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.
- Select the Edit PDF button in the Tools Center.
- Select the Header & Footer button in the Edit PDF toolbar.
- 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.
- (Optional) Change the font, font size, underlining, font color, or margins. (These changes will apply to the new page numbers, not existing page numbers.)
- 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.)
- If you don’t have existing page numbers, select the Insert Page Number button.
- Select the 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.
- (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.
- Select the OK button.
- Select the 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.
- (Optional) Select All pages in range, Even pages only, or Odd pages only from the Subset menu.
- Select the OK button.
- Select the OK button in the Add Header and Footer or Update Header and Footer dialog box.
Your new page numbers should be added to the specific pages in your PDF immediately.
- Select the Close button in the Edit PDF toolbar.
- Save your PDF to save your changes.