Automatic chapter numbering is different in html and story editor

[0joshuaolson1]

In the online chapter name editor, %i% starts from 0 (I assume for prologues). In downloaded html stories, first chapters have anchor #1, not 0.

[NumeronEight]

Hi 0joshuaolson1,

I've looked into this problem. It looks like chapter index zero is used for all unpublished chapters, as you can see in picture one below. As soon as one chapter gests published, regardless of whether or not the story as a whole is, its index gets numbered starting from one, in the same order of the downloaded html. This is shown in pictures two and three.

At first this method seemed a little confusing to me, then I thought of a peculiar use case: if one unpublished chapter were to sit between two published ones, the reader would see chapter n and chapter n+2, but would have no clue about chapter n+1. The current chapter indexing mechanic solves this issue with what looks to me like an appropriate solution. An author can still modify the index explicitly through a title that includes %i+1% or similar to force this behavior if they so desire for, say, a prologue or unnumbered chapter.

I am by no means a member of the staff of fimfiction, nor do I have any official information; everything I showed here comes from personal experience. If anyone has something to say, to correct me or to complete my answer, they are welcome to.

If this solves your issue, I recommend you mark it it as completed, or ask away if you have further questions on the topic.

Have a nice day

Attachments

Image 1 - unpublished chapters as zeros

Image 2 - published chapter as one, unpublished ones as zeros

Image 3 - published chapters properly indexed, unpublished ones as zeros

[0joshuaolson1]

Thanks, so there's a difference when unpublished. I had no idea %i+1% works - where is this documented? So when a chapter between two published chapters is published, one would need to change all of the %i+1%s back.

I don't have a good solution, but this doesn't seem like a helpful feature when my entire story is unpublished too (all chapters)...

[NumeronEight]

Hi 0joshuaolson1,

the behavior of % i + 1 % is documented in the chapter edit page, below the textbox in which you can enter the chapter's title. There's an example in the picture below. I can confirm that this works with small positive and negative constants, I don't think there's a point in testing it with more complex math. This message could be easy to miss if you're using an automatic tool to import your stories from another service, such as Google docs, and therefore bypass the edit chapter page.

So when a chapter between two published chapters is published, one would need to change all the %i+1%s back.

That is correct, if you were to publish a chapter between two already existing chapters the indexes of all the chapters following the newly published one would increment by one, as you can see in pictures 2 and 3 below. If you wish to keep their indexes as they were before, you need to manually update them.

I'm not an author myself, but I think publishing a chapter between two already existing ones is such a rare occurrence that it is not unreasonable to require a manual intervention to perfect it.

I don't have a good solution, but this doesn't seem like a helpful feature when my entire story is unpublished too (all chapters)...

It appears to me that the automatic chapter indexing % i % is based on the index of published chapters, and does have the side effect of giving the author an inaccurate representation of the name of unpublished chapters. The automatic index numbers are an option for those they can be useful to, if manually writing each chapter number better fits your needs you are welcome to do that instead. Doing so would give you, the author, a preview of all the correct title before publishing each chapter and can make sense for a story in which you plan to publish a new chapter between two existing ones. There are also long stories in which the author has chosen a different indexing style, such as roman numbers; to my knowledge they had to manually write them all manually themselves.

If you have any more questions I'll be glad to help where I can.

Have a nice day

Attachments

Image 1 - % i + 1 %'s documentation

Image 2 - unpublished bonus chapter with appropriate indices

Image 3 - published bonus chapter with shifted indices