Document numbering comes in two flavors:  PHYSICAL or ELECTRONIC.

Physical Numbering: Numbering documents can be performed manually either by affixing a pre-printed label on each page or by “stamping” an auto-incrementing number on each page by using a labeling machine. Both these methods are laborious and labor intensive. They are also prone to mistakes, and cause many suffix pages (see below) to be created unless the numbering personnel are extremely careful.

Electronic Numbering: At the time of scan, each image is assigned a unique identifier by any scanning software. This allows the system to keep track of all pages scanned. With most scanning software, the system assigns these identifiers by incrementing a number by one, using the same numbering scheme physical numbering does. With litigation-enabled software, such as IPRO Premium ScanÒ or Scan-ItÒ, prefixes can be assigned and tracked also. 

Electronically assigned numbers are tracked within a text file that is exported with the images. In most cases, these numbers will match the file name, so that the actual name of an image will match its “Bates” or document number.   The number is not usually branded on the image (imprinted on the actual TIF or PDF image) unless a client requests this service, so the number will not appear on a print-out nor on the image itself, as it will if the image was scanned from a manually numbered hard copy document. Electronically numbered documents can also be “re-numbered” prior to being exported. This re-numbering is useful if any pages needed to be added or deleted from the collection because of missing or double scanned images. The re-numbering process then creates a clean set of document numbers with no gaps.

Examples of document numbers:
                                                  ABC-0000001
                                                  ABC-0000001A
                                                  ABC-0000001.001

The prefix ("ABC" in the example above) usually indicates some information about the project, either a project identifier or some sort of abbreviation that indicates the source of the documents. 

For example:

The suffix (the "A" or the ".001" in the example above) will usually indicate pages that were added to the collection. This happens when two pages accidentally go through a scanner together, or when a page was inadvertently left out. It can also happen when pages are missing from a collection, or are added at a later date entirely. The presence of suffix pages should not be necessarily taken as an indication of poor scanning techniques. However, excessive suffix pages may be an indication to ask closely about the quality control processes of the scanning personnel.

The suffix (the "A" or the ".001" in the example above) will usually indicate pages that were added to the collection. This happens when two pages accidentally go through a scanner together, or when a page was inadvertently left out. It can also happen when pages are missing from a collection, or are added at a later date entirely. The presence of suffix pages should not be necessarily taken as an indication of poor scanning techniques. However, excessive suffix pages may be an indication to ask closely about the quality control processes of the scanning personnel.

The “suffix pages” can either be indicated by alpha or numeric additions. When pages need to be added to a previously scanned collection, individuals new to this type of work will create “A” and “B” pages. The difficulty with this type of number is three-fold: (a) there is a limitation of 26 pages prior to the letters needing to be repeated (“AA”,'); (b) repeating letters are alphabetized in the wrong order (see example below) and (c) no math can be used to calculated the total number of pages within a collection.  It is difficult to tell later which system was utilized.  

Alphabetizing documents with suffix letters will order like this:

    
Alphabetizing documents with suffix NUMBERS will order the pages in the correct order, no matter what.

Non-suffixed pages can appear as any one of the following:
 

ABC-0000003
ABC-0000003.000
ABC-0000003.001

Gaps in the numbering may legitimately occur. If a large collection is physically numbered by more than one person, often each person is given a set of numbered labels. For instance, if an average contains between 1800 and 2100 pages, each person may be provided with 2500 labels. The first person may be given number 1 through 2500; the second person 2501 through 5000. If the first box only contains 1957 pages, numbers 1958 through 2500 will not be utilized, and are considered a legitimate gap in the numbering scheme. It is wise to keep track of these labels (some projects even keep labels in case they are needed to prove non-use later).

AmDoc Recommendation:

• Utilize electronic numbers and re-number for a clean set of numbered documents
• Use 2 to 5 characters as a prefix. In the project manual, note what this prefix indicates (source or project ID)
• Use 8 to 10 numbers as the incrementing page identifier
• User 3 numbers after a decimal point if suffix pages are needed  

When utilizing Bates Numbering technology, there are several decisions the client needs to make to ensure success in a case.  Bates Numbering can be done either manually or electronically.  Additionally, Bates Numbering labels can be characterized by an optional bar code, which can then correspond to readable text, it the client so chooses.  Electronic Bates numbers can either be assigned in standard or non-standard methods.
 
Standard:

• one source per container
• all numbers increment one digit and are sequential
• no link between a physical Bates number (label or stamp) and the electronic number
• additions and deletions are re-numbered prior to releasing the batch after scanning

Non-standard:

• tracks gaps
• link between a physical Bates number and the electronic number
• different source information within one container
• tracks number in a non-sequential manner