Pages Tab page numbers vs actual page numbers

[WAZZAJ]

I am creating a book with multiple chapters—one file for each chapter. So as an example, Chapter two starts on page 40 of the book. However in the Pages Tab the page numbers are listed from "1" instead of "40". This makes locating the pages very difficult.

 

Can we please have the Pages tab matching the actual page numbers.

[walt.farrell]

Just for a different perspective, as soon as you make any substantial changes to chapter 1 isn't it likely that the number of pages before chapter 2 would change? And, of course, the page numbers in chapter 3, etc. And if any substantive changes are then made to chapter 2, the page numbers in chapter 3 need to change to reflect the changes in both prior chapters. It would get confusing trying to keep the numbers synchronized between the parts and the assembled book unless you spent a significant amount of time adjusting each chapter to account for changes to the prior ones.

I'd probably just do the math, or use Find to locate things, personally. But I'd be interested in hearing more from you (or others) about how that works, especially in other programs.

[garrettm30]

I agree with WAZZAJ: I have wished that the naming of pages in the pages studio reflected the value of the page numbers. In my case, I am not separating a book into multiple document, but rather let's assume a book in a single document, where the front matter is numbered via small roman numerals as pages i through viii, after which chapter 1 begins at page 1. In such a document, if I want to go to page 10, I have to double click on page 19 as it is labeled in the studio. This has tripped me up a few times: not in any serious way, but it does cause a hiccup in the process when the page I land at is not what I expected. This is also a problem for printing page ranges, because one must enter the page range as it appears in the studio.

I prefer InDesign's method, where the pages in their equivalent to the Pages Studio are labeled according to the page number setting, and printing page ranges is similarly based on the actual page number value.

The page number shifting problem that Walt is describing is rather an issue of dividing a long document in multiple documents without a book feature as in InDesign. Yes, we do have to manually change the page numbers, but without a book feature, that is the only way to have proper page numbering in a book spread over multiple documents. Regardless of whatever the Pages Studio shows, if there are printed page numbers in a split document, then it has to be done.

[Wosven]

I usually begin the books at page 3 (the cover are 1 & 2), and it would be helpfull to have the correct numbers like it is said in this case.

[WAZZAJ]

The thing is I produce files for highly illustrated books. Thus the files get very large very quickly so it's necessary to split the book into small units. This means that if a file corrupts I only have a small amount of work to reinstate it. Also big files will not print and can't be easily distributed to interested parties.

InDesign has a Book feature which is invaluable (sorry for quoting that Adobe product again). It lists the files in the book and shows the page numbers for each file. That way you can see that the page sequence is maintained, although it does have an auto page facility which fixes the problem but I prefer to manually correct the files.

With Affinity I have no option other than to manually track the page numbers.

[walt.farrell]

5 hours ago, WAZZAJ said:

The thing is I produce files for highly illustrated books. Thus the files get very large very quickly

Just curious...

If you use Linked rather than Embedded images, the file size should not get "very large", should it? (I can see splitting the file as you've done for other reasons, but I wouldn't have expected file size to be one of them, usually.)

[WAZZAJ]

The images are all linked. I don't now how Affinity Publisher handles these links but the file sizes are very large even with only 15 pages in each file (one file with 12 pages is 23.9 Mb). 

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, WAZZAJ said:

The images are all linked. I don't now how Affinity Publisher handles these links but the file sizes are very large even with only 15 pages in each file (one file with 12 pages is 23.9 Mb). 

What release of Publisher did you create the files in, and what kind of linked files are you using? Image (TIFF, JPG, PNG) or document (.afphoto, PDF, etc.).

[WAZZAJ]

Release 1.8.2