Autonumber paragraphs in book outline?

Question

Is it straightforward to set each entry of a book outline to autonumber, or should we just enter the numbers into the text? They are marked with \io, and obviously the numbering needs to restart for each book.

Answer 1

Sorry, there isn’t a straightforward way to do this. If you really do want the \io1 fields numbered (do you?) then it is best to do so manually in Paratext so that all the outputs (paper and electronic Apps) match.
But it is also worth thinking through whether this actually aids usability or hinders it.

Answer 2

If you wanted all \io paragraphs to work in this way, and only in PTXprint output, then,
Yes, it can be done… It’s not even very hard, something along the lines of this untested code:

\newcoutner\ioparnum
\def\ioparstart#1{#1.~} % How should it be formatted?
\sethook{start}{io}{\advance\ioparnum by 1 \leavevmode \ioparstart{\the\ioparnum}}
\sethook{after}{c}{\ioparnum=0 } % Reset each chapter, just in case

The problem is you are now looking for unusual cases. E.g. if for some kind of periphery section there are multiple outlines, the above will just keep on counting… If you could guarantee that every block of \io paragraphs was preceded by an \is1 then you could use \setbetweenhook{is}{io}{\ioparnum=0 } to do the reset, and then you’re looking for even more unusual cases. At some point your searching out unexpected situations takes as much time as numbering them by hand.

Answer 3

Thanks for the input. It looks like doing it manually is the best option. This is something that the translation team asked for, based on something already in print. So I think they do find it helpful.