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Inspiring
September 5, 2025
Answered

Controlling Page Numbers in Docs in INDB file

  • September 5, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 166 views

I've spent a couple of hours trying to do something simple. I have a set of documents in an Indb file. All are set to 'Automatic Page Numbering'. I wish to have the numbering start at Page 1 in the Front Matter doc and then continue through to Chapter 1 and so on. But it starts at Page 1 in both the Front Matter and Chapter 1 docs. I want Chapter 1 to continue as a Page 7. How do I get the numbering to start at the first doc and continue through? I thought 'Automatic Page Numbering' would do this? Thanks if you can help

Correct answer BarryDalby

Thanks Abhishek, I think that was my issue - couple of places where 'Automatic Page Numbering' is offered as option. But it was book level I needed. Not sure what the others do!! 🙂

2 replies

Abhishek Rao
Community Manager
Community Manager
September 5, 2025

Hi @BarryDalby,

 

Glad to hear you managed to get the numbering working as expected. For future reference, the 'Automatic Page Numbering' feature should indeed carry the numbering across all documents in the book, as long as sections are set correctly and no document is forcing its own page start. If you see the Start Section option greyed out, that usually means the numbering is being controlled at the book level rather than inside the document.

If the issue shows up again, please share your OS and InDesign version along with a quick screen recording of the behavior, so I can check it.

 

Looking forward to your update.

Abhishek

BarryDalbyAuthorCorrect answer
Inspiring
September 5, 2025

Thanks Abhishek, I think that was my issue - couple of places where 'Automatic Page Numbering' is offered as option. But it was book level I needed. Not sure what the others do!! 🙂

Inspiring
September 5, 2025

Something to do with 'Start Section'? That's greyed out in the Front Matter file under Page Numbering etc

 

Inspiring
September 5, 2025

No worries, I kept tricking around in the options in the INDB and it's now numbering as desired.