Adding serial number text to Layout view using ArcPy?

Question

I have 250 maps (in separate MXD's). In each map, in the Layout view there is "aaa" text. the element name value is aaa.

I try to find a way to add serial numbers to each map, so each "aaa" text will converted to serial number. The result should be like that:

The serial number will start from 1 till 250.

I wonder if it possible to do it automatically, and not doing it manually?

I work on ArcGIS 10.3.1 with python 2.7.8 versions.

Answer 1

this code works perfect for me:

import arcpy
from arcpy import env

env.workspace = r"G:\desktop\Project"
counter = 0
for mxdname in arcpy.ListFiles("*.mxd"):
    print mxdname
    mxd = arcpy.mapping.MapDocument(r"G:\desktop\Project\\" + mxdname)
    for elm in arcpy.mapping.ListLayoutElements(mxd, "TEXT_ELEMENT"):
        if elm.text == 'aaa':
            counter = counter + 1 
            elm.text = 'serial num'+str(counter)
    mxd.save()    
del mxd