Pagination

This article is part of the Tips & Tricks series.

Installation • Usage • PDF issues • Other

Pagination in Scribus is quite different from word processors. It's a bit more difficult, but at the same time more flexible.

This in an introduction to automatic pagination in Scribus 1.3.x series. If you want to read about page labeling, read the article Adding page labels.

Inserting Page Numbers

Inserting page numbers in Scribus 1.3x is almost identical with 1.2x, except that the default shortcut has changed to Ctrl+Alt+Shift+P. If you're afraid to break your fingers, you can assign a new shortcut in the preferences dialog.

As of Scribus 1.3.4, you no longer need multiple page number characters to represent longer numbers. Simply insert one and the page number will be placed in the text frame. Of course, if the number of pages you have is large, you will have to accommodate for the extra digits on page 10 or 100 when creating the frame.

Changing the numbering scheme

Scribus 1.3x shows a lot of improvements with respect to page numbering schemes, and it's no longer necessary to edit *.sla files in a text editor.

To change the numbering scheme, you open the Document setup dialog. In Sections you can now create numbering sections for your document (see Screenshot). Let's assume you have an introduction on the first three pages that you want to be numbered with capital letters, and your text starts at page 5 with 1. Page 4 will not have a number at all. The first section is already there. You can enter a name for it in the "Name" column. In the "From" column enter "1" and in "To" enter "3". Choose "A, B, C" as a style, and the "Start" value is "1". To add new sections, simply add a new row by clicking "Add". For page 4 the values are: From = 4, To = 4, Style (doesn't matter here), Start (doesn't matter here). It's important that you uncheck "Shown" in the second column. For the main text, the values are: From = 5, To = (insert the number of pages you need), Style = 1, 2, 3, and Start = 1. That's all, your document will be paginated as desired.

Automatic creation of page numbers for each page

You can work exactly as described for 1.2x, except that page templates are now (more correctly) called master pages (Edit > Master Pages).

(c) 2006 Christoph Schäfer
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