Tech | Adding Custom Page Numbering to a PDF

In my office, we distribute finished reports in PDF format. For larger documents, we include a cover page and table of contents. Unless I have the cover page marked as page 1, the numbering for my document is off. If my readers type in the page number from the table of contents at the top of the PDF, it will take them to the wrong page.

In order to exclude the cover page and table of contents and still be able to type in the page number, I use custom page numbering in Adobe Acrobat Pro. This is also useful in turning several pages of Excel into one document without having to manually enter the page numbers.

Step 1 - In Adobe Acrobat Pro, go to Advanced > Document Processing > Number Pages.  

The Page Numbering dialogue box opens, as shown above.  

Step 2 - Select the page range for the title page and table of contents.

Under style, select the numbering you would like to use. I use small Roman Numerals (i, ii, iii…).

Step 3 - Once you click OK.

The page range you have selected (i, ii, iii…) will display at the top of the screen, and the first page of the actual document will reflect the number 1 at the top of the PDF.  

Step 4 - The final step is to add page numbers to each page. Select Document > Header & Footer > Add.

The Header and Footer dialogue box will open. 

·         Select where you would like the page numbers to appear on the document. In this example, I placed the page number in the Right Header by placing my cursor in the box as shown below, and then selecting the Insert Page Number button. The number will appear as shown in the Right Header text box.

·         The page number and date can be customized using Page Number and Date Format (blue link to the right of the buttons, shown below).

·         Using the Page Range Options link, shown above, you can select on which page you would like your numbering to begin. I often set numbering to start after the title page and table of contents, so I set the “Pages from” to 3 to 112 as show below.  

Now readers have an easy way to navigate the document. They can access the table of contents and easily type in the desired page number in the Find field. This is a quick and easy tip that creates a professional, user-friendly document.

Tip Source: Laura Mills, Research Analyst; Armstrong Atlantic State University.

Additional info from: http://www.airweb.org/eAIR/techtips/Pages/PDFPageNumbering.aspx