Hello,
So my book is done and ready (thank you Scrivener) but I need to get rid of the page numbers that show up on blank pages. How might I do this in the most simple way for my final compile? Thank you.
What format are you compiling to?
If it’s something like Word, look at the File -> Compile -> Page Settings pane. That allows you to disable headers on pages following a page break, and both headers and footers on single pages. Do those options help?
Katherine
Hi Katherine,
I looked at that but my book is a collection of poetry and each poem is separated by a page break so disabling would effectively remove ALL page numbers, no?
It’s standard printing practive that blank pages don’t receive page numbers so I can’t imagine Scrivener not accommodating for this. I just wish I could figure it out.
Thanks for your suggestion.
I think you just check “as is” for the deliberately blank pages in the Compile–> Contents pane. Does that work?
None of the pages have page numbers pre-Compile so checking “as is” would effectively remove all page numbers.
Well, having found no Scrivener-based solution and my proof being in PDF format I opened it in Adobe Acrobat Pro and manually removed the page numbers on the blank pages and chapter marker pages.
I’m still surprised that there is no way to do this in Scrivener (as far as I know).
Onward!
Could you tell me a little more about how the project is set up?
Are the poems in individual text documents?
Where do the blank pages come from? Are you using a double page break to force a blank page between poems? Or are you doing something like starting each poem on a right-hand page, with a blank left-hand page?
There are no page numbers pre-Compile because there are no “pages” at all. Even the Page View mode is only an estimate: the final page formatting, including headers and footers, is defined in the Compile settings. So Beep-beep’s suggestion should work, provided that the blank pages are set up as separate documents.
Katherine
Hi Katherine,
First of all, thank you and everyone else for taking the time to help. I really appreciate it.
So the project is set up with each page (poem) being a separate (imported from Word) document. (Except of course when the poem itself runs over 1 page then that document can be several pages).
The blank pages (which are individually added within Scrivener) come from the need to begin a chapter marker page on the right side (there are five chapters) and I don’t want there to be printing on the page directly preceding it or on the verso of the chapter marker page. Also in the structure of the front matter. I’ve attached a screenshot.
Wouldn’t the suggestion made by Beep-beep be applied for the totality of the document?
I’ll just use Adobe Acrobat Pro to go in and delete those page numbers manually for now but I am still curious about how Scrivener reconciles the printing of page numbers on blank pages in the compile as it is an industry standard that they shouldn’t be numbered. I suppose when one is writing fiction or other types of prose one seldom needs to worry about that as much.
I was incorrect when I suggested that marking certain pages “as is” would remove the header. I have since realized that this only affects features in Compile’s formatting pane, not the headers and footers, which are controlled by the page settings pane. (Sorry) 
It seems that the standard way of accomplishing this would be the “no headers and footers on single pages” option, which would work for chapter breaks in fiction or nonfiction books, but not for poems (as far as I can tell).
I’d suggest using the structure of the Binder to help with this.
If you put each Chapter in a folder, or make the poems within a chapter sub-documents, then you can use the Compile -> Separators pane to help control where the page breaks go. This, combined with the “no header on single pages” option, might do the trick.
As for why this is so hard? Scrivener is a writing program, not a page layout program. This kind of layout manipulation simply lies at the outer reaches of, or even beyond its scope.
Katherine
No worries! I really appreciate your offering a possible solution - that’s already very generous of you!
Cheers for that suggestion Katherine. I’ll try it in the future.
And yes, I suppose my inexperience with Scrivener has me unsure as to exactly what its capable of or not. I now know that I needn’t search to do something that its not designed to do! Which in and of itself is a gift.
Thanks again!