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It seems like the author's file numbering problem could have been easily solved with a slightly different numbering scheme -- reserve a couple of digits for additional content. So start with 0010, 0020, 0030 ... and if you wanted to add something between 0010 and 0020, it becomes 0015 and so on. Then you would have to renumber the files only at the very end of the process.

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The problem there is the lesson numbers need to be displayed in the course platform's UI.

I can't have my course's lesson numbers be increments of 10. It's too confusing for end users, and they also can't be different than what I have on file because then it would be a nightmare to maintain (as the person who created the course).

Using gapped numbers is a great way to solve certain ordering problems though. That's a common thing to do with database position columns for ordered content.

I meant to say that you would use that scheme while you were working on your lessons, and at the end of it all, do a single pass of renumbering all the lessons with an appropriate number scheme.

Getting bad flashbacks to the days of explicit line numbers in Basic.

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