A document assembled from a few different sources — combined chapters, a merged report — often ends up without consistent page numbers, or without any at all. Adding them is a small thing that makes a document noticeably more usable once it's printed or referenced by page.
Steps
- Open Add Page Numbers and add your file.
- Choose a position — bottom center or bottom right.
- Set the starting number, if it shouldn't start at 1 (useful when this file is actually a continuation of another one).
- Run it — every page gets numbered in sequence from your starting point.
When you'd want a non-1 starting number
If a document is split across multiple files but should read as one continuously-numbered document (say, Part 2 of a report that starts on page 41), set the starting number to 41 so the numbering continues correctly instead of restarting.
Combining with Merge
If you're assembling a document from several files, it's usually cleanest to merge them into one file first, then add page numbers to the combined result — that way the numbering runs correctly across the whole thing in one pass, rather than needing to line up separate numbering on each part beforehand.