>>The text quoted from the help file seems to indicate that it would be sufficient to use _pagetotal in the report, even if you don't use it directly.
>>
>>In other words, you don't need to put your entire complicated expression (which might change eventually) into the report designer; it is probable enough to use a dummy report variable, like: DummyPageTotal = _pagetotal
>>
>>Provided this works at all, you must still touch each individual report, but you will not need to change it, if you later decide to change the expression.
>
>Yes, having a variable with the value to store _pagetotal will suffice, you don't have to use the variable.
>But we must still modify all reports, that is bad enough.
>Plus, what I don't like about the dummy is that in 4 years from now someone else will look at one report, and finding no use for the dummy will remove it, only to find out (right then, if he is a good tester, or after months, when the user decides to complain) that the page numbering is wrong for no apparent reason. I am still considering this though...

You can use a dummy field, with the expression left(" "+transform(_pagetotal),1). The good side of this is that a field (or a textbox, call it what you like) has a comment field, so whoever looks at it can be scared away with a good comment.