Autonumbering is a feature where content is numbered automatically. It is often used to place numbers on headings, chapter titles, table captions, image captions, and so on.
You might use autonumbers in new documents that you create, or you might see autonumbers in templates or topics sent to you by Flare authors.
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Why Would I Want to Use Autonumbers?
Following are just a few reasons for using autonumbering. For samples of formats that you might use for these purposes, see Autonumber Format Examples.
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Paragraphs You can apply autonumbering to different levels of paragraphs.
Example You might specify that the first-level paragraphs contain number formats such as 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, and so on. Maybe your second level paragraphs would be formatted as 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2.1, 2.2, and so on. And finally, the third level paragraphs might be formatted as 1.1.1, 1.1.2, 1.2.1, 1.2.2, 1.2.3, and so on.
- Figure Captions Perhaps you have inserted multiple images, with a caption under each image. If you want the captions for each chapter to be numbered (e.g., "Image1-1," "Image 1-2," "Image 1-3," "Image 2-1," "Image 2-2"), you can apply autonumber formats to that content. If you insert a new figure caption with that format between existing captions, Contributor will renumber them automatically.
- Table Headings Another way to make use of autonumbering is to apply them to headings for tables (e.g., Table 1, Table 2, Table 3).
- Page Numbering You can easily include page numbers in content for print-based output without creating autonumber formats. However, if you want to incorporate volume, chapter, or section numbers into your pages numbers, you can so by using autonumber formats.
- Lists As an alternative to using Contributor's quick list drop-down options, you can use autonumbering to create numbered lists for purposes such as step-by-step procedures or outlines.
- And More… If you can apply a paragraph style to it, you can include autonumbering in it.
Steps for Using Autonumbers
Whatever you are trying to accomplish when it comes to autonumbers, there are two basic tasks that you may complete.
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Create Autonumber Formats First, you need to specify what a particular autonumber will include and what it will look like.
Example If you are creating a format to use with figure captions, you might specify the format to display the word "Figure" followed by the chapter number, a dash, and an incremented number. You also might want this format to appear in bold font. Finally, you might use a float option so that the autonumber is positioned to the left of the page layout frame where the relevant paragraph occurs.
You can create autonumber formats for styles (which you can easily reuse) or directly for a specific paragraph.
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Apply Styles with Autonumber Formats to Content After the autonumber format is created using the style method, you need to indicate where it should be displayed in your content.
Example If you plan to use an autonumber format for figure captions, you apply the style using that particular format to the appropriate locations in your topics.
If you used the paragraph format method, the autonumber format was already applied to the paragraph at the same time that you created the format.
Autonumber Formats and Commands
When you incorporate autonumbering into content, you do so by creating an autonumbering format, which consists of one or more commands. Some examples of commands are: CH:, {n+}, {chapnum}, {b}, and {/b}. In addition, you can add text next to commands.
Example You want to apply autonumbering to figure captions. Furthermore, let's say you want the beginning of each caption to contain the word "Figure" followed by the chapter number, a dash, and the next incremented number (e.g., Figure 1-5, Figure 1-6, Figure 1-7). To accomplish this, you might create an autonumbering format that looks like this: CH:Figure {chapnum}-{n+}.
The different kinds of commands available include: autonumber commands, file commands, format commands, page commands, and text commands.
Autonumber Commands
These include commands such as chapter, section, and volume numbers; counters; and series labels.
- Chapter, Section, and Volume Number Commands Commands such as ({chapnum}, {secnum}, {volnum}) let you organize your output into different areas and apply number sequences to them (e.g., Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3).
- Counters These are commands (such as {n}, {n=1}, {n+}, {r}, {A}, and {Gn}) that provide information about what types of numbers should be used and how they should be incremented.
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Series Labels These are prefixes to a format (composed of one or two letters and a colon) that provide a way to limit numbering sequences for different purposes.
Example If you are creating autonumbers for procedures and figure captions in the same content flow, you do not want them to use the same numbering sequence. Otherwise, you might have something like:
Step 1.
Step 2.
Step 3.
Figure 4.
Figure 5.
Figure 6.
When what you really want is:
Step 1.
Step 2.
Step 3.
Figure 1.
Figure 2.
Figure 3.
To keep something like this from happening, you can add series labels to the format (e.g., start the step format with S: and start the figure format with F:).
Although Contributor includes H: in the list of available commands, that is simply one example of a series label. The letter that you use as a series label is arbitrary. You can replace H and choose any letter of the alphabet, followed by a colon. The exception to this is a two-letter series label, in which the first letter represents a series that encompasses more than just one topic. For example, CH is an example of a series label that applies across an entire chapter. The H can be replaced with another letter, but you must keep the C in order to use this command. Finally, it's important to note that a series label must always be the first element in an autonumber format.
These include commands that let you incorporate different parts of a file (such as the file name, file path, and file extension) in an autonumber format.
Format Commands
These include commands such as {b}, {i}, {color red}, and {size 12pt}, which let you determine how an autonumber format will look. Many of these commands require a beginning command (e.g., {b}) and an ending command (e.g., {/b}).
Page Commands
These are commands that let you include the page number and page count into an autonumber format.
Text Commands
This includes a command that lets you incorporate the title of a document into the autonumber format.
Autonumber Format Examples
For more information see Autonumber Format Examples.