Footnotes split even after "Allow split notes" unchecked

[Rory Mole]

Hi there to you all,
I've been busy with importing my older projects I did for clients using Adobe InDesign CS6, but importing the MS Word files because they contain hundreds of footnotes per project.
I've managed to format the footnotes to my liking but there is still a problem.  Even after unchecking the box next to "Allow Split Notes", I have a footnote reference number in the main text on a left page, but it's corresponding note is on the next page.  Is this right?  Maybe I have misunderstood the purpose of this setting, "Allow Split Notes." Does this mean that the footnote at the bottom of the text underneath the line must not be split up to another page?  Or is there another meaning to this?

Any help or suggestions will be most appreciated.

Many thanks....

[walt.farrell]

The desktop Help for the Notes Panel says:

Quote

• Allow split notes—when selected, footnote/sidenote bodies can begin in one text frame and continue in another. When unselected, Affinity attempts to keep each body's lines together on the same page; story text may reflow, but unwanted whitespace may occur in some text frames.

That says it's about keeping all of a footnote's text together, not about keeping all of the footnotes on the same page as their references.

The way I read other Help topics on Footnotes, I think they're always supposed to start on the same page as the reference. So I'm surprised at what you're seeing.

[MikeTO]

I've duplicated the problem and it's a bug that will need to be fixed because it also caused a secondary issue - when this happens Publisher fails to honour the Min Gap Before setting for the second column or frame.

You put the marker in column or frame 1 so the footnote should go below it. When the text engine can't fit the text containing the footnote marker and the footnote itself in that column or frame so both need to move to the next column or frame. Publisher is moving just the footnote and not the text containing the footnote marker.

[NathanC]

Hey @Rory Mole @MikeTO,

Apologies on the late reply, I've not been able to replicate this in v2.0.4, my footnotes generate at the footer of the page/frame they were originally inserted on. Could you confirm if this is working on 2.0.4?

If it still occurs, could you provide me with a sample file? I'll then get this logged and also include the problem which relates to the Min gap on the second frame/page.

[MikeTO]

1 hour ago, NathanC said:

Hey @Rory Mole @MikeTO,

Apologies on the late reply, I've not been able to replicate this in v2.0.4, my footnotes generate at the footer of the page/frame they were originally inserted on. Could you confirm if this is working on 2.0.4?

If it still occurs, could you provide me with a sample file? I'll then get this logged and also include the problem which relates to the Min gap on the second frame/page.

I've re-created Rory's issue and here's a test doc but I think I was wrong about min gap before so please ignore that.

notes2.afpub

In this example, markers for notes 1 and 2 are in the left frame but note 2 is in the second frame. There are no flow options set, no paragraph spacing, no min gap before, so it's a simple case. There isn't space for both the second note marker and note body in the first frame. Publisher should move the line containing the note marker to the next frame.

A more extreme case could be created with flow options. I could insert a marker in a long paragraph with Keep Paragraph Together set and if there wasn't room for the note body on the same page then Publisher should move the entire paragraph and note to the next page rather than splitting them up. I tested this scenario with MS Word and that's what it does. The only time Word will fail to keep the note marker and note body on the same page is if they won't fit together on any page.

[NathanC]

36 minutes ago, MikeTO said:

In this example, markers for notes 1 and 2 are in the left frame but note 2 is in the second frame. There are no flow options set, no paragraph spacing, no min gap before, so it's a simple case. There isn't space for both the second note marker and note body in the first frame. Publisher should move the line containing the note marker to the next frame.

A more extreme case could be created with flow options. I could insert a marker in a long paragraph with Keep Paragraph Together set and if there wasn't room for the note body on the same page then Publisher should move the entire paragraph and note to the next page rather than splitting them up. I tested this scenario with MS Word and that's what it does. The only time Word will fail to keep the note marker and note body on the same page is if they won't fit together on any page.

Fantastic, thanks for the clarification and example, I've now confirmed this is an issue that is currently logged with the developers, so i've bumped it with this report. 🙂