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• • November 18, 2009 at 2:19 pm #53793
    Noura H

    Member

    I am working on a Billingual book and would like to start page numbering from both ends. Is there anyway i can do that.

    It would be Latin and Arabic numbers

    so Page 1 from the english side would be

    1 – ???

    and page one from the arabic side would be

    ? – 585

    so whichever side you start from (eng or arabic) it would be page 1.

    Appreciate your help!!

  • November 18, 2009 at 2:27 pm #53794
    Eugene Tyson

    Member

    Is this going to be a flipper book (english one side, flip it over and it's Arabic the other side)?

    I always do these as two separate layouts and make separate pdfs. Supply both files to the printer and explain how you want it finished (i.e., a flipper book, best to provide a mock up if you can).

    Or is it that you want to have the arabic and english numbers as the page numbers throughout the book?

  • November 18, 2009 at 6:09 pm #53802
    Noura H

    Member

    I want to have the arabic and english page numbers throughout the book.

    The end of the Arabic section is the begnning of the english, and the end of english section is the beginning of the Arabic.

    is there any way i can do this? i have seen it done in a farsi(persian)/english book.

  • November 19, 2009 at 10:23 am #53824
    Eugene Tyson

    Member

    How do you insert the arabic numbers? How do you insert the english numbers?

  • November 19, 2009 at 12:38 pm #53825
    Adi Ravid

    Participant

    Noura H said:

    The end of the Arabic section is the begnning of the english, and the end of english section is the beginning of the Arabic.

    ---

    The main problem in what you ask for is that the Arabic section uses right-to-left layout, and the English section uses left-to-right layout, resulting in two separate numbering flows starting from the opposite sides and growing towards the middle of the book, and not two separate flows where one follows the other.

    I've done several similar projects, and the best way to achieve this is by using the ME version of InDesign to create two separate documents. One with RTL layout for the Arabic, and the other with LTR layout for the English (and if the layout of each language demands more than one file, do it in two separate Books).

    You can also use the Reverse Layout feature of the ME version to reverse the layout of one of them in order to create the other, then replace the content.

    The only other thing you need to remember is that when loaded into the imposition skeleton, the LTR layout should be loaded in reverse pages order.

  • November 19, 2009 at 4:15 pm #53834
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    Off topic for a moment… on the question of “Arabic” vs. “Latin” numbers.

    Here in the West, we usually call the digits 1, 2, 3, and so on (normal, western numbers) “Arabic numerals.” So I asked someone who knows some Arabic what they call the numbers ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?. (I have no idea if those numerals will show up in this forum!) The answer was: The numbers used in Arabic-language publications (and on license plates and so on) are not Arabic, but actually Farsi. The numbers that we use in the West are Arabic, but Arabs chose some time ago not to use them because they were Western…?

    Wikipedia indicates that these numerals are “Eastern Arabic numerals” and in another post notes that these numerals are similar but not identical to Persian.

    Hm. I think the only solution is to switch back to roman numerals for everything…

  • November 19, 2009 at 4:53 pm #53837
    Eugene Tyson

    Member

    You could insert them manually though, right? *cold shivers running through me*.

    But you could. I had some books typeset in India. They just deleted all the automatic running heads I had set up and manually typed them in. I know they didn't convert them from variables, as there were spelling mistakes in some of them.

    Anyway it can be done, just not automatically – my two cents anyway.

  • November 19, 2009 at 6:14 pm #53839
    Adi Ravid

    Participant

    David Blatner said:

    The numbers used in Arabic-language publications (and on license plates and so on) are not Arabic, but actually Farsi.

    ---

    Well, actually, the numbers used by the Arabic language are the “Hindi” numerals, and not the “Farsi”, which are the numerals used by Persian. The difference is only in 3 digits (4, 5 and 6).

    hank_scorpio said:

    How do you insert the arabic numbers?… You could insert them manually though, right?

    ---

    No need to add them manually.

    Hindi and Farsi numerals are fully supported by the ME version for all types of automatic numbering features (numbered lists, page numbering…). All you need is to set the numbering to use an Arabic font, and set the language dictionary to Arabic or Farsi.

    The ME version can also force the use Arabic, Hindi or Farsi numerals via a special Digits submenu.

  • November 19, 2009 at 9:27 pm #53841
    Theunis De Jong

    Member

    hank_scorpio said:

    How do you insert the arabic numbers?… You could insert them manually though, right?

    Adi said:

    No need to add them manually.

    Yah, but that wouldn't work in combination with regular (pardon the expression) numbers going the opposite way, would it?

    I'd do it by hand for up to a handful of pages, but for >500, I'd write a script. Scripts are great at counting numbers.

    [OT]:

    hank said:

    I had some books typeset in India. They just deleted all the automatic running heads I had set up and manually typed them in.

    A similar experience here — footnotes, created by hand the old fashioned way: separate frames, a line, main text frame shortened by hand … and all of that with InDesign CS3…

  • November 20, 2009 at 7:28 am #53849
    Adi Ravid

    Participant

    Jongware said:

    Yah, but that wouldn't work in combination with regular (pardon the expression) numbers going the opposite way, would it?

    ---

    If by combination you refer to full book, back-to-back, opposite numbering, I agree.

    This can be scripted, but it can also be done manually by streaming a list of numbers (with a para break between them) into a frame located in the master page.

  • November 20, 2009 at 5:19 pm #53863
    Kai Rübsamen

    Member

    I´m not sure if I understand the problem, but for me the easiest way is to start with the auto numbers on masterpage a for the “normal numbering”and for the other numbering you can use masterpage b with a empty textframe placeholder.

    Then create a excel-file with only the numbers in reverse order and insert the file on a normal doc page with shift click. If the number of pages changes you need only to update your excel file.

    rübi

  • April 8, 2017 at 10:53 pm #93617
    Krishna Swamy

    Member

    reverse page numbering could be easy task only thing you need excel file with the reverse order can be normal usage type only, update for a latest version your problem will be solved.

  • September 7, 2017 at 11:54 am #97835
    David Langley

    Member

    Did anyone solve the issue?

  • September 6, 2019 at 6:47 am #14324165
    Tvrtko Molnar

    Member

    The best way (for now) to make reverse page numbering for a flipper book is to have 2 ind. files. Export them both to pdf, than extract pages from second file as a seperate pages. Than use acrobat’s combine files option to put those extracted pages in first pdf file (select from last to first). Select the inserted pages and just rotate them to get a flipper book.

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