Missing footnote divider line on certain pages

Report · Aug 30, 2023

I am trying to figure out why Framemaker sometimes refuses to display a horizontal divider line above the footnote section of certain pages. I created a video that shows the problem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEQgp9KDbDo In this video page 370, above footnote 21, no horizontal divider line appears. Yet, on pages 369, 371 and 372, the divider line DOES appear.

Does anyone have any ideas what I need to examine in order to figure out why this is happening?

Report · Aug 30, 2023

Hi @Sam State:

This is a long-time FrameMaker behavior. When you scroll from page to page, it doesn't show up. It has nothing to do with the magnification, just when FrameMaker gets around to refreshing the pixels.

Window > Refresh or Ctrl+L will force a refresh and it will reappear immediately. It doesn't happen when you go from page to page either with the page navigation buttons, or with the keyboard, which is how I prefer to navigate for this specific reason. Give it a shot and let us know if that takes care of the one you showed us.

EDIT: here's one more FrameMaker idiosyncrasy. If the footnote is not on the same page as the reference number, this will happen, and refresh will not fix it. (I see it as FrameMaker's way of alerting us to the problem.) In that situation, open up footnote properties and enable the check box that tells the footnote number and the note to be on the same page. This is a relatively new feature of FrameMaker, and only available in the later versions. Prior to the arrival of that checkbox, I used to have to reflow the text manually.

~Barb

Report · Aug 30, 2023

Thanks Barb, but this is not a refreshing issue. I mentioned that in my first video. CTRL+L has no affect whatsoever on the missing footnote horizontal dividing line. Even when I print the page, the horizontal line is still missing. This proves this is not a display/rendering issue. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srAIGvCN_NQ

Also, I am using Framemaker 11.

Report · Aug 30, 2023

Hi Sam:

I think perhaps you missed my edit, which I added immediately after posting my first response. I zoomed in on the PDF that you showed in your second video and I can see that this is the issue.

Footnote 21 is visible at the bottom of the page, but the first footnote number in the text is 22. You will need to adjust the text so that both the number 21 and footnote 21 are on the same page. That will resolve this issue.

~Barb

Report · Aug 30, 2023

Thanks, but your suggestion "adjust the text so that both the number 21 and footnote 21 are on the same page" is simply not feasible. I would require me to make up/dream up new content in order to push the reference onto the next page. I can't be having FM forcing me to write more content just because it can't handle proper footnote placement. Framemaker 11 is in control of placing the footnotes, not me. BTW, there is no "Keep footnote with reference" option in FM 11. As you can see in the attachment, if I force the "Neil R. Lightfoot" paragraph onto the next page, I will have a huge hanging whitespace gap at the bottom of column 2 on page 369.

Report · Aug 30, 2023

Hi Sam:

I completely understand your frustration.

For context, I have worked in every version in FrameMaker since version 3 and my documents are very footnote intensive, so I have more experience than most working with extensive footnotes. Unfortunately, that means that I am quite sure that the solution is to a.) put the note and number on the same page manually or b.) upgrade to a version of FrameMaker that has the checkbox to take care of it automatically. In v11, I used to go back several pages to adds bits of space within and between paragraphs to push the reference to the next page, while ensuring that the extra spacing was not obvious.

I see that you are new here so you may not know yet that this is a user-to-user forum—those of us answering questions are users like you. We are not Adobe staff and have no control over features or upgrades. Those of us with the Community Expert title under our names are recognized by Adobe as experts in our field and we volunteer in our spare time to help other users understand how to use Adobe applications.

I'd also like to add that FrameMaker 11 reached end-of-life years ago so there will be no official support for 11 from Adobe, nor will there be any additional patches released. You are welcome to come back and ask us FrameMaker questions at any time, however. Most of us who volunteer here have been using FrameMaker for quite a while, and we used version 11 when it was current so we will still be able to answer your questions.

I wish you the best,

~Barb

Report · Aug 30, 2023

Thank you Barb for assisting and offering your time and experience to help me and others. Much appreciated.