Working with footnotes is very slow

[PaunEsDur]

I am using indesign 2019. I have good hardware (RAM 8GB, AMD A 0-9700, 3.50 ghz). The problem is the slow footnote update. I imported text from vord, it has 50 pages and about 40 footnotes. Any changes I make to the footnote text, updating takes all eternity. What is the cause? Is it possible to speed up the work with footnotes?

[Laubender · Accepted solution]

Hi,

40 footnotes is not that much.

Are all footnotes in the same story?

What's your operating system version?

Will it help if you are using the Story Editor window for updating the text?

FWIW: Recommendation for InDesign CC 2019 is 16 GB of RAM.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[PaunEsDur]

//Are all footnotes in the same story?

Unfortunately, I don't have much experience with InDesign 2019.

Explain to me what “all footnotes in the same story” means?

//What's your operating system version?

Windows 10

// Will it help if you are using the Story Editor window for updating the text?

I didn't even know about the Story Editor. Thank you for the warning, I will use it regularly.

Regard, thanks!

[Laubender]

I suppose you are using text frames that are "connected" ( threaded ) to other text frames so that the text is running through several text frames in the document. Such a thread of text is called a Story. The end of a story is marked with a non-printing # sign in the color of the layer the text frame is on. To see that mark you have to do menu command Show Invisible Characters from the Type menu and view the page in Normal mode and Overprint Preview turned off.

The longer a story is, the more text it does contain, the longer it takes InDesign to calculate changes throughout the document.

You shorten a footnote text on page 1. The composition of text in all pages could change if the story runs through text frames of all the pages. If you have enabled rules in the paragraph formatting that an amount of lines should stay together it takes longer for the calculation. If the text frame options dicate that text lines should be justified vertically it needs even more calculations.

Only to name some of the reasons why editing text could slow down.

Also try to not view thumbnails of page views of you have the Pages Panel open all the time.

More on this:

https://indesignsecrets.com/speeding-indesign-chart-ideas.php

https://indesignsecrets.com/why-is-indesign-soooo-slow.php

https://indesignsecrets.com/6-tips-speed-up-indesign.php

See also in the comments section.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )