Auto Numbering Pages, Figures and Bullet Lists in Burmese/Myanmar Language

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
July 18, 2022
1 reply
1543 views

Hi I am very new to InDesign. I would like to know whether it is possible to have auto numbering in Burmese or not. If it's not possible out of the box, what are the options I have to achieve auto numbering? In LaTex, I can achieve auto numbering in Burmese using some macros. Can I do similarly in InDesign using some sort of scripting?

Thanks!

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer Joel Cherney

sorry, should be ". . . less relevant question from the current topic? "

Totally relevant, here. What you propose to do is one of the things I did, ten or fifteen years ago. It works, and is often easier than manually lettering or numbering such lists. (I am still combing through the Wayback Machine looking for off-site references to posts about the discussions we had back then, about how to add kinds of complex-script auto-numbering and auto-lettering lists to InDesign without using edited fonts.)

Speaking as someone who has had to work with these kinds of homebrew or hacked fonts at great length, I would implore you to rename your font in all the relevant font fields in FontLab. I've spent way too much time in this life fighting with multiple versions of Zawgyi-One or KNU that have identical names but different glyph complements.

Willi Adelberger

Community Expert

I don't know your language. But numbering should always be possible and also be done via paragraph styles.

In the paragraph style definition you find a section Bullets and Numbers. When you go there you have several options and you can choose a character style for the numbering. I think you will find there everything you need for your language.

Numbering and bullets can also be set on the left side or on the right side pf any paragraph, but it is a little bit tricky to do it on the oposite side of the normal position.

P

Pyi SoAuthor

Participating Frequently

Hello Mr. @Willi Adelberger , I do get auto numbering in InDesign. But they are displayed as 1, 2, 3, ... etc.,. In fact 1, 2, 3, ... should map to ၁, ၂, ၃, ... in our language. What I'd like to know is if it is possible achieve auto numbers which map to our language. I've attached a screenshot for your reference.

Joel Cherney

Community Expert

@Joel Cherney Thanks for the info. You are right, I can't add Burmese to that dropdown list either. I've also seen how it can be done using Pyidaungsu Numbers. But I am a bit reluctant to use that method because I'd like to use fonts other than Pyidaungsu.

Another possible way is described here for Khmer language. I tried changing the script a little for Burmese, and it seems to work, at least for my testing.

Aha! Thank you for posting this. I'd tried to do this myself, about ten years ago, and my scripting skills weren't up to the task back then. Using that script creates a new paragraph style with the necessary settings for Khmer numerals, and it seems like it ought to work for any language for which InDesign supports the digits.

So, I whomped up my own Burmese numeral paragraph style script, which I've added here for the people who will find this thread later. Yours looks something like this, I suppose? Excepting, perhaps, the choice of font?

/*
	Add Paragraph style with Burmese numbering
	Based on "Khmer Page Numbering.jsx"	version: 1.1 by Thomas Silkjær
	
*/

var my_document = app.documents.item(0).paragraphStyles.add({
	name:"Myanmar",
	characterDirection:CharacterDirectionOptions.LEFT_TO_RIGHT_DIRECTION,
	composer:"Adobe World-Ready Paragraph Composer",
	digitsType:DigitsTypeOptions.BURMESE_DIGITS,
	paragraphDirection:ParagraphDirectionOptions.LEFT_TO_RIGHT_DIRECTION,
	appliedFont:"Paduak"
});

this all reminds me of a conversation that I took part in, ten years ago, where John Hawkinson put me onto the idea of creating new .iddx files to have generic preferences set up to access numbering styles and such that aren't available in the UI of one's InDesign install.

This looks like a lot more work than the create-a-new-Khmer-paragraph-style method, but could be really useful for those who create InDesign documents regularly in languages not supported by the default UI. Lots of defaults can be specified in the .iddx files - the generic name for a Table of Contents, indexing styles, and so on. I know what I'm working on the next time I have a spare afternoon!

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