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Split footnotes in two colums

Community Beginner ,
Feb 19, 2019 Feb 19, 2019

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Dear Indesign wizards,

We work on academic books, and academics love footnotes. When working with a two-column layout, the footnotes of each column appear at the bottom of that column. So far so good. But when there are a lot of footnotes things get messy, one column can be 50% filled with footnotes and the column next to it can have only 1-2 lines of footnotes (or even none). This doesn't look particularly nice.

We are wondering if there is a way to even them out?

I know it is possible to set the footnotes in one-column, but that doesn't look good. Would it however be possible to sever the link between the footnotes and the columns in such a way that the footnotes of one text frame are evened out over two columns. This would mean that if in the first column there are 15 footnotes and in the second column there are 5, they are middled in such a way that on the bottom of each column you have 10 footnotes. This would mean that not all footnotes would appear below the column in which they are invoked (since they can also be send to the other column of the same textframe) but they do appear on the same page. This will bother no-one and it will look a lot better.

Example:

page1.jpg

This for example doesn't look nice, especially if there is even a larger difference between the lengths of the footnotes in each column.

When we would even them out over the two columns it would look like this:

page2.jpg

But I can't find a way of doing this automatically, and even by hand it is an almost impossible job, especially when working with >500 page books.

And no, we don't want to use end-noted instead

Is there a way to this?

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

Community Expert , Feb 20, 2019 Feb 20, 2019

Hi Karsten,

if you don't mind working with non-live footnotes take a look at Ariel's Footwork script:

https://www.id-extras.com/products/footwork/

I'm not sure if that will fit your needs and can balance footnotes like you are showing in your first screenshot.

Just tested Ariel's script a bit. Just a few minutes. I was not able to control the flow like I wanted. Maybe because I had different numbers of columns set to my text frames in the story? I began with one-column text frames with the first two

...

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Community Expert ,
Feb 19, 2019 Feb 19, 2019

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Hi Karsten:

No, that feature doesn't exist within InDesign currently. You can add a feature request here: Adobe InDesign Feedback.

In the meantime, the already-discounted option is the run the notes in a single column, or you can enable Split Footnotes, which will try to balance them, but still won't achieve what you are showing above.

~Barb

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Mentor ,
Feb 19, 2019 Feb 19, 2019

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Footnotes in columns | Peter Kahrel - check here the script of Mighty Peter.

Remember, never say you can't do something in InDesign, it's always just a question of finding the right workaround to get the job done. © David Blatner

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Community Beginner ,
Feb 20, 2019 Feb 20, 2019

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Hi George, no this is not what I'm looking for. What this script does is:

  1. In a single-column text, set the notes in columns.
  2. In a text set in columns, convert the notes to column-spanning notes. From CC2017, InDesign supports this natively.

I don't want to have 2 colums of footnotes below a single column text (1) and option (2) is now native in Indesign and converts a two column notes to a single column, which is also not what I want.

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Community Expert ,
Feb 20, 2019 Feb 20, 2019

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Hi Karsten,

if you don't mind working with non-live footnotes take a look at Ariel's Footwork script:

https://www.id-extras.com/products/footwork/

I'm not sure if that will fit your needs and can balance footnotes like you are showing in your first screenshot.

Just tested Ariel's script a bit. Just a few minutes. I was not able to control the flow like I wanted. Maybe because I had different numbers of columns set to my text frames in the story? I began with one-column text frames with the first two pages and proceded with two-column text frames on the next pages.

Before running the script:

OriginalSetupOfFootnotesAndColumns-1.PNG

After running the script and adapting the two columns to my text frames again:

AfterRunningFootworks-1.PNG

AfterRunningFootworks-2.PNG

As you can see balancing of footnotes like you want is possible. However I don't know why the frame with footnotes 6 to 8 is not on the page where the footnote references in the main text are.

Tried again with the script to compose that after assigning two columns to my text frames by unchecking "Footnotes may appear on next page", but was greeted with an error message:

ErrorMessage-Line-576-WhenWorkingWithTwoColumnFrames.PNG

But maybe you are successful running the script on your document?

Just try it.

Regards,
Uwe

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Community Beginner ,
Feb 20, 2019 Feb 20, 2019

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Thanks Uwe, I'll give that a try, but I am cautious with plugins. Indesign tends to update frequently and often plugin subsequently stop working. We often have to revisit and adapt older projects, so Ideally we find a way native to Indesign.

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Community Expert ,
Feb 20, 2019 Feb 20, 2019

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Hi Karsten,

Ariel's Footwork is a script, not a plugin based on C++ code.

So the chance is very good that it will run without changes in the next version of InDesign.

Regards,
Uwe

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Community Beginner ,
Feb 20, 2019 Feb 20, 2019

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Ah, that is very useful to know. We'll check to see if this does the trick!

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People's Champ ,
Feb 20, 2019 Feb 20, 2019

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Definitely a big advantage of scripts versus plugins!

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People's Champ ,
Feb 20, 2019 Feb 20, 2019

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Hi Uwe,

Thanks for mentioning Footwork and trying out the script.

As you can see balancing of footnotes like you want is possible. However I don't know why the frame with footnotes 6 to 8 is not on the page where the footnote references in the main text are.

This would indeed be because the option "Allow footnotes on next page" was checked. When there are very long footnotes, it can sometimes be the only solution the check this box, but normally one would want the footnotes on the same page as the references to them, so best to leave the option unchecked.

Tried again with the script to compose that after assigning two columns to my text frames by unchecking "Footnotes may appear on next page", but was greeted with an error message:

Shame about the error. I'll be happy to troubleshoot if you would like to send me the file.

Ariel

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Community Expert ,
Feb 20, 2019 Feb 20, 2019

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LATEST

Tá´€W  wrote

… I'll be happy to troubleshoot if you would like to send me the file.

Ariel

Hi Ariel,

sent some files by mail.

Best,
Uwe

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People's Champ ,
Feb 20, 2019 Feb 20, 2019

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Hi Karsten,

As Uwe mentioned, Footwork can definitely do this. If you'd like more info, or help setting up a test run, get in touch privately and I'll be glad to assist.

Thanks,

Ariel

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