PageXofY numbering

[ChrisGreaves]

A perennial problem.
I tracked down This MVPs Page and tried the 2nd method ("Print Preview - Twice").
That worked for me.

OH! The joys of Primo PDF, where I can fix the output and check it thoroughly before committing to paper!

[John Gray]

The classic quote, still on the home page of the Word MVP website, is

"Word rarely misses an opportunity to perplex."

[ChrisGreaves]

"Word rarely misses an opportunity to perplex."

True.
I weep at the (literally) countless hours and trees that have been lost to this bug, which was with us in Word97, apparently, albeit back-to-front even then.
Question to 2007/2010 users: Is this bug still with us?

[HansV]

I've only been using Word 2007 for a week, but up to now, "Page X of Y" has behaved correctly, without needing to resort to print preview.

[StuartR]

I've only been using Word 2007 for a week...

I have been using Word 2007 for a few months now and have not seen this issue. It used to get me quite often, so I have high hopes that it is fixed.

[ChrisGreaves]

... I have high hopes that it is fixed.

Thanks Hans.

[DaveA]

I have not seen that problem since pre 2003 or early 2003.

[stuck]

I still use Word 2000 at work & ye olde 'x of y' buge has been known to bite on occasion.

My workaround is to:
- add the page number field to the very end of the very last page
- bookmark that field, I call it lastpg
- format the field as hidden text
- in document's footer use a cross-reference to the bookmark in place of the numpages field

This is not foolproof, sometimes in multi section docs the filed on the last page updates as the numnber of sections and so the total num of pages is still not right.

it does save a few trees though.

Ken

[ChrisGreaves]

"Word rarely misses an opportunity to perplex."

I concur.
I spent two hours this morning documenting and solving a problem with a corrupted file.
Details are attached as a PDF file.

With the original 25-page Word 2000 document I choose File, Print preView.
I print to PDF.
PrimoPDF v 4.1.0.9 cycles through 27 pages then opens Foxit Reader v 4.2.0.0928 showing the 1,078 KB PDF ended partway down page 7, mid-sentence.

Supposition 1
The document is corrupted, but not in a manner that (yet!) causes Word to crash. Rather there is something in the DOC file as a whole (not necessarily just the text) that causes other programs to struggle in interpreting the document.

Supposition 2
The document structure is corrupted. That is, the corruption does not lie within the elements (text, images, fields etc.) that I have introduced.

Action
I decide to rename my Normal.dot, load Word to generate a default Normal.dot, start a new document based on that Virgin Normal.dot and then reveal my original Normal.dot. That is, I will create a new document based on Word 2000’s default settings.
Into it I paste the text from the original document after chanelling it through NotePad.exe
I reset the styles automatically and adjust them manually.
I insert the linked images automatically and position them manually.
I rebuild the {TOC} manually and the {INDEX} automatically.

Solution
My problem seems to be solved.
I don’t know for sure, but it seems to me that the problem was a corruption of some sort in the structure of the Word 2000 document. If so the corruption was not severe enough to topple Word 2000.
I don’t know for sure, but the problem might have been some esoteric Word feature inserted into the document by me, the user, that Primo PDF cannot accommodate.

Resolution
The next time that this happens I will not mess around trying to locate the errant item.
I will start a new document, paste the text via Notepad, and rebuild the styles and fields.