I don’t like those outside copy service reps. In my book, they rank about half a rung above used car salesmen. They dress too well for copy guys, their hair is too slick, and they bring us way too many free cupcakes, keychains, and letter openers. Where do they get the money for all that, anyway?

So imagine my delight when I discovered that, for my small Bates numbering jobs, I can do the numbering myself using Adobe Acrobat Standard. This tip applies to Acrobat 7; I’m not sure if it will work with older versions, but it probably works with version 8.

First, of course, you need your pages in PDF form. Open the PDF in Acrobat, then:

On the menu bar, click Document
Select Add Headers & Footers. A dialogue box opens.
Click on the Footer tab

With cursor in either left, right, or center box (depending on where you want the page numbering), use the Insert Page Number dropdown box to choose a number style, then click Insert. A page number appears inside double arrow brackets. Click in the space outside the left brackets and type any required prefix (followed by a space or hyphen, if desired). In this same dialogue box, you can change font size or beginning page number.

Click OK.

This method works for any project where you need numbered pages but don’t have the document in an editable form. You’re only limited by the quality and speed of your printer, and the time you have available to devote to printing.

Page numbering in Acrobat is especially nice if your court requires the exhibits to a brief to be submitted as an appendix with numbered pages.

NOTE: Acrobat 7 doesn’t understand leading zeroes. If you need leading zeroes before your page numbers, you must insert them outside the brackets, as shown in the example. Of course, this means that, if your Bates numbering job happens to be big enough, you’ll have to extract a second set of pages into a separate file, in order to delete one of those leading zeroes and keep a consistent number of digits. But hey, if the job is that big, maybe it is time to call in your favorite smartly-dressed copy guy.

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