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Inspiring
March 10, 2020
Answered

footnote in a column, not straddled

  • March 10, 2020
  • 3 replies
  • 1579 views

Hi, I am a beginner in FM (after InDesign), and I've got a problem.

I'm making 2 column documents with title information going across the page. I have an article with a deceased author whom I'm to mark with a dagger footnote in the bottom of the page, placed in one column, not in the wide string. The authors' names are followed with straddled strings of their affiliations and some other. What should I do to get the footnote in the required format?

Appreciate any advice

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    Correct answer jul_b19

    Thank you but my aim is the opposite: to get a FN in a column regardless of whether a ref is in a spanned paragraph or in a paragraph in column.

    So I placed the FN in an anchored frame in the bottom of the column (anchored in that column) and then made a cross-ref to it through the <Superscript><$paranum>. It is not due to any rules but it looks like it should be. It would be better if FM offered to do this according to the publisher logic, but I could not find this approach.

    3 replies

    frameexpert
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    March 11, 2020

    However, if you don't mind your footnotes being straddled, you can straighten things out that way:

    www.frameexpert.com
    jul_b19AuthorCorrect answer
    Inspiring
    March 11, 2020

    Thank you but my aim is the opposite: to get a FN in a column regardless of whether a ref is in a spanned paragraph or in a paragraph in column.

    So I placed the FN in an anchored frame in the bottom of the column (anchored in that column) and then made a cross-ref to it through the <Superscript><$paranum>. It is not due to any rules but it looks like it should be. It would be better if FM offered to do this according to the publisher logic, but I could not find this approach.

    Bob_Niland
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    March 11, 2020

    Your technique is fine.

    re: It would be better if FM offered to do this according to the publisher logic, but I could not find this approach.

    Not sure that will happen. People asked for EndNotes for years, and what they eventually got is basically the same hack, superscripted Xrefs by para#, and the author has to make sure the EN content paras are created in the same order as the Xrefs in the main text.

    frameexpert
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    March 11, 2020

    I have shortened up the page for clarity, but yes, FrameMaker does some strange things with footnotes when you have mixed column layouts.

    www.frameexpert.com
    Bob_Niland
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    March 10, 2020

    If your problem is that the footnote is spanning both/all columns:

    Right-click in the footnote, Paragraph » Paragraph Designer » Pagination.

    If (•) Across All {whatever}
    is set, change it to
    (•) In Column
    [Update Style]

    jul_b19Author
    Inspiring
    March 11, 2020

    Thank you, Bob. It was the first thing I've checked. It works if reference to the footnote is from a one-column paragraph but when the reference is from full-width line then I see that the footnote ignores this setting and spans both columns.  

    Bob_Niland
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    March 11, 2020

    I've apparently never tried to footnote an Across-All-Columns paragraph in a 2-column format, but just trying it, yes the FN itself is also AAC, even thought that's not selected in the FM format. Whether this is by design, or a bug, I couldn't say.

    If I had to do it, though, I'd be tempted to insert the FN in some of the 2-col text, and then have the ACC para use a cross-reference to it. You'd need to set up a Superscript character format (As-Is except super) and an Xref format for that (by para# only, Superscript ch.fmt).