(! Missing number, treated as zero.) only when opening /section ? So confused

Question

I'm a beginner and I understand this is a basic error, however after 45mins of googling nothing I found is the same as my error and no fixes are useable.

My code:

\documentclass{article}

\title{NAME}

\author{NAME}


\begin{document}

\maketitle

\pagenumbering{gobble}

\newpage

\pagenumbering{Arabic}

\section{Test}

test

\end{document}

I get an error at the last line \end{document} that tells me I should have a number? So this seems to be some type of formatting issue, google tells me I misplaced a bracket, but.. i have no brackets.

I suggest to close this as a duplicate of this question, this might be just a simple typo, but the \newpage is also not correct. The explanation is in the linked answer. — Johannes_B, Mar 19 '17 at 16:39
Sorry I've been following a guide at latex-tutorial.com, brand new to this. — Alex, Mar 19 '17 at 16:40
Sorry but I am reading through your link and the code newpage doesn't appear anywhere there? — Alex, Mar 19 '17 at 16:41
Search for clearpage. Actually, \newpage is a command a user shouldn't need to use at all. If you are using it often, something is dodgy. — Johannes_B, Mar 19 '17 at 16:46
Do you really want the first page to be zero and the next to be 1? — cfr, Mar 19 '17 at 16:50
Isn't that standard? The first page is just supposed to be the title. — Alex, Mar 19 '17 at 16:53
@Alex Typographically, that title (not cover) has page number one. LaTeX f*cks up here by resetting the page number to one later on. Thirty year old bug people are used to now. — Johannes_B, Mar 19 '17 at 16:55

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 19 '17 at 16:50

I think what the author of the tutorial wanted to show might have been the following. The title on its own page, that page not having a page number and the next page starting with one. That is LaTeX default with the titlepage option.

\documentclass[titlepage]{article}

\title{Life of Walter Wombat}
\author{Carl Capybara}

\begin{document}

\maketitle
\section{Hello Little Duck}

beautiful story

\end{document}

(! Missing number, treated as zero.) only when opening /section ? So confused

1 Answers1