How to Add Page Numbers in InDesign: Step-by-Step Guide

If you’re using Adobe InDesign to create a layout for a book, ebook, magazine or any kind of report, there’s one important step you can’t forget: adding page numbers. Without them, your readers won’t be able to navigate through your publication. 

The obvious way to do this is, of course, to add a textbox to every page and write in the appropriate page number. And if your project is 8 pages long, that sounds doable. But what if it’s a 200-page book? Manually adding page numbers would take you hours! Not to mention, if you ever add or delete pages in the middle of the document, you’d have to update all of them again. 

Luckily, InDesign has a feature that allows you to automatically add page numbers to every page in a matter of just a few clicks. And the best part is, if you need to add, delete or rearrange pages in any way, their page numbers will update automatically, too. 

No matter what type of publishing or graphic design project you’re working on, this is definitely a handy trick to have in your toolbox. 

Add Page Numbers in InDesign in 6 Simple Steps

To automatically add page numbers to an entire document, you need to add them to a parent page. Think of a parent page as a template that can be customized and then applied to the rest of the document. 

When you open a new InDesign project, you should already have a parent page, called A-Parent, applied to your pages—there should be a letter A marking each of the pages in your Pages tab. If you don’t see the Pages tab, go to Window and make sure Pages is checked off. 

Step 1: Double-click the Parent Page

This allows you to start editing the A-Parent page. If your document contains facing pages, you’ll see two facing parent pages. You can double-click either of them. 

Step 2: Create a Text Frame for the Page Number

Use the Type Tool to create a textbox and drag it to where you want your page numbers to go. They’re typically found at the top or bottom of a page, either in the center or in a corner. On facing pages, page numbers are usually placed symmetrically (for example, on the bottom right corner of the right page and the bottom left corner of the left page). 

Step 3: Insert the Page Number Marker

Double-click inside the textbox to initiate typing. Next, head to Type > Insert Special Character > Markers > Current Page Number. 

On the parent page, the marker will appear as the letter A, but if you navigate to a different page, you’ll see that it automatically changes to reflect the page it’s on. 

Step 4: Edit the Font (Optional)

In the Properties tab, you can edit the font, size and color of your marker, just like you would edit any other text. Since you’re making changes on the parent page, you’ll see them reflected in the rest of your document. 

Step 5: Copy the Marker to the Opposite Parent Page (For Facing Pages Only) 

If you’re using facing pages, don’t forget to copy and paste the text box with the marker to the other parent page and position it symmetrically. 

Step 6: Apply the Parent Page (Optional)

If you’re working with the default A-parent page, and you want page numbers on every page in your document, then there’s nothing else you need to do—the A-parent template is already applied. 

But what if you only want to apply the A-parent template to some pages and not others? You’ll first need to remove it from all pages and re-apply it to select ones. 

To do this, right-click on the [None] parent page and select Apply Parent to Pages. In the window that appears, select All Pages from the drop-down menu and hit OK. This gets rid of the A-parent template. 

Next, right-click on the A-parent page and, once again, select Apply Parent to Pages. This time, instead of applying it to all pages, you can type in a specific selection. Use a dash to denote a page range or use commas to list out individual pages (or use a combination of both). 

You can repeat the same process if you ever want to create a brand new parent page—for example, B-parent—and apply it to all or select pages. 

Page Numbering Styles and Section Options 

You can further customize your page numbering by changing up the style of the numbers and even using different styles for different sections of the document. 

To do this, right-click on Page 1 of the document and select Numbering & Section Options. 

Here, you can select a different style, choosing from Arabic numerals, Roman numerals or letters. 

If you’d like to add a section marker, you can do so here, as well. These can appear alongside the page numbers to help readers get a sense of what section of the document they’re currently in. 

Note that simply typing in a section marker name in the Numbering & Section Options menu doesn’t yet make it visible in the document—just like you did with the page numbers, you’ll need to head to the parent page, click on the page number textbox and insert a special character called Section Marker before or after the page number. 

Once you’ve chosen your page number style and added a section marker, you can hit OK and exit the Numbering & Section Options menu. 

For now, since you opened the menu on Page 1 of the document, the style and section marker you chose will apply to the entire document. You can now repeat the process starting on the page where you want the next section to start. For example, right-click on Page 7 and open the Numbering & Section Options menu again. When you’re done, pages 1-6 will become your first section and everything after page 7 will become the next. 

Repeat this process as many times as you’d like to separate your document into your desired number of sections and give them their own numbering styles and section markers.

Add InDesign Page Numbers Like a Pro

With InDesign, you can quickly add page numbers to documents of any size and fully customize them to fit your style and needs. And this is just one of the many things you can do to transform written and visual content into high-quality publications that are engaging and easy to navigate. 

To take full advantage of the powerful tools it offers, take some time to learn the fundamentals of InDesign—there are countless other tips and tricks you’ll find useful in your publishing or graphic design projects.
And if you’re just getting into this type of work, be sure to familiarize yourself with the basic principles of graphic design and explore other resources for beginner graphic designers. It will save you time, help you avoid unnecessary trial and error and set you up for success!

Written By

Sayana Lam

Sayana is a musician, writer and graphic designer based in Toronto, Canada.

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