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Getting the last page number from a book

Advocate ,
Dec 07, 2012 Dec 07, 2012

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Hello all,

On a single-document master page, I have included the <lastpage> system variable and that works fine. But now the single document is split up into chapters to allow easier modular work. The page numbering is continuous, i.e. no chapter numbers are used. I still want to use the last page number but this should now be the last page number from the entire book. I could not find this value in the available elements. Is there no such thing ? The documentation does not say anything about lastpage except the one that is only in scope within a chapter file.

Thanks for any pointers to figure this one out. I have a solution but it is a very roundabout way of handling things.

Jang

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Community Expert ,
Dec 07, 2012 Dec 07, 2012

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Sounds like you'll need to xref the final page of your book in your master pages to get that "last page in book" value

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Advocate ,
Dec 07, 2012 Dec 07, 2012

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Hi Matt,

That's exactly what I did, but it is kind of crappy to be forced to do this, don't you agree ?

Ciao

Jang

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Community Expert ,
Dec 07, 2012 Dec 07, 2012

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I dunno...the <$pagecount> variable seems intended for a shorter single document and is more document- than book-oriented. If the content has grown to where a TOC, IX and chapter structure are helpful to you and the end user, is the <$pagecount> variable as useful as it was when the content was shorter?

Would the longer form benefit from a footer that gives a chapnum-pagenum structure instead?

-Matt

@mattrsullivan

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Advocate ,
Dec 07, 2012 Dec 07, 2012

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Hi Matt,

I think restricting all kinds of useful things on the book level just because the designers had a different use case in mind is not necessarily the right way to define what a product should do. The output from the book looks exactly the same as the output from a document: they are both processed into a single PDF. Whether I create a 100-page single chapter or cut it up into 10 smaller chapters should not oblige me to use the chapter numbering into the page numbers.

There are pages, chapters, volumes and a book. There are hierarchical books, groups, folders. If Frame can keep track of all those numbers in the scope of a book, why not allow parts of that book to reference those properties. After all, I can set all kinds of attributes in a structured book and use them throughout my chapters, so why not include a predefined attribute <$lastpage> on the book level as well as on the chapter level?

Designers of a product should not restrict the use cases that buyers of that product may come up with, unless if there are good reasons to do so.

Ciao

Jang

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LEGEND ,
Dec 07, 2012 Dec 07, 2012

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Jang,

Unfortuantely, that's the way the <$lastpage> building block has always worked and has been a document level feature only. You should use the suggestions link ( https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform&product=63 ) to add a request for a book level $lastpage building block to FM's wish list.

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Community Expert ,
Dec 07, 2012 Dec 07, 2012

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Wow, a bit of a strong response...

I didn't mean to imply that you were forced to change anything about how you format your content. I was only pointing out that your use case is not nearly as common as what is addressed within the product.

If that feature is important to you, the adobe.com/go/wish page might be your best hope of getting them to devote budget to its development. If you can convince others to post the same request, your odds go up exponentially.

I thought I had politely suggested you revisit your formatting requirements to see if your change in content would benefit from a change in navigation. If that was taken the wrong way, I apologize.

-Matt

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Advocate ,
Dec 07, 2012 Dec 07, 2012

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Hi Matt,

No need to apologize, I did overreact. I have been frustrated with so many people deciding what is best for the users, especially when it comes to software product design. In fact, FrameMaker is a good example compared to, for example, the S/M Office products - where each new version seems to redefine the user interface in totally incomprehensible ways and make the old familiar methods unavailable or very hard to find.

Kind regards from Amsterdam

Jang

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