nisus.com

I am working for a elderly client who is in search of a word processor that is not MS Office (he is vehement about that). He has been using appleworks right now, but it is really not doing what he wants to do. Specifically, he needs a simple way to have page numbering start at 2 on the second page, but no number on the first page. In a very clear cut and simple fashion, he has a medical condition and has an extremely short temper and bad memory as a result, so I was wondering if there is a macro or easy way for me to get his documents formatted how he wants them in the smallest amount of steps.

You can definitely do this in Express. In a new document this is how you would accomplish it:

1. Switch to the Sections palette group (it has a little page icon).
2. In the palette titled Section 1 click the Different First Page option. This will allow page 1 to have a separate header/footer from the rest of the document.
3. Once there is more than one page in your document, you can format the header on page 2 to include a page number. Just use the Insert > Automatic Number > Page Number menu.

If he is repeatedly making documents like this, you could save the document as a template for him to open. Or if he always makes documents in this style, set the document as his Nisus New File. That way every new document he creates will have these options already set.

For your convenience I've uploaded an example file that already has the options configured properly.

I've set my custom new document to always have the separate first page header and footer. I never have to think about it again. Very easy to do. You could do it for him if that would make things easier for him, and he'd just never need to worry about it.

As happy as I am to see this feature is present, is there a way you guys could make it more prominent? Like a "Footnotes/Endnotes" part of the "formatting" palette? The confusion (and I've been confused, too) seems to stem from it being tucked away in the "sections," um, section. Is there a plan to move it/make it more prominent?

I hate to be contrarian about this, but you can also do it with AppleWorks (see "title page" in AW help)... and save it as a template for future use. There are many good reasons to prefer NWX over AppleWorks, but this is not really one of them. If he's as tetchy as you indicate forcing him to switch WPs is not likely to improve his disposition.