Add and Modify PDF Page Numbers with Enfocus PitStop Pro

Enfocus PitStop Pro offers a huge toolkit for editing and improving PDF files before they go to production. Being able to add PDF page numbers with Enfocus PitStop Pro – or modifying them – is one of PitStop Pro’s many time-saving features.

In this tutorial, we’ll look at how to add and modify PDF page numbers with PitStop Pro using the Global Change palette and a few tricks that may not be intuitive to users just starting out with PitStop Pro.

Feel free to post questions in the comments section.

Requirements: You’ll need Adobe® Acrobat Pro® with Enfocus PitStop Pro installed (you can download the latest version of PitStop here).

---

Scenario 1: The designer forgot to add page numbers to the PDF. You now need to add them before output.

Video: How to add page numbers to a PDF file with PitStop Pro

Add PDF Page Numbers with PitStop Pro (Written Version)

Open your PDF in Acrobat and let’s get started.

The first step – and this is counter-intuitive to many users – is to create a page number manually on the first page of your document for PitStop to grab as the text sample. Here’s how:

• Click on Tools in the Acrobat toolbar then click on PitStop Edit.
• Activate the Edit Text Line tool (it looks like an ‘A’).
• Click on page one of your document where you’d like the page number to appear.
• Type a ‘1’. You can modify the font and other properties of this text by opening the Enfocus Inspector (second button under PitStop Inspect tools).
• Make sure your text is selected. The best way to do this it to click on the Select Object tool and click on your ‘1’ – it should show selection handles now.

With your ‘1’ positioned and selected, we’re not ready to automate the adding of page numbers with PitStop Pro. Follow these steps:

• In the side toolbar, click on PitStop Process  then the second button, Global Changes, to open the Global Changes panel.
• In Global Changes, select: Standard>Add then double click on Add Page Numbers.
• The Enfocus Global Change Editor – Add Page Numbers panel should now open. In this panel do the following:
  • Click on the eye-dropper and choose Grab Page Number Text.
  • Skip to First Added Page Number is… and enter ‘1’ or whatever number you’d like your sequence of page numbers to start with.
  • Align the text, Centered.
  • Ignore the other options for now and press Save. The panel will close.

We’re now ready to add page numbers. At the bottom of the Global Changes panel there are options to “Run on:” Normally you’d want Complete Document, but if you only want to add page numbers on a range of pages, choose the options you need – they’re fairly intuitive.

Under Show Results you can choose whether to get a report for the changes we’re about to make – or not.

Now add the page numbers: Press the big green Run button!

And that’s it. Hopefully your document will now have page numbers running in sequence across the pages of your document.

Note: if you’re not happy with the results, don’t panic. Go to the Acrobat menu Edit>Enfocus Undo Execute Global Change. Selecting this will remove any page numbers that were added in the last step.

---

Scenario 2: The designer added page numbers to the PDF and they’re all wrong for output! Now you need to change them.

Video: How to modify page numbers in a PDF file with Enfocus PitStop Pro

How to modify page numbers in a PDF file with Enfocus PitStop Pro (Written Version)

The process is very similar to what we did above. The main difference is that instead of adding your own page number, you select an existing page number on your PDF file using the Select Object tool. Then open the Add Page Numbers panel like you did above. The only difference is the options you’ll select. Let’s walk through them:

• Make sure your existing text number is selected. The best way to do this is with the Select Object tool. Selected text will show selection handles.
• In the side toolbar, click on PitStop Process  then the second button, Global Changes, to open the Global Changes panel.
• In Global Changes, select: Standard>Add then double click on Add Page Numbers.
• The Enfocus Global Change Editor – Add Page Numbers panel should now open. In this panel do the following to replace existing page numbers:

---

Conclusion

Enfocus PitStop Pro makes adding and modifying PDF page numbers simple and fast, and removes the need to go back to the designer to rework the PDF files. If you have a large volume of PDF files to process, consider automating page numbering with Enfocus PitStop Server.

Questions? Join the conversation in the Comments feed below or drop us a line about Training in Enfocus PitStop Pro.

---

Oops! We could not locate your form.

Coming up Next

In our next tutorial in this series, we’ll be showing you how to use Add Variable Text… to add page numbers to more complex PDF files such as documents with a cover require section numbering.

---

[ ignore: PDF-test-2015-01-20]