Setting up autonumbering for tables

[Tina-Louise.Allaire]

Hi,

I am using FrameMaker 2020 and I am trying to figure out how to have the table numbers in the book appear in sequence. The book has many tables and there are 14 chapters.  Is there a simple way to do this, and if so, can someone please give me explicit information on how to achieve this?

Thank you in advance.

Cheers,

Elizabeth  

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Have you looked at https://community.adobe.com/t5/framemaker-discussions/table-autonumbering-without-using-chapnum/td-p... ? Or the help?
Never dealt with autonumbering, but I suspect the process is the same for tables as it is with figures.

[Tina-Louise.Allaire]

Yes, I have looked at that entry. I'm wondering how to continue table numbers throughout the document. I have one chapter that has 15 tables. The next chapter also has tables and I would like to have the 1st table labelled as # 16. I tried to apply Table Title 2+ in the hope that that next table would be number 16, but it got labelled as Table 2.  What am I missing??

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS · Accepted solution]

How do you want the numbers to appear: "chapter numbering-table numbering" or continuous "tablenumbering"?

If the former, set the Number in the Paragraph Designer to: T:Table <$chapnum>\=<n+>

If the later use T:Table <n+> and set your Paragraph numbering to Continue Number from Previous Paragraph in Book. Note, this may affect other paragraph numbering settings. 

[Tina-Louise.Allaire]

I made the change to T:Table <n+>, but haven't been able to locate 'Paragraph numbering to Continue Number from Previous Paragraph in Book'.

[LinSims · Accepted solution]

That'll be in the document properties. 

To set up numbering in the FIRST CHAPTER of your book:

1. Click the first document you want numbered.
2. Right click and select Numbering.
3. Type 1 in the Chapter # field.
4. Click on the Page tab and select First Page.
5. Click on the Paragraph tab and select Restart Paragraph Numbering.
6. Click Set.

This makes sure that your first chapter resets everything.

To set up numbering in the rest of the book:

1. Click the second chapter in the book file, then shift select the last chapter.
2. Right click on one of the files and select Numbering.
3. Click the Chapter tab and then select Continue Numbering From Previous Chapter in Book.
4. Click the Page tab and select either First Page (if you want the chapter number to increment but the page number for the chapter to start at 1, so 1-1 through 1-14, 2-1 through 2-5, and so on) or select Continue Numbering from Previous Page in Book (so that the page number just keeps counting up, so you have 1-1 through 1-14, then 2-15 through 2-20, and so on).
5. Click the Paragraph tab and select Continue Numbering from Previous Paragraph in Book.
6. Click Set.

Note that, as @Dave Creamer of IDEAS said, setting the Paragraph tab to Continue Numbering from Previous Paragraph in Book means that EVERY PARAGRAPH that uses autonumbering will continue to increment through the files. If you have numbered paragraphs or headings, you'll find yourself continuing the numbering from the previous file. So if the last paragraph in one file is 2-11, the first paragraph in the next file will be 3-13, not 3-1. 

If this is the only tag that you want to continue numbering, you have two choices:

1. Create a reset tag for each of the other autonumbering tags, as in OLF for Ordered List First (where the numbering for the first item in a list is reset) and OLC for rest of the numbered paragraphs to continue incrementing the numbered items in the list.
2. Manually edit the paragraph start number in the paragraph designer. This is not recommended as it means you will have overrides and overrides are generally considered to be a bad idea.

[Tina-Louise.Allaire]

Thank you for this information.

What I am trying to do is to increment table numbering throughout all the chapters. In one chapter I have 14 tables, and they are labelled from 1-14.  In the following chapter the next table is labelled as 1; I would like it to be labelled as # 16. The goal is to have the remaining tables continue with ascending numbering.  Is there an easy way to do this?

[LinSims]

As I said, if you change the numbering properties for the document on the paragraph tag to Continue Numbering From Previous Paragraph in the Book from Restart, the autonumbering for all paragraph styles will continue to increase from file to file. That will give you what you want for the table tag.

However, all of your OTHER paragraph tags with autonumbering will do the same thing. If the only tag you have autonumbering on is the Table tag, that's no big deal.

BUT, if you have other tags that use autonumbers that you need to have restart, you will need either a special tag to reset the autonumbering for that tag or you will have to manually edit the number each time you want things to restart. For example, if you have a tag for numbered steps (Tag: Steps, Autonumbering:  S: Step <n+> for example), you will also need a tag that resets the step numbering (Tag: First Step, Autonumbering: S: Step < =1>).

[Tina-Louise.Allaire]

I have changed the numbering properties for the document on the paragraph tag to Continue Numbering From Previous Paragraph in the Book and saved the book as PDF. When I look at the tables, the table I expected to see labelled as # 16 has not been changed and has bremained at it's previous number. At what point should I see the table numbers updated?  BTW I inherited this boojk from a previous writer and it's been a while since I've used FrameMaker.

[LinSims]

Did you regenerate the book?

[Tina-Louise.Allaire]

Yes I did.

[Tina-Louise.Allaire]

 I updated the book again and the numbering is working!  Thank you!

[LinSims]

Good news!

Would you please mark the answer correct?