MS Word: Different Page Numbers for TOC or Preface

Microsoft Word has a facility using which you can very easily insert a Table of Content (TOC) in your document. Such a table holds names of chapters/sections/sub-sections/parts etc. present in the document. Along with names, also shown are the page numbers where a chapters begins. Using MS-Word, you can select from a variety of pre-formatted TOC styles and insert into your document.

At times, especially when TOC is lengthy, you want to give numbering to TOC pages separately from the rest of the document. That is, if your TOC spans over 5 pages –you would want TOC pages to be numbered 1 to 5 and the main document to start again with page number 1. Let’s see how to do this.

If you will insert the Table of Content at the beginning of your MS Word document just like that –TOC will take its place in the page range of the main document and the numbering of main document pages will begin from page 6.

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To get around this problem, you need to give TOC a section of its own. Insert a section break at the beginning of the document and then insert TOC in that section. The main document will remain in the second section. Now you can give different page numbers to both the sections.

How to insert a section break

1. Place the cursor at the beginning of your document
2. Go to Page Layout menu > Go to Breaks menu (marker 1 in above image)
3. Select “Next Page”

A section break will be inserted. Now you insert TOC in this section and give page numbers. The page numbers will end when the section ends. Then you can give pages number to the second section which contains the main document.

NOTE: This article is part of my MS Word Tips Guide. This guide solves your day to day MS Word problems. Easily!

Bonus Tip 1: You can use the inserted section for anything else as well. You can write preface, introduction or foreword of document in such a section.

Bonus Tip 2: To make your document look more professional, you may choose to give the TOC section page numbers with Roman numeral style (i, ii, iii, iv,v,vi etc.)

So, this is how you give different page numbers to Table of Content (TOC) pages. Section break does the trick. Please let me know if you have any questions about this topic. I will be glad to try and help. Thank you for using TechWelkin.