RE: Acrobat PDF page numbering

Subject: RE: Acrobat PDF page numbering
From: <Brian -dot- Henderson -at- mitchell1 -dot- com>
To: <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2013 19:22:29 +0000

A few days ago I created an eBook that has 14 pages before there's an actual displayed Page 1.
- Cover sample, Title page, and Ackno page I designated as Numbering Style: None
- 9 Quick Reference pages I designated as Roman Numerals (which they actually contain)
- 2 Contents pages I designated as "a, b, c," style (they have no visible numbering, and I probably could have used no-style here too, but didn't)
- Then starts "Page 1", and that's what Acrobat agrees with.

The main reason I wanted Acrobat's numbering to match the "printed" page is that when the Go-To-Page function is used, the number typed in will be the page number you see, on the page, when you get there. It's not particularly necessary, because the bookmarks are a much better way of navigating, but it's an occasionally useful touch, so I include it.

Note: If you wish for the PDF to open on one of the pages containing numbering-style None, be sure to make that happen BEFORE you remove its number. Otherwise you have nothing to put in the Open-to-page field.

-Brian H.

-----Original Message----- From: Monique Semp

As others have pointed out (but it's an important point so I started a new thread title for it), it's an easy thing to do to make the Acrobat PDF numbering match whatever's on the page.

* If you're using FrameMaker, I recommend FrameMaker-to-Acrobat TimeSavers, http://www.microtype.com/TimeSavers.html, to automate this.

* If you're using some other tool to generate PDFs, you can use the Acrobat Batch Utility to set up a batch command to easily automate the numbering. (I use this for clients that want me to author in Word. It's still an extra step, and you have to change the parameters if the number of preface pages changes, but that's not a frequent occurrence.)

Or you can, as others suggested, keep the numbering simple so that regardless of what frontmatter you have, the doc is just numbered 1 to N.

I personally prefer preface numbers (I, ii, iii, iv, etc.) and then the real first page of chapter 1 being Page 1, but that does require this extra step so that readers aren't confused about the page numbering. I think it worth the effort, but not everyone does.

--



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References:
Standards for command-line documentation + dumb Acrobat X user question: From: Elissa K. Miller
RE: Standards for command-line documentation + dumb Acrobat X user question: From: Lynne Wright
Acrobat PDF page numbering: From: Monique Semp

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