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• • November 30, 2017 at 9:59 pm #100002
    Abdoo Ahmed

    Member

    I’m having trouble with a book I am designing, there are footnotes on the text with a separator on the bottom all the footnotes numbering are between two brackets like this (), however I also need to place a different style of prefix and suffix on the same text like this [] without affecting and changing the previous footnotes with brackets like these ().

    Can this be done in any way?

    Please take a look at this picture so you can understand what I need.
    

    Many thanks!

  • December 1, 2017 at 8:34 am #100005
    Vinny –

    Member

    Hi there!
    I’m a regular reader of this fantastic site but this is the first time I’m answering a question… because… I think it’s an interesting puzzler (and some might know I love to play ^^)
    So… Indesign does not allow to use different formatting for footnotes.
    You probably should forget about prefix and suffix and maybe think different.
    I suggest you start by inserting 2 footnotes and then add manually round brackets before and after footnote 1 and square brackets around footnote 2. Then, select your footnote text number (at the bottom of the article) and do the same thing. Think character style in order to format brackets as superscript if you want. It can be on the pasteboard like in my example (see link)
    Do not get scared… You’re not going to manually change the whole document that way ^^ Just the two first footnotes.
    Then… All you have to do if you want to insert a new footnote is to copy footnote 1 or footnote 2, along with brackets and paste wherever you want to insert your new footnote reference.
    See magic happen at the bottom of the article: the brackets appear…
    If you want to change the brackets of a footnote, it’s a bit tricky because if you just replace the footnote, you’ll loose your text. So you should first copy/paste the right footnote reference. Copy/paste text and then delete the old one.
    See the trick in action here: https://ibb.co/nphOEb
    Now, I’m pretty sure crazy scripters could pop up an easier way, but since they haven’t replied yet, you might find this helpful.
    Vinny

  • December 1, 2017 at 10:00 am #100006
    Abdoo Ahmed

    Member

    Hi Vinny,

    Thank you for replying and taking my post seriously.

    I am quite new at indesign and I would really appreciate it if you would show me the provided GIF step by step in text, because all I can understand is you are doing something with character styles and superscripts.

    Please bear with me.

    Many thanks again!

  • December 1, 2017 at 10:51 am #100008
    Vinny –

    Member

    Hi Abdoo,
    Well I have tried to explain the process in my message. Sorry if my English is not good enough to make myself clear enough…
    Try to read again my message and forget about the gif, see if you can figure out what I meant. Superscript character style is optional, the main point is to manually add brackets and to copy/paste the footnote reference and surrounding brackets instead of using Text > insert footnote.
    Please be more specific about where you are stuck…

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