Can a note's page be pointed to?

[Ben_Vandebrug]

Hi there,

I'm relatively new to Affinity Publisher, so although I haven't been able to find what I'm looking for so far, I'm hopeful someone here will be able to point me in the right direction.

When using endnotes, I'd like to create some sort of reference to the notes' original pages contained on the endnote page, such that I'd be able to come up with the page range of these notes. In the end, I'd want to be able to have a header reading something like "Notes to pages xx-yy".

To give a precise example, here is a link to a book preview that has an endnote header following this exact format. This is from the Oxford World's Classics series.

If it turns out to not be possible, would it work with a reference to the note's sections instead of their pages?

Looking forward to any feedback!

[MikeTO]

Hi @Ben_Vandebrug and welcome to the forums.

While you can't create a cross-reference to a note reference, you can cross-reference its paragraph.

In the endnote text, create a cross-reference to the paragraph containing the note reference (marker). You can format the cross-reference however you like, showing just the page number if that's all you want. 

[Ben_Vandebrug]

Thanks @MikeTO for your reply.

I'm looking for a bit more than that unfortunately. In the context of endnotes, what I'm looking for really is a way to find the page range of the notes contained within a particular endnote page. It should also update automatically, as the endnotes may move between pages during formatting.

This is to meet the Chicago Manual of Styles (CMOS) point 14.42 (16th edition).

I've been digging further since I've initially posted, and the more I look into it, the more it seems like this is not really possible to do in Publisher currently. That's quite a bummer. The thing is, it doesn't seem to be a native function in any publishing software. If Serif could implement this in Publisher, that'd really be a nice distinguishing feature!

[Evaluation complete.]

The Chicago Manual of Style is a widely used style guide in publishing, particularly in the United States. It provides comprehensive guidelines on grammar, usage, and documentation, including specific instructions for formatting endnotes. It's commonly utilized by authors, editors, and publishers in academic and professional writing, its influence extends to thousands of professionals in the publishing industry and academia.

[MikeTO]

There is a way to do this but you'll have to jump through a few hoops.

1. Add the cross-reference to each endnote to insert the reference marker's page number. If you don't want the page number to be visible, position the cross ref at the end of the end note. Create a character style defined as no fill and very small or narrow text and apply it directly to the cross ref field. Note: You cannot rely on the cross ref's indirect character style feature due to a known bug (see below), but if you apply the character style directly this will work.
2. Then add two running headers for first and last on page separated by an en dash and surrounded by whatever other text you need. Target these running header fields to the character style you applied to the note references.

As I said, there are a few hoops but this will work perfectly and allow you to adhere to that CMOS guideline.

 

[Ben_Vandebrug]

Thanks again @MikeTO! That's a clever work around!

However, I did follow the steps you describe, and looked into the other thread as well, but for some reason, I still can't get the Running Header (RH) field to return the information from the cross reference (CR). I did make sure the RH points to the specific character style defined for that very purpose, and I did also apply that style directly to the CR. It is not indirectly applied via the style override, as you directed.

I thought this could have been a bug from my initial file, since I did play around in it, so I created a new one, and I still couldn't get the information from the CR to show up in the RH field.

Also, as soon as I apply the character style to anything other than the CR, that information does appear in the RH.

So now I'm at a lost. Any thought on what I may be overlooking?

[MikeTO]

Sorry, I did my testing in the 2.6 beta and it turns out this won't work in 2.5.5 due to bug AF-3646 which has been fixed in the beta. (See link)

If you're not in a rush, I advise waiting for 2.6 to do this. If you're in a hurry, you could do it with the 2.6 beta but be warned that it might not be ready for production use yet.

 

[Ben_Vandebrug]

Not in a rush, so I can definitely wait for the 2.6 release if it's going to fix the issue.

Thanks for all the feedbacks!