"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in
:
I've lost track of the described problem (and, since you've snipped
the quoted text, I can't easily retrace it), but as a general rule,
even if you require section breaks between chapters for other reasons
(in order to have a different first page, for example), you don't
usually need to unlink the headers and footers just to change the
chapter title or page numbering. You can use a StyleRef field in the
header to pick up the chapter title, and the chapter number in the
page number should be achieved using the method described at
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Numbering/ChapterNumber.htm.
Apparently my news software snips earlier text. I've collected it all and
pasted the entire conversation in below.
For what I'm trying to do (use different levels of headings referenced in
even headers in a complex way) I do seem to need those regular continuous
breaks. I don't see why that should be a problem.
But now my problem is worse. I just upgraded to Office 2003 thinking this
problem might have been solved, but it has made things much worse. I'm only
beginning to assess the damage, but many footers that worked fine before
are now impossible to set correctly.
If I have the patience, I'll try to describe the problem clearly after a
little more work. I'm afraid I may need to hard code page numbers. I'm
really upset at the moment.
- charles
In a long (140 p) and conplex document I've numbered pages in the footers
according to chapters: 2-1, 2-1, etc. In the later sections of the document
this isn't working correctly. With appropriate breaks and chapter headings
that worked for most of the document, the first page in a new chapter's
footer gives the continuing page number for the previous chapter. Pages
will go 15-12, 15-13, 16-14, 16-2.
I'm pretty sure I've done all the selections correctly. Anyone ever
experience this? Is there a fix? Does Word 2003 do any better?
(The workaround of manually numbering the pages creates problems in the
TOC, Index, and cross references.)
Thanks for any help,
- charles
"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in
:
Make sure that "Start at 1" is set in Format Page Number for those
sections.
I've triple checked that. It is.
- charles
"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in
:
Are there "hidden" sections in the middle of pages? For example, where
you change the number of columns?
I insert section breaks in the middle of pages so I can have unique headers
from one page to another. Not every page, but often.
"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in
:
Instead of inserting section breaks "in the middle of pages," use Next
Page breaks. This will make it much easier to access the correct
header/footer. Also, if the header reflects content on the page, you
may be able to use a StyleRef field, which will make a section break
unnecessary; see http://sbarnhill.mvps.org/WordFAQs/StyleRef.htm.
Thanks (for your continuing attention to this and your swift replies.) The
problem with using next page breaks is that this is a long changing
document. If I have to hard code fifty or sixty page breaks whenever the
document grows, I'm sort of defeating the purpose of having a powerful word
processor like Word.
I will take a look at your styleRef suggestion, though.
thanks again,
- charles
Section breaks should be avoided wherever possible, as should manual page
breaks, as they are a recipe for disaster when a document is still being
edited. Neither should be inserted until editing is complete.
That leaves me with a problem. This is a technical manual for software that
is continually improved. We need to be able to replace sections as the
software changes. So, the manual is done, I've inserted the section breaks
(and having done so at the end of this version still face that disaster).
And now it seems I'll have more problems down the road as I need to make
changes.
This sounds a lot more like a bug than a feature. Should MicroSoft be
documenting features that become recipes for disaster even when used as
directed?
Sorry. I'm not venting my spleen at you. I really appreciate your help.
It's just frustrating to rely on something that one expects to behave as
advertised.
thanks again,
- charles