Book page numbers in Reference manuals.

[Blackwolfe]

Fo.

[Jiminimonka]

That is a massive time sink.

You can search the books for words to find whatever you are looking for.

[anstett]

The search function for each Reference Manual works well. There are also extensions that will cross reference all your material for a search in any Ref Manual you have.

[LordEntrails]

I've wondered about this myself. But haven't come up with a way to do this because of the challenges you state.
Perhaps if there was hidden tags or metadata associated to stories (basic and advanced) then the source printed page numbers could be added to them and searched. Such metadata could be used to build an index as well as speed up search (if that ever becomes an issue).
I guess the other way would be to put the text of the page number, and search for that, but not a fan of that.

[Zacchaeus]

As you point out there's no correlation between the actual book pages and pages in FG. Especially in the case of adventure modules where each room or location has it's own separate page in the FG module. This is why we remove any reference in the text to page numbers when developing modules.

[Blackwolfe]

Really.

[Jiminimonka]

Whenever I post a "hey it would be great if we had this" to the forum I know the majority of the replies are going to tell me why it either can't be done or won't be done.
Which, for Me personally don't bother.
It CAN be done.
Afterall, the chapter headings are there aren't they? Yeah, so a book page reference could be too.
Yes it would be time consuming, most helpful things are.
I do more tedious time consuming things for My employer every month.

Thank You LordEntrails for at least thinking about it more than just telling me why it can't be done.

I did think about it and having made quite a lot of FG books I can tell you its a massive waste of time.

But you want it make a feature request. :)

[LordEntrails]

I wish all objects had a metadata or label or tag field. It a lot of ways it would be a mess because people would use it for all sorts of things, but it would also be useful for a ton of things. Page numbers would just be one of them. It would be nice to have some standards around it before making it available, and to put some thought into it. But could be useful for making things more user friendly if done correctly.

[Jiminimonka]

I wish all objects had a metadata or label or tag field. It a lot of ways it would be a mess because people would use it for all sorts of things, but it would also be useful for a ton of things. Page numbers would just be one of them. It would be nice to have some standards around it before making it available, and to put some thought into it. But could be useful for making things more user friendly if done correctly.

Well in an ideal world the whole thing would be HTML5 with CSS. Then you could make the reference manual look entirely like a pdf (but better cos pdf is crap) and theme it independently of the FGU theme too.

Then page numbers would be trivial.

EDIT: I say trivial but maybe Blackwolfe can do the entire back catalog since he does more tedious time consuming things every month. ;)

[Blackwolfe]

I mean why even try.

[Jiminimonka]

Maybe Jimmy should work customer service for a year or two so he might learn to not be so cheeky with paying customers.
I'd love to help but you can't aford Me and My volunteer time is all taken up.

Been doing that for 30 years. I am cheeky. My customers love me.

[LordEntrails]

MOD: Ok guys. Let's not escalate this. It's better to step away than have it turn into something unproductive.

[damned]

Maybe Jimmy should work customer service for a year or two so he might learn to not be so cheeky with paying customers.
I'd love to help but you can't aford Me and My volunteer time is all taken up.

Jiminimonka, like 99.something percent of us, is a community member just like you and I.
SmiteWorks staff have that listed against their profile.

[Vass_Dts]

There's also the fact that later printings have errata put into them, and (though rare) there's a chance some page numbers may change, adding an extra layer of complexity in the mix (the FG modules do get updated with those errata).

It's also worth noting that DND Beyond versions of the books also do not include page numbers, and they are WotC's very own digital format of their content.

[Trenloe]

This is definitely a nice to have. When creating the Pathfinder 2 Core Rules module (over 600 pages of Paizo goodness) we looked into implementing some level of page numbering - including some way of quickly accessing a certain page number. This was more from the aspect of page number references within the product itself, rather than considering someone wanting to get to a page based off an external reference. The work to add in all of the page numbers, and making them usable (i.e. readily accessible) was, at the time for this specific instance, deemed too resource intensive. Instead we use reference manual section references, instead of page numbers - e.g. refer to the Encounter Mode section of Chapter 8: Playing the Game.

But that was all trying to work within the original framework. Maybe SmiteWorks can come up with a cool solution and the converters embrace it.

[Blackwolfe]

Maybe SmiteWorks can come up with a cool solution and the converters embrace it.

Don't hold your breath.

[Trenloe]

Don't hold your breath.
@Blackwolfe - I'm not sure why you've deleted all your comments. You're obviously frustrated that most people gave you realistic feedback about this - feedback that didn't fit in with your request. It's a nice idea, but coming from a DLC developer standpoint it's one of the last things I'd consider doing during the time crunch of getting a product into the store. But if SmiteWorks decide this is needed, then I'd obviously do it.

You talked about negativity on the forums when you make a suggestion. "Don't hold your breath" is also pretty negative. If you're posting on a public forum be prepared to get feedback that doesn't match your opinion. Deleting all of your comments after less than 48 hours gives zero chance of others discussing, and possibly supporting, your idea.

Maybe with the development of the tablet/mobile based reference manual reader something like this will become more important, but it will need support from SmiteWorks - both in ruleset updates and in developer instuctions to start doing it in products moving forwards, and maybe target specific products already released for updates. This will all have to come from SmiteWorks, and no one from SmiteWorks has commented on this thread - all of the comments have pretty much come from DLC developers, who are the people who'd also need to embrace this in order for it to happen.


I mean why even try.
The best approach is to put a feature request in the portal here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/featurerequests/featurerequests.php I've done a quick search for "page" and didn't find any request related to page numbers, so I'm guessing you haven't entered a feature request yet...

[LordEntrails]

I've added a request titled "Metadata Labels or Tags on Objects". If its approved, you can vote and comment on it directly.

[BaneTBC]

While it doesn't have it everywhere, others have looked at this issue in the past and decided it had a solution instead of waiting for someone else to address it:
https://www.dmsguild.com/product/376825/?affiliate_id=878507 5E Player's Handbook
https://www.dmsguild.com/product/360004/?affiliate_rem=878507 5E Dungeon Master's Guide

Yes, it's paid for content, but like most things in life, time = money, the determination is it worth your money not to have to take the time to do it yourself. And there is nothing that stops someone from seeing this as an issue that can be resolved, while earning a few dollars back into their own pocket.