If you’re working with a long multi-page document in Microsoft Word, especially one you plan on printing, then you’re going to want to have page numbers to make it easier to read. So how do you insert page numbers in your document?

It’s pretty simple to insert basic page numbers in: Head up to the “Insert” tab on the ribbon menu and select the “Page Number” drop down. There you can select basic page numbers to be inserted on the top or bottom of the page, aligned left, right, or in the middle?

Select one of the options and then Word will automatically adjust the headers or footers to insert the page number on every page (and keep it updated as you add more pages). Pretty simple, right?

However, there are times when you may need to get a little fancier with your page numbering. For example, if you don’t want the page number to appear on the first page or if you want the alignment to be different on odd or even pages (because you are printing double-sided, for example, and want the page numbers to be on the outside of the pages, no matter what), that is easy to do as well.

Double-click inside the newly created header or footer of your document where the page number is, and you’ll see a new “Header & Footer Tools” menu appear on the ribbon. You’ll see checkboxes for “Different First Page” and “Different Odd & Even Pages.”

If you click on either of those options, you see that the label on has changed from (for example) “Footer” to either “Odd Page Footer,” “Even Page Footer,” or “First Page Footer.” You can then insert and format your page numbers accordingly, depending on the page type.

If you want to get more advanced and have a really complicated document and have Word auto-number the pages based on sections or chapters, you can do that, too. This Microsoft Support article and this How To Geek article will provide all the answer you need.