Can I adjust Page Numbering?

[EndUser66]

Hello everyone,

I am trying to adjust page numbering in a chapter.

More specifically, I am trying to insert pages as point-pages (e.g., page 1-1.1).

My master pages use the Current Page# variable (<$chapnum>-<$curpagenum>).

Currently, if I insert pages, the page count increases accordingly. I'd like the counter to stop and remember the present count, then pick up the count after the point pages are inserted.

Any help is appreciated,

Fernando

[Bob_Niland]

Most recent Point Pages discussion:

Point pages in FrameMaker 10

which itself links to an earlier one,

and provides a hint of the real answer:

a 3rd party plug-in.

[EndUser66]

Error7103,

Thanks for the quick reply.

Was hoping for a quick and easy solution but I guess I'll have to look into the possibility of a plug-in.

Fernando

[Bob_Niland]

It looks like the choices might be, in order of decreasing preference:

• Talk the client out of doing point pages. CPs are largely a left over of paper-only days when it was too expensive to reprint entire manuals for minor and/or frequent updates, so just changed/new pages were sent out. If it's some antique standard that requires it, firing the client is another possibility .
• Use the 3rd party plugin. Having never needed to do this, I have no experience with it.
• Do the page numbers in the main Flow A, which extends into the margins, and manage them manually.
• For a new document, do each original page as a separate file, and use creative auto-numbering expressions to number pages. Chapter number becomes main page number. Actual page number becomes point page. Perhaps some hidden (possibly auto#) para tags can be picked up for additional refinement per page (perhaps using MP mapping where the MP supplies the extra .2.3.4.
• For an existing document, use the legacy Freeze Pages command, and hold your breath while adding new content.

[FieryPantone]

Tell the client about the Australian refinery disaster where point pages were specifically identified as a factor … updated procedures, outdated printouts in ring-binders :-} I think I tracked down the reference last time someone mentioned point pages in this forum. I feel that point pages place a heavy burden on the reader, and the more there are the worse it gets.

Question: if you manage to bully FM into delivering point pages, what happens should you want to enrich the document with cross-references to the new content? And what happens if the new content needs to intervene between two paragraphs on the same original page – how do you indicate "please stop reading {here}, go to point page n-m, continue until page n-p, return to {here}

I don't think I've been asked for point pages since before I met FrameMaker, which was in the days of 5.5. Conditions, change bars and "What's new in this version" overviews have kept my clients happy since then.

Error7103's suggestion of creative auto-numbering sounds like the way I'd go if I had to, but perhaps in the existing chapter with a couple of new master pages. Adapted footers, of course, and perhaps an elegant strip of colour along the outside edge …

Good luck, anyway!