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Endnote references don't work in PDF

Explorer ,
Aug 11, 2019 Aug 11, 2019

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Exported PDF with bookmarks & links from InDesign 14.0.2.

TOC items link to the correct pages, but endnote references are not linked to anything.

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

Community Expert , Aug 11, 2019 Aug 11, 2019

Ah. I'm on InDesign 14.0.2 but Mojave 10.14.5. InDesign is not supported on Catalina yet so that be well be the issue.

~Barb

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Community Expert ,
Aug 11, 2019 Aug 11, 2019

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Hi Peter:

How are you exporting to PDF? Try Adobe PDF (Print) and enable the Hyperlinks checkbox in General category.

~Barb

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Explorer ,
Aug 11, 2019 Aug 11, 2019

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I wanted a lower-res PDF, so I selected the preset for smallest file size and checking Bookmarks & Hyperlinks before exporting.

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Community Expert ,
Aug 11, 2019 Aug 11, 2019

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Hi Peter:

And with hyperlinks enabled, you are not able to follow the endnote reference links?

~Barb

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Explorer ,
Aug 11, 2019 Aug 11, 2019

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Yes —  I thought that was pretty weird, so I tried a couple of times to make sure I hadn't forgotten to check it.  No links to endnotes whether I open in Adobe Reader (or Mac's Preview app).

(TOC links work, as do URLs used in the endnotes.)

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Community Expert ,
Aug 11, 2019 Aug 11, 2019

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Hmmm. I tried to post a demo of the whole process but can't get the file small enough. Basically, when I disable the checkbox, the links don't work. When I enable them, they do.

Here's the tail end of the process:

Aug-11-2019 11-09-30.gif

~Barb

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Explorer ,
Aug 11, 2019 Aug 11, 2019

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Interesting.  I selected the Bookmarks option [which also selects the Hyperlinks option], but maybe I should do as you did and only select Hyperlinks.

Are we using the same version?  [14.0.2]

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Community Expert ,
Aug 11, 2019 Aug 11, 2019

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Hi Peter:

Yes to 14.0.2. Bookmarks are a different feature, but turning them off and on didn't interfere with the hyperlinks. Nor did "do not include" interactive elements, all of which I tested before answering your question. Best I can tell, it's only the hyperlinks command that is in play here.

I wanted to share the animation to make sure we were on the same page with how the links should work. Since it appears we are, if it still isn't working for you, it may be time to rebuild preferences and/or cache. See https://www.rockymountaintraining.com/adobe-indesign-rebuilding-preferences-cache/

~Barb

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Explorer ,
Aug 11, 2019 Aug 11, 2019

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Rebuilt prefs & cache; no change.

(It seems unlikely to be causing this type of problem, but I am doing this on my MacBook that's running the latest Catalina beta.  I'll try it tomorrow on High Sierra or Mojave.)

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Community Expert ,
Aug 11, 2019 Aug 11, 2019

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Ah. I'm on InDesign 14.0.2 but Mojave 10.14.5. InDesign is not supported on Catalina yet so that be well be the issue.

~Barb

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Community Expert ,
Aug 11, 2019 Aug 11, 2019

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I can concur with Barb that I can successfully create a PDF with linked endnotes in InDesign 14.0.2 (and a new bug-fix version of InDesign soon to be released) in Mojave 10.14.6.

However, when I first tested a teaching file which I use on InDesign CC 2019, the PDF (created exactly as Barb describes) did not work.

I first went back to my 2018 version of the file and tested that file in InDesign 13.1.1. (CC 2018) and it worked.

So I restored my preferences on InDesign 14.0.2 and it successfully worked. So if it doesn't work for you in Mojave, try that.

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Explorer ,
Aug 11, 2019 Aug 11, 2019

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I did delete the preferences & cache, but that was not successful. So maybe Barb is correct that it may have something to do with trying to run 14.0.2 on Catalina. I'll find out tomorrow or Tuesday when I should be able to test this file on a Mac running Mojave.

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Explorer ,
Aug 13, 2019 Aug 13, 2019

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InDesign crashes sometimes when I try to export the PDF, so I'm thinking that you & Barb are correct about Catalina being the problem.  Unfortunately, schedule complications and the need to finish the content & layout edits for these two projects have prevented me from getting to the computers with Mojave. It may be another day or two.

Your comment reminded me that this document is partly copied from a document created a year ago, so that may also be contributing.  I'll also check to see if I can save that document as a PDF.

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Community Expert ,
Aug 13, 2019 Aug 13, 2019

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You may know this, but it's a pretty dangerous idea to use a known beta product for a production job, which it sounds like you're using.

I'd suggest you report your problems though the Apple Beta program so they fix them before the first public release of Catalina this fall.

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Explorer ,
Aug 13, 2019 Aug 13, 2019

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Thanks!  I generally follow your approach and was using my laptop only to make some edits — I only discovered the link problem when I tried to save a PDF on my laptop. [I will be able to do the final on another computer that's running Mojave.]

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Explorer ,
Aug 17, 2019 Aug 17, 2019

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So I made a PDF on a Mac with InDesign on High Sierra, a setup I've used before. All the TOC, links, & bookmarks work— except the endnotes.

After rebuilding all InDesign prefs on my laptop, I get the same results — all links work except the endnotes.

On documents created last year (pre-Catalina), the endnotes work fine.

Conclusion:  InDesign 14.0.2 running on Catalina has a problem in the way it creates the endnotes.

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Community Expert ,
Aug 17, 2019 Aug 17, 2019

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Thanks for the update, Peter. One of the lessons I've learned the hard way is not to install any beta (or newly-released) applications on my production computers.

~Barb

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Explorer ,
Aug 17, 2019 Aug 17, 2019

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I usually follow the same rule. This time, I wanted to do some minor edits on my laptop.  I decided to add the endnotes, which didn't work so well; I'll just have to take 15 minutes to recreate them on the iMac next week.

Thanks!

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Community Beginner ,
Sep 17, 2019 Sep 17, 2019

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I've just found this after having the same issue. I'm on InDesign CC2019, Mojave and have trashed preferences but still no clickable endnotes.

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Community Expert ,
Nov 27, 2020 Nov 27, 2020

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Hi together,

as I tested and found, this is the minimum requirement that linking from endnote references to endnote texts will work:

 

PDF Export (Print)

Compatibility: Acrobat 5 (PDF 1.4)

[x] Create Tagged PDF

[x] Hyperlinks enabled

 

If you want linking back from the endnote number at the start of the endnote text you have to be careful with formatting of that endnote number which in fact is a special character.

 

What worked:

The endnote is using a paragraph style without any specialities. No overrides, no character styles applied:

Result: No issue with linking back and forth between endnote reference number and number in the endnote text.

 

Now I had the idea to format that special character, the number that starts the endnote text with a character style.

Result: Linking from the endnote reference number to the endnote text worked. Backlinking did not.

 

More details in this thread:

Endnotes not exporting with links to PDF
Mr_Wonderstuff, Nov 18, 2020

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign/endnotes-not-exporting-with-links-to-pdf/m-p/11628582#M40545...

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign/endnotes-not-exporting-with-links-to-pdf/m-p/11628643#M40546...

 

What broke the backlinking:

[1] Character style applied through a GREP Style

[2] Character style applied directly as formatting

[3] Properties directly applied as overrides without a character style

 

What finally worked:

[4] Character style applied as nested style through the applied paragraph style:

Character style to 1 tabulator character

 

I did not test on to eliminate other factors.

Maybe one of the used properties are the real culprit?

 

What I defined in that character style and also tried to apply as character override was:

Character width and height: 70%

Baseline Offset: 2 Pt

Fill Color: "C=100 M=0 Y=0 K=0"

 

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

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Community Expert ,
Nov 27, 2020 Nov 27, 2020

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I did a bug report at InDesign UserVoice.

Also posted a link to my test documents over there.

Please vote for fixing the issue:

 

Text formatting can break backlinking endnote texts to endnote refs when exported to PDF (Print)
Uwe Laubender, Nov 27, 2020

https://indesign.uservoice.com/forums/601180-adobe-indesign-bugs/suggestions/42062446-text-formattin...

 

Thanks,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

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