Indesign not recognizing Word Endnotes

[Herbiedriver1]

I have placed various Word docs all created with endnotes, I have used every combination of importing and I still cannot get the endnotes to show in indesign.  What the hell!?  Saved the word doc out as every imaginable version, imported static text, not static text, end of story, end of document...

Nothing

What else do I need to look for?

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

End notes are fragile in InDesign and triply fragile when imported from Word. Two times out of three, they work just fine (at least for a print layout). The third... well, you're there, and when you want to export to EPUB it gets even worse.

You don't say what version you're using, or on what platform, but if it's Word 365... well, I haven't found anything past Word 2016 to be very reliable, especially for export.

You say you've tried everything, but try saving the document to RTF, then opening it and saving first as DOC, exit, reopen the RTF, save as DOCX. One of those two should import properly. That process usually cleans up Word document faults, especially the links that are so crucial to end notes. If you're on Word 2019/365, try saving explicitly to earlier versions; I think the menu offers several options.

Another thing I would try is exporting to PDF from Word, just to see if the end notes show up and are properly linked.

Oh — are the end note references showing up in the imported text? What happens when you click on them?

[Herbiedriver1]

Thank you for the suggestions, converting the word documents to RTF seemed to be my solution. It must be something with InDesign on my machine as it's doing it with every docx file, from various sources.

[Barb Binder]

Hi @Herbiedriver1:

Did you enable Show Import Options at the bottom of the File > Place dialog box, and enable Include Endnotes? I have not had any issues with this workflow placing a .docx file created in Word 365. They convert as expected.

~Barb

[daring_speaker5DB9]

I have the same problem that the endnotes are not showing, even when the option in the dialog box is checked.
I hope that Adobe will fix this bug soon. 

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

It's hard to say which end the real problem is on. Word has always been difficult with endnotes, and it may just be beyond ID'S ability to sort out every combination of code.

There aren't many things to compare it with, though; can't think of a second common import of Word files that might show the common flaw. Or, for that matter, a second format commonly imported into ID.

Either way, it's frustrating. 

That said, have you tried export to RTF, and import of that? Or RTF and then save back to DOCX? That sometimes fixes Word file issues. 

[FireballStooge0]

Another popular reason for this problem: If you're in a workflow that involves getting text from an editorial team, make sure they accept and close tracked-changes in the word doc (in word: Review / Accept / Accept All Changes and Stop Tracking) .. Otherwise it's likely you'll import the text to ID and all kinds of chaos will ensue, like getting endnote reference numbers but no endnotes, etc. But accepting changes & stopping tracking sorts that out quickly. 

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

That's a good point to raise. IME, unfortunately, a lot of problematic Word docs have never been in the hands of a second author, so this simple prevention/fix won't apply. Definitely worth remembering, though.

[ian chambers]

I have found that continuation lines in  Word cause problems with endnotes. Remove them from Word.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

"Continuation lines"?

[ian chambers]

They are lines above footnotes,  called continuation lines when a footnote goes to the next page. They are the large line above the footnote on the second page.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Okay. There are other terms and other meanings of "continuation," so I wanted to clarify.

Interesting; I can't say as I've ever run into this as a cause of import problems. But it's worth taking into account, especially since the most problematic docs tend to be the very formal/academic ones with scads of footnote that do wrap to a second page.

[ian chambers]

Yes, I discovered it when I tried to place academic Word docs. Usually, the endnotes after the continuation line do not import.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

So... a footnote continuation line, but not necessarily a footnote continuation, causes all subsequent end notes to break?

That's one subtle combination of bear traps.

(Thinking how to easily test this...)

[ian chambers]

I don't know if it does it with all docs but it did it with one of mine. I spent hours trying to solve it. The endnotes that were missing showed in story editor but were impossible to get.

[Frits5C99]

Oh dear. Seems we're in a hornet's nest here...

I had the same kind of problem and similar problems when trying to find a solution. As I usually do, I made a copy of the author's text (714 endnotes), getting all garbage out. Loaded the new text in InDesign and after some formatting I discovered the first 176 endnote numbers were missing, as was the connected endnote text. I tried to reload my copy into a new InDesign file to see if my formatting in InDesign had anything to do with it. Seemed to work, but now the endnote text was missing (and when I tried – as a test– to add a new endnote, InDesign stopped). Converting endnotes to footnotes in Word had the same result. Loading the original text by the author was no improvement: now only 8 of the original 714 appeared.

Time to check the community. I converted the document (my copy file) to rtf as suggested here, and now the numbers were there but there was not a trace to be found of the endnote text. However, now I converted the endnotes to footnotes in InDesign, and all but one appeared! (It did take some 15 minutes...) So, I reconverted them to endnotes to see what happens – well, after half an hour back to square 1.

Then I changed the rtf file to doc (word97/2003) and now it seems to look fine! I can even add new endnotes without crashing (up till now).

Many thanks to James Gifford for this workaround!

But of course I'm a bit worried. In a forum predating this one, I had a discussion (about a problem I had with a book containing a 1000+ footnotes) with someone, who wrote I that with such a number I should use endnotes instead 'because the Chicago Manual of Style said so'. (Ehhh, not adopted in all countries...) But if endnotes in the Anglosaxon world are commonplace, why is this function, of a company belonging to this world, after all these years of developing still so 'fragile' (dixit James Gifford)? Authors use Word, book designers use InDesign, that's a given. Adobe can't just point at Microsoft, in my opinion.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Nothing to add except editorial, really. I don't think it's a case of Adobe or anyone pointing a finger at Microsoft... at least, not unreasonably. MS has never played fair with its office suite. changing features and functions and even file structure often, and often without any notice or documentation. So in theory a mature app like ID should be able to implement a stable import function; in practice, with MS's crypto changes and the fragiity of the DOCX format (and its tendency to bloat and gather loads of garbage data) make it difficult.

In the end, it's two different companies, two different file format and structures and two wholly different aims for the tools. It would be nice if we had a truly universal standard for word processing files — or if MS would just stop changing the one we have — but instead we have a somewhat broken tool, mostly in the hands of inept users, that tends to progressively damage its own files, with features that work only on a wing and a prayer, when they work at all.... and then it's supposed to open in ID like a native doc with no faults.

Fortunately the conversion to RTF and back to DOC/X usually produces a working file. Usually.

[Frits5C99]

At least it would be nice if Adobe put in some warning when it comes to 'fragile' Word functions. Might have safed a few people here a night of frustration (and in my case, redoing half a day's work). Let's hope MS keeps supporting its 20-years old .doc format.

[detailed_enthusiasm16B8]

I hope this is good news. I found the missing Endnotes without having to do any "work around". Having placed the Word doc (either .doc or .docx worked) into InDesign, I then went to Type>Document Endnote options and sent a character style for the endnote numbers and a paragraph style for the endnote text. Then I did a Find for the paragraph style for the endnote text. Walla, the whole text with endnote numbers and text intact was off on the pasteboard of some random page. All I had to do was cut that text box and paste it on the page that I wanted it. Easy Peasy!!

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

I don't think that's a very common hurdle, but it's a new one. Worth keeping in mind when notes go "missing" — a simpler method might be to open the file in InCopy and go through the content looking for the misplaced ones.

Most faults never import the material, though, at least in my experience.

[Frits5C99]

It's one of the things I tried (see my other post). The text of the first 176 endnotes was still missing and looking for the character style I made, only the positions where the corresponding note numbers should have been were found – empty spaces.