Footnote & text frame formatting problems

[HughOSB]

Good morning.

1) I am finding the page formatting hard to adjust in text frames with footnotes. I have played with gaps before, split notes etc but I still end up with huge gaps in text frames even when the paragraph that has been split has only two lines remaining, which are still forced over the page. I am presumably missing something, but I cannot work out what it is!

2) I am also finding that applying a text style does not remove the mystery all caps in the footnotes when the Word file was placed, even though the Word file did not have all caps, and I cleared text styles beforehand and pressed the reapply text styles button to remove any subsequent formatting change to the footnote style, which only changes the current footnote, not all of them. The problem with reapply is that it removes any italics in the the text body, so they all have to be restored manually one by one.

Any tips gratefully received.

[walt.farrell]

Gaps like that are often the result of Flow settings in the Paragraph Text Style or the Paragraph panel. What options have you selected there for that paragraph?

[HughOSB]

Thanks Walt. Attached are the flow for the body text  and footnote styles.

[MikeTO]

It's hard to tell without seeing the full page and the footnote settings. The simplest explanation is that footnote 34 is a very long footnote and there isn't space on the page with the gap to include footnote the reference marker and the footnote.

If there is space, or if Split Notes is enabled so there could definitely be space, then it's harder to tell. The Footnote New style shows no change for its flow settings but we don't know what the settings are for the Footnote Text style that it is based on, so we can't tell if it has "keep paragraph together" enabled.

Could you share a test document?

[walt.farrell]

Thanks, @HughOSB. 

As Mike said, it's difficult to be sure, but as you are using those Flow options for the body text there may be wider ranging effects. For example, in addition to what Mike said, the paragraph after footnote reference 34 also needs to be considered. It may not be possible to bring some of that paragraph up without violating the Flow constraints that it has.

[HughOSB]

Thanks Mike and Walt.

Footnote new is based on footnote text, the flow settings for which are attached below.

 

[HughOSB]

Update: I have experimented with split notes for the individual footnote (though for once that extends to all the footnotes) and that solves the gap problem.

BUT two pages later these thick lines appear, and remain even when Draw rule is turned off (the regular drawn rules disappear but these persist, and I cannot select them to delete them). This happens on a few pages, but not all.

[walt.farrell]

54 minutes ago, HughOSB said:

these thick lines appear,

The thick lines signify that the text is continued from a footnote on the previous page, because you've allowed splitting the footnotes across pages.

[HughOSB]

I think I might just convert them to endnotes! 🤔

[MikeTO]

4 hours ago, HughOSB said:

I think I might just convert them to endnotes! 🤔

You can turn off the rules above the footnotes if you want, and you can turn them off for all footnotes or just the continued ones.

5 hours ago, HughOSB said:

Update: I have experimented with split notes for the individual footnote (though for once that extends to all the footnotes) and that solves the gap problem.

Split Notes doesn't have to apply to all footnotes - if you change it in document-wide settings then it will apply to all footnotes, but if you choose custom it will change it just for the selected note.

I included a lot of information on document-wide versus custom in the free manual I've shared here (see the link below in my signature). The toggle between document-wide and custom can be confusing, as can the toggle between "First Note" and "Continued Note".

Good luck.

[HughOSB]

Thank you Mike! I will give it a good read, but if I cannot get those thick lines to go, endnotes it will be. 

 

My thanks to you and Walt for your help. 👍

[MikeTO]

5 hours ago, HughOSB said:

Thank you Mike! I will give it a good read, but if I cannot get those thick lines to go, endnotes it will be. 

1. Click on a blank area of the page to deselect text or the text frame.
2. In the Notes panel, select Footnotes and Document-wide.
3. In the Rules section with Rule Before = First Note, deselect Draw Rule
4. In the Rules section, select Continued Note from Rule Before and then deselect Draw Rule
5. The rules should all be gone. If some are left they don't use document-wide settings. In that case, choose Revert all Footnotes to Document Settings from the panel menu

[HughOSB]

Mike - you provided the missing link (from my perspective)—the Continued Note Setting. Many thanks.

Your guide is the clearest and most comprehensive Affinity guide I have seen yet. Thanks for that too!