Comments on: How to Add Page Numbers?

By: David Blatner

David Blatner — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 14:17:44 +0000

Wow… 129 comments on this thread! But questions here seem to be shifting off topic, so I’m going to close the comments now. If you have more questions or ideas, please post them on our forums at http://indesignsecrets.com/forum

By: David Blatner

David Blatner — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 14:16:45 +0000

@TimK: No, I don’t think so. You could perhaps use Conditional Text and Smart Text Reflow to “turn on and off” each white paper, so that the length of the document would change on the fly, based on which condition was visible.

By: TimK

TimK — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 23:37:26 +0000

Here’s an interesting problem I have –

I am using a master page for layout of background graphics for a set of 5 white-papers.

Then, I am using separate layers for each different white-paper, so I can turn the individual layers on and off for each paper.

That works fine — but here’s the problem. The number of pages for the first white-paper is 5; the number for the second is 4; the number for the third is 7, etc.

If I set up a text box on the master page to handle the typical ” of ” format, I can’t figure out a way to easily change it so that the “total page” variable reflects the actual number of pages used in that white-paper. Instead I get things like “Page 2 of 7″ when there are only 5 pages in that particular document.

Short of having to create separate documents for each white-paper (something I wanted to avoid) is there any way to calculate the total number of pages on the fly..?

By: David Blatner

David Blatner — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 18:44:06 +0000

@jude: Master pages are like "templates" for pages. Anything you put on a master page will show up on a document page based on that master. Look in the Pages panel. I'd strongly suggest getting some basic training, such as a copy of the book Real World InDesign, or training at lynda.com/trial/indesignsecrets

By: jude arnold

jude arnold — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 18:20:24 +0000

I’m with Sean – I just need to number the pages in my 92 page document.

OK – you lost me right off with my “documents master pages”! What’s that? Where do I find it?

Thanks!

By: Greg Carter

Greg Carter — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 21:34:39 +0000

I don’t know if this helps anyone else or not, but I work for a printing company and we number stuff all the time. What I did is set up a spreadsheet where I type in the starting number, how many numbers per page, and the ending number, and it automatically generates the list of numbers I want. Then I use the merge feature of InDesign to merge that text into the desired numbering fields, and then can easily create a multi-page, numbered document.

By: tpias

tpias — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 20:44:48 +0000

Yes David, your comment makes sense w/r to page nums. Same should be true then for Links, yet Alice’s Adventures… has active links in DE. Mine just render as text. Perhaps it is not an eBook but rather a PDF.

My goal is to publish iBook/eBook for iPad and Kindle etc.
Thought I could use IDesign to publish and DE to test appearance–perhaps I’m on wrong track.

By: David Blatner

David Blatner — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 02:38:17 +0000

@tpias: If I’m not mistaken, the epub reader (digital editions, or iBook, or stanza, etc.) can insert its own page numbers in. But think about it: If the person using the reader software makes the text bigger or smaller, then all the text would reflow and all the page numbers would be wrong! So it is not for InDesign to put page numbers in.

Of course, it has an automatic page number feature for people who are using InDesign for print or PDF or SWF.

By: tpias

tpias — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 00:58:26 +0000

David, thank you kindly for the reply.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is included as a Sample in the DE ebook Library. Page numbers are displayed–perhaps just embedded text.

Also, why would Indesign CS5 provide for page numbering (Insert Special Character>Marker>Current Page Number etc)?

By: David Blatner

David Blatner — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 13:14:19 +0000

@Ana: You might consider using these tricks for making numbered coupons: http://indesignsecrets.com/making-numbered-tickets.php

@tpias: page numbering does not show up in Digital Editions because there really is no such thing as page numbering in EPUB. It is a “reflowable” format, so page numbers change all the time.