InDesign Footnotes

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
January 9, 2025
2 replies
312 views

How do I get the text in an InDesign document with 44 endnotes, each of which has text with hyperlinks, into Word format such that the footnotes remain "smart" and the hyperlinks are still embedded?

I have tried everything. Word, Google Docs, RTF, text only, INDD markup, INDD tagged text, etc. etc. Either I get the footnotes to be "smart" or the hyperlinks to remain embedded, but not both.

Robert at ID-Tasker

Legend

@kayessell

FOOTnotes or ENDnotes?

Can you share a sample?

I'm sure it would be possible - but you would need two tools - one, script in InDesign, that will add extra markers, then second, macro in WORD, that will "reverse" the process.

K

kayessellAuthor

Participant

In the process of experimenting to find a solution, I have discovered that Word does not like Endnotes from InDesign. So I converted Endnotes to Footnotes in InDesign BEFORE exporting to RTF (no Word option). So it will be Footnotes. However if there's a solution that like Endnotes better, I can do that. I am no expert with scripts. How would that work exactly?

BobLevine

Community Expert

You want to go from InDesign to Word?

That's pretty much like putting an egg back in its shell after you make an omelet. While what you want to do may be possible it's not going to be straightforward or easy.

You can try exporting a PDF and then saving the PDF as Word from Acrobat for a starting point but after that, what you wind up with is anyone's guess.

K

kayessellAuthor

Participant

Thanks for the tip! I tried exporting to PDF and then managed to open that in Word. While the hyperlinks stayed embedded, the footnotes were no longer smart. Plus the text flow and format was quite messsy (which I'd be happy to deal with if footnotes remained smart, and hyperlinks active).

FYI: yes, it's odd we want to do this but there's good reason. Client gave me a Word doc, complete with footnotes, to make into an upscale booklet, which I did in InDesign. Process involved many, many rounds of edits, especially the text, and some footnotes too. Client now desires to excerpt part of the final piece as a starting point for another document. The original doc is quite obsolete. Makes sense?

BobLevine

Community Expert

It won't do you much good now but in the future for this type of workflow, WordsFlow from Em Software would have helped. You have a lot of manual work ahead of you.

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