Creating numbered printed tabs

[Shari28015868vzk2]

I need to create 336 sequentially numbered tabs in indesign. The tabs are in banks of 5 so i have a 5 page document that is set up to print on our Ricoh printers but I cant figure out how to data merge or sequentially number because the text box is in a differnt spot on each page. I need 68 sets of 5 numbered, in order. What am I missing?

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Bottom line, the text box has to be where the text goes.

The sequential numbering in ID is not very flexible. The usual approach for things like alternate page numbering is to create a list of numbers, each in its own paragraph (Excel works well for this), then flow that text through boxes so that each number ends up where you need it. Paragraph format controls all, here, with "break to next frame" pretty much essential.

I can't think of an easy way to make a 336-frame flow, 5 to a page, with random locations, though. Manually doing it shouldn't take too long, although it will be tedious.

A script might allow for creating five (more) linked frames on each new page, which you can then drag to position using guidelines. (I'm not a script guy, but there are one or two here.)

[Shari28015868vzk2]

Thank you for some direction. I do data merges all the time and I was hoping it was as simple as linking the  text boxes on each tab set up which would flow the numbers through the 5 tabs. When that didnt work, i started searching and got nowhere. So what I am gathering is there is really no easy way to do it.... sigh. 

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Well, you can certainly set up a Parent page with that text flow assigned to five boxes along one edge. It tends to get messy when you start moving default text frames around on doc pages, but it can be done.

Or maybe, just properly positioning the boxes nd centering the text will put it in the right place on all tabs. (I assume this is for a tabbed divider set, or the like... you could set it up so that varying text aligns properly in each box.)