Expert: Glen Demers - 6/9/2010

Question
I am a relatively new user to InDesign within the last year or so and have used CS3 and CS4.   
 I work as a graphic designer and am able to solve most of my problems with ID, but recently I have come across an issue I cannot figure out with Master pages and page numbering.  
 I don't use Master pages very often, so that might be part of my problem.  However, I have done some research online and know generally about them, and I have been working with them in my recent document.  
 Anyway, I have a 80-page document with sections that need to be auto-numbered, and some sections that do not need page numbers.  
 I have an A-Master page set up to automatically page number, and it is set only to the pages that need numbering.  I have the other pages set to Master Page-None or as a Blank-C master page.  
 I have a table of contents at the beginning, and then a tab, and then the page I want to start numbering. I don't want to number the table of contents and tab(as well as future tabs).  I want to start on the first page with copy on it; however, InDesign auto-numbers from the beginning.  And it does the same thing with other tabs even though I have those set to Master-None or Master-C.

Can anyone help me figure out what the problem is?  You can explain as if I was starting over if that helps, I think I may have to start over for master pages to get this to work.
thank you so much in advance!  I am just stumped by this, it's been a few weeks and I have been putting off solving the problem.

Answer
Hi Leigh,

By default InDesign starts with page 1 on the first page and numbers to 80, you can change this by dividing you book into sections.

In the pages palette, select the page you want to be page one and go to Layout>Numbering and Section Options. Make this the start of a section, starting with page 1. The new numbering will show in the pages palette. If you have a tab page for pages 9 and 10, for example, and you don't want it counted for the page numbering, go to page 11 and make it the start of a section with numbering starting at 9.

Hope this helps,
Glen Demers
Prepress Technician, Best Printing Online
www.bestprintingonline.com

For more InDesign tips please visit our help pages here: http://www.bestprintingonline.com/indesign.htm