Applying identifying labels

Bates numbering is a method of applying identifying labels to a batch of related documents. Consider, for example, legal documents associated with a court case. Each page in the document (or set of documents) is assigned a bates number that uniquely identifies the page while also establishing its relationship to other bates numbered documents. A Bates number contains a sequentially incremented numeric value plus an optional prefix and suffix. The prefix + numeric + suffix is referred to as a bates pattern.

The set of documents is defined by all result blocks within the <DDX> root element. The first number in the sequence is provided by the DDX processor’s default value. The default value may be overridden by the start attribute. Any other patterns which are started without specifying a start value will begin with a default value of 1. The start value for a given pattern is set once and any further settings of the start value in subsequent BatesNumber elements in the DDX are ignored for that pattern.

The default and minimum number of digits for the numeric portion, numberOfDigits attribute, is 6. Therefore, the number 1 would appear as 000001.

The BatesNumber element may appear anywhere inside a <Header>, <Footer>, <Watermark>, <Background>, and even <TableOfContentsEntryPattern>. The numeric portion of the number is incremented only once per page, so if there are multiple uses per page, the numeric value on that page would remain unchanged.

Note: It is not recommended to place a BatesNumber within a PageContent element.

If the Header, Footer, Watermark or Background containing the same bates number pattern is applied to Package files, it remains the case that the start value is ignored and the numeric portion will continue to increment sequentially.

The following example applies an identifying label to pages within a document.

Example: Applying an identifying label to pages within a set of documents

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<DDX xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/DDX/1.0/">

	<PDF result="result1.pdf">

		<PDF source="input1.pdf"/>

		<Watermark verticalOffset="4.5in">

			<StyledText>

				<p><BatesNumber prefix="Ref ID = " start="1"/>.</p>

			</StyledText>

		</Watermark>

	</PDF>

	<PDF result="result2.pdf">

		<PDF source="input2.pdf"/>

		<Watermark verticalOffset="4.5in">

			<StyledText>

				<p><BatesNumber prefix="Ref ID = " start="1"/>.</p>

			</StyledText>

		</Watermark>

	</PDF>

</DDX>

Notice there is one bates pattern for the two result blocks so that the number sequence will carry through both results. That is, if the first document as 6 pages, the last Bates number will be 6, and the stamp will appear as Ref ID = 000006. The first page of the second document will be numbered 7, and the stamp will appear as Ref ID = 000007.