Endnotes refuse to reorder

[Tom34135878z6yz]

I accidentally deleted an endnote, no 67, in a book I'm working on. I have tried to reinsert it on the original page in the text and to get all the subsequent endnotes to reorder, but every time I do this it stubbornly goes right to the end of the endnotes, no 131, and also appears as 131 in the text. This is driving me mad, and I'm frightened of messing up all the endnotes in the book. If anyone can suggest how I resolve this I would be most grateful!

Tom.

[Barb Binder]

Hi Tom:

This is odd, and obviously not how it is supposed to work. What version of InDesign are you using? I see references to this from 2018–2019, but nothing recently. And I can't re-create it in 2024.

I don't have a clear answer but I would try a few things to see if we can force it to straighten out:

1. Recompose all stories: Mac: Cmd+Opt+/ or Windows: Ctrl +Alt+/ (This forces InDesign to reflow all of the stories.)
2. Save the file as .idml. Open the .idml file and then resave it under a new name. (This can remove corruption in a file.)
3. Click in the story, Edit > Select all, Edit > Copy and paste the story in a brand new file. (If this works, we can talk about the next step.)

~Barb

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

I'd place my bet on #2, the IDML export/reimport. Endnotes are the canary in the coal mine for document corruption, and I can think of few cases where this purge/rebuild didn't fix at least basic endnote glitches like this one.

[Tom25430080215k · Accepted solution]

Many thanks, Barb and James for these suggestions, which may well be useful to me in the future. I tried them without success, however, and was just about tearing my hair out, as I thought I was going to have to strip out all the endnotes and reinsert them one by one. Then I discovered that the problem was not Indesign's endnote feature but entirely my own stupid fault. At some point (trying to resize some pictures) I had cut the bit of text containing note 67, then repasted it into a new text box which was independent of the rest of the text in the book. I had forgotten this when I noticed note 67 was missing. So every time I was reinserting the note, Indesign treated it as a note on a separate bit of text unrelated to the rest of the text and notes in the book. The solution was to cut the rogue piece of text again and paste it into the main text of the book and then note 67 could be inserted in its correct order. I am posting this not so as to parade my own incompetence, but in the hope that if anyone else makes the same mistake in the future they will stumble across this solution! Thanks again for your generous help. Tom.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

It's worth a lot when someone takes the time to come back and post a conclusion... even more so when it involves a digital face-plant (or plain old PEBCAK). We all do it. Sometimes we even figure it out before making it public. But, uh, not always. 🙂

So, kudos on both finding the problem and connecting the dots, however painful.

[Barb Binder]

Ha! That was the first thing I though of, but I re-read "I have tried to reinsert it on the original page in the text and to get all the subsequent endnotes to reorder" several times so discounted it! 

So glad you figured it out and are back on track. I'll mark your answer as correct, and we'll see you the next you need a hand.

~Barb

[Tom25430080215k]

I should probably have mentioned that it is a highly illustrated book, images on almost every page, with sometimes hardly any text. There were only about eight lines of text in the text box with the missing endnote. By the way, James, what is PEBCAK? 

[Barb Binder]

An abbreviation for Problem Exists Between Computer And Keyboard, aka we are the problem. 😉

~Barb

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Sorry, didn't mean to be cryptic — I thought everyone (online) knew that. It's an old tech support snark, kind of like GOMER in the medical field. Meant with all good humor here.

(Get Out of My Emergency Room!)

[Tom25430080215k]

I did look it up, in fact – no offence taken, entirely appropriate in my case!

[Debbie5C13]

I'm having the same issue with Indesign 20.1x64 enterprise edition. I haven't cut off text. I saved to an idml file format reopened and am still having the identical issue. Talk about pulling hair out. I have HUNDREDS of footnotes, endnotes and hyperlinks in this document and none of them are working correctly. Footnotes are not automatically linked. I am having to create text anchors on the footnote within the copy then at the bottom of the page. Endnotes are not in order unless they are created in order.... The process to add hyperlinks is insane: click hyperlink button, click + to add hyperlink, require multiple clicks: unclick shared content, unclick Share Hyperlink Destination, apply style, add Accessibility copy. Then after all of this when I do an accessibility check in Acrobat all of the links show an unmarked annotation error which require another series of clicks for each link and adding a title. I don't know how I am ever going to get the document finished. Everytime I begin a new process something in Indesign is broken. Also this is not happening in just this document, all of my Indesign documents are doing this. I have saved the file locally on my computer and on my network. I have been talking to Adobe techs, I think, since November. 

[Mike Witherell]

Debbie, your comment touches on many points. What problem would you like help with? Could you narrow this down? We can help. Care to share your document?

[Debbie5C13]

Hi Mike I wasn't quite sure how to upload with this interface but it's pretty straight forward once you spot the drag and drop button 😄

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@Debbie5C13

Can you share your file? Or part of it for initial diagnose?

Please click my nickname if you prefer to do it privately.

I'll run it through my ID-Tasker tool and hopefully be able to diagnose the problem. 

And what is your platform and OS version? 

[Debbie5C13]

Windows 10 Enterprise,  Indesign 20.1x64

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

Windows 10 Enterprise,  Indesign 20.1x64

By @Debbie5C13

Thanks. Will check it right now.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@Debbie5C13 

Looks like you have a problem only on the page 38 - Footnotes 69, 70 & 71:

Marked with red rectangles - should be as the green ones - more than jest ann empty small square.

I've checked the rest - and they look OK:

The same 3x footnotes are "empty" in the Footnotes bodies - marked in red.

Marked in blue is number of characters - if it's "1" - it's OK, as it is just a marker - either in the text or in the body of the Footnote. 

Anything much greater than "2" means that there is some text - and they look OK.

So it looks like isn't so bad - you said you've edited your document through page 37 - so only one page left.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@Debbie5C13 

There are no Endnotes at all:

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@Debbie5C13 

In terms of Hyperlinks - you've a lot of them as duplicates for Footnotes?

Hyperlinks Text Source:

And the same as fully functioning Footnote:

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@Debbie5C13 

Looks like you've at least one "bad" Hyperlink:

Source:

and Destination:

But finding this was an accident.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@Debbie5C13 

Hyperlinks "38" and "39" - in the main text - are pointing on themselves:

"38" in the Footnotes - also points on itself:

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@Debbie5C13 

In order to find all discrepancies - I'll have to add few extra options to my IDT - I'll do this tomorrow, during the day.

And I think you should contact Moderators and ask to remove your attached file - from both mmessages - as you've attached whole file?

You need to click REPORT - located below your messages.

After you post more messages on this forum - you'll be able to edit your past messages by yourself - but you need to make some "posting history" first.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@Debbie5C13 

I though about your Hyperlinks - and I think this would be the best and most practical solution 😉

(I've copied part of the text to a new document - quicker for me to test.)

For better visualisation - extra frames:

- marked in Yellow - external hyperlinks,

- marked in Green - bad hyperlinks, that link on themselves,

- marked in Blue - hyperlinks to your document.

Those are a TextFrames linked together - Hyperlink's Source -> Destination.

For now - just empty frames, with Object Style applieed and on a separate Layer  - but there can be name of the Hyperlink in the source / destination TextFrames - and in case of the external destinations - that for obvious reasons can't be "linked" this way - name of the document and name of the text anchor / bookmark / page number or URL address.

If you like my idea - I can process your whole document and send it to you privately.

[edit]

After processing WHOLE original file - "Introduction" page selected:

("unnecessary" pages has been removed - only section header pages left)

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

After digging a bit more - currently, "Section 1" has only ONE reference in the text:

But, In the text, there are more instances:

(Marked in Red - texts - marked in Green - pages)

and only one Hyperlink:

But, as you've said Debbie - you're in the middle of editing this file, right? 

[Debbie5C13]

Good afternoon, thank you so much for taking time to dig through this document. I deleted all of the end notes when they were not in order, I had forgotten about that but what was happening is I added many... then realized i missed on and tried to add it; Indesign added it to the end of the End Notes instead of reordering. Understanding how you got to the file you are looking at and how to make use of it seems like it would open a whole other universe of functionality. 

I am right in the middle of editing this document, there are images, tables, callouts etc.. that have been shifting things around. Oh and unfinished text (that was fun). 

This document is being printed and will be available on the web so I have to ensure it meets ADA compliance requirements as well.