Since version 6.0 Publishing Assistant has an opportunity of placing verse numbers on the margins.
Can this be done with chapter numbers? The answer is yes.
Look at this page. PA put verses in the outside margin. Chapter number aligned away from the gutter to be closer to verse numbers.
To do this one needs additional tool — the Javascript to pull out the chapter numbers.
Here is the solution:
Step 1
In PA set up a job with inline Chapter Numbers (Chapter/Verse tab) and enable Marginal verse number.
Step 2
Add following line to FinalChanges.txt file:
"<ParaStyle:cip><CharStyle:cnum>(\d+)<CharStyle:><CharStyle:cnumEndSpace> <CharStyle:>" > "<ParaStyle:mcnum>\1\r\n<ParaStyle:cip>"
This will create a custom paragraph style that is not defined in InDesign, so you will receive a prompt about that.
Step 3
Create two Object styles in InDesign with the names like “mChapterLeft” and “mChapterRight”.
Here are settings for mChapterLeft
And for mChapterRight
Note that measurements will vary depending on the font size and margin size, etc.
Step 4
Create two Paragraph styles they have the same names as the object styles above. Make the settings so it would reflect the style of the chapter number.
Step 5
Create another Paragraph style named “mcnum” and set the leading to zero and the color to none.
Step 6
Adjust all pages using PA.
Step 7
Run the script.
If you are new to using scripts, read the article about installing and running scripts in InDesign.
Once you run the script, use the following settings.
For Frame height use two times leading value in mm. In this example leading is 11 pt, thus Frame height is to be set 22 pt equal 7.762 mm.
Step 8
Proceed to set up paragraph styles. You will need to manually change the object style from mChapterLeft to mChapterRight on all anchored chapter number frames in the right column.