Tip: Add page numbers—and only page numbers—to your Word document

So why does the title of this post emphasize adding just a page number? Because in Word, you add page numbers to a header or a footer, which means to perform this simple task, you need to know how they work. Opening the Header or Footer option lets you include lots of information, such as a document's name and date, to the top or the bottom of your document. But Word also gives you a bare-bones Page Number option, which lets you open a header or footer and only add page numbers to it.

It's a two-step process: Go to Insert > Page Number, and then choose where you want to put the page number. This opens either the header or footer in your document so you can see how the page numbers on the page will look.

Below you can see one option: the page number is at the top of the page and it's aligned right.

After you make the choices above, you'll see that both the header or footer and the Header & Footer Tools are open in your document. You can make more changes to the page numbering using these tools if you want to.

All pages of your document will have the number in the same place and be sequentially numbered. To close the header or footer in your document, just click the Close Header and Footer button in the Design tab, or double-click in the main part of your document. If you decide to change the position of the page number, just click the Page Number option again.

To learn about how to do different things with page numbers or how to add other information to the header or footer, check out these articles:

Add or remove headers, footers, and page numbers

Headers and footers and page numbers, oh my!

Insert page x of y page numbers in just one section

Training: Get control of page numbers, headers, and footers