by the numbers

If you’re only typing a one or two page memo, you probably don’t have to worry about numbering. But if you’re putting together a report for colleagues with dozens of pages or several chapters, numbering is definitely something you should get a handle on.

This article will look at how you can quickly add page numbers, as well as line numbers — everything you need to know to prepare organized documents.

Numbering pages

To add basic page numbers to a Word document, select Insert > Page Numbers from the menu to display the Page Numbers dialog box. Click the Position list arrow and select where you want the page numbers to appear—in the header at the top of the page, or in the footer at the bottom.

Next, click the Alignment list arrow and select how you would like the numbers to be horizontally aligned on the page. As you select different alignments, the Preview area changes to show you how your document will look. Click the “Show number on first page” check box to remove the check mark if you don’t want the first page to have a number—this is useful if the first page is a title page. Click OK.

By default, the pages will be numbered with regular numbers, but you can also use letters or roman numerals. To change the number format, double-click one of the page numbers to display the Header and Footer toolbar. Click the Format Page Number button, then click the Number format list arrow and select a different format.

The Header and Footer toolbar also contains buttons for adding the total number of pages in the document, the current date, and the current time.

Page numbering with chapters

If your document has chapters, you can set up the page numbers to include the chapter number as well. First, you need to create a document with chapters by selecting Format > Bullets and Numbering from the menu. Click the Outlined Numbered tab and click the Chapter 1 option (bottom right option). Click OK to insert a Chapter 1 heading.

Continue creating your document, using the dialog box to add additional chapter headings and more secondary levels of headings, as desired. To add the chapter number to the page numbers, double-click an existing page number to display the Header and Footer toolbar. Click the Format Page Number button, and click the “Include chapter number” check box. The chapter number is added to the page number.

Numbering lines

Besides numbering the pages in your document, you can also number individual lines. Line numbers appear in the left margin and make it easy for you to direct readers to very specific parts of a document.

View line numbers in a document

You can choose to number every line, or to number different intervals. To start, make sure you’re viewing the document in Page Layout view and if you want to number only a portion of the document, select the text you want to number.

Next, select File > Page Setup from the menu, and click the Layout tab. If you’re not numbering the whole document, click the “Apply to” list arrow and select Selected Text.

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Then, click the Line Numbers button to make the Line Numbers dialog box appear. Click the “Add line numbering” check box and click the “Count by” arrows to select the numbering interval you want to use. For example, if you want to number every line, leave 1 selected. To number only every five lines, select 5.

Finally, select a numbering option. This option tells Word if it should start over the numbering sequence on every page or section, or if you want the lines to be numbered continuously throughout the entire document. Click OK.

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View Line Numbers in Action

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