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Answered

Footnotes: how can I manage (add and link) missing reference number to already existing footnote?

Forum|Forum|11 months ago
April 19, 2025
5 replies
882 views

Hi!

I have a small (or big?) problem. After I imported my long .doc document with hundreds of footnotes into InDesign, I found out that few (one or two) reference numbers (those in main text) are missing, but all footnotes are there, correctly imported.

How can I add the reference number in text and link it to existing footnote? If I do the "Add a footnote" standard operation, then the reference is created, but also a new (empty) footnote container is created below the main text and all following footnotes (I mean their numbers) are moved by +1.

Any tip, how to fix this?

Thank you!

Correct answer Robert at ID-Tasker

@Laubender

There is no corresponding text for this wrong one - but its contents is shifted to the next one - and so on.

So only copy&pasting next to the previous will help.

@maravac2468

Can you share your document - please click my nickname if you prefer to share it privately.

L

Laubender

Community Expert

@maravac2468 said: "… But after import the reference is missing and some weird nonsense character is in the main text instead of reference number. "

Hi @maravac2468 ,

what happens if you remove that "weird nonsense character"?
Would the corresponding footnote text be removed as well?

If that happens you could copy the footnote text and add a new footnote in InDesign when selecting and replacing that "weird nonsense character" with the new footnote.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender
( Adobe Community Expert )

Robert at ID-TaskerCorrect answer

Legend

@Laubender

There is no corresponding text for this wrong one - but its contents is shifted to the next one - and so on.

So only copy&pasting next to the previous will help.

@maravac2468

Can you share your document - please click my nickname if you prefer to share it privately.

M

maravac2468Author

Participant

Big thanks 🙏 to @Robert at ID-Tasker and his GREAT tool called ID-Tasker (www.id-tasker.com). He helped me a lot by providing perfectly prepared tasks to load to his ID (InDesign) Tasker tool as well as communicating, explaining a bit, how it works, how it is powerful, flexible and universal and what else can be done by it (plus givim lots of examples). We already solved another problem by creating another task and perfectly automated a process of finding and creating all hyperlinks, including custom style apply.
I have to say that I am so amazed and I can easily imagine that ID Tasker can solve much more and even complex issues or problems and automate it. Yes, I need to say also, that it looks a bit puristic and "geeky". Some kind of logic and structural way of thinking is needed from common user like me, but this is so unique tool that I would like to spend some time to get to the bottom of this so I could use it much more in all of my next InDesign projects.
And again: thank you Robert Tkaczyk that you have spent so much time by solving my InDesign problems and being very opened and helpful. 👍

Barb Binder

Community Expert

Great screenshots, thank you, @maravac2468 —I see what you are up against, but have never experienced this myself.

I have worked excusively with .docx files for years, so I tend to agree with @Peter Kahrel. Try saving the Word .doc file as .docx (which includes the .doc file inside) to see if that solves it. And you could certainly try placing an .rtf version as suggested as well.

I suspect this is happening on import so one more idea... try breaking the Word file into smaller files. Maybe two or four files where you have one and then place them sequentially, with your cursor at the end of each segment as you place the next one so that you end up with one long file again. Maybe it's an issue with the sheer number of notes that InDesign is struggling to import?

~Barb

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training

Peter Kahrel

Community Expert

Many footnote problems in imported Word documents go away when you change the Word document type. In your case, In Word, save your .doc file as .docx, then import again. If you still see the problem, bizarrely, saving the .docx as .doc might fix the problem.

Robert at ID-Tasker

Legend

@maravac2468

First, maybe your file got corrupted - try IDMLing - export as IDML, open, save with a new name - do not overwrite your original file.

If it doesn't help - and you work on Windows - you could use free version of my ID-Tasker tool to load info about all Footnotes and locate "blank" markers.

Or you can always share your document with me - please click my nickname if you prefer to share it privately.

Barb Binder

Community Expert

Hi @maravac2468:

I work in very footnote intensive files (150-500 notes per article) and have never seen this.

Can you enable Type > Show Hidden Characters and then share a screenshot of a page where this is happening? Even better, can you click the ¶ button on the main ribbon in the Word document (same as Show Hidden Characters in InDesign) and show us the same page? Those two screen shots should help us narrow down the issue.

~Barb

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training

M

maravac2468Author

Participant

Screenshots below... hope it's clear enough.

See the footnote 1213, which is correctly displayed in word document - reference is linked to a correct footnote.

But after import the reference is missing and some weird nonsense character is in the main text instead of reference number. Next reference number is imported correctly, but in InDesign it has the incorrect number (which is -1 comparing to the original word document) and it is linked to the footnote which should be linked to the previous reference (now corrupt, because it's not a number).

(Don't bother with red text color - it's just my internal temporary colored character style for bold.)

Word (main text):