Creating custom page numbering, e.g. A1, A2, ..., B1, B2, ... isn't supported out of the box in LibreOffice Writer. This article shows how to achieve custom page numbering on pages showing up in the index, too.

The problem

You have to format the page numbering for a distinct part of your document and LibreOffice doesn't offer this format by default. The custom page numbering should show up in a index.

The idea

We will use outline numbering combined with one of the heading paragraph styles to create the prefixes 'A', 'B', etc. Since the outline numbering is prepended to the heading we will introduce the new character style Invisible to hide it. The hidden outline numbering (the 'A', 'B', ...) is still available to be inserted by a field reference which could be applied after the heading content (Appendix A, Appendix B, ...). This field reference could be also used to prepend the numerical page numbering on the page. As final step we have to tweak the index by inserting the outline numbering into the index format for the modified heading level.

Prepare a paragraph style for the heading

LibreOffice offers a bunch of heading styles (Heading1..10) which will usually never be used all together. To create our customized heading for appendices we choose Heading 6. As this heading should be displayed with the same font size as Heading 1, we have to copy all those properties to Heading 6. As additional setting we have to change the indention of the heading to reflect that it will be prepended with an outline numbering which will be hidden in one of the following steps.

Create character style to hide outline numbering

As said before a new character style is required to hide the outline numbering for Heading 6. Create a new character style and name it Invisible. Choose a monospaced font and set the foreground color to white.

This new character style will be used in the next step.

Adjust outline numbering

Open Tools | Outline Numbering and choose Level 6 on the left side. Adjust all settings as displayed in the image below.

Add a new page for a appendix to your document

Add a new page to your document. Use a new page style to avoid changing the rest of your document. Add a new heading to the page and type Appendix and apply the paragraph style Heading 6. The heading will be numbered with 'A' which will be invisible since style Invisible is applied. Add a new field reference by using CTRL + F2 or clicking Insert | Fields | other... and choose Document tab | Chapter | Chapter number. The image below shows the result with the outline numbering displayed in light gray color and field names for demonstration purpose. If the indention doesn't fit right, adjust the setting for paragraph style Heading 6 as described above.

Use the same steps to insert a field to display the outline numbering and a field for the numeric page numbering into the footer (or any other place). The image below shows the field names.

Adjust the index

To display the custom page numbering in the index, we have to change the entry settings in the index properties. Navigate to the index and right click on it and choose Edit Index/Table. Change the assignments as shown in the image. Edit index - Choose styles to use

To create a customized entry go to the Entries tab and change the Structure and Formatting section as shown below.

That's it. Hope it works for you.