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I'm having lots of headaches with my thesis related to inner margins (odd/even pages).

My university requires title page to have no numbering; the front matter (acknowledgments, dedications, abstract, contents, list of tables/figures, etc.) to have Roman numbering; and the remainder of the thesis to have Arabic numbering.

I've done all that, but in order to get, for example, the Introduction to start on Arabic page '1', I've had to use \setcounter{page}{1}. In order to make it all work, i.e. to have consecutive odd/even margins, I've had to splatter \blankpage commands everywhere where an even page follows another even page.

While doing this, I noticed that my List of Tables has two even pages (narrow inner margin). When I look in Sumatra PDF viewer, I can see that the List of Tables starts on page viii, and the second page of the List of Tables is viii.i with no page number at the bottom of the page.

Strangely, the Table of Contents does not have this problem.

I don't see how I can fix this with a \blankpage command, and my List of Tables takes up about two full pages. The page immediately following the List of Tables is the first page of the Introduction, which is Arabic page 1.

Thanks for any help!

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You can use \frontmatter and \mainmatter to divide the first part (abstract, etc.) from the rest, allowing a different numbering.

You can use the fancyhdr package to customize your page layout and \cleardoublepage{} to make the chapter always start on the odd pages.

Since you didn't add a mwe, I suppose you're using the book documentclass with the twosided (default) option:

% arara: pdflatex
% arara: biber
% arara: pdflatex
% arara: pdflatex
\documentclass[11pt,openright]{book}
\usepackage[english]{babel}

\usepackage{mwe}% only for testing purpose

% page layout
\usepackage[a4paper]{geometry}
\geometry{verbose,tmargin=3cm,bmargin=3.5cm,lmargin=4cm,rmargin=3cm,marginparwidth=70pt}
\setcounter{secnumdepth}{3}
\setcounter{tocdepth}{3}

\usepackage{fancyhdr}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage[margin=10pt,font=small,labelfont=bf,labelsep=period,format=hang,indention=0cm]{caption}
\captionsetup[table]{position=above, belowskip=4pt}
\usepackage[style=authoryear-icomp, backend=biber]{biblatex}
\usepackage{csquotes}
\addbibresource{biblatex-examples.bib}

% fixes the page number of the first page of each chapter
\fancypagestyle{plain}{
    \fancyhead{}
    \renewcommand{\headrulewidth}{0pt}
    \renewcommand{\footrulewidth}{0pt}
    \fancyfoot[OC]{\begin{flushright}\thepage\end{flushright}}
}

% fancy headers for the thesis
\fancyhead{}
\fancyhead[LE]{\slshape \nouppercase \leftmark}
\fancyhead[RO]{\slshape \nouppercase \rightmark}
\fancyfoot[EC]{\begin{flushleft}\thepage\end{flushleft}}
\fancyfoot[OC]{\begin{flushright}\thepage\end{flushright}}
\renewcommand{\headrulewidth}{0.4pt}
\setlength{\headheight}{14pt}

\begin{document}
    \frontmatter
    \pagenumbering{Alph} % avoid the problem with page anchors
    \pagestyle{empty}
    \vfill  
    \begin{center}
        Title page
    \end{center}
    \begin{center}
        \Huge Why people never add a mwe to their post?
    \end{center}
    \begin{center}
        The title page has no numbers. 

        I haven't adjust the geometry of the first page, I leave that to you, because I use \texttt{frontespizio} package.
    \end{center}
    \vfill
    \cleardoublepage{}

    \pagenumbering{roman}
    \pagestyle{fancy}

    \chapter{Acknowledgments}
    \markboth{Acknowledgments}{Acknowledgments}
    Roman numbering starts from here.
    \cleardoublepage{}

    % dedication
    \pagestyle{plain}

    \begin{flushright}
        \emph{To all my \TeX -\LaTeX\ friends!}

        I don't know if you want the dedication page this way.
    \end{flushright}
    \cleardoublepage{}

    \pagestyle{fancy}

    \chapter{Abstract}
    \markboth{Abstract}{Abstract}
    Please always add a mwe!
    \cleardoublepage{}

    \tableofcontents{}
    \cleardoublepage{}

    \listoftables
    \cleardoublepage{}

    \listoffigures
    \cleardoublepage{}

    \mainmatter
    \renewcommand{\sectionmark}[1]{\markright{\thesection.\ #1}}
    \renewcommand{\chaptermark}[1]{\markboth{\thechapter.\ #1}{}}

    \chapter{This is the first}
    \section{A section}
    The Arabic numbering starts from here.

    \blindtext
    Just to don't have am empy bibliography: \textcite{knuth:ct}. 
    \begin{figure}
        \centering
        \includegraphics[width=0.5\textwidth]{example-image-a}
        \caption{A figure}
    \end{figure}
    \begin{table}
        \centering
        \begin{tabular}{cc}
            \toprule
            A & B \\
            \midrule
            1 & 2 \\
            \bottomrule
        \end{tabular}
        \caption{A Table}
    \end{table}
    \cleardoublepage{}

    \chapter{This is the second}
    \section{A section}
    \blindtext
    \begin{figure}
        \centering
        \includegraphics[width=0.5\textwidth]{example-image-a}
        \caption{A figure}
    \end{figure}
    \begin{table}
        \centering
        \begin{tabular}{cc}
            \toprule
            A & B \\
            \midrule
            1 & 2 \\
            \bottomrule
        \end{tabular}
        \caption{A Table}
    \end{table}
    \cleardoublepage{}

    \chapter*{Conclusions}
    \addcontentsline{toc}{chapter}{Conclusions}
    \markboth{Conclusions}{Conclusions}
    \blindtext
    \cleardoublepage{}

    \addcontentsline{toc}{chapter}{Bibliography}
    \markboth{Bibliography}{Bibliography}
    \printbibliography
    Just for example I've used \texttt{biblatex}.

\end{document}

Edit:

As Johannes_B noted, there is a previous question of yours, similar to this one, from which I've realized that you're using the documentclass report, that does not provide \frontmatter and \mainmatter. However, it's not a problem, because you can easily fix the numbering anyway.

% arara: pdflatex
% arara: biber
% arara: pdflatex
% arara: pdflatex
\documentclass[11pt,a4paper,twoside]{report}
\usepackage[inner=4cm,outer=2cm,bottom=3cm]{geometry}
\usepackage{setspace}
\onehalfspacing
\setcounter{secnumdepth}{3}
\setcounter{tocdepth}{3}

% only for testing purpose - start
\usepackage{mwe}
% the following instructions are taken from here: http://tex.stackexchange.com/a/37396
% and are used only to repeat tables and figures n times in order to create
% long LoT and LoF
\usepackage{forloop}% http://ctan.org/pkg/forloop
\newcounter{loopcntr}%
\newcommand{\rpt}[2][1]{%
    \forloop{loopcntr}{0}{\value{loopcntr}<#1}{#2}%
}
% only for testing purpose - stop

% page layout
\usepackage{fancyhdr}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage[margin=10pt,font=small,labelfont=bf,labelsep=period,format=hang,indention=0cm]{caption}
\captionsetup[table]{position=above, belowskip=4pt}
\usepackage[style=authoryear-icomp, backend=biber]{biblatex}
\usepackage{csquotes}
\addbibresource{biblatex-examples.bib}

% fixes the page number of the first page of each chapter
\fancypagestyle{plain}{
    \fancyhead{}
    \renewcommand{\headrulewidth}{0pt}
    \renewcommand{\footrulewidth}{0pt}
    \fancyfoot[OC]{\begin{flushright}\thepage\end{flushright}}
}

% fancy headers for the thesis
\fancyhead{}
\fancyhead[LE]{\slshape \nouppercase \leftmark}
\fancyhead[RO]{\slshape \nouppercase \rightmark}
\fancyfoot[EC]{\begin{flushleft}\thepage\end{flushleft}}
\fancyfoot[OC]{\begin{flushright}\thepage\end{flushright}}
\renewcommand{\headrulewidth}{0.4pt}
\setlength{\headheight}{14pt}

\begin{document}

    \pagenumbering{Alph} % avoid the problem with page anchors
    \pagestyle{empty}
    \vfill  
    \begin{center}
        Title page
    \end{center}
    \begin{center}
        \Huge Why people never add a mwe

         to their post?
    \end{center}
    \begin{center}
        The title page has no numbers. 

        I haven't adjust the geometry of the first page, I leave that to you, because I use \texttt{frontespizio} package.
    \end{center}
    \vfill
    \cleardoublepage{}

    \pagenumbering{roman}
    \pagestyle{fancy}

    \chapter*{Acknowledgments}
    \addcontentsline{toc}{chapter}{Acknowledgments}
    \markboth{Acknowledgments}{Acknowledgments}
    Roman numbering starts from here.
    \cleardoublepage{}

    % dedication
    \pagestyle{plain}

    \begin{flushright}
        \emph{To all my \TeX -\LaTeX\ friends!}

        I don't know if you want the dedication page this way.
    \end{flushright}
    \cleardoublepage{}

    \pagestyle{fancy}

    \chapter*{Abstract}
    \addcontentsline{toc}{chapter}{Abstract}
    \markboth{Abstract}{Abstract}
    Please always add a mwe!
    \cleardoublepage{}

    \tableofcontents{}
    \cleardoublepage{}

    \listoftables
    \cleardoublepage{}

    \listoffigures
    \cleardoublepage{}

    \renewcommand{\sectionmark}[1]{\markright{\thesection.\ #1}}
    \renewcommand{\chaptermark}[1]{\markboth{\thechapter.\ #1}{}}

    \pagenumbering{arabic}
    \chapter{Introduction}
    \section{A section}
    The Arabic numbering starts from here.

    \blindtext

    An citation: \textcite{knuth:ct}.

    \rpt[40]{% this is only to repeat the figure n times
        \begin{figure}
            \centering
            \includegraphics[width=0.5\textwidth]{example-image-a}
            \caption{A figure}
    \end{figure}
    } 
    \rpt[10]{% this is only to repeat the table n times
    \begin{table}
        \centering
        \begin{tabular}{cc}
            \toprule
            A & B \\
            \midrule
            1 & 2 \\
            \bottomrule
        \end{tabular}
        \caption{A Table}
    \end{table}
    \blindtext
    }
    \cleardoublepage

    \chapter{Literature Review}
    \section{A section}
    \blindtext
    \begin{figure}
        \centering
        \includegraphics[width=0.5\textwidth]{example-image-a}
        \caption{A figure}
    \end{figure}
    \begin{table}
        \centering
        \begin{tabular}{cc}
            \toprule
            A & B \\
            \midrule
            1 & 2 \\
            \bottomrule
        \end{tabular}
        \caption{A Table}
    \end{table}
    \cleardoublepage

    \chapter*{Conclusions}
    \addcontentsline{toc}{chapter}{Conclusions}
    \markboth{Conclusions}{Conclusions}
    \blindtext
    \cleardoublepage{}

    \addcontentsline{toc}{chapter}{Bibliography}
    \markboth{Bibliography}{Bibliography}
    \printbibliography
    Just for example I've used \texttt{biblatex}.

\end{document}
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