Setting page labels such as i, ii, iii in PDF by Zaweba

Printed page numbers and PDF page numbers are often two different things. A book may have a title page, a contents list and a preface numbered in small Roman numerals before page 1 of the main text begins. A manual may number each chapter separately, so that the third page of chapter A is A-3. The file itself, though, just counts from one to the end, and that mismatch is the reason someone types "page 12" into a box and lands on the wrong page.

Page labels fix that. In PDF by Zaweba you set them from Pages > Page labels, choosing a numbering style for a range of pages, such as i, ii, iii for the front matter or A-1 style for an appendix. The labels then appear in the page box, in the status bar and under the thumbnails, so what you see on screen agrees with what is printed on the page.

When labels are worth setting

Any document with front matter benefits. Reports with a cover, a summary and a contents list before the first numbered page are the classic case. Without labels, a reader who sees "page 1" printed at the foot of the introduction finds that the viewer calls it page 5, and every reference in the contents list is four pages out.

Long technical documents that restart numbering in each part are another. If your appendices run A-1, A-2 and then B-1, labels let the viewer follow the same scheme, so jumping to a page cited elsewhere in the text works as expected.

Labels also help when you have joined several documents into one. Each original might have been numbered from one. Rather than renumbering the printed pages, you can label each range so the on-screen numbers still match the numbers in the pages themselves.

Setting labels range by range

Open the document and look first at the thumbnails, noting where each numbering scheme starts and stops. It is easy to be off by one if a blank page sits between the contents and the first chapter.

Then open Pages > Page labels and work through the ranges in order, from the start of the document. Give the front matter its Roman numerals, give the main body ordinary numbers starting where its first printed page begins, and give any lettered sections their own style. After each change, glance at the thumbnails: the labels underneath them show at once whether a range starts in the right place.

When everything lines up, save. Labels are stored in the PDF, so other readers opening the file will see the same numbering.

Checking your work

The quickest test is to pick a page number from the contents list, type it into the page box and see whether you land on the right heading. Try one in the front matter, one in the middle of the main text and one in the last section. If all three land correctly, the ranges are almost certainly right.

The status bar is the other check. As you scroll, it shows the label of the page you are on, so you can watch the numbering change from Roman to ordinary numbers at exactly the point where the printed numbers change.

How labels fit with other page work

Labels follow pages, so they are worth setting after you have finished moving pages about, not before. If you rearrange sections in the Organise pages grid afterwards, check the ranges again, because a range that started on page six may now start somewhere else.

They also make printing simpler to think about. When you choose pages to print, knowing that the screen and the paper agree saves you from printing the wrong chapter.

Labels are not printed numbers

Do not try to fix a mismatch by changing the printed numbers on the page. That rewrites the content of the document and is rarely what you want. Labels change only how the viewer counts, leaving the pages themselves alone.

Avoid gaps between ranges too. Every page should belong to a range, otherwise its label may not be what you expect. Working from the first page to the last, one range at a time, is the easiest way to make sure nothing is left over.

Set once and saved, page labels quietly make a long document easier for everyone who opens it.