footnotes - LTR/RTL multilingual text

Question

In formatting footnotes for a document that has dual languages, one English (left to right = LTR) and the other Arabic (right to left = RTL). The foonotes can only be formatted one way for the "rule above" for the first footnote on a page.

The formatting for the footnotes is found in the layout tab.

What I am trying to achieve is for the Arabic text frame to have it's footnotes have a "rule above" go from right to left and for the the English text frame to have it's footnotes have a "rule above" go from left to right.

Is there way to specify that based on either a style or a text frame? I see that there are some footnote options/ settings that are based on the text frame leve and that is not one of available options.

Muhammad23104693e70n · Accepted Answer

Thank you all for who replied. It turns out that indesign has this feature built into the system. One would have to select the correct type of text frame. Namely the text frame for the Arabic text has be ME text frame for the rule lines to go from right to left. Conversly the English language text to be in its own text frame non ME text frame for the rule lines to go from left to right. See screenshot..

James Gifford—NitroPress · Answer

Create two separate documents, each with the content and formatting it needs.

Then create a third document with separate flows on each page, and place each component INDD file in opposing page flows (English on recto/right pages, Arabic on verso/left pages, I would assume works best). That would, I think, preserve the per-document settings of footnotes etc., while combining them into one combined document for flow adjustment and output.

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