How to NOT increment page numbers in PDF?

[Phlawm53]

For Flare 7.1, Windows 7 64-bit, PDF target.

I want to insert topics into a PDF target so that the inserted pages do NOT increment the document's page numbers.

More specifically, I'm inserting "Notes for Trainers" into a User Guide. Because the trainer will use the User Guide as the framework for training, I want the training notes' pages to NOT increment the document's page numbers: This will make page numbering in the user-facing U'Guide and the Training Guide identical, thus enabling the trainer to refer the trainee to particular page numbers.

I realize that not incrementing Section / Volume / Chapter numbering is easy: In the TOC, select Properties, then in the Auto-numbers tab click "Same as previous" for those entities. Alas, there's no equivalent "Same as previous" control for page numbering(?)

So, does anyone happen to know a simple way to not increment page numbers in a given topic? (Note that the Training topics may sometimes be more than one-page in length, if that matters…)

Cheers & thanks for your help,
Riley

[lacastle]

You could use a different page layout for the trainer pages that wouldn't include a page number, but i'm not sure if that would change the subsequent page numbers.

[Andrew]

You could use a different page layout for the trainer pages that wouldn't include a page number, but i'm not sure if that would change the subsequent page numbers.

I'm pretty sure that would have no effect on the page numbers.

I don't know a way to do this (beyond making several separate PDFs and merging them in Acrobat, which actually isn't that difficult, just a bit time-consuming). Sorry!

[LTinker68]

You can specify the page numbers in the TOC Properties screen. You'd have to set the topic to be the start of a new chapter, but you can select the same page layout as the previous topic, then reset the page number to whatever you want it to be. So long as you're not using the page count variable anywhere, you don't have to worry about the total number of pages not matching the displayed page number. You do have to be careful, of course, to make sure that your page numbering is accurate. So if a topic is set to start as page 20 and you insert a new topic in front of it, you'll need to change the page number 20 to 25, for example. So it's a somewhat manual process and much more prone to error, but it is doable.

[Phlawm53]

Thanks to all for your ideas.

I tried creating a separate page layout that did not include a page number variable, but when it was included in the PDF target the page numbers did increment.

Although there appears to be no straightforward way to not increment page numbers, at least I know I wasn't overlooking something "easy".

I'll put in an enhancement request just for the heck of it.

Cheers & thanks 'gain,
Riley
SFO

[LTinker68]

I tried creating a separate page layout that did not include a page number variable, but when it was included in the PDF target the page numbers did increment.

If you don't override the page number via the TOC properties as I described, then yes, it would increment even if the page number variable wasn't included in the page layout.