Footnote Adds Extra Space Above Span Columns in InDesign

[Jack Brannen]

I have a simple proof-of-concept document attached in which adding a footnote to the first line adds extra space below the second line if the third line is set to split columns. 

Weird, huh?

Will someone take a look and tell me if this is really a bug, or if I'm hallucinating?

Thanks in advance!

<Title renamed by moderator>

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

I could not, at first, quite figure out how you set this layout up. It's a bit wonky and that's what's causing the weird behavior. I can pass back a fixed INDD but it should be:

• Set up as a 2-column frame with a gutter (it's a 1-column frame).
• Bullet style should be single-column (you have them splitting columns).
• Heading and body text should be set to span columns (they're single column).
• Body text should have some space defined below span (it has zero).
• Footnote should have its own style, also set to span columns (it uses the base style).

Other than some formatting details, you have two problems here: you used/based everything on [Basic Paragraph], which is a general no-no; all paragraphs in a doc should originate from "No Paragraph Style" or a previously defined style. Never use the [Basic] or [Default] styles of any kind, for anything.

And, the major issue, you set this up to have the bullet style split columns, which is a wonky feature I've never found stable. It's better to define your multiple columns at the text frame level and then selectively span them, rather than have a style force a virtual column split. Maybe there is some way to fix it around a split, but flipping the model cured the weird spacing problem. (I suspect split + balance columns is fighting over who gets to control things, as well.)

The footnote no longer has any unintended effect on the layout; again, it might have been confusing the balance-these-fake-columns process.

That help?

[Jack Brannen]

Hey @James Gifford—NitroPress , thanks for your reply.

I'm aware that the text styles in this example doc are not set up in a clean way. I cut and pasted this text out of a 400-page document with dozens and dozens of styles, all of which are very organized. I didn't bother to transfer all of that to the example doc. Wanted to pare down to the basic problem itself.

The reason I'm setting these bullets to span columns in a one column frame (not as single columns in a two-column frame, as you suggest) is because it's coming out of that 400-page document, and every other text style in that document should run across the length of the whole page. These two-column bullets are the only two-column thing in the doc, and they appear only a handful of times throughout it. So it makes a lot more sense to split them than it does to 2-column the entire document.

My thought process is that it should work the same either way. So, are you saying you're encountering the same bug I am?

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Short answer, yes. The combination of split columns, with balance columns on and a footnote in that location make the spacing jump around. I doubt there's any fix that isn't an even more complicated workaround; as noted, split columns has always been a touchy feature.

I'll just mildly note there are sometimes times to set aside a few hours and clean up/reorganize styles in legacy documents, if a mix of older, mismatched ones are preventing easy maintenance work.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

I slightly misread your post; if the doc has optimized styles, then you will need to set up styles optimized for this off-the-main-track content, including workarounds for the glitchy behavior. I am assuming you can't split the text frames or put this content in an anchored text frame; that would be the "clean" approach but it may not necessary work with ongoing document reflow.

[Brad @ Roaring Mouse · Accepted solution]

Definitely weird. No reason for this behaviour so I believe it's a bug as well.

Something I noticed: the space appears depending on the length of the characters in the last sentence of your paragraph; if you start deleting characters, it pops back up when you get close to the left margin.

Also, I played with Footnote options and found if you uncheck Span, the footnote moves UP!

[Brad @ Roaring Mouse]

(I also opened this up in CC2020 to see if it was version bug, but it occurs in that version as well, so whatever is wrong, it's been wrong for awhile.)

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

I suppose at bottom it's a bug, in that ID can't manage this combination of elements, but one level above that, it's simply a perfect storm of layout demands ID can't resolve. It happens from time to time and the only solution is to not use that combination of elements, or sometimes, to throw one more into the mix — such as a defined space paragraph under the heading.

Does nothing to change my opinion about Split Columns, though. 🙂

[Abhishek Rao · Accepted solution]

Hello Everyone,

Thank you all for your patience and for thoroughly testing the issue. I truly appreciate the efforts made by our experts in replicating the problem.

I’ll reach out to the product team to see if this issue is already known and will keep you updated on any further information they may need. 

In the meantime, it would be very helpful if you could post this issue on InDesign UserVoice and share the link with us. This will not only help us track the issue but also help us in tracking the upvotes. 

Thank you for your cooperation and understanding.

Thanks, 
Abhishek Rao

[Jack Brannen]

@Abhishek Rao I have posted it here with a screencap gif. https://indesign.uservoice.com/forums/601180-adobe-indesign-bugs/suggestions/48735659-footnate-adds-...

[Brad @ Roaring Mouse]

Indeed. I think the implementation needs some tweaks.

I also tested adding another footnote; this time in one of the bullets. It DID add itself properly after the 1st one, but I turned off Span in the footnotes options, they split to separate locations