figure out.  I can't restart the page numbering, so it's just staying as one continuous numbering system from the beginning.  I keep going to the freaking page numbering dialog box, I tell it to restart the numbering from the current position.  Does it do anything?  Of course not.  As soon as I click 'OK', nothing happens except it shifts my cursor all the way back to the top of the document (from where I was previously at in the middle somewhere).  So i don't know what the hell is happening there.

I've tried just about everything and used all the suggestions I've found on the web.  Nothing works.  Sometimes, i just hate MS Word. 

[mouser]

Now I had this working fine at first.  But I started fiddling around with the header/footer, and now the page numbering doesn't work anymore for some reason I can't figure out

Welcome to Microsoft Word!  

I don't think i've ever created something in MS Word where i didn't have an experience like this with regard to something (page numbering, image text flow, section numbering, etc.); it's a consequence of so many hidden marks that you can't see, and the program trying to be "smart" and figure out what you want it to do instead of requiring you to tell it when to do something.  It can be insanely frustrating.  It's also why i end up saving-as with different filenames each time i make a non-trivial change, so i can always go back to an older version.

[AndyM]

saving-as with different filenames each time i make a non-trivial change, so i can always go back to an older version

golden advice!

superboyac, I feel your pain, having had experiences similar to Mousers'.  Any chance it has to do with eliminating a Section Break?  I still haven't quite gotten my head around which Section's settings prevail when you delete an adjacent Section Break.  Did you delete one when you were fooling with the headers/footers?

[superboyac]

I have no idea what has happened.  If I spend another hour on it and can't fix it, I'm just going to copy/paste and redo the document from scratch.

And as far as backing up, believe me, I'm pretty well covered due to my paranoia.  I use the program Autover to back it up.  Basically, every time I modify ANYTHING (even if I just change a letter and click save), it saves a backup copy.  So I have this huge directory of an insane amount of backups in there with every little change saved as a separate file.  I realized that as soon as I started reading about Word and styles if you remember that in the other threads.  I'm just about done with that particular project at work, so if I lost it now, I think I'd blow some kind of fuse in a way I don't even want to know about.

[Curt]

Maybe The WORD.MVPS Site can help you:
1) Word's numbering explained http://word.mvps.org/faqs/numbering/WordsNumberingExplained.htm
2) http://word.mvps.org/faqs/numbering/pagenumbering.htm
3) http://word.mvps.org/faqs/numbering/ListRestartMethods.htm
etc.

[AndyM]

After a careful analysis of the various methods I've used to maintain numbered
lists in Word, I found the greatest statistical correlation with success to be
the following factors, in descending order of importance:

  - always wear my lucky socks
  - good posture
  - keep coffee:beer ratio between 2:1 and 2.5:1

[cranioscopical]

  - always wear my lucky socks
  - good posture
  - keep coffee:beer ratio between 2:1 and 2.5:1

  Powerpoint also!

[mouser]

AndyM: 

[superboyac]

I don't know what happened, but it was fixed by inserting a new section break and redoing each section's header/footer separately.  But I didn't have to do that before, so I don't know.  Whatever.  It works now.  Thanks everyone.

[superboyac]

Word is really fucking me over at work.  I'm trying to be as cautious as possible, but problems keep coming up.  Now, when I update my page numbers, it shuffles some of my body text into the table of contents, the headers get all fucked up, and I have to undo it.  But I don't know why it's doing that.  It's a headache.  I spend more time trying fix all this crap than I do just writing the document.

[AndyM]

I've seen a lot written about corrupted Word docs, but I haven't read much carefully since I've never had one.  I do remember that list numbering was often the culprit.

Are all these problems happening with the same document, or versions of the same document?

[superboyac]

I've seen a lot written about corrupted Word docs, but I haven't read much carefully since I've never had one.  I do remember that list numbering was often the culprit.

Are all these problems happening with the same document, or versions of the same document?

No, this is a different document.  I don't use any autonumbering on lists, that's why I asked for the List Numberer program that skwire recently created.  The only automated stuff I do is with the table of contents and page numbering.

[AndyM]

One corrupted document would have been too easy  

I'm pretty sure the page numbering and toc numbering uses the same numbering system as the field numbering or automatic list numbering.  Also, the problems I refer to were re Word 2002 and maybe 2003.  I don't know if MS fixed it in 2007 or 2010.

When you view the actual page number fields, do you see anything unusual?  I was going to ask you about your toc, but I realize I don't remember enough of what I learned when I was doing them, and I never did that many.  I did do some tweaking using styles.  It might be worth checking that all your headers have the same style/styles however you intended.    

Sorry if this one is too obvious - are you editing the document on different computers with different printers?

Have you asked about this in one of the microsoft.public.word newsgroups (microsoft.public.word.numbering or microsoft.public.word.formatting.longdocs - there's a proper way to cross-post)?  The old newsgroups are still being maintained, just not on microsoft servers.  I use nntp.aioe.org.  The "official" microsoft newsgroups, where I think most of the MVPSs hang out, still exist with a web interface, try http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/officeword
I haven't used them since I haven't had a problem sufficient to register and open an account.  I think maybe you do.

[Stoic Joker]

It might be worth checking that all your headers have the same style/styles however you intended.

Excellent point.

Inconsistent formatting in large Word documents is a sure fire way to end up with a corrupt file. I had this issue with a client that frequently does complex 50+ page documents that were (passed through the office staff for editing) consistently blowing-up on them. Once they worked out internally how they were all going to handle the formatting, the problem vanished.

[superboyac]

I fixed it by going into outline mode.  I saw some weird placement of headers and I fixed it there.

No, I have not used the mvps forums much.  I'm really not that interested in participating in too many forums.  It's frustrating and a waste of time to me.  I come here for most of my questions and it has proven to be very reliable and pleasant (thanks!).

[sword]

This is *not* a solution for your problem but others have had similar problems and some of them feel better knowing they are not alone. Google: mindfulmusings.net>March 2004>Microsoft Word...

[superboyac]

mindfulmusings.net>March 2004>Microsoft Word

Nice find!
http://mindfulmusings.net/weblog/2004/03/14/microsoft-word-sucks-dirty-donkey-balls/

I have to agree with those sentiments.  I'm also now terrified that the section breaks I just added are going to corrupt my document.  I have an insane amount of backup versions, so rolling back won't be a problem, but I don't even want to deal with it.  but I can't have separate page numbers and headers otherwise, so what the heck am I supposed to do?  I'm going to start looking more closely at WordPerfect and Indesign as my formal documentation tools.  More on that later.

[superboyac]

By the way, MAJOR props to Zaine's enormous word processor review.  Man, that was a ton of work, and very well thought out and organized.
http://www.donationcoder.com/Reviews/Archive/WordProcs/

[AndyM]

Detailed tip re Section Breaks and formatting:

http://word.tips.net/Pages/T001477_Getting_Rid_of_Section_Breaks_but_Not_Section_Formatting.html?awt_l=EqZKF&awt_m=1eUPCxN4iwPx4X