How to remove page numbers from the first page of documents.

A woman uses a laptop to remove page numbers from the first page of a PDF document.

Learn how to remove page numbers from the first page of your important Microsoft Word or PDF documents.

Learning how to remove page numbers from the first page of your documents may not seem straightforward, but it’s fairly simple. It’s a common style guideline not to include a page number on a document’s first or title page — yet many automatic page numbering tools add one by default. Fortunately, it’s fast and easy to correct a mistake like this. Read on to learn how to remove page numbers from Word and PDF documents’ first pages.

When should I remove page numbers from page one?

When you’re printing a document, omitting the page number from the first page can help your document look more professional. Certain styles (such as MLA and APA) require a title page or cover page before documents. That title or cover page shouldn’t have a page number since it isn’t a typical page.

Steps for how to remove page numbers in Word files.

With Word documents, removing the page number on the first page is quick and easy. Just follow these steps for removing page numbers in Word (if you’ve already added page numbers, skip to step 5):

Launch Word and open your document.
Select the Insert tab in the top toolbar.
Select Page Number in the Header & Footer section.
Select a page numbering style from the dropdown menus.
Double-click the first page number and tick the Different First Page box.

After this process, the numbering on your second page may start from 2. If you need to correct this, select Insert > Page Number > Format Page Numbers, and set the Start At value to 0. Your second page should now be page 1.

Steps for how to remove the first page number from PDF files.

Adobe Acrobat allows you to create sections of pages to number them differently. This can be useful for everything from a table of contents page to an index or a cover page. If you want to learn how to remove a page number from one page on a PDF, you can use that feature in Acrobat:

Open your PDF in Acrobat.
Select the thumbnail for the first page or cover page.
Select Page Labels from the Options menu.
When the dialog box appears, specify a page range to separate from the rest. If it’s just the first page that you want to delete a page number from, the page range will be 1, 1.
Select Begin New Section to ensure that your other pages are numbered.

Without Acrobat, it can be difficult to remove page numbers directly from PDF documents. The easiest option is to convert the PDF file to a Word document with Adobe Acrobat online services. Then, simply follow the steps for removing page numbers in Word.

After fixing the page numbers, consider converting the Word document to a PDF file. It’s easier and safer to share important documents as PDF files since you can ensure no one can accidentally make any changes, like adding page numbers back to the first page.

Steps for how to remove the first page number in Excel files.

In an Excel file, page numbers are useful for printing a larger file. Fortunately, removing the page number from the first page in Excel is a simple process. You can use these instructions to learn how to remove page numbers in Excel:

Open your Excel document.
Search for Header & Footer and select the Header & Footer menu.
Under Options, select Different First Page.
Delete the page number from the first page.

Now that you’ve learned how to remove page numbers in Excel, you’ll have a more presentable first page for printing your Excel file.

After removing page numbers, is it easy to put them back in?

Formatting isn’t always intuitive, and you might change your mind once you’ve removed page numbers from your files. Fortunately, it’s easy to replace page numbers that have been removed, even if you just have no page number on the first page. If you’ve just removed a page number from the first page, go back and reverse the steps you took to remove it.

For a Word or Excel file, that would mean unselecting the “Different First Page” option under the Header & Footer menu. For a PDF, it would mean undoing the separate sections you created under Page Labels from the Options menu.

If you have a PDF without any page numbers, you can always add page numbers to a PDF on Acrobat or with Adobe’s online editor.