How to restart page numbering in Pages 6.1.1?

Question

Level 1

4 points

How to restart page numbering in Pages 6.1.1?

I'm an Indie Author with a novel I'm publishing in Lulu. It's almost ready to go fully public except for one thing...

The first six (6) pages need to not have page numbering and all the rest need to start from one (1). The problem is that the Pages Help on this topic seems to refer to an older version where this was possible. I can't find the "Start at" part of the Section Layout to save my soul.

It just keeps doing this:

Since my income is at stake on this, I'd appreciate a swift response and useful things I could do about this very annoying state of affairs. I've deleted and re-inserted section breaks in all possible ways, and this just keeps happening.

Did they remove the feature and not update the help pages? [Suspecting that this has happened, the help page has the old logo]

Do I have to create a new document and paste in things according to each section?

Do I have the wrong editing software to do all this in anyway? If so, what should I be using to do this?

Also, why does an allegedly professional-grade editing program not have drop letters as an option? This is a mild annoyance that I can work around but really, I want a professional-grade book. Pages was sold to me as a professional level program. I feel betrayed.

Please help. I need this out and shiny as possible as soon as possible.

iMac, macOS Sierra (10.12.5)

Posted on May 28, 2017 1:46 PM

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Answer 1

May 28, 2017 11:05 PM in response to InterNutter

Basically you insert a Section Break at the end of the last page you want no numbers.

Then in the next Section set that to not continue from the first section and to start at 1.

Then insert the Page Number by right clicking in the Header or Footer where you want it.

If you have numbering appear in the first section delete it.

The question remains why are you using Pages for your book. It saves in the .pages format that no publisher wants and that Apple keeps changing and making incompatible with its own older OSes, it gets slower and less reliable as the document grows and has problems with footnotes, bullets, lists spellchecking and indexing amongst other things.

Pages '09 is much more capable and I would not recommend that for a serious book.

Work out how you are going to publish and work back from that as what is the most suitable software to use, and, I know this is hard in this day and age, don't believe everything everyone tells you. Everyone just wants a quick easy fix and flattering promises, check for yourself.

Peter

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Answer 2

InterNutter Author

Level 1

4 points

May 28, 2017 11:14 PM in response to PeterBreis0807

I only use Pages when I have to save a file as a PDF (on A5 size paper). Plus it was an older file. I'm now editing everything in Markdown, which will make future formatting... interesting...

As for the formatting thing, you can Export any Pages file into a number of formats, including *.doc and PDFs as mentioned earlier.

I'm definitely looking for other alternatives to Pages though.

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Answer 3

May 29, 2017 4:23 AM in response to InterNutter

You do not need to use Pages to make a PDF, any App will do it, including choosing page size.

Pages Exports to .doc/x inaccurately, with problems unless it is very simple formatting.

There are many alternatives. Scrivener, Ulysses and Storyist are good for organised novel writing.

Peter

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Answer 4

InterNutter Author

Level 1

4 points

May 28, 2017 2:37 PM in response to InterNutter

I did some poking around and discovered that you can only set the starting number after you've added the page numbering. Thanks a bunch, Pages Help, for making that so clear. /s

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