If you use master page only for numbering you don't have to create another master page just for that, you can ctrl+shift+left click on text frame to unlock it and then hit the delete key or backspace key to delete it (on regular page, not master), or you can simply apply [None] Master for pages where you don't want number to appear.

You are definitely missing something or it's some bug i don't know, I mean you have the solution described above.

Check your pages panel and look for black triangle above 7th page (it should be there if your section is starting from there), and section start should be checked and start page numbering should be set to 1. When you do that it's better to change style to Roman numerals for first six pages so you don't have two pages with number 3 for example.

Also don't change section numbering in Preferences, because you have sections in document, right

One more thing, maybe your master page isn't set correctly. Did you create text box and insert special character (current page number) on both pages (if you have facing pages) in master spread ?

Right click to 7th page in pages panel, choose section and numbering, check start section, then set start page numbering at: 1

hmmm , what do you mean by “empty line between paragraphs is considered a 4th paragraph”, you mean you hit Enter two times in the row? Isn't better to just adjust space after in 3rd paragraph style so you don't need 4th ?

Hi mayoor

I've just run some test. I opened InDesign and create 1 page document letter size. I placed .psd file (10 MB) and exported as pdf and size was 1.25 MB, then i used that same image but in .jpeg format (880 KB) and placed it in Indesign and exported it and size of pdf was bigger about 2.3 MB.

Use jpeg just for web not for print, because psd is much better.