Web Design in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition

The value of the counter-reset property is an identifier (a label set by the author such as “chapter” or “section”) and an optional number that serves as the starting number. The default is zero (0), so simply declaring an identifier for counter-reset sets it to 0. Any integer may be specified as the starting number, including negative values. In this simple example, a “chapter” counter is established and starts at 3.

h1 {counter-reset:Chapter 3; }

Now that a starting point has been established, the counter-increment property is used to indicate that an element triggers the counter to go up.