How to add page numbers to a PDF: a step-by-step guide

Drop the PDF anywhere on the page, or press Add files. Its pages appear in the middle with a red dot where the number will go. A Word, Excel or PowerPoint file or a photo works too - it is turned into a PDF as it arrives.

Every page is numbered by default. The bar above the thumbnails changes that:

• All and Invert - every page, or swap the chosen and the unchosen ones.
• Odd, Even - only one side of a two-sided document.
• Landscape, Portrait - only the pages turned one way, say the wide tables in a report.
• Every Nth with its stepper - every second, third… page.
• The range field - type pages and ranges, such as "1, 3-5, 8, 10-" (10- means from page 10 to the end), then press Enter.

You can also click a thumbnail to add or remove it, or drag across several. Clear selection starts again from nothing.

The Placement section of the rail sets the spot:

• Position - nine spots: the top, middle or bottom row, left, centre or right.
• Margin - how far from the edge: Small, Med. or Large, or Custom with two sliders, across and down.
• Page mode - Single puts the number in the same spot on every page; Facing mirrors it on the left-hand pages, so in a printed booklet it is always on the outer edge.

The Numbering section decides the counting:

• Skip first page - the cover gets no number. Counted by position, the next page is still 2; counted by selection (below), it becomes the start number.
• Numbering mode - By selection (the default) counts only the chosen pages, so the first chosen page gets the start number; By position gives a page its real place in the file (the third page is 3, whatever you chose).
• Start at - the first number. Handy when the document continues another one: start at 43.

By selection is the default, so with Skip first page on, the page after the cover becomes page 1 - and any page you leave out in the bar above the thumbnails is skipped without a gap in the numbers. Choose By position when the numbers must match the pages' places in the file.

The Format section sets the text and the look. The Preview at the top of the rail shows the result in the real font, colour and size.

• The first row picks the style: 1, 2, 3; i, ii, iii; I, II, III; a, b, c; or A, B, C.
• The field under it is the template - any text around {n} (the page's number) and {total} (the number of pages). The chips under the field are ready-made ones: "Page {n} of {total}", "{n} / {total}", "- {n} -"…
• The look - font (Helvetica, Times or Courier), bold, italic, colour and size.

Each part of the template can have its own look. Above the look controls, Whole text formats everything; the chips beside it pick one part - the number alone, say - which you can then make bold or set in another colour while the rest stays as it is. The eraser removes a part's own formatting.

The thumbnails show a dot, not the number. To see the number itself, open a page with the magnifier in its corner: there it is drawn in its font, size and colour, at its place on the page.

Add several files to number them in one run; more than one result is saved as a ZIP. Above the file list, Apply to decides whose settings the rail shows:

• Selected file - the settings belong to the file selected in the list, so each file can be numbered its own way. A file with its own settings wears an own badge.
• All files - one set of settings for every file. Here you can also switch on Continuous numbering: the count carries on from one file to the next instead of starting again, for a set of documents that belong together.

Numbering a set of legal documents with a prefix and a fixed number of digits (SMITH-000001)? That is Bates Numbering, the same tool set up for it.

Press Add page numbers. The line under the button says how many pages get a number. The numbered file is saved to your device at once; the button then says Saved and turns into Save, which saves the same file again. Any change turns it back into Add page numbers.

• Nothing is removed: numbers the pages already carry stay where they are. Choose a spot that avoids them, or a template such as "- {n} -" so the two can't be confused.
• A page turned in the file (rotated 90°) gets its number upright, the way a reader sees the page.
• The number is printed on the page. The page box of a PDF reader counts sheets and shows page labels, a separate property of the file - that doesn't change.
• Bookmarks, links and form fields in the file survive.
• With Pro you can save a whole setup - position, template, look - as a preset and use it again with one click.

• Putting several files together first? Merge PDF, then number the result.
• A mark on every page instead of a number? Add Watermark.
• Text, a logo or a note on one page? Edit PDF.