Footnotes/Endnotes

[PaoloT]

9 hours ago, Trevor A said:

As regards layout, WORD "has its own mind" (!) and takes almost total control of layout away from the person preparing the book for printing. 

Trevor, this is probably also the reason why the fact that Word includes footnotes doesn't automatically mean they can be easily included in Publisher. They manage the text frame in a very different way.

For footnotes, I would also add that Mellel manages them a lot better than Word, showing how hard it is designing them.

I also hope Publisher takes more from Mellel than from Word in this area.

Paolo

 

[PaoloT]

9 hours ago, DrBob53 said:

You may get on better with Libre Office.

I would suggest to do some tests with fake content before going for the actual one. I tried to do a long work with it a few years ago, and ended up having to remake everything in InDesign.

Paolo

 

[SirPL]

On 2/14/2022 at 8:25 PM, Old Bruce said:

That is to my mind wrong thinking. References are always going to be broken by new editions, that is why the publication's edition number is included in the reference.

The fact there's one convention doesn't mean there's no room for other. And - as I wrote - I'm not expecting to have this implemented with the very next release of Publisher. I'm only providing a context which proves that more flexible approach to Footnotes may be beneficial for some users.

[Eusebius]

Hello,

It has been a while since I visited this thread to see the progress on implementing footnotes and endnotes in Affinity Publisher. I'm very happy to hear there is some progress seemingly coming this year. In the meantime — and please don't take this the wrong way — the lack of these features in AP has forced me to use Adobe InDesign even more and given me a new appreciation of what ID can do. Before, it was really clunky and slow, but the latest updates to ID running on Apple Silicone make it a whole new experience that is actually... usable (at least for me.)

I still love the potential of Affinity Publisher (especially running on Apple Silicone) and look forward to the new updates.

Keep up the good work

[Ralph]

4 hours ago, Eusebius said:

 I'm very happy to hear there is some progress seemingly coming this year.

Hi Eusebius,

You are a lot more perceptive than I am!

[Old Bruce]

21 hours ago, Eusebius said:

I'm very happy to hear there is some progress seemingly coming this year.

I see no indication of there being any progress.

[cyberlizard]

17 hours ago, Old Bruce said:

I see no indication of there being any progress.

me neither.  apart from words there is no actual evidence of any progress with the feature since the first beta of publisher came out in 2018.

unless of course someone can show us a screenshot of the testing version which Affinity says is in progress.  Any staff from Affinity / Serif want to prove me wrong.

 

Steve

[Last Chance]

Likewise.

I wonder if Serif understand fully the harm that this debacle is causing their reputation?

David

[Trevor A]

and their sales.

[Alfred]

On 2/16/2022 at 3:38 PM, Old Bruce said:

(I always want to say feetnote even though I know it is wrong)

*feetsnote 

On 2/16/2022 at 3:38 PM, Old Bruce said:

Asterisk before Dagger before Pilcrow....

What, no double dagger??

[furtonb]

On 2/23/2022 at 7:17 PM, Eusebius said:

Hello,

It has been a while since I visited this thread to see the progress on implementing footnotes and endnotes in Affinity Publisher. I'm very happy to hear there is some progress seemingly coming this year. In the meantime — and please don't take this the wrong way — the lack of these features in AP has forced me to use Adobe InDesign even more and given me a new appreciation of what ID can do. Before, it was really clunky and slow, but the latest updates to ID running on Apple Silicone make it a whole new experience that is actually... usable (at least for me.)

I still love the potential of Affinity Publisher (especially running on Apple Silicone) and look forward to the new updates.

Keep up the good work

same here. I ended up with ID again, I only use Affinity Photo regularly by now, but for side projects mostly. it was a shame, because I enthusiastically managed to convince many people to jump to the Affinity package, whereas these feature omissions are rather offputting, once you have to start referencing stuff and keep track of them.

I check these threads from time to time, hopefully we'll get a notification that footnotes/endnotes are included in the next beta. this thread reminds me of the infamous "select same" one, so I accepted by now that my use case is not the target audience for serif.:)

[cyberlizard]

another point release and still no footnotes!!!

[walt.farrell]

17 minutes ago, cyberlizard said:

another point release and still no footnotes!!!

Major functions seldom arrive in a point release. In any case, as it wasn't in the 1.10.5 beta it would be very unlikely to be in the 1.10.5 official release.

[Pedrober]

1.10.5 version? Where? I am using 1.10.4 and if I check for updates, 1.10.4 is the last available version.

[walt.farrell]

4 minutes ago, Pedrober said:

1.10.5 version? Where? I am using 1.10.4 and if I check for updates, 1.10.4 is the last available version.

It's only available for Windows at this point.

You can find generally find information about the latest releases here (though as I write this the first post is not updated yet): 

The specific announcement about 1.10.5 is here, at the bottom of that topic:

 

 

[Pedrober]

OK, I see. I had visited the Latest Affinity releases page but it is not updated yet.

[meyer.wil]

On 2/7/2022 at 1:45 PM, HenrikM said:

Yes, Affinity Publisher is definitely lacking in book publishing features. The lack of footnotes, endnotes, and cross-references, are the worst omissions, but the more I work with the software, the more problems I find.

Still, I do not know of any reasonably priced alternative. I do not want to rent Adobe products, and that makes Affinity Publisher the only game in town.

On the other hand, with a bit of luck, Serif is working on fixing the current shortcomings. I hope they do it before I finish my book. 🙂

Slow as I have been on my own book, I could not wait. Won't rent Adobe, so have been using LaTeX. I've learned more of its internals than I wanted, but the results are very pleasing to me. And yes, I would prefer to use AP, but I need the features of ID, so I had few options.

[Trevor A]

Well, it is normal to start each footnote on a new line.

Part of any footnotes feature includes what it does if there is not space to print the whole of the footnote at the bottom of the page where the reference arises.  In such cases, some programs put a horizontal line the full width of the second page above the footnotes, to show that the footnote is continued from the previous page.

It is clearly desirable that there should be some details and options that would, at least to some extent, be adjustable by the user.

[Trevor A]

24 minutes ago, LondonSquirrel said:

I have a text which fits on one page, and has about 40 foot notes. Each of these foot notes is no more than 3 words at most. My 40 lines of foot notes is now longer than the page of text.

This certainly sounds like an uncommon writing style.  Bearing in mind that non-academic readers often do not read footnotes, would it perhaps be better to include some of this information within the text, perhaps in brackets?

[Trevor A]

Ultimately, only the writer can decide what is the most appropriate style.

[Old Bruce]

23 hours ago, LondonSquirrel said:

 Each of these foot notes is no more than 3 words at most. 

Include the two or three words in the text.

[Pyanepsion]

On 3/25/2022 at 5:31 PM, LondonSquirrel said:

I would like to see the option to format them on one line: 1. Blah. 2. Pies. 3. Cakes.

Hello, @LondonSquirrel. This is a very unusual arrangement, because word processors have accustomed us to the rule that a note is a paragraph, but the succession of notes on the same line does occur.

Here are all the forms of notes that can be found in the press ready.

1. Footnotes. These are found at the bottom of the column or at the bottom of the page of the note. In some countries, they are so long that they sometimes become a second book in the book (the first time, it made me feel funny, because in France, these notes are often very short, like "N.D.A.: Voir La Rivière pourpre chez le même éditeur").
2. Sidenotes. These are found in the right or left margin of the page. Very short, they are located at the same level as the call for notes. They are in fact a special case of "axe headers" which border the text in the margin and occupy the entire width of the footer.
3. Endnotes. Same as footnotes, but located at the end of the area, article, chapter, section, document, etc.
4. Table notes. These are located in the table of the note call.
5. Mediannotes of old Bibles. The pages of these bibles are divided into two columns with a large central gutter. These notes are very short.
6. Glossnotes. These notes are mainly intended for the proofreading of an academic or scientific work, or for translations in philology. They are placed between the lines of the working document, which is itself 200% interlined.

 

[walt.farrell]

6 minutes ago, LondonSquirrel said:

An example of a text and foot notes on one line is shown below.

@Pyanepsion agreed that they occur, @LondonSquirrel: "This is a very unusual arrangement, ... but the succession of notes on the same line does occur.

[Trevor A]

I definitely agree that endnotes are very "user-unfriendly"!  Some authors even use them to hide inconvenient information that they hope that most readers will not find!  Such endnotes may indicate that the argument presented in the body of the text is weak or even untenable.

For those who complain about the length of this thread, it is clearly not limited to appeals to Serif; it is more a meeting place for people with similar interests and concerns and a place where explanations can be given, ideas suggested and support offered.  Surely that is precisely what a forum should be!

 

[Nicholas Lamme]

I think a real solution might be for Serif to make an API available for independent developers to produce scripts and plugins like are available for ID. This would both open markets for creative programmers and take the burden off of Serif to have to include every kind of feature request because users would do it.

Does anyone from Serif read these threads? Just curious. And if so, is Serif planning on making an API available or supporting third-party scripts like ID does?