The contents of footers (or headers) are section properties; a Word document
by default consists of a single section; hence if you tried to change the
page numbering of the 4th page, this setting will really be applied beginning
with the 1st page in the document. What you need to do is to divide the
document into 2 sections, break the default link to the previous (1st
section), insert a page number and change the Page Number Format to start the
numbering of the second section at 1. There is more than one way to do this,
but this one works for me. This method also allows you to number the 1st 3
pages separately or, if the first page is a cover page, the 2nd and 3rd pages
separately.
Move the insertion point to the beginning of the 4th page
On the Page Layout tab, in the Page Setup group, click Breaks and click Next
Page
(this divides the document into 2 sections with the second section beginning
at the beginning of the 4th page)
On the Insert tab, in the Header & Footer group, click Footer (or Header)
and click Edit Footer (or Header); this moves the insertion point into the
footer (or header) area which is marked as Section 2 Footer (or Header)
On the Header & Footer Tools Design tab (appears automatically), in the
Navigation group, click the Link to Previous button so it goes dim (this
means in the current example that the footer (or header) content you enter in
this section won't appear in the 1st section) -- this step is critical
Do either one of the following:
1. On the Header & Footer Tools Design tab, in the Header & Footer group,
click Page Number; point to Current Position and click Plain Number
2. Press CTRL+F9 to insert field braces; type "page" between them and press
F9 to update the field and display the field result -- the page number
With the insertion point still in the footer (or header), on the Header &
Footer Tools Design tab, in the Header & Footer group, click Page Number and
then click Format Page Numbers to display the Format Page Numbers dialog box
Click the Start at: radio button; 1 will automatically be displayed and
click OK (your page numbers in the 2nd section will start with 1
Click Close Header and Footer
To make sure the page numbers are updated, click the Microsoft Office
button, point to Print and click Print Preview; in Print Preview, click Close
Print Preview.
Let me know if you have any problems.
