Inspiring

Question

Word document footnotes will not import into InDesign

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
August 24, 2018
8 replies
9824 views

Hi All

I have what appears to be a perfectly valid Word doc with footnotes on board (about 240 of them).

When I try to import it into InDesign, even though both the footnote and endnote import options are checked, the Word document imports with no sign of the footnotes at all (ie: neither the in-body marker, or the both itself).

I've gone back to the Word doc and tried converting all the footnotes to endnotes and importing that. Same issue.

And yet other Word docs I've received have imported without issues for either footnotes or endnotes.

Any suggestions?

VBW

Mark

D

Dana28579503wprp

Participant

Had the same issue and tried multiple solutions but what ended up working for me was saving the document as an older version of Word and importing that. I also ended up deleting all in-line images from the Word document I was trying to import, so maybe that helped too.

M

Marina Martinez

Participant

In the text imports options see if you have an option called "static text" under the endnotes . And check it.

T

The PatinaAuthor

Inspiring

Hi all

My sincerest apologies: not long after I posted this query I had some news that took me completely away from trying to find a solution for this.

In regards the solutions that you've all provided, it seems - in this case - that there is no fix. I say this as when I eventually got an opportunity to try the solutions, none worked.

When I pressed the client on whether he knew of any issues with the Word file, he replied "Oh everyone's had problems with it".

So, I think the file is likely irreparably corrupt. I've certainly never seen one this odd before.

In any event, I eventually cancelled the job as the client was becoming less and less helpful.

Real world stuff! *rollseyes*!

But my thanks to everyone who contributed, though.

VBW

Mark

J

jay_rush

Participating Frequently

I'm sorry to say, but it has been a few years and the problem persists. Give me a break Adobe!!! I love the new features but can you keep the basic functionalities working?!?!

James Gifford—NitroPress

Legend

Well, no, five long years after this thread, Adobe and Microsoft still aren't the same company, and still have no agreement of compatibility for their mutual products.

But yes, Adobe seems to have fallen down badly on making InDesign a tool to import Word projects when a user realizes that the MS products have relentlessly pursued some ideal of pan-web collaborative platforming for every student, secretary and monkey, at, well, the expense of basic functionality. A hard target to chase for import of perpetually-fragile data like footnotes.

Srishti Bali

Community Manager

Hi,

I would like to know if the steps suggested above worked for you, or the issue still persists.

Kindly update the discussion if you need further assistance with it.

Thanks,

Srishti

P

patriks25636538

Participant

I’m having the same problem. Footnotes are not imported, or rather, they are imported, but as "End comments", and they are placed in the very end of the InDesign-document. This is really worsening the functionality of InDesign. If anyone has a solution I’d be happy to read about it!

Patrik

A

annaritad41959969

Participant

Hi Patrick!

I’ve have your same footnotes’s problems. I’m in a big trouble.

Have you find some/solutions for this problem?

If anyone or Adobe staff have some solutions or idea, please write me!

Best Regard

L

Laubender

Community Expert

Hi Mark,

what's your exact version of InDesign? ( see menu About InDesign )
On what operating system?

Can you show a screenshot of your Word Import Options?

To add an inline image you have to use the forum editor.

( Unfortunately for some forum members JPEGs and PNGs cannot be inserted due to forum malfunction. I'm also affected, hope, you are not. )

Regards,
Uwe

Geоrge

Legend

Hummer punch if first my posts not help is here: Еще раз о сносках | Эффективная работа в Adobe InDesign | Приемы работы, хитрости и секреты, скрипты, плагины, автомат…

Remember, never say you can't do something in InDesign, it's always just a question of finding the right workaround to get the job done. © David Blatner

Geоrge

Legend

And try to save your new version of .docx as old (2016 to 2013, 2013 to 2010/2003).

Remember, never say you can't do something in InDesign, it's always just a question of finding the right workaround to get the job done. © David Blatner

Geоrge

Legend

if .doc not works, than try to re-save to .docx or .rtf and repeat CTRL+D

Remember, never say you can't do something in InDesign, it's always just a question of finding the right workaround to get the job done. © David Blatner

robertor48676043

Participant

In InDesign I had the problem of the endnotes reference markers (numbers) not appearing in the text (it would substitute for a manual line break + a space) though the endnotes appeared correctly as they should at the end of the document. When I saved the Word docx as old Word doc. and placed the text, the reference markers were there!

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