Adding pages and numbering sections in Layout by Zaweba

Page operations are the everyday housekeeping of a multi page job, and numbering sections decide what number each page shows. In Layout by Zaweba both are flexible enough for anything from a four page leaflet to a book with roman numbered front matter.

Adding, duplicating and removing pages

Insert pages lets you choose where they go (before or after a page), how many, and which parent page they use. Choosing the parent as you insert saves applying it afterwards, so a run of chapter openers or a set of plain text pages arrives ready to fill.

Duplicate spread copies a whole spread with everything on it. It's the quick way to build a series of similar spreads, such as a run of product pages that share a layout.

Pages can be moved by dragging them in the Pages panel or through a dialog, and they can be moved between documents. That's how a feature written for one issue can be lifted into another. Delete removes pages you no longer need.

Rotate spread view turns how a spread is shown on screen without changing the page itself, which helps when part of a spread is meant to be read sideways, such as a landscape table in a portrait book.

Colour labels mark pages in the Pages panel. Use them as a simple status system, perhaps one colour for pages awaiting copy, another for pages ready to proof.

Numbering sections

Sections control numbering. Each section can start numbering at any number and use a style: 1, i, I, a, A or 01. A section prefix can go before the number, and marker text can name the section.

A book is the usual example. The front matter, with title page, contents and preface, is often numbered in lower case roman numerals, i, ii, iii. The main text then starts a new section at 1 in ordinary numbers. An appendix might be a further section with its own prefix.

A magazine might use 01 style numbering to give two digit folios, or start a section at a particular number to continue from an earlier issue.

Page number fields

Fields can show the current page number, the next or previous page number, and the page count. Put the current page number on a parent page and every page gets the right folio automatically. Next and previous page numbers suit continuation lines such as "continued on page" at the foot of a story. The page count gives the total, for "page 3 of 12" on a form or report.

Numbering mistakes to avoid

Don't type page numbers by hand. They'll be wrong the moment a page is added or moved. Use the fields on the parent page.

Start sections in the right place. A section that starts one page too early shifts every number after it.

When moving pages between documents, check which parent pages come with them and whether they match the document they've arrived in.

Colour labels are only useful if everyone on the job agrees what each colour means.

With pages and sections set up carefully at the start, Layout by Zaweba keeps every number right as the document grows and changes.