Exclude character style when exporting to PDF

[Simon28169143ls6l]

I have a bit of a weird issue. I have a large book I've completed in InDesign. There are thousands of footnotes and for various reasons InDesigns built in footnotes function wouldn't work for me so instead I created a character style that is invisible and 1% width. (I use InDesign script to check that the footnotes are at the right pages etc. There are perhaps better ways to solve it but this is what I've done.) Now there is a small issue when the book is converted to PDF for e-book use. The invisible characters are in the text - people won't see them but when they copy text from the PDF and paste it elsewhere these weird numbers show up that are confusing. Is there a simple way to get rid of these unwanted characters from the PDFs? They aren't needed in print or digital files, but I need them when exporting to XML and epub formats so I can't delete them altogether. It's not a huge problem so I wouldn't commit to a solution if it's too time consuming, but I'm interested in hearing bout any possible solutions. If only just to know the options available in InDesign..

[Steve Werner]

Can you make two copies of the book? One that has the character style for export to XML and epub formats. Then duplicate the InDesign file. In the duplicate use Find/Change or GREP to remove the character style. This is the one to use for print and pdf.

[Simon28169143ls6l]

Yes, that is the simplest solution but since I am making continuous updates to the book it is inconvenient to have two documents to keep updated.. It would work though.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

An excellent example of how almost any hack can be used for print (or even PDF) as long as the pages "look right," but bite you in the ASCII when exporting to EPUB or other wholly digital content. The general takeaway, no matter how this is resolved, is not to use "invisible" hacks and fixes, no matter how simple, but to find a solution that preserves the integrity of the text and the layout. 🙂

My first suggestion would be to get rid of the hack. Maybe you exhausted the alternatives, but you really should be able to adjust footnotes using a defined style and the footnote layout menus. I can't quite imagine where or  why a teeny spacer-ish element would be needed, over a correct use of those features.

But if you can't get rid of that element, for some reason, the alternative is to make it disappear. In EPUB, a CSS statement to make it vanish —

p.dumbhack {
display: none;
}

— should be simple enough.

PDF is a little trickier, but in Export Tagging for the style, you should be able to assign it as an 'Artifact,' which I believe — this is a bit outside my expertise — makes readers ignore it as an ornamental or other non-content object.

But you say you need it in EPUB/HTML, but not in PDF/Print. As ID is primarily a "print" tool, it's going to assume anything in the layout is to be printed, or managed as a print element. There are no good 'switches' to turn these items off... except for Conditional Text. Tagging all these instances of the spacer/hack with a text condition, and then turning off that condition before export or print... that's about all that occurs to me for print/PDF.

Or finding a better integral solution. I am sure there is one.

[Simon28169143ls6l]

Yup .- I've been wondering if it would be possible to do it differently, but InDesigns footnote features are kind of limited. It isn't possible to have footnotes displayed in one column when the main text box has two columns. Or at least it wasn't when I made the book. But I agree that I ended up with a kind of dirty solution - which is why I'm trying to hide it from people who get the digital edition.

I looked into Export Tagging but it didn't seem like it could help me. But I'll look up the Artifact feature you mentioned and see if it works. 

[Jeffrey_Smith]

You could restrict content extraction in the PDF, limiting people from copy text from document.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Kind of a hack on a hack, and not all PDF readers adequately support content protection.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Unless a fix pops up, let's attack the other end. What exactly is this hack, and what is it accomplishing in EPUB/XML export?

[Simon28169143ls6l]

Basically in Epub each footnote is represented by an asterisk which is placed at it's position in the text. Clicking that asterisk will reveal the contents of the footnote. I'm sure the regular InDesign footnote can do the same thing. The reason for the hack is that I couldn't get the layout I wanted with Indesings footnote feature, and the manual control that is sometimes needed.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Well, footnote behavior in EPUB depends on the reader in use, and sometimes user settings. But that's... nothing that should need any hacking in InDesign. It's an integral part of how the reader/browser handles what's exported as a footnote.

If the whole point here is to get footnotes into a column — well, yeah, InDesign is pretty basic on how it can position footnotes. There's been some recent discussion of that.

But putting your hack element into conditional text would solve some of these problems, and assigning it to 'artifact' in PDF export might cure the other.

Again, it's a case of where all kinds of hacks that produce a certain print layout might not export to a digital format without consequences. Best, always, to avoid convoluted layout and 'white text' type hacks in the first place.