Reply To: Those pesky chapter numbers

Gus: I think chapter numbers only work when you have multiple documents in a book panel. You need to use File > New > Book to create a book panel. I strongly urge you to read up about how books and long documents work before you go any farther. I have a number of movies at lynda.com on this subject. If you don’t have a subscription, you can watch 7 days for free with this link: https://www.lynda.com/trial/indesignsecrets

The fact that there is a red + symbol is an indication that the text is overset, so it may simply not be fitting inside the text frame. Again, check out my Essential Training course or read a good book on InDesign for more information about overset text, long docs, and variables.