Endnotes not exporting with links to PDF

In my case, the problem was related to Adobe World-Ready Paragraph Composer, which I had selected in edit style > Justification, to display non-Latin fonts in endnotes.  As soon as I switched back to the default Adobe Paragraph Composer, the backlinks started to work in exported PDFs.

As a workaround, in order to have both the backlink and non-Latin fonts in a single endnote, create a copy of you endnotes style, using Adobe World-Ready Paragraph Composer in Justification, and manually create a link back to text using the Interactive > Hyperlinks menu.

I did a bug report at InDesign UserVoice.

Also posted a link to my test documents over there.

Please vote for fixing the issue:

Text formatting can break backlinking endnote texts to endnote refs when exported to PDF (Print)
Uwe Laubender, Nov 27, 2020

https://indesign.uservoice.com/forums/601180-adobe-indesign-bugs/suggestions/42062446-text-formatting-can-break-backlinking-endnote-text

Thanks,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

Testing round 3:

A nested character style with the applied paragraph style for the endnote text.

Result:

Linking back and forth is working.

Testing round 4:

Directly applied a character style to the digit in the endnote text.

Result:

Linking back and forth is NOT working. Only one-way from endnote reference number to endnote text.

Testing round 5:

Manual override of formatting the digit at the beginning of an endnote text to:

70% width and height, baseline offset to 2 Pt and fill color "C=100 M=0 Y=0 K=0"

Result:

Linking back and forth is NOT working. Only one-way from endnote reference number to endnote text.

Ok. That leaves a nested style as one option ( perhaps the only option? ) to format the digit at the beginning of a endnote text efficiently if you want maintain linking back and forth in an exported PDF.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

Testing round 1:

Loaded my paragraph and character styles to your provided InDesign document.

Applied the styles through Type > Endnote Options… panel.

Saved and exported to PDF.

Result:

Only one-way linking from endnote reference number to the endnote text.

Testing round 2:

Now I reduced the formatting in the endnote text to see if perhaps the applied GREP Style is the cause of the issue.

Result:

Yes. If I remove the GREP Style from the applied paragraph style for the endnote texts, then linking back and forth is finally working! Ok. That obviously must be a bug, I think!

Will test on with nested styles and line styles in the applied paragraph style for the endnote texts.

Also with applied character styles to the endnote number in the endnote texts.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

Ok. Your linked InDesign document is working: Linking back and forth is no issue.

Used the same PDF Export settings as before:

Compatibility: Acrobat 5 (PDF 1.4), [x] Create Tagged PDF and [x] Hyperlinks enabled.

So now I have at least a testing ground to see what could be the issue.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

Yes Julian,
I'm using the German version of InDesign 2021.

Thank you very much for testing all this.

Will be back soon…

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

Here my InDesign document:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/yuhrr1itbalxo39/SimpleEndnote-2021.indd?dl=1

Could you do test a PDF export with this?

Thanks,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

Hi Julian,

thank you for your sample PDF!

It's working with my Adobe Reader as expected:

Linking back and forth from reference number to reference number.

Could you provide the InDesign document as well?

Thanks,

Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

Hi Julian,

just tested again with endnotes I did solely with InDesign.

( No import of a Word file. )

When I export to PDF (Print) with:

Compatibility: Acrobat 5 (PDF 1.4), [x] Create Tagged PDF and [x] Hyperlinks enabled,

linking from the endnote reference number to the endnote text is working.

What is not working: Linking back from the endnote text ro its reference number in the main text.

Tested this with InDesign 2021 version 16.0.0.77 on Windows 10.

PDF reading software: Adobe Acrobat Reader DC 2020.0.13.20064 on Windows 10.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

Hi Julian,

it seems you are not alone:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign/endnote-roundtripping-weirdness-when-exported-to-interactive-pdf/td-p/11588226?page=1

However, I think it should work at least in one way:

From the endnote reference number to the endnote text.

To eliminate one factor, the Word import, could you do a new endnote with InDesign's endnote feature and test this one?

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )