OOo Writer has a feature to give a page a desired page no. but the user 
interface for it is extremely poor and confusing. Here is the description -

(1) Click Insert -> fields -> Page no, to insert the page no. Double click on 
the inserted page no to open Page Nos dialog box. You will see an Offset Box. 
This box does nothing good but confuse (Read harass) innocent users. (Example 
of a very frivolous GUI).

(2) Now what OOo 1.1.0 Writer's help document has to say on inserting the 
desired page No. I am reproducing the text verbatim 

“If you want to change the actual page number and not the displayed number, do 
not use the Offset value, but choose Insert - Manual Break, and then select a 
new page style.â€

OK I follow this advice and do the following -
I click File -> New -> Text Document to open a new text document. I want Page 
No 5 on this page.

I click Insert -> Manual Break. From the resulting dialog box I select Type = 
page break, style = default, change page no (selected) and value = 5. and lo, 
I end up with 3 pages.

Page 1

Page 2 (OOo issue tracker is brimming with complaints on why and how this page 
came from - Another example of Impractical design !)

Page 3 (My desire page) - If I insert page no here then only I can get the 
desired page no.

Now my question is what will I do with the Page No 1 and (A Bonus) Page No 2?

This is the quality of the help documentation, which came with the OOo ! :-(

(3) Now I follow what OOo Issue tracker advices -
I click File -> New -> Text Document to open a new text document. I want Page 
No 5 on this page.

I Click Format - > Paragraph. -> Text flow tab -> Brakes = Enabled, Type = 
Page, Position = Before, with Page style = default, Page No = 5.

I get the desired Page No on the 1 st page itself (Thanks !)

Now what Word (2K) has to offer
I Insert Page No. A dialog box ask me Position, Alignment, Format and desired 
Page Numbering etc. I select the desired things and I get the desired (and 
EXPECTED!) results !

Now My suggestion are -
At least as of now remove offset Box altogether.
Insert a hyper link to point to a detailed (And Correct!) help documentation.
Add a button to open paragraph dialog box from there itself.

Later on you please try to do what other (Somewhat more friendly!) office 
suits are trying to do in this matter. An end user is more concerned with how 
page nos are printed or displayed on screen. How word processor store page Nos 
internally is more of a word processor's business and not theirs.

Thanks.

An OpenOffice.org Well Wisher