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wuts23143389
Inspiring
November 4, 2021
Answered

Placed text Footnotes references turn into forced line break

  • November 4, 2021
  • 2 replies
  • 2717 views

Hi all,

 

macOS Catalina, latest ID version

 

When placing Word Doc file into InDesign, some of the footnotes references get converted into forced line break, and the footnotes content do not show up at all. This happens with File -> Place : Preserve Styles and Formatting from Text and Tables. But if I copy the text from MS Word and then Paste into text frame in InDesign, it works correctly. Does anyone know how to troubleshoot? I suspect it's based from the messy styles from client side but I can't seem to find a solution on how to Place the MS Word doc file and have the footnotes get imported correctly.

 

I've attached the MS Word file and two screencaps showing the difference between placing the file and copy & paste. Some footnotes do get imported when placed; for example, footnote 12 from MS Word (...functional difficulty) gets placed into InDesign while footnotes 1-11 do not. I checked footnote 11 and 12 in MS Word, and they are using the same (overridden) style, so I do not know why footnote 12 gets placed when 11 wouldn't.

 

Appreciate any advice!

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Willi Adelberger

Resave the Word file as DOC before importing into InDesign.

2 replies

Barb Binder
Community Expert
Barb BinderCommunity Expert
Community Expert
April 15, 2023

@Willi Adelberger is correct, saving as .doc takes care of this, but that's new bug in InDesign. I have footnote-heavy documents and have never seen this happening. Please take a moment to report it—and reference this thread. https://indesign.uservoice.com

 

If you can come back and give us the link to the bug report, we can vote for it. Others will too, as they seek out an answer to the same issue.

 

~Barb

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
    telred18
    telred18
    Inspiring
    April 17, 2023

    It's not really a new problem. I've had it for years but only occasionally. It must be something related to the structure of certain Word files as it's worst with those containing lots of anchored objects. I always save as RTF to fix it. See for example: https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/probleme-num%C3%A9ros-de-r%C3%A9f%C3%A9rence-de-note-de-bas-de-page/m-p/12873532#M473339

    S
    sda47590707
    Participant
    April 15, 2023

    Hi,

    I am experiencing the same problem with the note references changing to forced returns in InDesign when imported from a Word doc. It is only occasionally, most of the files that I import work perfectly. Did you ever find out what was causing the problem? I hope that you did.

     

    Thanks!

    W
    wuts23143389Author
    Inspiring
    April 15, 2023

    Hi ya, it's been a while but since no one has replied me here with solution, I suspect I just ended up with doing things manually.

    Willi Adelberger
    Community Expert
    Willi AdelbergerCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    April 15, 2023

    Resave the Word file as DOC before importing into InDesign.

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