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martinp72156928
New Participant
November 17, 2017
Answered

Is it possible to unlink endnotes in indesign?

  • November 17, 2017
  • 3 replies
  • 5776 views

When i place a word (2016) file into indesign (the current adobe creative cloud version), it retains the endnote linkage in the original word document. is there any way to remove the linkage? in other words, after the document is placed in indesign, i want to preserve the sequential numbering of the superscript in the text and in the endnotes but i don't want them to be connected.

    Correct answer AnneMarie Concepcion

    Unfortunately Aman, you and the developers have no idea how typesetters actually work. It is common to cut endnotes from a document and place them into another document. Yet still want to have the endnote references remain in the document you are cutting the endnotes from. When I look in the "Endnotes" document you referenced, the following is stated:

    • Deleting entire endnote frame deletes all the corresponding endnote references.

    It is absolutely absurd that Adobe would make this change to Indesign. You have effectively relegated typesetters to CC2017. Unless there is some sort of idiotic workaround to deal with your "improvement"?


    I share your frustration!

    Be sure to go vote for the feature request "Convert Endnotes to Static Text" on the InDesign feedback page. And add a comment to explain yourself too (there are 20+ comments on it to date). The engineers do read this page, quite closely, and often participate in discussions there.

    Aman linked to the page already: Static Endnotes – Adobe InDesign Feedback

    3 replies

    AnneMarie Concepcion
    AnneMarie Concepcion
    Adobe Expert
    May 9, 2018

    While we're waiting to see if they add "Convert endnotes to static" as an option at some point, here's a workaround that could help. Because that's how CC2017 works (and all previous versions), it brings them in as static endnotes. You can install CC 2017 even if you have  CC 2018 installed. (If you deleted it, reinstall from the Creative Cloud app, look for "Older versions.")

    Create a new INDD file in CC  2017, place  the Word file (choose to include  Endnotes in the Word Import Options dialog box), save the file, open it in CC  2018, it'll say "converted," then just save it in CC 2018. Endnotes should come through as static. You might  even be able to skip the "converted" step an just cut and paste the text into the new file. Be sure to include formatting otherwise you'll lose all your superscripts.

    If you ever need to convert the static endnotes to live ones in InDesign, you can  use Peter Kahrel's free script that changes them all into numbered cross-references:

    Dynamic endnotes, column notes, margin notes | Peter Kahrel

      hammer0909
      hammer0909
      Adobe Expert
      July 25, 2018

      Adding to the "why" you wouldn't want to use endnotes is the situation where the document has multiple references to the same endnote. I ran into this recently with a document and discovered that you can only link to an endnote one time. So I need to convert them to static endnotes and then use cross references instead.

        amaarora
        Community Manager
        amaaroraCommunity Manager
        Community Manager
        November 17, 2017

        Hi,

        Do you want to unlink it to the word document or

        do you want to unlink the endnote anchors in the text with the endnote text? Why would you want this though? Static Endnotes – Adobe InDesign Feedback

        -Aman

        M
        martinp72156928Author
        New Participant
        November 17, 2017

        hi aman: thanks for replying. i think i want the latter: unlink the

        endnote anchors in the text with the endnote text --- AFTER the text is

        imported (or "placed") in indesign. until recently, that unlinking

        happened automatically.

        why do i want to do this? sometimes i import multiple word docs into

        indesign. each document has a endnote numbering system of 1 thru "x."

        when i import the second or third or nth document into indesign, both

        superscript and endnotes are renumbered beginning with the last number

        of the previous document.

        sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't. there's no consistency. m

        amaarora
        Community Manager
        amaaroraCommunity Manager
        Community Manager
        November 17, 2017

        Hey,

        Try and check out the Type-Document endnote options and try changing the scope to and restart numbering options.

        Also, if the numbering mode is continous and the scope is set as Document then the endnotes of word document placed on page x will have a higher number than the endnotes on page < x

        See this:Endnotes

        -Aman

        vladan saveljic
        vladan saveljic
        Inspiring
        November 17, 2017

        just by script if someone can provide you

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