How to Start Page Numbers on a Specific Page in Adobe Acrobat (PC & Mac)

This tutorial shows how to start page numbers on a specific page in Adobe Acrobat.

For general information about working with page numbers in Adobe Acrobat, please see my previous tutorial “How to Add Page Numbers to PDFs in Adobe Acrobat.”

This tutorial is available as a YouTube video showing all the steps in real time.

Watch more than 150 other writing-related software tutorials on my YouTube channel.

The images below are from Adobe Acrobat Pro DC. These steps also apply to Adobe Acrobat 2020 and Adobe Acrobat 2017. In addition, the steps are the same for PC and Mac. Adobe’s free PDF display software, Acrobat Reader, doesn’t offer a way to add or modify page numbers.

How to Start Page Numbers on a Specific Page in Adobe Acrobat

Select the Tools tab.

Tools tab in Adobe Acrobat — Figure 1. Tools tab

Select the Edit PDF button in the Tools Center.

Edit PDF button in the Tools Center in Adobe Acrobat — Figure 2. Edit PDF button

Select the Header & Footer button in the Edit PDF toolbar.

Header & Footer button in the Edit PDF toolbar in Adobe Acrobat — Figure 3. Header & Footer button

Select Add if your PDF doesn’t have existing headers, footers, or page numbers. Alternatively, select Update if your PDF has existing headers, footers, or page numbers that you want to maintain.

Add and Update options in the Header & Footer menu in the Edit PDF toolbar in Adobe Acrobat — Figure 4. Add and Update options

(Optional) Change the font, font size, underlining, font color, or margins. (These changes will apply to the new page numbers, not existing page numbers.)

Font options in the Update Header and Footer dialog box in Adobe Acrobat — Figure 5. Font options

If you don’t have existing pages numbers, place your cursor in the location where you want to insert the page number:

- Left Header Text
- Center Header Text
- Right Header Text
- Left Footer Text
- Center Footer Text
- Right Footer Text

(Image 6, below, already has page numbers inserted into the Center Header Text.)

Header and footer areas in the Update Header and Footer dialog box in Adobe Acrobat — Figure 6. Header and footer areas

If you don’t have existing page numbers, select the Insert Page Number button.

Insert Page Number button in the Update Header and Footer dialog box in Adobe Acrobat — Figure 7. Insert Page Number button

Select the Page Number and Date Format link.

Page Number and Date Format link in the Update Header and Footer dialog box in Adobe Acrobat — Figure 8. Page Number and Date Format link

(Optional) Select a format from the Page Number Format menu in the Page Number and Date Format dialog box.

Page Number Format menu in the Page Number and Date Format dialog box in Adobe Acrobat — Figure 9. Page Number Format menu

(Optional) Enter a number into the Start Page Number text box if you want the page numbers to start with a number other than 1.

Start Page Number text box in the Page Number and Date Format dialog box in Adobe Acrobat — Figure 10. Start Page Number text box

Select the OK button.

OK button in the Page Number and Date Format dialog box in Adobe Acrobat — Figure 11. OK button

Select the Page Range Options link.

Page Range Options link in the Update Header and Footer dialog box in Adobe Acrobat — Figure 12. Page Range Options link

Select Pages from and then enter the first and last page on which you want the page numbers to appear.

For example, if you want page numbers 1 through 3 to appear on pages 2 through 4, enter 2 in the first text box and 4 in the second text box.

Pages from text boxes in the Page Range Options dialog box in Adobe Acrobat — Figure 13. Pages from text boxes

(Optional) Select All pages in range, Even pages only, or Odd pages only from the Subset menu.

Subset menu in the Page Range Options dialog box in Adobe Acrobat — Figure 14. Subset menu

Select the OK button.

OK button in the Page Range Options dialog box in Adobe Acrobat — Figure 15. OK button

Select the OK button in the Add Header and Footer or Update Header and Footer dialog box.

OK button in the Update Header and Footer dialog box in Adobe Acrobat — Figure 16. OK button

Your new page numbers should be added to the specific pages in your PDF immediately.

Select the Close button in the Edit PDF toolbar.

Close button in the Edit PDF toolbar in Adobe Acrobat — Figure 17. Close button

Save your PDF to save your changes.

Related Resources

How to Duplicate Pages in Adobe Acrobat (PC & Mac)

How to Extract Pages from PDFs in Adobe Acrobat (PC & Mac)