page numbers won't show up or be continuos throughout the document

OK. Stop. Close you eyes (oops, that makes reading the next steps a little tricky ... ). Take a deep breath (don't forget to let it out ...). Relax. Open your eyes. Calm now? ...

More than one section per page should not be a problem. It sounds like you had a problem and then things got out of sync. I'm guessing the multiple sections per page are for short sections of column layout, but other than that the layout is consistent(?) Even if you do need sections of landscape layout, go with resetting everything to "Same as previous" as a starting point.

• Go into Print Layout view.
• zoom out till you see the whole page at once
• double click on the header/footer to start editing it (the body text becomes grey, while header/footer becomes black). The Header & Footer Tools, Design conditional tab
• Normally I would say: "In the Navigation group click on Next button to take you to the next section" but I just tried it and it didn't work as I expected so
• start paging down through the document, watch the footer for changes. Each footer after the first should be set to be "Same as Previous" unless you really need to make a change in how it looks. But starting with it "Same as previous" through the whole doc is the easiest way to give a consistent look (sorry it is so manual, maybe someone else has a better suggestion, a macro(?)) NOTE: in "Edit header/footer mode" the "same as previous" refers only to the header/footer, not other formatting.
• after you are done, click on the body to exit header/footer edit mode.
• Save your changes!

Now that all of your headers/footers are consistent, you can go back and add any changes (ie landscape pages). Start from the bottom and work your way up. As you reach points where header/footer formatting changes, Remove the "Same as previous" from the bottom of the section first, then the top. Only then make changes to the look of the header/footer. Continue up the doc.

go to file->print layout

Moving through the document section-by-section  by clicking the next  icon in the header/footer design is not just faster, it is a better way to move through the document because it takes you into every section. Paging through the document will not show you a continuous break footer that is within a page.

The first page after the front matter pages (section 2?), is probably set to start at 1 (or perhaps 5 since you say that is the page number that keeps cropping up).  New sections created after that one get that same setting.  You should go into the footer for each section (by clicking the next icon mentioned above) and change the number formatting to continuous. 

Pam

If the document contains more than one section, you may have to add the page number several times (if headers or footers are unlinked). Double-click the header, which activates the header/footer area, and then use the Next and Previous buttons in the Header & Footer Tools Design tab to move between headers/footers.

Note that you can only restart page numbering for a given Word section. You need a section break at the end of page 1 if you want to restart the numbering for page 2. See http://wordfaqs.mvps.org/FrontMatterRibbon.htm.

Oh THANK YOU for answering.  I don't have any landscape pages, they are all portrait, the chapter's first page does not have a header, but it needs a number in the footer.  The page numbering that appears, IF it appears,  starts at 5, even if I 'remove all numbers' and try it again, 'starting at 1', in the same physical area, they may or may not be there, but definitely in some odd sequencing.  It's not by section, ..hmmm.. but it may be by chapter.... would that make a difference?I had the entire document with footers that were 'linked to previous section', it didn't seem to make a difference.

I await your response... lol