Can’t get at footer to format page number (Word 97)

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Aloha,

I have a Word doc with a section change within a single page, going from single-column to two-column and back again. I had set the footer — with formatted page number — before selecting the section of text that I changed from 1-column to 2-column. Now, the page numbering is screwed up; it says page 2 instead of 15 like it’s supposed to. The within-page section must have page numbering set to start at 1 instead of to continue from previous section, the way I want.

Trouble is, I can’t get at the offending footer. If I modify the previous footer, its page number formatting is set to continue from previous section. The footer on the page in question is formatted the same. Somehow the section hidden within the page is formatted to start page numbering at 1? How do I get at it? In my tender Word experience, I see two options:
(1) Select 2-column text, change back to 1-column, delete section breaks, change page number formatting via the Header and Footer toolbar, and change back to 2-column, or
(2) add lines/returns until the two-column section spills across a page break, and get at the footer that way?

Is there an easier way? Learning about footers and headers has sure been a battle, learning the hard way seems to be the only way.

Weary from Battle,

John Jacobson
john_jacobson@hilton.com

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Hi John:
Based on how you said you inserted section breaks, there is no 2 column section footer. You have a continuous section break for changing columns. I’m not sure exactly what you did, but here’s a couple of things to check.

First, did you install SR-1 &/or SR-2? Page numbering in Word 97 was broken before SR-1. See this article.

Next, do you have a single type of footer or do you have first page footers, odd page, & even page footers? Changing them all to regular footers might help.

Also, in the footer, check to see if the “same as previous” button is depressed. You should see just above the footer something that says just “footer” or “section x footer” (where x is the number of the section). If there is no need to have different footers, then simply make sure that they are all connected & that the original footer has page formatting set to 1.

You should also press Alt+F9 to display field codes to make sure that your field is actually {page} as opposed to {numpages} or {sectionpages}.

If you want, you could post a portion of the document, zipped, to the lounge for someone to take a look at it.

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Mahalo for your feedback Phil,

I’m in a corporate environment, and I believe SR-2 is installed.

I cannot keep same-as-previous footer, I change from portrait to landscape through the document and need to change margins and tabs between the two layouts. All my footers should be regular footers (not odd or even or first-page), but I’ve noticed that I occasionally have an odd-page footer and I don’t know why. When I find them I change them back to regular.

Fields are all { PAGE }, not { NUMPAGES } or { SECTIONPAGES }.

I attached a sample. Note that pages 3 through 8 all say page 2. page numbering resumes from page 9 on. Why?

Thanks,

JohnJ

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Somehow you have managed to set the “RestartNumberingAtSection” attribute for each of your sections.

If you run this macro then it will fix your document.

Public Sub FixPageNums()
Dim secNext As Section
    For Each secNext In ActiveDocument.Sections
        secNext.Headers(1).PageNumbers.RestartNumberingAtSection = False
    Next secNext
End Sub

StuartR

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Many Mahalos Stuart,

You are righteous and kind, and your facial hair grows very quickly. I use macros several times daily in Excel to do the mundane and the obscure, but I’m totally unfamiliar with Word’s object model and usually waste frustrating time when I try to find the correct syntax to get at a particular property. But your macro is a good reminder — there’s only one way to learn. I’ll experiment with your suggested code.

JohnJ

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