Numbering that stays honest
Every number comes from the page’s real position in the source document, not
from its rank among the pages you selected. Stamp only the odd pages and page 5 is
still ABC-000005 and still reads “Page 5 of 35”. The sequence
has a gap, which is the truth, rather than being quietly compressed into
ABC-000003.
That matters because a Bates number is a citation. A number that changes depending on
which subset happened to be stamped is not an identifier, and a tool that renumbers
silently will eventually cost someone an afternoon.
Reuse the scheme across a matter
A numbering scheme is usually stable for an entire matter — same prefix, same
digit count, same legend. Save it by name and load it on the next batch; only the
starting number changes. Saved schemes keep the prefix, digits, suffix, legend, date
and page-number formats, the order of the elements and all the styling. They do not
keep your document, so the same scheme works across files.
Where this stops
If you run productions for a living you will hit the edges quickly, and it is better
to hear it here than after loading a document.
- One file at a time. There is no batch mode and no folder
processing. A production spanning fifty files is fifty passes.
- No load file. No DAT, OPT or CSV export, so nothing to hand a
review platform.
- No OCR. It stamps a scanned page happily, but it does not read
it, index it, or make it searchable.
- No endorsements beyond the stamp itself — no slip sheets, no
privilege log, no redaction.
For a small production, a set of exhibits, or numbering a document before it goes out,
this is enough and costs nothing. For a serious eDiscovery workflow it is not a
substitute for the platform you already run.
If you want the background rather than the tool,
what Bates numbering is and how to apply it covers
the convention, the format and the step-by-step.
