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K
KarstenWentink
Participant
February 19, 2019
Answered

Split footnotes in two colums

  • February 19, 2019
  • 3 replies
  • 8854 views

Dear Indesign wizards,

We work on academic books, and academics love footnotes. When working with a two-column layout, the footnotes of each column appear at the bottom of that column. So far so good. But when there are a lot of footnotes things get messy, one column can be 50% filled with footnotes and the column next to it can have only 1-2 lines of footnotes (or even none). This doesn't look particularly nice.

We are wondering if there is a way to even them out?

I know it is possible to set the footnotes in one-column, but that doesn't look good. Would it however be possible to sever the link between the footnotes and the columns in such a way that the footnotes of one text frame are evened out over two columns. This would mean that if in the first column there are 15 footnotes and in the second column there are 5, they are middled in such a way that on the bottom of each column you have 10 footnotes. This would mean that not all footnotes would appear below the column in which they are invoked (since they can also be send to the other column of the same textframe) but they do appear on the same page. This will bother no-one and it will look a lot better.

Example:

This for example doesn't look nice, especially if there is even a larger difference between the lengths of the footnotes in each column.

When we would even them out over the two columns it would look like this:

But I can't find a way of doing this automatically, and even by hand it is an almost impossible job, especially when working with >500 page books.

And no, we don't want to use end-noted instead

Is there a way to this?

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Laubender

Hi Karsten,

if you don't mind working with non-live footnotes take a look at Ariel's Footwork script:

https://www.id-extras.com/products/footwork/

I'm not sure if that will fit your needs and can balance footnotes like you are showing in your first screenshot.

Just tested Ariel's script a bit. Just a few minutes. I was not able to control the flow like I wanted. Maybe because I had different numbers of columns set to my text frames in the story? I began with one-column text frames with the first two pages and proceded with two-column text frames on the next pages.

Before running the script:

After running the script and adapting the two columns to my text frames again:

As you can see balancing of footnotes like you want is possible. However I don't know why the frame with footnotes 6 to 8 is not on the page where the footnote references in the main text are.

Tried again with the script to compose that after assigning two columns to my text frames by unchecking "Footnotes may appear on next page", but was greeted with an error message:

But maybe you are successful running the script on your document?

Just try it.

Regards,
Uwe

3 replies

TᴀW
TᴀW
Legend
February 20, 2019

Hi Karsten,

As Uwe mentioned, Footwork can definitely do this. If you'd like more info, or help setting up a test run, get in touch privately and I'll be glad to assist.

Thanks,

Ariel

Geоrge
Geоrge
Legend
February 19, 2019

Footnotes in columns | Peter Kahrel - check here the script of Mighty Peter.

Remember, never say you can't do something in InDesign, it's always just a question of finding the right workaround to get the job done. © David Blatner
K
KarstenWentinkAuthor
Participant
February 20, 2019

Hi George, no this is not what I'm looking for. What this script does is:

  1. In a single-column text, set the notes in columns.
  2. In a text set in columns, convert the notes to column-spanning notes. From CC2017, InDesign supports this natively.

I don't want to have 2 colums of footnotes below a single column text (1) and option (2) is now native in Indesign and converts a two column notes to a single column, which is also not what I want.

    L
    Community Expert
    LaubenderCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    February 20, 2019

    Hi Karsten,

    if you don't mind working with non-live footnotes take a look at Ariel's Footwork script:

    https://www.id-extras.com/products/footwork/

    I'm not sure if that will fit your needs and can balance footnotes like you are showing in your first screenshot.

    Just tested Ariel's script a bit. Just a few minutes. I was not able to control the flow like I wanted. Maybe because I had different numbers of columns set to my text frames in the story? I began with one-column text frames with the first two pages and proceded with two-column text frames on the next pages.

    Before running the script:

    After running the script and adapting the two columns to my text frames again:

    As you can see balancing of footnotes like you want is possible. However I don't know why the frame with footnotes 6 to 8 is not on the page where the footnote references in the main text are.

    Tried again with the script to compose that after assigning two columns to my text frames by unchecking "Footnotes may appear on next page", but was greeted with an error message:

    But maybe you are successful running the script on your document?

    Just try it.

    Regards,
    Uwe

    Barb Binder
    Community Expert
    Barb BinderCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    February 19, 2019

    Hi Karsten:

    No, that feature doesn't exist within InDesign currently. You can add a feature request here: Adobe InDesign Feedback.

    In the meantime, the already-discounted option is the run the notes in a single column, or you can enable Split Footnotes, which will try to balance them, but still won't achieve what you are showing above.

    ~Barb

    ~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
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