Word Page Numbers: Show \"1/5\" Automatically and Skip the Cover

Typing "1/5" into the footer looks right on the first page, but a footer repeats on every page, so every page says 1/5. Fixing that by hand isn't practical, and the numbers break the moment a page is added.

TL;DR: Insert > Page Numbers, turn on the total page count, and use Different First Page to hide the number on the cover.

Steps

1. Go to Insert > Page Numbers.
2. Turn on the option that includes the total page count.
3. Pick the bottom-center position. Pages are numbered 1/5, 2/5 and so on, with the total filled in for you.

Leaving the cover unnumbered

Open the header and footer options and turn on Different First Page. The number disappears from the cover, and page two still reads 2/5. The cover is counted in the total, it just doesn't show its number.

Checked in the free Word for the web. Our test used the Korean interface, so the exact English wording of the page count option in the web version wasn't confirmed. In desktop Word, the same result comes from Insert > Page Number > Bottom of Page and choosing a "Page X of Y" style.

Why automatic numbers are worth it

The numbers are fields, not typed text. Add or remove pages and every number, including the total, updates. That matters for anything that gets revised several times before it's final.

Common mistakes

Typing numbers by hand into the footer. It copies the same text to every page.

Expecting the cover to drop out of the total. With Different First Page, the cover is still page one of five; only its number is hidden. If you need the count to start after the cover, that's a section break and restart-numbering setup, which is a separate task.

Under the hood

In desktop Word the "Page X of Y" format is built from two fields, PAGE and NUMPAGES. You can see them with Alt+F9. If you generate documents with a script or a template, inserting those two fields in the footer gives the same result as the menu, and Word fills in the numbers when the document is opened or printed.

This article was created with the help of AI. The steps were tested in Word for the web.