One page number per spread?

[Al-Vista]

I'm producing an art book with some slightly odd numbering requirements:

Section 1 - The front section (prelims) un-numbered

Section 2 - introductory pages, numbered i, ii, iii, ...

Section 3 - the main body of 100 spreads, each double-page spread should be numbered 1, 2, 3, ..., rather than each page. I.e. the numbers increment every other page rather than every page. This is the tricky bit!

Section 4 - closing remarks like Section 2

I have the Sections set up, but have not worked out how to do Section 3, except to number each spread manually which I would like to avoid.

Is there a way to do this??

[Old Bruce]

You could try setting up a single page document instead of a facing page document and have the pages for the section 3 be twice the width of the other pages. I think that would be a right royal pain.

I would just make a text file with page numbers 1 - 100 on each line. then on the master page a text frame for that file. Make a Paragraph style for that section 3 page numbers and set the flow to start in next frame. Place the text file into the page number text frame and shift click on it. 

[Al-Vista]

Thanks Old Bruce!

I agree the double-width page would be a pain, especially when I try to send it to a commercial printer.

I've tried a sample-sized version of your proposed method and got it to work. It is a pity I have to do the flow links one at a time though, and more of a pity that if I subsequently re-order spreads, the numbers don't automatically change to match. So it is a solution, though an imperfect one, and I thank you for it.

If anyone has another idea though, I'm still up for it. Maybe the Affinity team could add an option in Section Manager to autonumber either by pages (the default) or spreads, with a little drop-down box. Please?!