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While the original Bates stamps only used numbers (up to a maximum of 9999), there is no set format for Bates numbering. It may be purely numeric or alphanumeric. Either way, Bates numbering is essentially a paper-based method, most useful for printed productions or page-based images.

Bates numbering has been used for well over a century. It gained its name from the Bates Automatic Numbering-Machine, patented in the 1890s by Edwin G. Bates. This sequential-numbering stamp was used to manually mark each page in a record.

Historically, the Bates numbering process was accomplished using a Bates Stamper to index pages using a four-digit sequence.

But, consistent with The Bluebook, the first citation should make it very clear what is being referenced, such as (Bates Jones000001) or (Bates d123-002), and subsequent consecutive cites should follow the usual practice of Id. followed by the page number, such as (Id. 000017) or (Id. -017).

Using Acrobat DC Pro, you can automatically apply Bates numbering as a header or footer to any document or to documents in a PDF Portfolio. (If the PDF Portfolio contains non-PDF files, Acrobat converts the files to PDF and add Bates numbering.) You can add custom prefixes and suffixes, as well as a date stamp.

Bates numbering is a method of indexing legal documents for easy identification and retrieval. Each page of each document is assigned a unique Bates number that also indicates its relationship to other Bates-numbered documents. Bates numbers appear as headers or footers on the pages of each PDF in the batch.

Paralegals can apply Bates stamping to a single document or a complete set of documents by creating custom profiles for stamping information into headers and footers. Access the Add Bates Numbers dialog box, and browse files to select all files, in order, to which you'd like to include in the stamping session.