Can page numbering automatically skip front matter?

Scrivener Scrivener for macOS
1

How can I…

  • have page numbers not display and start their count until page N? (so I can for example omit front matter from a page count)
  • (better yet) have page numbers automatically skip documents of a given section type? For example, “front matter”

Couldn’t find any answers in the forums or videos.

Thanks!
Mike

2

Here…

Headers and Footers.jpg
Headers and Footers.jpg1770×1088 130 KB

3

In fact a few of our built-in compile formats are set up to automatically skip over front matter and start the main matter at “1”. To see how it works:

  1. Right-click on the “Modern” format and select “Duplicate & Edit Format…” from the contextual menu.
  2. In the format designer, click on the Page Settings pane.
  3. First, in the “Options” tab, note that Different header and footer on first pages is ticked, and that Main body header and footer starts: “After front matter”.
  4. Next, click over to the “Header and Footer Text” tab and you’ll find different entries for “First Pages” and “Main Body”. Our examples are blank, but if you want Roman numerals in the front matter you could insert <$p-r> into one of these fields.
4

Thanks for the responses!

Here’s a slightly more complex version of that request. Can I designate front matter, a.k.a. the non-page-counting-part-of-the-project, in a fashion other than one single block? In other words, could I have sections arbitrarily scattered throughout a project where page numbering was skipped?

(Optional reading) Here’s the reason I ask. One of my projects, the very one for which I bought Scrivener originally, is a compilation of short musicals. I have front matter for the whole kit and caboodle, but also for each individual short musical. If I want to compile one of the shorts on its own, I simply compile its folder. If I want to compile the collection, I select almost everything. I want to be able to handle both these scenarios and have the page numbering make sense.

The trick is that each short musical has its own front matter, and the page counts of each front matter section vary. If I’m compiling the anthology I can un-include the front matter for each short musical, and include the front matter for the entire collection, and vice versa. But page numbering is now a problem, since a) what constitutes front matter changes depending on what I’m doing, b) the page number offset differs depending what I’m doing.

This wasn’t a problem with Scrivener 2 but it seems to be in Scrivener 3. Any suggestions?

5

To that specifically, no there is just one front matter block. It wouldn’t be conventional to refer to chunks of text within the main matter to be not main matter. But if I understand correctly, can’t you just have multiple front matter folders that you switch to depending on the output? The system is designed for this kind of thing, but one would keep these alternate sets of front matter separate from the draft rather than interspersed, and switch between them as needed. That’s how it work in version 2 as well (at least that I’m thinking of, let me know what you were doing that worked before).

I.e. you select Folder C in the compile group dropdown above the Contents list, Treat compile group as the complete manuscript, and then select the corresponding front matter folder for group “C”.

6

I have the same problem. I read the suggestion. I m using a somewhat modified compile format. I have it four section layouts (picture attached) The front matter comes in using the ‘front-back’ format. The pagination is set up as in the picture attached. The resulting output begins counting pages on the title page, so that the first page of chapter 1 is shown as page 6. What am I doing wrong?

Screen Shot 2018-06-15 at 11.32.48 PM.png
Screen Shot 2018-06-15 at 11.32.48 PM.png874×581 61.2 KB

Screen Shot 2018-06-15 at 11.31.52 PM.png
Screen Shot 2018-06-15 at 11.31.52 PM.png874×545 45.4 KB

7

If you deselect “Page numbers count first pages”, does it work?

Screen%20Shot%202018-06-15%20at%2011.32.48%20PM.png
Screen%20Shot%202018-06-15%20at%2011.32.48%20PM.png874×581 61.8 KB

8

You were soooo polite to not add the much-deserved ‘dummy’ to the end of the question. Unchecking solved the problem.

9

Glad it worked for you,