Add a Bates numbering header or footer

Bates numbering is a method of indexing legal documents for easy identification and retrieval. Each page of each document is assigned a unique Bates number that also indicates its relationship to other Bates-numbered documents. Bates numbers appear as headers or footers on the pages of each PDF in the batch.

Although the Bates identifier is referred to as a number, it can include an alphanumeric prefix and suffix, which can make it easier to recognize the central subject matter of the files.

Adding Bates numbering does not change the file names of the PDFs, rearrange them in desktop folders, link them, or add them to a collection in the Organizer. You can tell that Bates numbering has been added only by opening the PDF and look at the headers and footers.

Note: Bates numbering is unavailable protected or encrypted files, some forms, and applies only to the cover sheets of existing PDF packages. However, Bates numbering can be applied to individual PDFs that are then assembled into a PDF package.

Add Bates numbering

  1. In Acrobat, choose Advanced > Document Processing > Bates Numbering > Add.
  2. In the Bates Number dialog box, do any of the following: click Browse, navigate to a folder, and select the files you want to apply Bates numbers to. Repeat as needed until all the PDFs you want to include are listed.

    • To include any open PDFs, select Include All Open PDF Documents.

    • To add other PDFs, click Browse, navigate to a folder, and select the files you want to apply Bates numbers to. Repeat as needed until all the PDFs you want to include are listed.

  3. Adjust the list of PDFs, as needed:

    • To change the order in which Bates numbers will be assigned, select a PDF in the list and drag it to a different position or click Move Up or Move Down as needed.

    • To verify a PDF on the list, select it and click Preview, which opens a window in which you can see each individual page of the PDF.

    • To remove a PDF from the list, select it and click Remove.

  4. Click Next. Then, in the Add Header And Footer dialog box, click to place the cursor in the header or footer text box in which you want the Bates number to appear (such as Left Header Text or Center Footer Text).
  5. Click Insert Bates Number. Then enter the text that you want to make up the Bates numbers:

    • In Number Of Digits, specify how many digits make up the Bates number, entering any number between 6 and 15. The default number is 6, which produces Bates numbers such as 000001, 000002, and so forth.

    • In Start Number, enter the number that will be assigned to the first PDF on the list. The default number is 1.

    • In Prefix, type any text that you want to appear before the Bates number.

    • In Suffix, type any text that you want to appear after the Bates number.

      Note: For court cases involving very large numbers of pages, enter a higher value in Number Of Digits. Do not use the # character in the Prefix or Suffix text.
  6. Click OK and then make any other changes to the settings, as you would for any other header and footer.

Add more documents to a Bates numbering series

Before you begin, be sure that you know the last applied Bates number in the series.

  1. Follow the procedure described above to start the Bates numbering process, selecting the files that you want to add to the series.
  2. After you click Insert Bates Number, type the Suffix and Prefix text that matches the rest of the series, and then type the next number in the series in Start Number.
  3. When you finish changing settings in the Add Header And Footer dialog box, click OK.

Search for Bates numbered PDFs

  1. Choose Edit > Search.
  2. As the search word or phrase, type in all or part of the Bates numbering that you want to find.

    For example, if you want to find a specific document and know its Bates number, type in the complete number as the search text. If you want to find any documents in a Bates number series, type in a distinctive portion of the Bates series, such as the prefix or suffix.

  3. Under Look For Files In, click Browse (if necessary) and select the folder, computer drive, or network location that you want to search, and then click Search.

Remove Bates numbering

You can remove Bates numbering, but this also removes all the headers and footers in the PDFs.

  1. In Acrobat, choose Advanced > Document Processing > Bates Numbering > Remove.
  2. In the Bates Number dialog box, click Browse, navigate to a folder, and select PDFs. Repeat as needed until all the PDFs you want are listed, and then click Next.
  3. Click OK to remove the Bates numbering and all other headers and footers, or click Cancel and start over if you want to start over and choose different files.