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Add headers, footers, and Bates numbering to PDFs

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  1. Acrobat User Guide
  2. Introduction to Acrobat
    1. Access Acrobat from desktop, mobile, web
    2. Introducing the new Acrobat experience
    3. What's new in Acrobat
    4. Keyboard shortcuts
    5. System Requirements
  3. Workspace
    1. Workspace basics
    2. Opening and viewing PDFs
      1. Opening PDFs
      2. Navigating PDF pages
      3. Viewing PDF preferences
      4. Adjusting PDF views
      5. Enable thumbnail preview of PDFs
      6. Display PDF in browser
    3. Working with online storage accounts
      1. Access files from Box
      2. Access files from Dropbox
      3. Access files from OneDrive
      4. Access files from SharePoint
      5. Access files from Google Drive
    4. Acrobat and macOS
    5. Acrobat notifications
    6. Grids, guides, and measurements in PDFs
    7. Asian, Cyrillic, and right-to-left text in PDFs
  4. Creating PDFs
    1. Overview of PDF creation
    2. Create PDFs with Acrobat
    3. Create PDFs with PDFMaker
    4. Using the Adobe PDF printer
    5. Converting web pages to PDF
    6. Creating PDFs with Acrobat Distiller
    7. Adobe PDF conversion settings
    8. PDF fonts
  5. Editing PDFs
    1. Edit text in PDFs
    2. Edit images or objects in a PDF
    3. Rotate, move, delete, and renumber PDF pages
    4. Edit scanned PDFs
    5. Enhance document photos captured using a mobile camera
    6. Optimizing PDFs
    7. PDF properties and metadata
    8. Links and attachments in PDFs
    9. PDF layers
    10. Page thumbnails and bookmarks in PDFs
    11. PDFs converted to web pages
    12. Setting up PDFs for a presentation
    13. PDF articles
    14. Geospatial PDFs
    15. Applying actions and scripts to PDFs
    16. Change the default font for adding text
    17. Delete pages from a PDF
  6. Scan and OCR
    1. Scan documents to PDF
    2. Enhance document photos
    3. Troubleshoot scanner issues when scanning using Acrobat
  7. Forms
    1. PDF forms basics
    2. Create a form from scratch in Acrobat
    3. Create and distribute PDF forms
    4. Fill in PDF forms
    5. PDF form field properties
    6. Fill and sign PDF forms
    7. Setting action buttons in PDF forms
    8. Publishing interactive PDF web forms
    9. PDF form field basics
    10. PDF barcode form fields
    11. Collect and manage PDF form data
    12. About forms tracker
    13. PDF forms help
    14. Send PDF forms to recipients using email or an internal server
  8. Combining files
    1. Combine or merge files into single PDF
    2. Rotate, move, delete, and renumber PDF pages
    3. Add headers, footers, and Bates numbering to PDFs
    4. Crop PDF pages
    5. Add watermarks to PDFs
    6. Add backgrounds to PDFs
    7. Working with component files in a PDF Portfolio
    8. Publish and share PDF Portfolios
    9. Overview of PDF Portfolios
    10. Create and customize PDF Portfolios
  9. Sharing, reviews, and commenting
    1. Share and track PDFs online
    2. Mark up text with edits
    3. Preparing for a PDF review
    4. Starting a PDF review
    5. Hosting shared reviews on SharePoint or Office 365 sites
    6. Participating in a PDF review
    7. Add comments to PDFs
    8. Adding a stamp to a PDF
    9. Approval workflows
    10. Managing comments | view, reply, print
    11. Importing and exporting comments
    12. Tracking and managing PDF reviews
  10. Saving and exporting PDFs
    1. Saving PDFs
    2. Convert PDF to Word
    3. Convert PDF to PPTX
    4. Convert PDF to XLSX or XML
    5. Convert PDF to JPG
    6. Convert PDF to PNG
    7. Convert or export PDFs to other file formats
    8. File format options for PDF export
    9. Reusing PDF content
  11. Security
    1. Enhanced security setting for PDFs
    2. Securing PDFs with passwords
    3. Manage Digital IDs
    4. Securing PDFs with certificates
    5. Opening secured PDFs
    6. Removing sensitive content from PDFs
    7. Setting up security policies for PDFs
    8. Choosing a security method for PDFs
    9. Security warnings when a PDF opens
    10. Securing PDFs with Adobe Experience Manager
    11. Protected View feature for PDFs
    12. Overview of security in Acrobat and PDFs
    13. JavaScripts in PDFs as a security risk
    14. Attachments as security risks
    15. Allow or block links in PDFs
  12. Electronic signatures
    1. Sign PDF documents
    2. Capture your signature on mobile and use it everywhere
    3. Send documents for e-signatures
    4. Create a web form
    5. Request e-signatures in bulk
    6. Collect online payments
    7. Brand your account
    8. About certificate signatures
    9. Certificate-based signatures
    10. Validating digital signatures
    11. Adobe Approved Trust List
    12. Manage trusted identities
  13. Printing
    1. Basic PDF printing tasks
    2. Print Booklets and PDF Portfolios
    3. Advanced PDF print settings
    4. Print to PDF
    5. Printing color PDFs (Acrobat Pro)
    6. Printing PDFs in custom sizes
  14. Accessibility, tags, and reflow
    1. Create and verify PDF accessibility
    2. Accessibility features in PDFs
    3. Reading Order tool for PDFs
    4. Reading PDFs with reflow and accessibility features
    5. Edit document structure with the Content and Tags panels
    6. Creating accessible PDFs
    7. Cloud-based auto-tagging
  15. Searching and indexing
    1. Creating PDF indexes
    2. Searching PDFs
  16. Multimedia and 3D models
    1. Add audio, video, and interactive objects to PDFs
    2. Adding 3D models to PDFs (Acrobat Pro)
    3. Displaying 3D models in PDFs
    4. Interacting with 3D models
    5. Measuring 3D objects in PDFs
    6. Setting 3D views in PDFs
    7. Enable 3D content in PDF
    8. Adding multimedia to PDFs
    9. Commenting on 3D designs in PDFs
    10. Playing video, audio, and multimedia formats in PDFs
    11. Add comments to videos
  17. Print production tools (Acrobat Pro)
    1. Print production tools overview
    2. Printer marks and hairlines
    3. Previewing output
    4. Transparency flattening
    5. Color conversion and ink management
    6. Trapping color
  18. Preflight (Acrobat Pro)
    1. PDF/X-, PDF/A-, and PDF/E-compliant files
    2. Preflight profiles
    3. Advanced preflight inspections
    4. Preflight reports
    5. Viewing preflight results, objects, and resources
    6. Output intents in PDFs
    7. Correcting problem areas with the Preflight tool
    8. Automating document analysis with droplets or preflight actions
    9. Analyzing documents with the Preflight tool
    10. Additional checks in the Preflight tool
    11. Preflight libraries
    12. Preflight variables
  19. Color management
    1. Keeping colors consistent
    2. Color settings
    3. Color-managing documents
    4. Working with color profiles
    5. Understanding color management

Before you begin

Acrobat now has an improved interface, as shown. If you see a different experience, refer to help for your current experience.

Acrobat tools are dispalyed in the left pane.

About headers and footers

Acrobat allows you to add customizable headers and footers to one or more PDFs, which can include page numbers, dates, titles, and authors. You can also vary the headers and footers within a PDF, set the number of digits, starting number, and prefix/suffix for Bates numbering. The headers and footers can be saved for future use and previewed, edited, replaced, or deleted after application. Additionally, the margins of the headers and footers can be adjusted to avoid overlapping other page content.

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Try it in the app
Add custom headers and footers in a few simple steps.

Open Acrobat
Open Acrobat

Add headers and footers

  1. Open the PDF file to which you want to add the header and footer.

  2. From the All tools menu, select Edit a PDF > Header and footer > Add.

    Add header and footer
    Add header and footer

  3. Specify the values for Font and Margin.

    The text properties apply to all header and footer entries that are part of this setting definition. You cannot apply different settings to individual header or footer text boxes within the same session in the Add Header And Footer dialog box.

    Note:

    To prevent overlapping, select the Appearance Options link and select Shrink document to avoid overwriting the document’s text And graphics.

    To prevent resizing or repositioning when printing the PDF in large format, select Keep position and size of header/footer text constant when printing on different page sizes.

  4. Type the text in any of the header and footer text boxes. To insert page numbers or the current date, click in a box and then select the corresponding buttons. To select formatting for automatic entries, select Page Number and Date Format.

    Note:

    You can combine text with dates and page numbers. You can also add several lines of text to an entry.

  5. To specify the pages on which the header and footer appear, select Page Range Options. Then specify a page range and choose a Subset option.

  6. Examine the results in the Preview area, using the Preview Page option to see different pages of the PDF.

  7. To save the header and footer settings for future use, select Save Settings.

  8. To apply the same settings to additional PDFs:

    1. Select Apply To Multiple Files.
    2. Select Add Files and select the files.
    3. In the Output Options dialog box, specify your folder and filename preferences.
    4. Select OK.

Update the headers and footers

Updating applies to the most recently added header and footer set.

  1. Open the PDF file containing header and footer.

  2. From the All tools menu, select Edit a PDF > Header and footer > Update.

  3. Change the settings as needed.

  4. Select Ok.

Add another header and footer

  1. Open the PDF file containing header and footer.

  2. Select Edit. 

  3. Select Header and footer > Update. 

  4. In the dialog box, select Add New.

    The Add Header and Footer dialog box opens. The preview shows the existing headers and footers. 

    Add new header and footer
    Add new header and footer

  5. To add more headers and footers, type text in the header and footer text boxes.

    As you type, the preview updates the appearance of the complete headers and footers on the page.

  6. Select new formatting options as desired. 

  7. Select OK.

Replace all headers and footers

  1. Open the PDF file containing header and footer.

  2. Select the Edit mega verb from the global bar and select Header and footer > Update and then select Replace Existing in the dialog box that appears.

    Replace existing header and footer
    Replace existing header and footer

  3. Specify the settings as needed, and select OK.

Remove all headers and footers

  1. To remove headers and footers from a single PDF:

    1. Open the PDF file containing the header and footer. 
    2. Select the Edit > Header and footer > Remove. 
    3. In the confirmation dialog box, select Yes.

  2. To remove headers and footers from multiple PDFs:

    1. Close all open documents.
    2. From the All tools menu, select Edit a PDF > Header & Footer > Remove.
    3. In the dialog box, select Add Files > Add files, and select the files.
    4. Select OK.
    5. In the Output Options dialog box, specify your folder and filename preferences.

Add a Bates numbering header or footer (Acrobat Pro)

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.

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

Note:

Bates numbering is unavailable for protected or encrypted files and some forms.

Add Bates numbering

When designating documents for Bates numbering, you can add PDFs, and any non-PDF files that can be converted to PDF. The process converts non-PDF file types to PDF, and then adds Bates numbers to the resulting PDF.

  1. Select the Edit mega verb from the global bar and select More > Bates numbering > Add.

  2. In the Bates Numbering dialog box, select Add files, and choose Add Files, Add Folders, or Add Open Files. Then select the files or folder.

    Note:

    If you add a folder that contains files other than PDFs, the non-PDF files are not added.

    If any files are password-protected, one or more messages appear, in which you must enter the correct password.

  3. As needed, do any of the following in the list of files:
    • To change the order in which Bates numbers are assigned, select a file, then drag it or select Move Up or Move Down.
    • To sort the list, select a column name. Select again to sort in reverse order.

  4. To specify a target folder for output files and filename preferences, select Output Options. Specify the options as needed, and then select OK.

  5. Once you have added and arranged the files as needed, select OK. Then, in the Add Header And Footer dialog box, select to place the insertion point in the appropriate box.

  6. Select Insert Bates Number. Then enter the following:

    • In Number Of Digits, specify how many digits make up the Bates number, entering any number from 3 through 15. The default number is 6, which produces Bates numbers such as 000001, 000002, and so on.
    • In Start Number, enter the number to assign to the first PDF on the list. The default is 1.
    • In Prefix, type any text to appear before the Bates number.
    • In Suffix, type any text to appear after the Bates number.
    Note:

    For court cases involving large numbers of pages, enter a higher value in Number Of Digits. Do not use the # character in the Prefix or Suffix text.

  7. Select 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 in the previous topic to start the Bates numbering process, selecting the files to add to the series.

  2. After you select Insert Bates Number, enter the next number in the series in Start Number. Enter the Suffix and Prefix text that matches the rest of the series.

  3. Finish changing the settings, and then select OK.

Search for Bates-numbered PDFs

  1. Select the hamburger menu  > File > Advanced Search (Windows), or File > Advanced Search (macOS).

  2. In the search word or phrase text field, enter all or part of the Bates number.

    For example, to find a specific document when you know its Bates number, type in the complete number as the search text. 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 Where Would You Like To Search, select All PDF Documents In.

  4. In the drop-down list, select Browse for Location and specify the location.

  5. Select Search.

Note:

To search for Bates-numbered PDFs in a PDF Portfolio, open the PDF Portfolio and enter all or part of the Bates number in the Search box on the PDF Portfolio toolbar.

Add Bates number to existing file names

You can prefix or suffix a filename with the Bates number. To add the Bates number to a filename, do the following:

  1. Open a PDF in Acrobat, select the Edit mega verb from the global bar, and select More > Bates numbering > Add.

  2. In the Bates Numbering dialog box, select Output Options.

    Output options

  3. Choose Add To Original File Names, and enter %BATES_NUMBER_KEY% in the Insert Before or Insert After fields as desired.

    Add Bates number to file name

  4. Select OK.

Remove Bates numbering

  1. Open a PDF in Acrobat.

  2. Select Edit.

  3. From the left pane, select More > Bates numbering > Remove.

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