Can't get page numbering right

[ds]

I want to have front matter page numbers use roman numerals and then have the manuscript page numbers use arabic numbers starting with 1.

I can almost achieve this (see below for the configuration), but strangely, in the PDF file the first page of the MS appears as if were the last page of the front matter. That is, it bears the page number xviii, and the second page of the MS is given the page number 1:

Then the table of contents entry, which points to the chapter, gets the page number 0:

What do I need to look for to get this right?

[ds]

I have narrowed down the problem to one document in the front matter. When I inclulde this document, the page numbering is wrong. Exclude it and it’s fine. Here is the offending document exported in RTF. The question marks are for page references that are of course missing.
The Vanishing Frontier.rtf (2.9 KB)

BTW, the problem does not affect RTF generation – that is, the RTF file of the complete MS shows the correct pagination.

What is the problem? How do I work around this?

[ds]

Late breaking news: I reformatted the page in question to use tab stops instead of spaces to get the proper alignment – and now the problem is gone! Correct pagination ensued. Sigh…