Static Endnotes
I need a possibility to turn off the automatic endnote function that appears in InDesign CC 2018. It may be practical for some applications, but it greatly impedes the flexibility of many designs. Can someone tell me if this is possible – the endnotes don't need to be dynamic for my purposes. The way they were imported when placing a Word document in ID CC 2017 was fine.
Richt now, the only way I know to work around it is to use Peter Kahrel's footnote to endnote script.

Hello All,
Thank you for reporting the issue to us.
We have fixed the issue in the latest version of InDesign, Id 15.0
Please upgrade your InDesign application to the latest version to try out the fix.
If you face any problems with the new update, do let us know in the comments.
You may also follow the below given link for the list of all fixed issues in Id 15.0
https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/kb/fixed-issues.html
-InDesign Team
47 comments
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Anonymous commented
Why can we STILL not convert Word-linked endnotes to static text!? I have sidebars with citations that need to be pulled out of the main text flow, and then reinserted as its own text box, but doing so renumbers ALL of the citations and my researchers get angry that their endnote numbers in sidebars are no longer in chronological order, even if they're accurately matched citation-to-endnote. They want their endnotes the way they are in Word, and I need to be able to pull sections out of the text with ALL endnote numbering and ordering in tact. HOW IS THIS NOT FIXED YET?!
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Mark commented
Why the hell did you guys make this change to the endnotes?! It was fine in 2017 but now, I cant get my them to appear right after the article, they're placed on a separate page? I thought you guys had designers and creatives in mind, this is NOT how we should be working. Imagine 2017 having better functionality than the later versions. At least give us the ability to turn this feature on or off.
I don't want to use a script, I don't want to manually move the endnotes box because that could cause small spacing inconsistencies.
Seems to me that Indesign 2017 is the last really good version.
FIX THIS!!
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Anonymous commented
Endnote and footnote handling is a MESS!!!! in InDesign. It worked fine a couple of years ago, now it’s soooo baaaad!!!!!!
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Matt Mayerchak commented
I just tested importing static endnotes in CC2020 on a Word file that did not work in CC2019. i.e. when I imported in CC2019, the endnote refs lost their superscripts if I used local overrides only for the import setting. I am happy to report that in CC2020, the endnote refs now do come in as superscripted, so that I can find them and apply the character style to preserve them.
To do this in CC2019, I have to import using Style Mapping, and map the Endnote Refs style from word to my endnote refs char style in InDesign. While this works, I don't like using style mapping unless I'm working with an editor who deliberately uses styles in a way that we have worked out in advance. Too much junk comes in otherwise.
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Anonymous commented
This is NOT fixed, read the original question!!! It's ridiculous this hasn't been addressed after a year of people requesting it.
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karinbroden commented
How do I get my footnotes to end up in a separate document at the end of book, instead of at the end of each chapter. Each chapter is a separate document, all linked through a indb.
Sincerely, KArin
This function used to be active in Indesign a few versions ago...
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Anonymous commented
14.0.2 does not fix this issue. If I import a docx with endnotes and set the endnotes to static, the note reference numbers come in with no superscript just as they did in 14.0.1. Imported the same docx into Indesign CC2017 with references superscripted. Incopy behaves the same way.
Am I missing a new setting? Can a hot fix be released?
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Thomas Stark commented
I’m sorry, but this problem is not fixed. The imported endnotes references are still not in superscript and they are not associated with a character style; see my posting of 15 October 2018. Your colleague Ravi Kiran said he was looking into the problem on 21 October but has not provided a solution until now. I am using ID CC 14.0.1 x64 (German); as far as I can tell, this is the present version. This has been a problem since 2017! Please help!
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Matt Mayerchak commented
When was it fixed? Has it been updated after CC2019 came out? At the moment, the static endnotes feature cannot be used because it strips the superscript formatting, making it impossible to find the endnote refs and apply a character style to them. I don't see a new InDesign update available.
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Anonymous commented
Trouble is Abhinav, that you - Adobe - took so so long to fix something - that was not even broken in the first place. No apology, no understanding.
Next time you introduce a new feature, it should be fully tested before being released, this 'dynamic' note thing was not. -
Anonymous commented
While it's nice to be able to import footnotes and convert t endnotes, having no ability to then convert endnotes to 'static' is causing big headaches and wasting time. If text has to be cut and pasted into a separate box, it seems to delete the notes and likewise cutting and pasting endnotes completely messes things up. If I put a caption with endnote reference in it's own text box, poof, no more endnote. PLEASE FIX THIS!
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Ann Marr commented
Working with an imported Word document in CC 2018. Endnotes were manually typed in Word to avoid automatic numbering. To import the doc into InDesign, the numbers did not resemble endnote numbering, but appeared to be normal text. Now, in InDesign, once the numbers were superscripted (manually, not by using a style), they became automatic and are changing.
Example: endnote 81 is supposed to be 1880 census... but was Civil War Draft. I printed the endnotes, started checking them, and suddenly endnote 81 is correct, but 83 is wrong. Each time I open the document, different endnotes have changed numbers. With nearly 900 endnotes, this is a disaster.
The endnotes are in a separate document from the text. I had created a book doc to manage the book (4 sections: text, report, endnotes, and index) but have now deleted it, hoping to eliminate the problem. But I have to check all those notes.
With a copy of the InDesign doc, will try inserting the endnotes and see if I can straighten it out. But I resent having this monumental job thrown at me. This is a book for publication - the endnotes MUST be correct.
In conclusion, when the imported Word document has numbers typed in as if they are words, InDesign should recognize that automatic numbering is not desired, especially when a style is not applied. They were not to be static or dynamic endnotes - they were to be text I handled manually.
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William Overbeeke commented
I am also noticing that Endnotes are being stripped of their character style and superscript on import when the Static Endnotes option is chosen. Hope this is fixed in the next update!
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Thomas Stark commented
I was thrilled to find out that the newest update of InDesign (14.0 x64) gives me the possibility to import the endnotes as static endnotes. HOWEVER: the references in the text are no longer in superscript and no longer have a character style, which means I have to go through the document, find 100s of notes and format them manually, hoping I don't format the wrong numbers. This is no satisfactory solution. Can you fix this?
Until then, I guess that means back to Peter Kahrel. Why is this so difficult for you? It used to work just fine. -
Anonymous commented
Dear Abhinav Agarwal,
The beta build release notes suggest that this feature is not part of the release plan (see InDesign CC Prerelease FRQ ID - ID-4203074). Please can you provide an update on the status of this request?
Regards,
Tom -
Anonymous commented
It's now August 2018 and I do not see any resolution to this issue. I just lost 2 days of work reading everything I could find online, trying to get a script to work, and using the Adobe online chat because I could not get through on the phone. I was told in the chat that there is no way around this.
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Cole Schweikhardt commented
The ability to unlink endnote references and the endnotes is ESSENTIAL. There are many cases in which this is imperative. In a large publication endnotes may start over each chapter or section. All the publication's end notes may need to be placed at the end of the publication organized by chapter/section. A publication may be set up as a Book and be comprised of many documents each with their own endnote order...on and on and on. This DEFINITELY should be a feature that can be optional.
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Ruben commented
I have a problem with the new end note system in indesign 2018
I have a document were I would like to have the images on Layer 1.
The english text for the book on layer 2, and the danish text on layer 3. -
When I place the danish text on layer 3 the danish end notes is added to the english end notes on layer 2 - creating total chaos in my document. I really don know what to do? -
Quentin Wilson commented
Again, please don’t throw the baby away... Dynamic endnotes in InDesign are long overdue. But they need an “off” button. Many of the books I design I then export in .idml format and send to layout contractors who still work in CS6, which they own, and they don’t subscribe to Creative Cloud. With InDesign 2018, however, exporting or saving back to .idml (or any ealier version) immediately strips all endnotes out of the file, including all in-text reference numbers. Any book with endnotes that I am designing for my contrators must be done in InDesign 2017. It is all well and good that both 2017 and 2018 can be available together, but it gets very confusing, and enormously frustrating. Surly it cannot be that difficult to have an option for either dynamic or static endnotes...? (By the latter I mean endnotes as they are in all earlier versions of InDesin than 2018.)
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Connie Richardson commented
Just upgraded to CC 2018 and was shocked that endnotes are now not working as before. Please fix this dynamic endnote problem pronto!