Add page-level identifiers (Bates numbers) to the source documents for the June payroll file so every page is traceabl…
Open your PDF document in Adobe Acrobat.
Open the page thumbnails panel by selecting the icon for page thumbnails on the left side.
Right-click on the thumbnail of the first page in the range you want to renumber.
Select Number Pages... from the context menu.
In the dialog box, under Page Range, specify the start and end pages for your first custom range.
Under Numbering, choose the desired Style (e.g., Roman numerals for introduction pages).
Enter your desired prefix in the Prefix field (e.g., 'Intro-').
Click OK to apply the numbering to the selected range.
Repeat steps 3–8 for each additional page range, selecting the appropriate style and prefix for each.
Best practiceIf you need to match printed book conventions, use Roman numerals for front matter and Arabic numerals for the main content as recommended by publishing professionals.
You can preview your custom page labels in the thumbnails panel to confirm they display as intended before saving.
This runs in the Acrobat app - there is no separate API for this task.
| Feature | What it does | Appearance |
|---|---|---|
| Page Labels | Changes the displayed label next to the page thumbnail in the PDF. | Only visible in the PDF viewer's navigation panel. |
| Bates Numbering | Stamps unique, sequential numbers directly onto the content of each page. | Printed directly on the page content, like ink, and appears on printouts. |
Page labels are just a way to display different numbering for pages in the PDF viewer, like a nickname for a page. They are separate from the actual physical order of the pages in the document. The PDF structure keeps pages in a fixed sequence. If you want to change the order, you need to drag and drop pages in the 'Page Thumbnails' panel, not just change their labels.
When you combine reports, their original page numbers might get mixed up. To fix this, use the 'Page Labels' feature. After combining, go to 'Page Thumbnails' and select 'Page Labels'. You can then define different page numbering ranges for each report. For example, pages 1-10 could be 'Report A - 1 to 10', and pages 11-20 could be 'Report B - 1 to 10'. This makes it clear where each report begins its numbering.
PDF page labels are custom names or numbers you assign to pages in your document. They are important because many documents, like books or legal papers, don't use simple '1, 2, 3' numbering from start to finish. They might have Roman numerals for introductions, then Arabic numbers for the main content. Page labels help your PDF match these real-world page numbers, making it much easier for users to find specific content when they are told to go to 'page iii' or 'page 25'.