Known Participant

Question

Numbering Chapters Correctly in Sections

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
January 5, 2022
6 replies
1409 views

Below is the format I require my document to have:

1.1.1 : (Book).(Section).(Chapter)

Book
Section 1
1.1.1	Chapter 1 (Master page A)
1.1.2	Chapter 2 (Master page B)

Section 2
1.2.1	Chapter 1 (Master page A)
1.2.2	Chapter 2 (Master page B)

Does anyone know the best solution in order to insert a page number to follow this formatting? I would appreciate any help, especially if you can talk me through how to do it 🙂

Note: Some pages have separate master pages - does this interfere with page numbering like this?

This topic has been closed for replies.

Barb Binder

Community Expert

Hi Eugene!

Am I "others"? 😊

I didn't respost any of the same links you posted—instead I linked to one that I use to teach numbering logic (and the steps) to my InDesign students. Everyone learns differently and we don't know which explanation will resonate with a particular InDesign user. The post uses a table to help the user visualize the logic, and the posts you linked to don't.

Feel free to reach out to me directly if you have further comments.

~Barb

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training

E

Eugene Tyson

Community Expert

.....

Dave Creamer of IDEAS

Community Expert

[edited]

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)

Barb Binder

Community Expert

@amandah11884:

Only issue I had was I couldn't start a section on the left hand side in few cases where I wanted to.

I'm not sure why. One can start a section on any page—left or right. You just have to select it in the Pages panel so that the page icon is blue before opening Numbering & Section Options.

~Barb

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training

amandah11884

Participant

I just completed a manual with the same type of numbering. I used the section marker along with the page marker on my master pages and formatted size and fonts. Then for the beginning of each chapter page right click then select Numbering & Section Options. Start page numbering at 1. Section Prefix at 3. (don't forget the .) Check the Include Prefix when Numbering Pages.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so including screen shots. Only issue I had was I couldn't start a section on the left hand side in few cases where I wanted to.

Barb Binder

Community Expert

Hi Katie:

So I think you are asking both questions? The post I linked to explains how to set up the auto-numbered headings—both for a multi-chapter book environment or for creating the book within a single InDesign file.

The second question—adding those numbers in front of the footer is not a feature of InDesign. It is a feature of Adobe's other page layout application: Adobe FrameMaker. I've tried to solve it in InDesign using variables (how we would handle this in FrameMaker), cross-references and section prefixes. None is an automatic solution and the only one that remotely works is section prefixes—but you will need to update the prefixes manually when text reflows.

This is a community forum and someone else may swing by with scripting solution, but this doesn't work out of the box in InDesign, best I can tell.

~Barb

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training

Barb Binder

Community Expert

Hi @KuriousKatie:

Can you clarify this question?

Are you asking how to number the headings sequentially? If so, please see https://www.rockymountaintraining.com/adobe-indesign-numbering-headings/
Or how to add the heading numbers in front of the page numbers?

~Barb

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training

K

KuriousKatieAuthor

Known Participant

Sorry, I'm struggling to find the right words to ask what I need 🙂

Basically, I need someone to show me how I can number my document in this way:

1.1.1 : (Book).(Section).(Chapter)

A diagram of this is above 🙂

I understand how to use sections, however I'm wondering if there is any way I can number "chapters" within my sections, so I can display the "1.1.1 etc" on the footer of each page 🙂

Does this make any more sense? 😅

E

Eugene Tyson

Community Expert

🙂

I understand how to use sections, however I'm wondering if there is any way I can number "chapters" within my sections, page 🙂

😅

By @KuriousKatie