How to get consecutive numbering at the end of paragraphs?

Question

In a big text some paragraphs, already styled, need a consecutive numbering.
At the beginning of the paragraph the numbering will create a mess.
Tried with fake footnotes: Impossible. The text has footnotes and converting the faked ones to text is not available.
Tried a nice script written by Jong to add/subtract a number on numbered items, but it is restricted to index situations.
O R I G I N A L                                   R E Q U I R E D
a. Many years ago.                    a. Many years ago. [1]
Lucy Smith                              Lucy Smith
b. Margaret run away.               b. Margaret run away. [2]

Answer 1

Hi, Camilo:
First of all,  I was not thinking clearly when I blamed ID for a cross-reference bug. It was my error. Cross-references within a document need to be updated by the author, using the Update cross-references button at the bottom of the Hyperlinks & Cross-References panel, when they're moved or their source content changes. I was thinking about the known issues with cross-references that go between ID document files, which update automatically - performance slows, and sometimes they cause crashes.
Here's the replacement reply for my previous post #1:
camilo umaña wrote:
In a big text some paragraphs, already styled, need a consecutive numbering.
At the beginning of the paragraph the numbering will create a mess.
Tried with fake footnotes: Impossible. The text has footnotes and converting the faked ones to text is not available.
Tried a nice script written by Jong to add/subtract a number on numbered items, but it is restricted to index situations.
O R I G I N A L                                   R E Q U I R E D
a. Many years ago.                    a. Many years ago. [1]
Lucy Smith                              Lucy Smith
b. Margaret run away.               b. Margaret run away. [2]
It's not clear if the right-hand numbers are supposed to replace the left-hand numbers while keeping the same sequence, or if you want to retain the left-hand numbers. You can use cross-references to create right-hand numbers from the paragraphs auto-numbers.
Insert a cross-reference to the paragraph at the end of the text, with a format that captures its autonumber, and adds any ornamentation, like the square brackets in your example.
If the rightmost number must be positioned at the right margin of the numbered paragraph, no matter how long or short it is, or if it wraps around to new lines, add a right-aligned tab stop to the paragraph style, positioned at the location where you want the number to appear, and insert a tab character in the paragraph before the cross-reference.
If the left hand numbers are supposed to go away, you can't change the paragraph style to a non-autonumbered style, because you need the numbers that the cross-references capture. So, you need to create a character style that's very small and uses Paper for the text color, to hide the autonumbers. If the smallest point size (IIRC, it's 2 points) leaves too much space at the left of the autonumber, you might be able to reduce it further by using a small value in the Horizontal Scale property of the Advanced Character Formats in the Character Style dialog box. Your example seems to show that the numbered paragraphs are indented, so the space occupied by the hidden autonumbers may not be a problem.
If the paragraphs are rearranged in sequence, you'll need to use the Update Cross-References button at the bottom of the Hyperlinks & Cross-References panel to update the affected cross-references.
I'm still not clear about numbers at the end of the paragraphs in square brackets. Are they supposed to be the same value as the auto-number at the beginning of the paragraph, except that they use a numeric display format instead of an alphabetic format?
I don't know of any code that can work with a find/replace action that can capture a paragraph's autonumber and display it at a specific location. As you've seen, cross-references need to be inserted manually. You might post a query in the InDesign scripting forum to see if someone has figured this out. If there's no complete solution, you might want to ask about a script that searches for the ends of paragraphs of the autonumbered paragraph style and opens the Insert Cross-Reference dialog box.
Using Quick Apply to execute the Insert Cross-References command, which opens the New Cross-References dialog box, might save some energy for doing the many manual cross-references insertions. Search Google for terms like "InDesign quick apply" without quotes. You can open Quick Apply with a keystroke shortcut - Cmd+Return on Mac. You can type abbreviated commands. I use "rt cr" without quotes for (Inse)rt cr(oss-reference). Opening Quick Apply repeats the last command that was entered.
Also, if you haven't tried a Google search for phrases like "InDesign numbered list at right end of paragraph," without quotes, give it a try. There are lots of links, including one to this forum article. Perhaps there's a golden nugget among them.
If you think it's important for ID to be able to place autonumbers at the ends of paragraphs, please post a formal feature request here: Wishform Eventually, some user originated feature requests are incorporated in future ID releases.
HTH
Regards,
Peter
Peter Gold
KnowHow ProServices