# Questions about formatting a book manuscript in Open Office or PDF **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 28, 2017, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-formatting-a-book-manuscript-in-open-office-or-pdf/778443 "2017-01-28T22:52:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2017, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-formatting-a-book-manuscript-in-open-office-or-pdf/778443/1 "2017-01-28T22:52:44Z")
I am working on the final formatting of a book my friend and I have been writing about repairing old radios and tube equipment. The publisher wants the entire book in PDF format once it’s completely finished, including the cover illustration/text; I have been working in Open Office for everything and will convert the file to PDF when it’s done. The problem is, I can’t get Open Office to only start numbering pages AFTER the cover page. (actually, I’d prefer it start numbering on the fourth page, as there are a couple of copyright pages etc. before the book starts.) I tried turning off the footer field on the non-numbered pages, but that turns off the footer for all pages. You can’t do it selectively. I tried leaving the page number field blank until I got to the page where I want the numbers to start, but the program insists on starting the numbers on the book cover no matter what I do. Is there any way around this? If I convert it to a PDF, will I be able to do this? (I don’t have Acrobat.) ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2017, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-formatting-a-book-manuscript-in-open-office-or-pdf/778443/2 "2017-01-28T23:32:24Z")
This is doable in Word (a helpful option there is Layout \> Breaks \> Next Page break), don’t know about Open Office at the moment but that might help. But even it Word the behavior is kind of a hassle. For my dissertation I had to do a mix of Arabic and Roman numerals mixed with blank numbered page, and it was such a pain. Your problem is simpler but maybe this will help. My workaround was to make separate Word documents numbered differently. Then use either the paid version of Acrobat or a free online converter ([here’s one](https://www.pdfcombine.com/), not necessarily the best one) to combine the PDFs into a single document. ---
**Author:** ![albino\_manatee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/albino_manatee/32/2_2.png) [@albino\_manatee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/albino_manatee)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2017, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-formatting-a-book-manuscript-in-open-office-or-pdf/778443/3 "2017-01-29T02:29:34Z")
think of two separate files … one pdf-file contains cover _(outside/inside)_ … and the second pdf-file contains 64pg of contents. the 64pg contents will, naturally, start at pg1 … last will be pg64. go visit a book-store, or library, and examine a few books … one book a soft-cover … one book a hardcover. see for yourself. and, make sure you embed the fonts … images are at least 200dpi … and ink-saturation levels do not exceed 300. reputable in-house shops should have no problem converting rgb to cmyk. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2017, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-formatting-a-book-manuscript-in-open-office-or-pdf/778443/4 "2017-01-29T02:35:27Z")
I will second that suggestion. Prepare two separate pdf documents, one with no page numbers and and combine them. I assume there are programs that do this. I know one (pdftex), but the learning curve on that is steep, although it is easy once you have learned. ---
**Author:** ![albino\_manatee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/albino_manatee/32/2_2.png) [@albino\_manatee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/albino_manatee)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2017, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-formatting-a-book-manuscript-in-open-office-or-pdf/778443/5 "2017-01-29T02:59:17Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > _Prepare two separate pdf documents, one with no page numbers and and combine them._ not necessary to combine the two files into one file … the publisher is only asking for the submitted items to be in the form of \*.pdf files … he is not asking for one single file. as for online converting services … i’ve used [zamzar.com](http://zamzar.com) in the past … just make sure you check for virus / malware before downloading the processed file.