How to start page numbering on page 2 of MS Word doc

ms-word-how-to-start-numbering-page-2

How do you remove the page number from the front page and start the second page with 1? Many user guides and technical documents hide the page number on the cover sheet.

Start numbering with 1 on second page of Word document

Instead, the page numbering begins on the inside pages, usually on page two. If you want you can:

Start page 2 as 2

or

Start page 2 as 1

Why would you start it at 1? If you start it at 2, and then create a Table of Contents, where is page 1?

Page 1 is actually the cover sheet, which usually doesn’t have a page number on it. So, that’s a bit confusing. Instead, start page 1 on the second page, i.e. sheet of paper, and use this as your starting point in the table of contents.

Start numbering on the second page with 1

To start page numbering on another page, follow these steps:

  • Remove the page number from the first page.
  • Click the Insert tab, Headers & Footers, and Page Number.
  • Click Format Page Numbers.
  • In the Start at box, type 0.

You’re documents will now start at 1… from the second page onwards 🙂

Conclusion

You don’t have to start at 0. If you want, for example, to use a different numbering format for the front section of the document, i.e. before the real document starts, you can change the ‘In the Start at box, type 0’ to a different number and experiment with this arrangement.