PDF (adobe.com)

Number pages, chapters, and paragraphs in a book



You can determine how pages, chapters, and paragraphs are numbered in a book. In a book file, the numbering styles and starting numbers for pages and chapters are determined by each document’s settings in the Numbering & Section Options dialog box. You can open this dialog box by choosing Layout > Numbering & Section Options in the document or by choosing Document Numbering Options in the Book panel menu.

For numbered paragraphs (such as lists of figures), numbering is determined by the numbered list style definition contained by the paragraph style.

The page range appears beside each document name in the Book panel. By default, InDesign updates page and section numbering in the Book panel when you add or remove pages in booked documents, or when you make changes to the book file, such as reordering, adding, or removing documents. If you turn off the setting to automatically update page and section numbers, you can update numbering in a book manually.

If a document is missing or cannot be opened, the page range is shown as “?” from the place where the missing document should be to the end of the book, indicating that the true page range is unknown. Remove or replace the missing document before you update numbering. If the In Use icon  appears, someone using a different computer has opened the document in a managed workflow; the person must close the document before you can update numbering.

For a video on numbering pages in a book, see www.adobe.com/go/vid0217.

Change page and chapter numbering options for each document

  1. Select the document in the Book panel.
  2. Choose Document Numbering Options in the Book panel menu, or double-click the document’s page numbers in the Book panel.
  3. Specify the page, section, and chapter numbering options. (See Document numbering options.)
  4. Click OK.
Note: If you specify a starting page number in a booked document instead of selecting Automatic Page Numbering, the booked document will begin on the specified page; all subsequent documents in the book will be renumbered accordingly.

Start numbering on an odd or even page

You can start document numbering on odd- or even-numbered pages in booked documents.

  1. Choose Book Page Numbering Options in the Book panel menu.
  2. Choose Continue On Next Odd Page or Continue On Next Even Page.
  3. Select Insert Blank Page to add a blank page to the end of any document in which the subsequent document must begin on an odd- or even-numbered page, and then click OK.

Turn off automatic page numbering in a book

  1. Choose Book Page Numbering Options from the Book panel menu.
  2. Deselect Automatically Update Page & Section Numbers, and then click OK.
  3. To update page numbering manually, choose Update Numbering > Update All Numbers in the Book panel menu.

    You can also update only page and section numbers or only chapter and paragraph numbers.

Use sequential paragraph numbering in books

To use sequential paragraph numbering for lists of figures, tables, or other items, you first define a numbered list that is used in a paragraph style. The numbered list you define determines whether paragraph numbering maintains sequential numbering across documents in a book.

  1. Open the document that is used as the style source for the book.
  2. Choose Type > Bulleted And Numbered Lists > Define Lists.
  3. Click New to define a list or select an existing list and choose Edit.
  4. Select both Continue Numbers Across Stories and Continue Numbers From Previous Document In Book.
  5. Click OK.
  6. Define a paragraph style that uses a numbered list, and apply it to the text in each document that contains the list. (See Create a paragraph style for running lists.)
To make sure the same numbered list setting is used across all documents in the book, select the Paragraph Styles and Numbered Lists options in the Synchronize Options dialog box, and then synchronize the book.