If you're using memoir
, you can use any page contents with an empty
pagestyle for your unnumbered title page, and then use the \frontmatter
command to set lowercase Roman numerals as the default page numbers.
In my university's case, since I'm using hyperref
and other packages, I've found it's best to let the unnumbered first page be numbered with alph format, the rest of the front matter pages use Roman numbering, and the main matter pages use Arabic numbering. This avoids the dreaded "pdfTeX warning (ext4): destination with the same identifier (name{page.1}) has been already used, duplicate ignored" messages.
Our unnumbered first page includes:
\pagenumbering{alph}
\setcounter{page}{1}
\thispagestyle{empty}
and \frontmatter
at the end of the page.
In the main thesis file, we put \mainmatter
right before we include the chapter files. Details as of 2011/08/15 at this site (particularly ttuthesis.sty and thesis-manual.tex -- thesis.tex will be updated later).
In response to comments, here's a simple example similar to what I use normally. Since I try to isolate my users from the guts of the style file, I separate out the page layout (my problem, and the graduate school's) with the page contents (their problem).
\documentclass[oneside]{memoir}
\title{My Thesis Title}
\author{Me, The Author}
% Define the (unnumbered) title page layout here
\newcommand{\mytitlepage}{
\pagenumbering{alph}
\thispagestyle{empty}
\beforepartskip
\begin{center}
\thetitle
\theauthor
\end{center}
\afterpartskip
\newpage
}
% Define the abstract page layout (numbered ii) here
\newcommand{\abstractpage}{
\frontmatter
\setcounter{page}{2}
\pagestyle{plain}
\begin{center}
Abstract: \thetitle
\end{center}
\theabstract
\newpage
}
% Define the abstract page contents here
\newcommand{\theabstract}{
Abstract content goes here.
}
\begin{document}
\mytitlepage
\abstractpage
\tableofcontents*
\mainmatter
\chapter{One}
This is chapter 1.
\end{document}
After \begin{document}
(or in the document preamble), issue
\renewcommand{\thepage}{\roman{page}}% Roman page numbers
On the page where you want it to change to Arabic numbering, use
\renewcommand{\thepage}{\arabic{page}}% Arabic page numbers
The above just modifies the page number/counter printing mechanism. In contrast, using \pagenumbering{arabic}
will change the numbering to Arabic but also resets the page counter.
Best Answer
And a bit more LaTeX-y solution, using
\pagenumbering
(how many people know about this command?)