Thursday Thoughts: Formatting in Word (and beating your head against a wall)

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Thursday Thoughts: Formatting in Word (and beating your head against a wall)

[Note: I needed to brush off this post from 2022 due to current events]

Adding page numbers to a Word document.

Does that send shivers up your spine? Induce a feeling of nausea? Make you utter words that you never want to say in front of your mother? Bring on a headache? Cause you to run away screaming or just sit and pull on your hair?

If you answered “Yes” to any of those, then . . . You’re normal.

When I first published my novella, The View from Here, an astute reader of my latest book pointed out that there were no page numbers in my paperback. Well, that was interesting, I said. I never noticed. I can’t remember the late time I noticed (or used) page numbers in a book that I was reading. So, I went into my manuscript, and lo and behold, no page numbers.

My poetry book had them, so why didn’t this book—wait a minute, I chose not to name my chapters, so a Table of Contents would look odd—so maybe that’s was why. Well, that’s easily remedied, I said (see where I’m going with this?).

[Now back to the present]

Now I am currently putting all three of my novellas into one book to create a single edition of the trilogy, because stupid Amazon cut the royalty rates for any books prices under $9.99, and since each novella in the trilogy is a reasonable $6.99, and readers might as well read the whole thing anyway …

So, I open up each document, save the first book as “Trilogy Compete Volume 2025” then just copy and paste each of the others and voila, a complete mess when it comes to page numbers.

Now, what did I do that last time? Oh, yeah, I wrote this handy cheat sheet.

Here is a handy guide to adding page numbers to a Word document:

Take a deep breath and do what makes sense (A)Doing “A” produces result “B”Result “B” is not what you wantedReading the help menu directs you to do “A” but only if action “C” is selectedFollowing step 3 produces result “D”, but numbers start on the wrong pageRepeating step 3 produces a different result entirelyUsing you preferred search engine, spend an hour locating everyone else in the world with the same problem.Read “Easy steps to insert page numbers in Word.”Yell at screen, “That’s what I did!”Try something else and get something else which looks close but numbers start at “1” and disappear on subsequent pages.Do a sequence of steps that you will never be able to repeat and marvel that all the page numbers are there, but—you didn’t want to start on the very first page, but the page with chapter 1.Following more research, create a “section break” which, if the instructions are correct, should solve the problem.That doesn’t solve the problem, but does result in two sections with both interlocking and independent connections.Take a deep breathNo, Deeper.Do everything you just read in every permutation possible until—Hey, there they are. Roman numeral for the first 6 pages, then regular starting on chapter 1.Stop. Save the document. Push chair gingerly backwards as to not disturb the desk. Stand up and walk away.

-Leon

Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words, and his latest sci-fi mystery, Euphrates Vanished.

My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/