Page number in Word footer is displaying as more than just page numbers

Go to the Developer Tab and turn off Design Mode.

What you are seeing are tags on a Content Control inserted using a Page Number Building Block.

You do not need to use these for page numbers. I seldom do.

I usually use a simple Page field, which can be inserted with the keyboard shortcut of Shift+Alt+P.

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Thank you. I didn't have the Developer Tab installed on this version of Word and couldn't access the designer mode feature without it. The document was created years ago and didn't have this problem until today. It is stored on a shared drive, so it's possible someone else could have enabled that feature (accidentally?).

You are welcome.

As far as I know, this setting is not saved with a document.

I do not know of a keyboard shortcut that will activate Design Mode. There is none assigned to this by default.

By the way, that is a messed up content control in that it appears to be "nested" with page x of y for the top of the page nested inside one for the bottom of the page. This won't hurt anything but is curious. This is a built-in building block.

It should look like the following with Design Mode turned on.

This is the case with the built-in Bold Numbers 1, 2, and 3 in the Built-In Building Blocks.