M$ Word page screwup

[Red Squirrel]

I'm trying to get auto page numbers working on a document as manually putting a text box in the corner was getting anoying, but word is getting it all wrong. It starts at 1, 2, then skips back to 1, then 2, then skips back to 1, etc... its totally screwed up. I have some page breaks so that way if I enter more text it won't push down the entire document and screw up everything. But this seems to be confusing word about page numbers. Is there any other easy way to insert automatic page numbers in word?

Also, is it possible to have a table of contents in one word document, and have it link to another word document? I don't want my table of contents, appendices, etc to be counted in page numbers so I have them in a seperate document.