Produce with External Bates Numbers
To configure a production that shall use external Bates numbers, proceed as follows:
- Look up the external Bates number field of one of the documents to be produced. Determine whether it is a page-level (prefix+page number) or document-level (prefix+document number+page number) Bates number.
- When you set up the production on the Mission Control > Production Workflows page, make sure you do these settings:
On the General tab, activate the Use External Bates Prefix check box.
On the General tab, select the suitable prefix in the External Bates Prefix field.
Tip: This prefix is taken over into the Bates Prefix field. You can change the prefix in the Bates Prefix field. The numeric part of the external Bates number will still be taken over.
On the Settings tab, select Page Level Numbering or Document Level Numbering, depending on how the external Bates numbers look like.
Note: If you do not set the correct type of numbering, production will fail. This protects the system against invalid Bates numbers. An appropriate message displays in such cases.
- If you produce documents with and without external Bates numbers, the Sort Order section of the Settings tab is only used for documents without external Bates number, i.e. for which Axcelerate 5 generates a Bates number. Sort order settings are ignored for documents with external Bates numbers, as these are always sorted by Bates number.
If you want the external Bates number to display, go to the production workflow's Layout tab and drag the Bates Number item to the preview panel.
Note: Using an external Bates number automatically removes the Bates number field from the preview panel, in order to avoid that Bates numbers are shown twice on imported images.
When starting the production, do not enter a custom start Bates number, in order to avoid unnecessary conflicts.
Production with external Bates numbers only
Production documents are always sorted by their external Bates number. Bates number ranges that are not covered by the produced documents are left empty.
If you later produce a document that has an external Bates number within such an empty range (also called Bates gap), the Bates gap is removed or reduced, and the document takes its correct place.
Tip: Administrators can view Bates gaps in CORE Administration.
Gap Report opened from the Production tab in CORE Administration
Production of documents with and without external Bates number
If some documents that you want to produce do not have an external Bates number with the prefix selected in the production configuration:
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Produce all documents that have external Bates numbers with the selected prefix.
This makes sure that there is no inconsistent numbering.
Note: If you do prematurely start producing documents that do not have an external Bates number with the given prefix, and later want to produce another document that has an external Bates number, it may happen that the Bates number is already assigned, and the production will fail.
Example
You produce documents with their own external Bates number. The last Bates number used is BAT-123. Then you produce a document without external Bates number. If you do not change the default settings, it is produced with BAT-124. If you then try to produce a document that has exactly this Bates number, production will fail.
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Produce the documents without external Bates numbers.
The first document without external Bates number that you produce is assigned the Bates number following the last external Bates number you produced. So there is no gap. You can, of course, specify another Bates number for starting, provided it is larger than the largest external Bates number.
Can I use any external Bates numbers for production?
No. Only external Bates numbers that have a prefix and a number with at least three digits can be treated correctly for production. To check this, use the External Bates Prefix Smart Filter. If it contains the desired prefix, then the Bates numbers should be good for production.
Tip: If production is not possible using the external Bates prefix and numbers, you can still add the external Bates number as a field to the production layout.
What happens if I produce documents without and with external Bates number simultaneously?
The documents with external Bates number are produced first. Then the other documents are produced. The other documents are sorted according to production configuration.
If you do not change the start Bates number, the other documents' Bates numbers follow the end bates of the last document. If you are not sure whether additional documents with external Bates numbers need to be produced, choose a high start Bates number for your production that is above all external Bates numbers with the selected prefix in your matter.
If there are gaps in an external Bates number production, can they be filled?
They can only be filled by documents that have an external Bates number covered by the gaps.
The only exception is the gap before the first external Bates number. If there is a gap, e.g., from 1 to 100, and there is no document with external Bates number that fits into the gap, then it is possible to produce documents without external Bates number, starting with Bates number 1.
Are there any other restrictions?
- External Bates numbers may have been correctly interpreted by the system, but contain other characters than those allowed in Bates numbers, i.e., a-z, A-Z, 0-9, - (dash) or _ (underscore). In those cases, the external Bates prefix cannot be used for production.
- If there are multiple documents with the same external Bates number, and they are produced in the same production, production fails.
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During production, the system checks whether the number of produced files is compatible with the imported ENDBATES number . If the number of produced image pages would exceed the imported ENDBATES number, production fails. In the Job log file, you will see this message: The number of pages in the external Bates number <number> differs from the number of found pages <number>.
Example
The administrator imported a native production. Each document has exactly one BATES number, i.e. BEGBATES and ENDBATES are identical. Production rules are set in a way that the document is produced as image. Let's say you now want to produce a document with external Bates ADD0056. Document conversion created three image pages. So an image production would require an ENDBATES of ADD0058. This conflicts with the imported ENDBATES of ADD0056. Production fails.