Managing Multiple Sets of Endnotes In a Document AND allowing Endnotes to refer to a separate INDD Document
Issue #1:
Here's my first dilemma: I am building a book with several hundred pages. This book will be printed (won't be an eBook/iBook). I'm keeping each chapter as its own document that I will then collect together as a larger Book at the end. The last chapter will be just for all the book's endnotes. In previous versions of InDesign, I would import the Word document, delete the endnotes out of the "Chapter x" document, and pop them back into the "Endnotes chapter" without affecting the superscripts referencing the endnotes throughout the text. Easy. Now, in cc 2018 if I delete the endnotes out of the "Chapter X" document, the reference superscripts throughout the text get deleted as well. I don't want this. Is there any way to disconnect the superscripts in the text from the endnotes? If I must, I can leave the endnotes in a text frame off the page if InDesign MUST have a reference. Which leads me to my next problem:
Issue #2:
Each chapter I'm working on has multiple sets of endnotes, i.e. multiple side bars with their own set of endnotes that need to be kept exclusive from the general chapter endnotes. In the previous version, before Indesign could recognize endnotes, it would allow me to have multiple sets of endnotes that don't interact. Now, it's one big run-on list of end notes. Example: I have 10 paragraphs of chapter text, with endnotes #1-5 in it. Then, I have a sidebar that gets inserted after that. At the end of the first sentence in the sidebar, there is an #1 endnote that refers to the sidebar endnotes. However, Indesign converts it to #6, because it's the endnote that falls after #5 in the general chapter.
Is there a way to fix this so I can restart the numbers for each sidebar? Can this be done with style sheets?
Sarah Nichols
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13 comments
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Troy Deckert
commented
Endnotes are possible, and an index, but only in one InDesign (.indd) document at a time. As of Nov, 2020, InDesign has a basic endnote function, but it seems to only work in one distinct .indd document at a time, not in the book file (.indb) function. I haven't tried to merge two .indd docs with endnotes or with indexes. Will that work without script? Thus, Adobe offers, paradoxically, a book file (.indb) that doesn't work for a huge number of books, like non-fiction books that need indexes and endnotes at the end. And as another commentator noted, the Adobe User Manual doesn't point this out, which by being honest would save the users a lot of time, but they make us look it up and read these comments. The book file (.indd) only consolidates page numbers and the TOC from the various chapter docs, not the index or the endnotes! I'm going to put my 200-page to 500-page books each into one .indd document, and not use a .indb book file. The other comments are spot on: How is the supposed industry standard publishing product any good for non-fiction books without endnotes on an index at the end? Again, both of which aren't possible in InDesign's so-called "book" file .indb. Adobe, please think of the non-fiction book market (both EPUB and print), would you? While Adobe keeps adding to its thousand ways to adjust the how the letter A looks on the book cover (which we all love, to be sure), Adobe ignores these these very basic functions for book publishers (indexing, combining documents, endnotes) which would bring customers running from the many, many people who are working on books and long documents. Also, be warned users, the book file (.indb) can eliminate your hyperlinks in some cases, so you have to manually reenter them, see https://www.bookdesignmadesimple.com/indesign-book-feature/
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Arthur
commented
We need endnotes at the end of a book.
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RW
commented
Yes. This feature is a must for book publishers like myself. Please add it.
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TH
commented
Full agreement. Still a pain in the butt issue.
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Dmitrij
commented
The endnotes must be in the end of book, not in the end of each book document! It's urgent!
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karinbroden
commented
Still no solution to this huge problem??? HAs anyone figured out how to get around the flaw in InDesign, or how do you all deal with this problem?
Desperate for a solution!! -
Marie Lesoway
commented
Like Jannette, I'm flabbergasted that InDesign can't do back-of-book endnotes. And like another reader commented, it's like building a car without a transmission! If you can't fix the issue, at least fix your user manual to make it clear that back-of-book (vs. back-of-document) endnotes are impossible. But it's really unacceptable that supposedly sophisticated software can't do a basic publishing task.
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Jannette Whippy
commented
I can't believe that this has not been resolved yet. What publishing software wouldn't have this ability?
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Anonymous
commented
I know this post is rather old now, but I agree with much of what you have said. However from what I can make out, one of your issues can be fixed in the current 2018 version. In the Type menu there is a Document Endnotes Options section. In the following dialogue box there is a dropdown button that allows you to change numbering from continuous to per story.
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Anonymous
commented
PLEASE add these features to the footnote and endnote functionality of InDesign:
- Continuous numbering of footnotes and endnotes throughout the various indd files within a book document
- Ability to put the endnotes of the different indd files within a book document in a separate .indd file at the end of the book; numbering continuous OR per chapter. -
Startled Squid
commented
Please, please, PLEASE implement this desperately needed feature. Thanks!
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UGUR AKINCI
commented
A great feature. It would be very helpful indeed. Thanks in advance.
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Courtney Lorenne
commented
Endnotes for books so that all references can be included en masse in a separate chapter at the end.. This would be EXTREMELY helpful. Thanks!