7. Page Numbers

Number your pages!

There is nothing more annoying than a report without page number; and there is nothing more inconvenient either. Think about your local postman/postwoman: how can your mail be delivered if there is no number on your house? The same applies to a report, the reader needs page numbers, so that he can latter reference a particular one. For instance, your lecturer might say "I liked the point you made on page 27", or your manager could comment "Very nice diagram on page 43".

You therefore need to set up page number on your report... but it is a little more trick that it sounds.

• You should not display any page number on the cover, or on blank pages (which would not be blank otherwise!)
• For the front matter, you should use roman numeral. Note that, although not displayed, the cover page technically counts as page i, the following page should therefore be ii, the next one iii etc... for the entire front matter.
• One you reach the main body of the report, you want to star again with your typical page number, 1, 2, 3 etc...
• Finally, the after body can either carry on from the main body, or have a separate numerical system. This is often the case for work with large appendices, where pages can be numbered A1, A2, A3, etc...

In any case, do make sure to check that your page number are there and accurate.

Lastly, as mentioned in a previous article, do make sure the page numbers are always on the outside of the page, this makes them must easier to access for a reader looking for a specific page.