Inspiring

Answered

Footnotes + Endnotes in EPUB?

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
November 9, 2017
2 replies
8111 views

Hurrah for the new ID endnotes feature! But what happens in EPUB exports when a book has both endnotes and footnotes? Is that doable? Or do I need to combine them into one set of notes? And if the latter, does it matter whether they're all endnotes or all footnotes?

Thanks!

~Valerie

EPUB

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer kyriosity

Not yet. I was hoping to get some advice first. But since there doesn't appear to be any, I shall blaze my own trail and report back!

Welp, this project finally made its way back to the top of my to-do list, so I can now report back on how it worked. The footnotes work like footnotes should. The endnotes, alas, work like plain text -- the reference number is there, but it does not link to the note. So...bummer. Lotsa extra work needed to convert all ~600 of them back to footnotes.

kyriosityAuthor

Inspiring

Bump. Anybody got anything on this?

Steve Werner

Community Expert

It seems not to be something the regulars who visit here know about.

Did you try doing it?

A

Anonymous

I'm having the same problem. Currently in CC2018 (but assuming it doesn't work in the newer versions either since I seen no posts with a solution.)

I made my file all one document, set NOT to split on export, and changed the file to all one section with all arabic numbers (of course they don't print). On export to EPUB 3 the first endnote links properly back and forth. All other notes don't link—the note number in the text links back to page 1 of the document. The numbers are not visible at the start of each note in the back of the book (except for the first note).

This is the same exact behavior I had when the document was set to split on export and the front matter was a separate section (numbered i, ii, iv etc.). So no solution to this thorny issue. I guess the next thing I can try is to hand convert* (?) all bazillion endnotes back to foot notes (and adjust the layout accordingly as needed when my pictures shift around and fix all the resulting oversets...). Though I guess this may all adversely affect the index, currently functions in the ebook but the page numbers mean nothing of course.

*Is there a way to convert endnotes back to footnotes with having to copy paste each one? (One that definitely works when exported to EPUB.)

Arrrgh. And, eating all this since I told the client it would work.

Note: ~~I have had footnotes work properly in EPUB, but not endnotes. Seems like they should have tested this before telling us it worked?~~ Amended to say it does sorta work, with caveats. See my reply below.

Update: I did recently buy a new Mac so I could run ID CC2020 (and if I'm being honest so I could run bootcamp and play more games).

I don't like changing horses midstream though, so I was trying to finish my current jobs in the version they started in. (Still seems prudent to me.)

But, I made a copy of my document to try doing a blanket convert of Endnotes to Footnotes in ID CC2020. Happily, that DID work, but caused all sorts of overset text, etc. I knew it would. But I did a quick EPUB test conversion and it seemed like it worked, even the overset text was there (I hadn't fixed it yet in the document.)

But, you knew there was a but, it messed up the index. It seemed like the index wouldn't link to anything that was in overset text. So I added pages and fixed all the overset. Reconverted, but that didn't fix it. I had to regenerate the index, and then fix all the format issues that are inherent with indexes in InDD. Then reconvert, and that seems to mostly have fixed the linking issue—not totally—there does seem to still be some linking issues. But we're a lot closer—and maybe just good enough. In the kindle previewer it seems to have trouble with linking when there is a page range, but links pretty reliably to a single page reference. Anyway, at least I didn't have to redo manually all those footnotes!

I did notice that in iBooks (or Apple Books) that the URLs would not work from within the footnote popup, but they did work from ID and also from the Kindle Previewer version. Strange.

Now, does anybody know how to install Pagina's epubcheck on a Mac in OS Catalina? Holy mloy, what a pain. Lucky I still have my OLD mac and can test there for a while longer.

Steve Werner

Community Expert

Are you asking about Reflowable EPUB or Fixed Layout EPUB? EPUB 2 or EPUB 3? The answers are probably different depending on which you're talking about?

kyriosityAuthor

Inspiring

Reflowable, EPUB 3. Thanks.

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded