Indesign freezes when I add rules above continuous footnotes

Forum|Forum|5 days ago
May 17, 2026
2 replies
44 views

I’m working on a document with over 500 pages (a few images but not many) and a lot of footnotes, some of them very long. I already have rules added above the first footnote on the page. Now the client wants to add rules above footnotes that are continuing from the previous page too, but Indesign freezes as soon as I switch those on. I’ve tried re-saving the file as IDML and switching to Fast Display, updating Indesign and trying it on a different computer, all in vain. How can I fix this?

Mike Witherell

Community Expert

Hi Bernhardt,

Your experiment suggests that the problem was occurring on one of the pages you deleted. InDesign corruptions can be a page or an object on a page or a linked graphic in an object on a page.

Did you try to export the whole document to IDML and thereafter re-open the IDML as a refreshed INDD document?

Mike Witherell

Community Expert

Can you post screenshots or upload a sample doc? Where are you adding this?

Mike Witherell

S

studiobernhardtAuthor

Participant

I’m trying to add the lines in Footnotes – Rule Above: Continued Footnotes. The moment I check “Rule Above”, the line appears in preview, but indesign immediately freezes and I have to force quit it.

S

studiobernhardtAuthor

Participant

I have just tried to delete most of the pages from the document, leaving just about 20. In this shorter document it worked. Seems like it’s the sheer amount of footnotes that breaks Indesign in this case :-(

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