I spoke with the Shamaya in the Grad Division about this and she was not able to help me. She suggested I ask you for the contact info of someone who has recently filed a dissertation electronically (my labmates filed before it was all electronic). I am having trouble with the pagination. The final PDF document must have the preamble, abstract and main body separately numbered and I can not get the page/ section breaks to work in order to separately number them.

Could you refer me to someone who has electronically filed recently that may be able to enlighten me? I am sure there is some trick for it, but I just can't seem to figure it out.

Thank you.

Reply:
I just filed mine a few months ago.  I actually kept all of my sections (title page, table of contacts, chapters - text/figures/tables all separate etc) as distinct word documents to make the numbering easier. Then I turned each individual section into pdfs and finally merged all of the pdfs at the end.  MUCH easier, if you can.  I work on a Mac which made it super easy to do.  If you want more directed advice to your particular situation and think that my experience may help you, feel free to contact me.  Also, be sure to leave at least a few days (a week would be best) between when you file electronically and expect your Certificate of Completion if you are under a time crunch to start a postdoc or job (my case).  While others have had a quicker turnaround, I felt like since they knew I was anxiously awaiting my COC, they let it take as long as possible.