Page Numbering Options

[PilotBob]

I create technical manuals with several sections. I have been doing this for years in InDesign and Quark XPress. I am now experimenting with Affinity Publisher 2.

The page numbering in each section or chapter includes the section number. This is a requirement of our federal regulator (Transport Canada). I can achieve this on each page by making the section name to just its number, and editing the footer with two fields (section name and page number) separated by a hyphen; for example "page 4-1". However, when I create the master table of contents, I can't find a way for page numbers to be displayed in the same format. Only the page number digits are used. The result is unusable.

Is there a way to create TOC entries that honour the combined section name and page number format? This is easily achievable in MS Word, Indesign, and Quark. I regard it as a "must have" feature. 

The attached image illustrates what I'm trying to achieve.

PilotBob

 

Edited December 18, 2022 by PilotBob
Change image file

[MikeTO]

Hi Bob, I know exactly what you mean since I spent a month of my youth inserting paper updates into similar government manuals.

The only solution I can think of is a bit tedious but it may be worth it to you.

• For the headings that you include in the TOC, you would need to duplicate them for each section
• Insert multiple TOCs, one for each section, immediately after each other. For each TOC add "#-"  to the Separator field, where # is the section number you want to include in the page numbers. For each TOC, include only its own headings.

I've attached a 2-section test document that shows this setup. It works well but you'd have a mess of styles if you have a lot of sections.

toc test.afpub

[PilotBob]

MikeTO

… or I could spend the time pasting in the section numbers after the TOC has been generated. 
… or I could forget about trying to shove a square peg into a round hole and go back to any of the many other software solutions that don’t have a problem with this. 
This is such a basic function for long document software. Ordinary word processors can do this.
I have to say I’m gobsmacked that it’s still missing in version 2 of Publisher. 
Perhaps someone from Serif could weigh in on this. 

[MikeTO]

3 minutes ago, PilotBob said:

… or I could spend the time pasting in the section numbers after the TOC has been generated. 
… or I could forget about trying to shove a square peg into a round hole and go back to any of the many other software solutions that don’t have a problem with this. 
This is such a basic function for long document software. Ordinary word processors can do this.
I have to say I’m gobsmacked that it’s still missing in version 2 of Publisher. 
Perhaps someone from Serif could weigh in on this. 

The workaround I suggested would be fully automated once set up and you'd never need to think about again. Typing the section numbers into the generated TOC would require manual updates every time you update the TOC. I know which I'd prefer.

While InDesign offers page number section prefixes, this isn't a feature that people ask for regularly so I doubt it's high on the priority list. My personal priority is cross references which requires a more difficult workaround.

[PilotBob]

I took a look a your file. I see how you are doing this. You are right, it can get tedious, but I see it's possible with a bit of work. My docs often have up to 10-12 sections and 3 levels of headings, which would make the style list a nightmare, but achievable.

To make this easier, all Affinity has to do is make "section name" available as a Separator field. I wonder if they would consider it...

PB

[MikeTO]

12 hours ago, PilotBob said:

I took a look a your file. I see how you are doing this. You are right, it can get tedious, but I see it's possible with a bit of work. My docs often have up to 10-12 sections and 3 levels of headings, which would make the style list a nightmare, but achievable.

To make this easier, all Affinity has to do is make "section name" available as a Separator field. I wonder if they would consider it...

I think we need a "Section Prefix" field in the Section Manager like in InDesign, in addition to the current Section Name field. While one field would meet your needs there are others who may want to name a section "Blah Blah" and number that section's pages as 1.23 or 1-23. Section Prefix will typically be short and include punctuation while Section Name may be longer. InDesign refers to Section Name as Section Marker but that field serves the same purpose.

InDesign has a checkbox to include the prefix in the page numbers but this seems unnecessary to me. If you don't want a prefix then leave the Section Prefix field blank.