I went through my dusty project notes from the 1990s: instead of $totpages (Gianni mentioned that it is a pretty old open wish), we used a textfield X_NEXTPAGE in the TRAILER reading "report continues on next page" In the LeavePrintedOccurence of the main entity, we had the code: if ($next("pkfield") = "")  ; there is no next occurence any more as PKfields are not null    X_NEXTPAGE = "report completed" endif So we have on each page a status info "continues/completed" and all in one print loop. Just another way to indicate to the reader (together with the pagenumber) that he has a "complete" report, HIH, Uli

Of course I was joking yesterday, it was such a day .
historically, for me, the most applied solution is to print in the header  "page XX" and in the trailer "follow on page (nextpage) " .... 
or "end of print" on the last page.

Have a nice day, my friends.  

Hi Gianni, how about printing to a Postscript-File with Header-Info "Page: %%$PAGE / $$$Totalpages$$$". You can load the file and replace $$$Totalpages$$$ with the actual number of pages, save the file and convert to a pdf.   Regards Norbert

Hello I did exactly what Gianni wrote you need to  print to a virtual printer with exactly the same driver, otherwise the length of pages are not the same multiple run for counting number of lines with rules like :  not having a comment on 2 pages for example So I had to create for each printer, the virtual one with a null port   Dominique

Thanks Norbert and Dominique for your replies. @Norbert: an idea to work on! I feel it's like "to shot a sparrow with a cannon" but it is a powerful idea... Implementing a Postscript post-processing could be useful in more cases. @Dominique: :-) what about two worries we had: - are you NOT facing the possibility the database is changed between first and second execution? - how sysadmins has reacted to your request? Gianni

Hi Gianni, the change in the database doesn't matter when you  run the 2 prints against the same hitlist. In the GFG of the header frame, just copy $page $running_page$ = $page X_pagecountText = $concat($page, " / ", $totalPages$) For sure you have to reset individual counters etc. before starting the second print: retrieve $totalPages$ = 0 call init_counters() print "myVirtualPrinter" $totalPages$ = $running_page$ setocc "mainentity",1 call init_counters() print "myRealPrinter"   HIH, Uli

sorry for the typo: it's frame gets focus (FGF) for the HEADER or TRAILER

ulrich-merkel said Hi Gianni, the change in the database doesn't matter when you  run the 2 prints against the same hitlist. In the GFG of the header frame, just copy $page $running_page$ = $page X_pagecountText = $concat($page, " / ", $totalPages$) For sure you have to reset individual counters etc. before starting the second print: retrieve $totalPages$ = 0 call init_counters() print "myVirtualPrinter" $totalPages$ = $running_page$ setocc "mainentity",1 call init_counters() print "myRealPrinter" HIH, Uli  

Hi Uli, correct... but only if print instruction is executed using "A" as second parameter (explicitely o implicitely); if print instruction is using "C" as second parameter hitlist is not saved between first and second execution. Anyhow, thanks for your input! Gianni

Hi Gianni, thank you for pointing to this "C" sideeffect. IIRC, the "C" drops the hitlist after the COMPLETE print is done. It's NOT that there is a line-by-line discard working together with a stepped hitlist saving memory. So in fact there is no real benefit using the "C". But adding the "A" on both prints will make the code better; I will enhance my example according to your contribution, Uli

1) data modified : hopefully,  I only have the problem with invoice printing, the invoice is generated before, so the print process is only printing otherwhise I would have problems   2) I m working in environnments where I give the pre requisite functionnalities, so they don't really have the choices if they ask me for this kind of functionnality Dominique

A few years ago I had to go to Switzerland and early in the morning I went there to write down the road 
(there was still no google maps) I came back and set off again to reach my destination following my own directions. 
This seems to me the meaning of this discussion on the pages number in printing ...

a few years ago, I speak of the early 90s, I found myself in a company that made long prints in continuous format, 
it worked like this: they processed the print, stored the number of pages, put the sheets in print and reworked printing 
only the words "pag. X of XXX "in the trailer, my comment was: but it is not easier to print on the last page " End printing XXX pages."? 
And so it was.  

@TheAleph: Gianni

Hi Roberto, as Gianni mentioned, it's for "critical" reports, The customer demands the "page n of nn" as this is the way this is done since decades. In most of our worlds customer requirements have to be delivered even if the tool makes implementation harder. Let's say the printout doesn't show "End printing XXX pages" for whatever reason (pages lost?) how do we know how many pages are missing ? How does a recipient of the report KNOWS that he has to watch for "End printing XXX pages" And why printing "End printing XXX pages" on page XXX; a simple "**** End of Report ****" is good enough.