How to Handle Multiple References to the Same Endnote with Hyperlinks in InDesign

Question

I know there are similar questions, but the answers don't work for me.
 
I'm formatting a white paper that has 52 references, each of which are cited multiple times in the text.
When I say "reference," I basically mean "endnote," I guess. Superscript numbers in the text linked to a numbered list at the end of the document. (I'll try to explain exactly what I mean, but this really isn't a question about proper terminology, I'm just trying to solve a specific problem.)
 
I need to be able to generate a PDF that hyeprlinks the superscript numbers in the text to their corresponding endnotes - and then back again to the text when you click the number in the endnote.
 
I already had to mine forums to learn that you only get hyperlinked endnotes at all if you export the PDF as "High Quality Print." NO other PDF setting works. Just mentioning it here because it's unbelievable. (Why would you even need a print to have links?) But that's the kind of quirk that Adobe likes to leave in its software for decades.
 
In re: the problem of needing to have multiple references to the same endnote, I read in one forum that you can simply cut and paste from the first instance of the endnote in the text. The guy goes "you may have to manually change the number since InDesign will automatically make it the next in sequence." So my question was, what about the "link"?
 
But I tried it. I noticed that usually it would make the endnote number the next in sequence rather than pasting what I'd copied. Sometimes it wouldn't though, and I have zero clue what the difference was. Weirdly, when it would make the number the next in sequence, it wouldn't add a corresponding endnote at the end of the document - so I don't know how that would work; you'd hard return from the last endnote and manually enter it? Would it then link? I also noticed to my dismay that at one point when I had to go back in the text to paste in more references to already-created footnotes, it started automatically moving ones after it down in sequence. I then had to manually fix those.
 
And then, when I exported the PDF, I saw that many of the endnote references in the text didn't link. The original instances did, and then some of the pasted ones did as well - but not all. My guess is the ones that didn't work were the ones I had to manually correct, but I'm not totally sure.
 
I feel like this is probably a GREP problem, but I can't figure it out in my current state of knowledge. My next stab was going to involve just dummying the whole thing, not using InDesign endnotes at all, just putting superscripted numbers in the text and hyperlinking them to text anchors in the "endnotes" section.
 
The only problem left is the return link for the additional occurrences  - but that seems to be a problem no matter how you slice it. Is there any possible way to handle that? It would somehow have to know where you just jumped from and have that contextually loaded as the link back when you click the number. Doesn't seem likely, but maybe I'm wrong.
 
Anyway just seeing what sort of advice I can get here. If you know of anything that would work for this, please reply. I love it if it's all InDesign wonky; I like learning the intricacies, but I don't always have time to do all the groundwork when I have a specific task to get done - but I can follow a recipe.

James Gifford—NitroPress · Accepted Answer

First, a confirmation that links don't work reliably in all export modes, although it seems more accurate to say that they don't work in "Smallest File" mode than anything else. They work (for me) in High Quality Print and Press Quality, for, me if the Hyperlnks box is checked, and in the interactive PDF export as well. So it's that one mode, which is clearly omitting something in the name of file size — but I don't recall links not working in prior versions, either. Acrobat has been put through the AI wringer so thoroughly it's not surprising to find that obvious, basic features are no longer what they once were.

As for the many-to-one link, that kind of question/request is made regularly... and I have to ask how you envision the app/doc logic to work for it? As pointed out, a link to the endnote is one thing — you can do all kinds of many-to-one links in various ways — but the logic to sort out which of those references to return to simply doesn't exist in PDF, EPUB, web or any other general document platform I'm aware of.

I think this is another example of functionality a designer/author has encountered in a fully developed app or info platform and expects to be able to replicate with a far less "intelligent" and interacting doc platform — a variation of those who want all kinds of advanced multimedia and interactivity in export docs, just like they found in some dedicated information platform elsewhere.

There is no doc platform or model I know of that incorporates that kind of intelligence, logic, link tracking and nonlinear accessibility. Only a fully programmed app/platform solution, where for example there is structure for the reader to store the source of an inquiry link so it can be returned to, can do these things.

m1b · Answer

Hi @John26029487lpfe, it would be great if you could post an demo .indd document showing an example of the endnote styles with multiple sources. For example, would it be something like this:

1. My publication title, 2024. Pages 3, 5, 6.

with hyperlinks for each of "3", "5" and "6"?

- Mark

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