footnotes creating too much space in document

[Rachel.b.Jackson]

Because of the way that InDesign is choosing to balance the footnotes, there is a huge gap on this page (the second screenshot shows the page after with the offending footnote). I already have allowed split footnotes. Any suggestions on how to force more of the text on to this page to avoid the huge white space?

Thanks!

[Mike Witherell]

Maybe review how the "Keep Options" are set for all the Paragraph Styles involved on that page?

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Any time footnotes get to this size, routinely taking a third of a page even when split, I think you're going to see flow and fit issues unless you optimize both the footnote settings and the footnote paragraph styles. Your body text styles will play a part as well if they aren't set to share the page space and flow around other elements.

There's no simple answers, but paying attention to keep options for both (as Mike W suggests) is probably a big part of it. You should be able to find settings that make the footnote paragraphs share the space, and split, more gracefully. It's just that the default settings and base text styles are a little overwhelmed, here.

[Rachel.b.Jackson]

Yeah. Thank you so much. I have been fiddling with both.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

It's frustrating when you push the boundaries of ID's automated flow and text management. Another thing that might help is to break the footnotes into paragraphs, with a secondary style, so that it has more pieces to move around on the board. That brings a manual element into what should be an automatic process, but a solution is a solution in the end. 😛