Opening "Number Pages" dialog from Thumbnails pane doesn't reflect the end of the selected range

[rakunavi]

Hello all,

When a page range is selected in the thumbnail pane and "Number Pages" under "More for Pages" on Options menu or right-click menu is selected, only the first page in the range is reflected, not the last page in the range. Considering that this function is in the "Page Details" menu, and that other functions in the "More for Pages" menu (e.g., Duplicate Pages, Resize Pages, etc.) have the pages in the selected range pre-selected when the dialog opens, it seems to be a bug or planned but unimplemented.

Also, I mentioned above that the first page in the range is reflected, but it is not reflected unless the "Add New range..." button is pressed. For the end page in the range, you have to set it manually. I think many users expect the same behavior as in Acrobat, i.e., that the target page range is already selected when the dialog opens without having to do anything.

A brief verification video is attached so that you could see the details. The video shows selecting pages 11 through 20 in the thumbnail pane and attempting to change the page numbers so that they are alphabetically numbered A through J. The same operation is performed in PDF-XChange Editor and Acrobat, but the intended result is not achieved in PDF-XChange Editor because the end of the page selection is not specified.

• CapturedVideo.zip

Hoping that the above information will be of some help to you.
Thank you so much for your continued support.

Best regards,
rakunavi

- PDF-XChange Editor Plus Version: 9.4 build 364.0
- OS Version: Windows 11 Home 22H2 Build 22621.674
- PC Model: Lenovo IdeaPad C340-15IWL, HP All-in-One 22-c0xx

[PHK]

This is the way Page Numbering has always worked and, I suppose, is as intended.

If you want to limit a range (i. e., not open-ended), you need to start a new range immediately after the range you are trying to limit.

In your video example, you would start a new range at page #21.

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello all,

PHK is correct here, this is the intent, Page ranges are not defined with an "end" page by design, as in the vast majority of use cases, this would result in additional steps being necessary. I am afraid that you will need to do as PHK has suggested, and simply create a new page range 1 page after the end of your desired range, and define its page labels manually.

Kind regards,

[rakunavi]

Hi PHK, thank you for your comment.

It was just as you said. As for the single page naming scheme you have posted in the following topic, it would be useful to have four
fewer steps required if the end of page selection is reflected, but it seems difficult to change if there is a strong design policy in place.

• Feature Request: Name Single Page
  https://forum.pdf-xchange.com/viewtopic.php?t=39480

PDF-XCE Method

1. Open the page number dialog
2. Press the Add New Range button or double-click on the bar
3. Press OK button
4. Press the Add New Range button or double-click on the bar
5. Press OK button
6. Select "None" from Style
7. Enter a prefix
8. Press OK button

Acrobat Method

1. Select a page from the thumbnails and open the page number dialog
2. Select "None" from Style
3. Enter a prefix
4. Press OK button

I believe that reducing the number of steps required is not only convenient, but also beneficial because it increases the likelihood that the user will be naturally guided to the intended operation.

Best regards,
rakunavi

[rakunavi]

Hi Daniel, thank you for your comment.

Since both the thumbnail pane menu "More for Pages" and the online help used the plural "pages", I assumed that the end of the page selection was reflected. I was surprised and learned a lot. I think this is an important difference from Acrobat, so it would be good to know for users who use both software together.

Page ranges are not defined with an "end" page by design, as in the vast majority of use cases, this would result in additional steps being necessary.

The following is an example of how the Acrobat method of page range selection works effectively. The current build unintentionally sets page number boundaries in the target document if page numbers are set in either the source or target document, as reported in the following topic.

• Since build 362, dragging a page with a modified page style between Thumbnails pane adds a new page range.
  https://forum.pdf-xchange.com/viewtopic.php?p=162971

In general, most books in the world should be numbered in the following order. Repeating the process of adding pages into body text multiple times will result in a large number of unintended page boundaries.

1. Blank
2. Table of Contents (Roman numerals)
3. Body text (Arabic numerals)
4. References (Roman numerals)
5. Blank

PDF-XCE has no choice but to choose between the following two methods

• manually remove page numbering boundaries that were added to the body text
• Once remove all page numbering boundaries and reassign

With Acrobat, however, to efficiently remove these unintended page boundaries, you only need to select the pages in the body text and reassign them. Even though the boundaries are caused by a temporary bug in PDF-XCE, the page numbers can be efficiently re-numbered thanks to Acrobat's feature in such cases. The current PDF-XCE requires removing settings one by one, which is extremely tedious.

If the Number Pages dialog is opened from the Organize tab, it is best to leave the current behavior of PDF-XCE as it is. On the other hand, if the dialog was opened after selecting a page from the Thumbnails pane, it would be best to respect the user's intent to select a page and, as in Acrobat, remove all existing page boundaries within the page range and suggest the page number boundaries as default values before and after the range. I highly appreciate the usability of the Number pages dialog in PDF-XCE, but it would be even better if it reflected range selection in the Thumbnails pane.

I am fully aware that you would have a strong design policy and that what I have stated above will not be reflected in it, but I am writing this as a wish of one user.

Best regards,
rakunavi

[PHK]

...
I believe that reducing the number of steps required is not only convenient, but also beneficial because it increases the likelihood that the user will be naturally guided to the intended operation....

I think we're on the same "page" on that one.

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello,

Thank you both for the support of these changes for consideration. While I cannot make any promises, I can assure you that the page range functions are being looked at currently and will be seeing some updates in the next few releases. Alas, I cannot say for certain how things will change as of yet.

Kind regards,