Bates numbering
What Bates numbering actually does
Bates numbering is not page numbering with a prefix in front of it. Its job is to give every page in a production a unique identifier that survives being copied, split, merged into an exhibit and cited in a deposition three months later, which is why the number is fixed width, why it carries a party or matter prefix, and why the range matters as much as the numbers. A production log records that a document occupies ABC-000412 through ABC-000487; a reader who is handed page ABC-000455 can find it. That is why this page reports the first and last identifier it wrote rather than only telling you it finished. The width is a control because a production that starts at four digits and runs past ten thousand has a sorting problem for the rest of its life, and the start is a control because the next document in a production begins where the last one ended. Placement defaults to the bottom right corner, which is the convention, and can be moved when a document already has something there. The stamp is drawn over the existing content rather than in a reserved band, so pages are checked here before the file goes out. Nothing is uploaded, which for material under a protective order is the point.
How to use it
- Choose the PDF. It is opened and stamped in this tab and no part of it is transmitted.
- Set the prefix, for example a matter code and a hyphen.
- Set the first number and the digit width. The width is padded with zeros, so a width of six writes 000412.
- Choose the corner and the point size.
- Read the range the page reports, check a page or two in the board, and download.
Useful for
- Stamp a production set before it goes to opposing counsel, and record the range in the production log.
- Continue a numbering run into the next document by starting where the previous one ended.
- Number an internal review set so that comments can cite a page rather than a position in a file.
- Keep the whole operation off any server, which a protective order may require.
Limits worth knowing
- One number per page, in Helvetica, with no confidentiality legend beside it. A legend on the same line is a separate stamp.
- The number is drawn over existing content. There is no page shift or band reservation to make room for it.
- Numbering across several documents in one run is not offered here; each file is stamped on its own, continuing from the start value you carry over.
- The stamp is page content afterwards, not metadata and not an annotation, so it cannot be removed by turning a layer off. That is the intent.
- Pages past the fortieth are stamped and downloaded but not drawn in the board.
Questions people ask
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