Get Your Footnote Number Back
Here’s a dilemma: What if you accidentally delete a footnote number at the bottom of your text column? You know, those numbers down there are just text and there’s nothing stopping you from pressing Delete/Backspace to remove it. Of course, you can just type the footnote number back in, but then that footnote doesn’t get renumbered automatically when you add or remove a footnote before it.
Fortunately, there’s a reasonably easy solution: Instead of typing the number yourself, place the text cursor at the beginning of the line and choose Type > Insert Special Character > Markers > Footnote Number. This only works when the text cursor is in a footnote text area (not up with your body text), and this special character will update properly.
Is there a way to get footnotes to automatically update throughout each chapter when using the book feature of InDesign. So far this has stumped me.
Good tip. Usually I immediately hit Apple Z (undo). If it’s too late, I just cut the text, delete the footnote reference, and then reinsert it.
But this is a good shortcut. Thanks :)
Hello,
I was hopping this would be the solution for a problem i’m facing, but it seems more complex. For some reason the number 20 of the footnote got deleted at the bottom, but the footnote text was still there. So the next footnote is now 20 instead of being 21. This means that all the footnotes reference are actually one step forward from the footnote reference at the text. Example: footnote reference 19 points correctly to footnote 19. Footnote reference 20 points to the text of what should be footnote 21 (because the 20 is ignored). And then the problem goes through all the doc.
When I did your tip, inserting the special character it makes a 19 instead of 20 as it should. So nothing changes automactly for the next ones.
Your help will be very much appreciated.
Thank YOU
Ana
Trying to explain better: basically when the footnote nº20 got deleted, all the following footnotes got one number backwards: so footnote 21 is now 20 and so its not linked to the right footnote reference in the text. When i insert the special character to the footnote which number got deleted, in design puts nº 19 again, instead of 20, so the following ones do not change. This means that i get to footnotes with number 19 corresponding to two different places in the text.
My question is how to relink footnotes references to the text correctly..
Your attention will be deeply appreciated.. otherwise i will have to do everything from start.. hope that will not be the case.
Thank you very much,
best
Ana