Page numbering some pages, not others

[sarrants]

We are producing training materials with Flare, with a Student and a Facilitator target. The Facilitator target will have Facilitator pages in addition to the Student pages. We'd like to not number the Facilitator pages so that the Student page numbering remains the same whether the target is Facilitator or Student. I don't want Flare's PDF output to count the Facilitator pages in either output. This makes it easier for the facilitator to have the same page numbers as the students and not be out of synch with them.
So, I'd like the pagination to be 1,2,3,4, Facilitator page, Facilitator page, 5,6, Facilitator page, 8,9...
Is it possible to do this with Flare?

Cross posted to LinkedIn

[Nita Beck]

My hunch is that this is not possible (though I could be wrong).

I had a similar design objective for a project from which I produced an instructor guide and a student guide. I realized that the instructor guide would have a lot more material so that its page flow would be different from the student material's page flow. Although I did use page numbering in the respective guides, I decided to use section numbering for headings (1.1, 1.2, 1.2.1, 1.2.2, etc.) as the "sign posts", which would be the same in both versions. Therefore, the instructor (who was me, BTW, teaching a Flare course! ) could say, "Let's look at the example in section 1.2.2", without regard to what page section 1.2.2 happened to fall on. It worked out really nicely.

[LTinker68]

There is a way to get it to work. I did a quick test, and it was successful.

1. Create a paragraph class with an auto-number format that you'll use for the student pages. For example:

Code: Select all

p.pageNumStudent
{
	mc-auto-number-format: 'GP: Page {n+}';
}

2. In your default page layout, in the footer, insert that paragraph class (you'll probably need to insert a single blank space - or non-breaking space - as the "content" of the paragraph).

3. Create a second page layout, but don't insert anything in the footer. Or at least, don't insert the page number variable. You might need to delete that variable, in fact.

4. In your TOC, on the first student topic, set it to be a page layout change and specify your default page layout. On the first facilitator topic, set it to be a page layout change and point it to the new page layout. Keep going back and forth as needed in the TOC entries to point student topics to the default layout and facilitator topics to the new page layout.

5. When you generate the student output, the p.pageNumStudent paragraph auto-number format will increment with each page, as if you were using the page number variable.

6. When you generate the facilitator output, which has student and facilitator topics, the student topics will increment page numbers throughout the output, but won't skip any numbers, even if a facilitator topic comes between two student topics, because the facilitator topic doesn't have that p.pageNumStudent tag in the page layout, so it can't increment the number in the auto-number-format field.

Voila! Page numbering of the student pages stays the same between the two outputs!

[Nita Beck]

DING DING DING DING!!! Lisa, you are the Flare queen!

Edit: You've also given me a great tip-n-trick to share at my next Flare user group meeting, with all credit to you, of course, and to Steve for posting a really interesting question.

[sarrants]

That's another advantage of Flare--the users who quickly and freely provide answers, ideas, and encouragement. Thank you, Nita and Lisa!

[rob hollinger]

Great job Lisa.. I saw this on Linked In today and wanted to see if I could get it to work.
I used "Page {Gn+} " for my numbering in the page layout and received the same results.

In the attached sample project - you will see two different numbering in the footer of the student layout.
One if the page number variable and the lower one is using a paragraph style class "student" with the auto-number set.

Sometimes a sample project can help if needed.
Download, extract, and open with Flare.

[Nita Beck]

Hey, thanks Rob! I'm going to feature Steve's question and Lisa's solution at the Sept. meeting of the Rochester Flare User Group (with credit given where due!!!). I appreciate your adding to the conversation, with an example.