Another dissertation Word question.

August 30, 2011 11:55 AM

How can I hide page numbers in Word 2004? At the moment the document is broken into three sections using the section->break->next page feature. I want the numbers of the first section to stay hidden. I have searched & tried all the directions I could find, but nothing seems to be working. I'm using a MacBook, if that matters.
posted by bibliophibianj to Computers & Internet (9 answers total)

Bit of a horrible workaround, but could you put a text box over the page number(s) you want to hide and fill it in with white background no border? I'm sure there is a way to do it properly, but I'm jiggered if I can remember what it is...
posted by Scottie_Bob at 11:59 AM on August 30, 2011

Are you using the "link-to-previous" function in the footers? That could be the cause of your problem. Disable "link-to-previous" and insert separate page numbers for each section. If you don't want page numbers in one section, don't put them in. If you want the page numbers in later sections to correspond to the total (actual) number of pages, use "start page numbers from XX" function.
posted by KokuRyu at 12:02 PM on August 30, 2011 [3 favorites]

I don't actually know Word 2004, but I know what the thing you want to click is called, and I found a picture. Look here -- The 6th thing down is "Makes the header or footer the same as the previous section". This is on by default. Turn it off, because you want different footers in different sections. Then delete the page numbers from the section you don't want them in, and it should work.
posted by brainmouse at 12:02 PM on August 30, 2011

Response by poster: I've already unlinked the sections. It sounds dumb, but I can't seem to delete the numbers in the footer.
posted by bibliophibianj at 12:14 PM on August 30, 2011

Quickest, but not necessarily the most elegant, solution: format the font in Section 1 to white...



(... assuming you'll be printing on white paper.)
posted by genesta at 12:21 PM on August 30, 2011 [1 favorite]

I can't seem to delete the numbers in the footer

Can you clarify? Do you mean you don't know how to edit the footer? Or when you edit the footer it won't let you delete the page numbers? Or ... ?

(To edit the footer, go to the View menu, and select "Headers and Footers", usually. Or double-click in the footer.)
posted by misterbrandt at 12:24 PM on August 30, 2011

Response by poster: I know how to edit a footer. It just wouldn't let me delete the page number. It was very strange.

I think I've got it solved now. It looks like there was some kind of box around the page number; when I got rid of that I was able to delete the page number.
posted by bibliophibianj at 12:47 PM on August 30, 2011

If you have already unlinked the footers, it should just be a matter of deleting the page numbers from the footer in Section 1. Go to a page in the section. Double-click on the footer. Select the number, use the delete key to delete.

If you can't select the page number, it may be because it's in a special type of drawing item called a frame, which you sometimes can't select with your normal cursor. Make sure you have the drawing toolbar showing at the bottom of the workspace, then use the drawing/object cursor (click on it to select it) instead of your normal cursor to select the page number frame for deletion. (From memory, I don't have a non-ribbon version to check on.)
posted by gemmy at 12:49 PM on August 30, 2011

I was struggling with a document the other day with page numbers in the footers. Even though I unlinked the footers, it still didn't help. Eventually I just nuked all of the page numbers, all of the footers, and all of the section breaks and started from scratch. By carefully planning and applying section breaks, and, after that, page numbers.

Sometimes Word makes no sense.
posted by KokuRyu at 1:35 PM on August 30, 2011