How to Make Your Traveller PDF Page Numbers Match in Adobe

[Yenaldlooshi]

If you are like me, it drives you up the wall that the printed page number does not match the Adobe page number in your Traveller PDF's. I love to reference pages in my notes and navigate directly to pages by their number. Here is how I have been able to slightly modify all my Traveller PDF's to match the printed page.

The catch? You need Adobe Pro to make it work... at least I think you do. I have not tried it with Reader but I assume you can't with just Reader. Other PDF editor mileage may vary but the principle is the same.

You can do this by editing the cover page to be page "i" thus making all the pages after match the printed page numbers. At least this has worked so far on all the Mongoose Traveller PDF's I have tried it on.

This is a two minute operation, btw. Real easy.

Here is how I do it in Adobe Pro:

1) Click "Edit" on the menu bar
2) Wait for it to fully open (can take a few seconds)
3) click "Organize Pages" in the left pane
4) Select the first page (AND ONLY the first page) note: if you were already on page one, then it is already selected
5) Right click on page one and go to "Page Labels..."
6) Verify that "Selected" is checked for Pages
7) Under "Begin New Section" Change the Style to "i, ii, iii, ..."
8) Verify Prefix is blank and Start is set to "1"
9) Click Ok
10) Close the file and save changes when it prompts
11) Reopen the file


The cover page should be now page "i" and the contents page "1". This should make all the other pages match the printed page number.

Now, question for the PDF Authors: is there any reason you can think of why you cannot make this post obsolete?

 

[Neo-Otyugh]

I second this! When rolling up a new group of players over zoom etc. (the most common use case at this point?), being able to say "go to page 23 and look at the service skills section" without having to remember who is one page ahead and who is one page behind x 5 players (in an already dense process) seems quite worthy.

 

[MaxTac Transfer]

AFAIK the numbers are off by one. So I always found it easy to adjust. Or just tell the players (none of mine uses physical books) to use the Adobe page count and go to page box

 

[CordwainerFish]

AFAIK the numbers are off by one. So I always found it easy to adjust. Or just tell the players (none of mine uses physical books) to use the Adobe page count and go to page box

Sure yeah, but making them right at the source is just one of those little touches that show a publisher really cares.

 

[Yenaldlooshi]

AFAIK the numbers are off by one. So I always found it easy to adjust. Or just tell the players (none of mine uses physical books) to use the Adobe page count and go to page box

Yes, the numbers are off by one. This is how to take 2 secs and fix that. Also, even with all digital players, even after you showed them how to go directly to a page in adobe, when you tell them to page 25, some will go to Adobe page 25 and some will go to book page 24 which is the Adobe's 25. It is easy to adjust.... over and over and over... so I just adjust it once and be done.

 

[apastuszak]

I found a way to do it for free using a python script. It's pretty geeky. If you want me to post how I did it, let me know.

 

[MaxTac Transfer]

Yes, the numbers are off by one. This is how to take 2 secs and fix that. Also, even with all digital players, even after you showed them how to go directly to a page in adobe, when you tell them to page 25, some will go to Adobe page 25 and some will go to book page 24 which is the Adobe's 25. It is easy to adjust.... over and over and over... so I just adjust it once and be done.

I admit I never had that problem with my players. Even the non IT persons just get the "klick in the box, enter the number I tell you" drill on the first try. That includes a 50+ year old librarian who still grumbles over "no physical books" after years of only using PDFs.

 

[apastuszak]

This is a correctible problem on Mongoose's end. According to the PDF metadata, they're using Adobe InDesign, which supports sections and page labels per section. You set this up properly, and when you export to PDF, the PDF will get proper page numbers.

The problem here is that the cover is page 1. I mentioned this to another publisher with a similar issue, and their solution to me was to delete the cover from the PDF file before I stick it on my iPad.

Though that is a solution, it's not the proper solution. Especially when a lot of other publishers can "get it right" with their PDFs.

I have some other PDFs where the file labels the cover as "cover", and the material before Page 1, is i, ii, iii, eyc. And Page 1 is actually the first page after the table of contents. I kind of like that.

I think the problem here is that Mongoose (and other publishers) are not using page numbering properly in InDesign. So, the exported PDF just has no page labels at all and defaults to the cover being page 1 and everything after that just getting sequentially numbered.

 

[apastuszak]

I think the "gold standard" of PDF books would be a combination of what Pinnacle Entertainment Group and R. Talsorian Games do. Pinnacle uses layers in their PDF, so you can turn off things like page backgrounds.

And RTG hyperlinks the **** out of their PDFs. Every line in the TOC has a link to the page it tells you to go to. And if there is any text telling you to go to a certain page to see a rule, that text is a hyperlink to that page.