In this section · Fixing structure

Fix page numbers

Check each page's label against the printed page number and correct it, one page at a time or a whole range at once, before you make any other change.

Before you make any other change to a title, check that its page numbers are right. Links, notes and index entries all point to pages by their number, so a wrong page number leads to a wrong link, note or index entry. Fix the page numbers first, then move on to the rest of the structure.

Page labels and physical page numbers

Every page has two numbers:

  • The page label is the number printed on the page, such as Cover, iv or 271.
  • The physical page number is the page's position in the PDF, counting from 1.

On the Pages tab of the left sidebar, each thumbnail shows its page label, with the physical page number in brackets. 274 (286), for example, is the page printed as 274, which is the 286th page of the PDF.

Thumbnails labelled 274 (286) to 279 (291): the printed page number, then the physical page number in brackets

Go through the thumbnails and compare each label with the number printed on the page. A label that's also used on another page is highlighted in red.

Change the label of one page

  1. Hover over the thumbnail and click the pencil, Edit page numbering.

The cover thumbnail with the Edit page numbering pencil at its bottom left

  1. The Page Labels dialog opens, with the page selected under Apply to.
  2. Type the label in Label for page, for example Cover.
  3. Click Apply Labels.

The Page Labels dialog for page 1, with Cover typed as the label

Label a range of pages

Use a range when several pages follow one numbering scheme. Front matter, for example, is usually numbered in lowercase Roman numerals.

  1. Click the pencil on the first page of the range.
  2. Under Apply to, choose Range.
  3. Set From and To to the first and last physical page numbers of the range, for example 2 to 12.
  4. Under Numbering style, choose the style. Roman gives lowercase Roman numerals (i, ii, iii). The other styles are Numbers, Roman Caps, Letters and Letter Caps.
  5. If the range doesn't start at 1, set Start at. To put text before every label, type it in Prefix.
  6. Check the Preview row, then click Apply Labels.

The Page Labels dialog set to Range, from page 2 to 12, with the Roman numbering style and a preview of i, ii, iii, iv, v

To number the whole title in one scheme, choose All pages instead of Range.

Check it worked

The thumbnails show the new labels. In the example, the cover reads Cover (1), the front matter runs from i (2) to xi (12), and the main text starts at 1 (13). No label is highlighted in red.

Thumbnails after the change: Cover (1), then i (2) to xi (12), then 1 (13) to 3 (15)

Watch the video

Fixing page numbers, part 5 of the PDFxt video series.