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Save Article Icon A bookmarkAdding page numbers to long Microsoft Word documents takes just a few clicks. The pages are numbered automatically, so you don't need to add them in one by one.
You can have page numbers at the top or bottom of the page, and there are a variety of styles to choose from (top-right corner, bottom-center, et cetera).
Here's how to add page numbers in Word, using either a Mac or PC.
Advertisement1. In the Insert tab of an open document, click the Page Number icon.
2. Select Page Number.
3. Choose where you want the page numbers to appear, as well as an alignment style.
4. Uncheck the "Show number on first page" box if you don't want the first page of your document to be numbered.
5. If you want to choose a different numbering style, click Format and choose from the list of options.
6. Once you're finished, click OK. They'll appear immediately. If you want to edit them, you can double-click them in the header or footer.
Among the many options for customizing your page numbers is the ability to also feature the total number of pages in your Word document on macOS.
If you want a reader to be able to see what page out of the total number of document pages they're on, start by double-clicking the header or footer, depending on where you placed your page numbers.
Then, while on the Header & Footer menu, choose "Footer" and select the Semaphore style from the drop-down menu. When you've finished editing, click "Close Header and Footer" or double-click any area outside of the header or footer to get back to your document.
Quick tip: You can only see the current page out of the total number of pages in the Footer, as it's not available as a Header.
Advertisement1. In an open document, click Insert.
2. Choose Page Number.
3. Select a location — either header or footer — for page numbers from the drop-down menu, then scroll through the style options and click the one you like best.
4. If you don't want the first page or title page of your document numbered, go to the Design tab and choose Different First Page.
5. Select Page Number followed by Format Page Numbers.
6. Click the circle next to "Start at:" and set the number to zero.
7. Select OK before choosing Close Header and Footer to finish editing.
Like Word for macOS users, Windows users with Microsoft Word can also include the total page count of their document alongside individual page numbers.
The process follows many of the same steps as inserting page numbers — going to the Insert menu, and selecting Page Number from the drop-down before choosing the location of the page numbers.
The difference is that when you're scrolling through the page number formats, you'll want to locate and pick the "Page X of Y" section. There are multiple alignment styles for this — left, center, and right — and once you've picked which you want, click Close Header and Footer to set it.
Abigail Abesamis Demarest is a contributing writer for Insider based in New York. She loves a good glazed donut and nerdy deep dives into the science of food and how it's made.
