Default Font for Page Numbers

Pat wants to know how he can change the default font for inserting page numbers into a header. The answer is quite easy—just change the style used to insert the page number.

Word uses styles for all of its default formatting. For page numbers, the style name is called (appropriately enough) Page Number. Locate the style, change how it is formatted, and then all your page numbers will reflect the changed formatting.

You should note that there are a couple of places you should make the changes. First, you should make it in your Normal.dot file and any other templates you may have defined. This will allow any future page numbers, in new documents based on those templates, to reflect your desired appearance.

The second place to make the change is in any currently existing documents. After you make the changes in your template files (including Normal.dot), open your existing documents. If the page number is not formatted correctly, change the Page Number style to reflect what you need.

With the above being said, you need to understand two potential "gottchas." The Page Number style is only used for page numbers inserted into a header or footer using the Insert Page Number tool on the Header and Footer toolbar. The Page Number style is also applied automatically if you use the Page Numbers command from the Insert menu. (In Word 2007, you display the Insert tab of the ribbon and then click Page Number in the Header & Footers group.)

If you instead insert a page number by using the Field dialog box, then the Page Number style is not applied. Instead, the PAGE field assumes the style used by the text wherever the field is inserted. In this case, changing the formatting of the Page Number field has no effect; you will need to go in and make a change directly to the formatting of the field itself (using either the various formatting options or by using the charformat switch in the field).

The second "gottcha" has to do with Word 2007. If you are using Word 2007, then the Page Number style is not automatically applied to any page number you add to a document, no matter how you add it. This means that you must either change the Page Number style (which is still a default style defined in Word 2007) and manually apply it to your page numbers, or you must explicitly format the page numbers.