Grouping Endnotes by Chapter

[Curbuntu]

GOAL: Position a manuscript’s endnotes or footnotes:

• at the of the document
• with the numbering sequence restarted for each chapter, AND
• with each group of notes sub-headed with the name of the chapter with which they are associated.

SUMMARY:
I’m working on a manuscript in LO Writer 5.1.3.2 and I hope to print a sort of “galley proof” shortly (assuming we ever solve the problem presented in link:[Print-Time Page Override](Print-time page override"Print-Time Page Override, elsewhere in the forum")).

The manuscript has exactly 600 notes (or in the neighborhood of 40 6"x9" pages worth of material). Since these are my annotations to the original author’s work, and having a desire not to distract the casual reader from the original author’s flow, I am opting to place these notes at the very end of the book.

ENDNOTES seem to provide no option for restarting the numbering with each chapter. (I’m sure the average reader’s eyes will cross upon encountering a high-double-digit endnote number, to say nothing of a triple-digit endnote call.) Restarting of the numbering sequence seems beyond the feature-set of Writer’s endnotes.

FOOTNOTES have both the option to congregate at the end of a document AND to re-start numbering with each chapter. So far, so good. (I don’t care if Writer calls them “endnotes” or “footnotes,” just as long as they appear at the end!)

CHALLENGE: I can’t see a way to automatically create chapter-name subheadings in the footnote properties, not even in conjunction with cross-references. Does anyone have any ideas about how this can be accomplished? Thanks in advance!

[PYS]

Hi

As you said Tools▸Footnotes & Endnotes does not renumber the endnotes by chapter. I know no workaround to this limitation, sorry.

So I propose the following compromise: renumber notes by chapter but insert them at the end of the chapter. The attached EndNote.odt illustrates what is possible as automatism:

• Notes are renumbered by chapter
• Their header contains the name of the chapter

Steps to reproduce the document:

• Create a List Style, so not a Paragraph style. (See EndNote in the example)
  • Position tab▸Numbering followed by Space
  • Options tab▸Before: type eg Notes of chapter
• Modify the Endnote Paragraph Style▸Text Flow tab▸Breaks▸Check Insert▸Type: Page▸Position: Before
• Modify the Endnote Page Style: Header on, Insert the Chapter name field in the header.
• Modifiy the Paragraph Style used in the header (Header in the example)▸Outline & Numbering tab▸Numbering style: EndNote
• Select text of each chapter▸Insert▸Section▸Footnotes/Endnotes tab▸check Collect at end & Restart numbering
• Insert an empty paragraph at the end of each chapter and apply Endnote Paragraph Style

It took me 5 times longer to describe than to do…

HTH

Regards

[Curbuntu]

Pierre-yves, somehow my response to you didn’t get saved (or at least it’s not displaying), so forgive me if this is a repeat. Your solution doesn’t quite fit what I need for this project, but it does provide a solution for a book on which I will be working this summer, so I plan to make use of your idea. Thank you!

[PYS]

@Curbuntu I had not received your response, so thank you for the feedback

[ajlittoz]

It looks like your real work lies in the so-called notes not in the original chapters. Then this does not correspond to the usual definition of notes as short side information to provide marginal information helping to understand the main stuff.

Consequently, your work should be composed as a chapter per se, with sub-chapters matching the original chapters (to avoid confusion main heading for this chapter should be unnumbered, while sub-chapters can keep the original numbers).

If the number of notes per original chapter is rather low, you can obtain what you are looking for through a manual process. BUT, there are two serious shortcomings:

1. The process is manual: if you insert a new “note”, you must renumber manually the subsequent notes (hence the remark about the number of notes per chapter).
2. I understand you are in the final steps of your work, the suggested procedure requires a full manual reformatting.

The idea is to replace footnotes/endnotes by cross-references.

• Note mark in the original chapter

Type your note reference, say 5 (it is totally under your control). Select the reference, transform it into a bookmark with Insert → Bookmark..., give it a name which may include the chapter number, like 2-5, b5 or anything you like but showing the order of occurrence for ease of later usage, click OK.

With the reference still selected, style it with character style Footnote Anchor (or Endnote Anchor).

• Comment chapter, aka the “notes”

The groups can be automatically subheaded through cross-references with the original chapter number and title. The subheading can even be a Heading 2 paragraph if you want it inserted into the table of contents.

The chapter notes are written (or rather copied/pasted from your initial work) after the subheading paragraph as follows.

Insert a cross-reference, say b5, as Type=Bookmark and Insert reference to=Reference. Select the cross-reference, style it with character style Footnote Characters (or Endnote Characters). Type or paste your note/comment after the cross-reference and a space or tab.

Your note paragraphs should be formatted through a custom paragraph style so that you can easily adjust their look-and-feel to your taste. The lay-out is controlled by:

1. the paragraph style for your comments (margins, indent – i.e. separation between note number and text --, etc.)
2. Footnote Characters for the comment number (relative size, position)
3. Footnote Anchor for the note number in the original text

I am aware that my suggestion implies a lot of manual error-prone work and it is merely a workaround for a non-standard use of notes. If you decide to experiment, backup your original file first.

Please give feedback about the applicability of this idea.

[Curbuntu]

Ajilittoz, I appreciate the time and thought you’ve put into this reply (although I disagree with your assessment that “this does not correspond to the usual definition of notes as short side information”).

Also, the thought of manually cross-referencing 600 endnotes (while possible) causes me to recoil.

Your response did get the thought processes rolling, though, and I think I’ve come up with a workable solution requiring a minimal amount of manual intervention (see my solution).

[Curbuntu]

MY SOLUTION

Since the footnote function allows:

• a) collection of notes at the end of
  the manuscript; and,

  b) numbering re-start for each chapter,

all I am lacking is a way to divide the footnote groups by chapter title. I decided to to this by using the “cheating” function (AKA the “hacking” function).

Since the number of notes is fixed (at 600 notes, I certainly hope so!), I extended the last note of each chapter by a line to appear as a chapter-title divider. I used a different paragraph style on the new line of the footnote. Then, to help the reader find the original chapter from which the note is referenced (there are 40+ pages of notes), I also added a cross-reference to the first page of the relevant chapter. (See attachment. For example, the Chapter 14 divider heading [shown] is actually part of footnote 26 from chapter 13. The cross-reference page call to page 107 requires a Reference bookmark on the target, of course.)

Yes, I had to do this manually 26 times (for each of the 26 chapters), but that was only 20 minutes of work in order to reach the desired outcome.

Possible (but unencountered) Problems

1. Under normal circumstances, this wouldn’t have given me a way to put a chapter divider for the notes of the first chapter (since the system depends on providing the chapter-title divider from the last footnote of the previous chapter). However, as it happened, there was one footnote from the Foreword, so I made use of that. (Yes, that means that the end-of-document footnote from the foreword lacks a title separator, but it’s not a perfect world.)

2. What if notes are added or subtracted? (This is only theoretical, since the text is now fixed, except for proofing.) As long as the last footnote of each chapter remains the last, the hack still works, whether notes are added or deleted. In the unlikely event that the last note of a chapter loses its ultimate position, the kludged divider can just be cut and pasted on to the end of the “new” last note.

[ajlittoz]

You can even improve your scheme. The chapter divider can be a note called from the chapter title where the anchor is set as a manual Character space (instead of Automatic). All its components can be imported as cross-references: chapter number, chapter title et chapter page. Of course, give it a dedicated style. Since the divider is not linked to a significant note, you can add or delete any without having to care for the divider.

[Curbuntu]

@ajlittoz, this seems to be a brilliant bit of legerdemain. Thank you for hacking my hack! Your suggestion works on a single document. Sometime later this week, I’ll experiment with it in my multi-chapter document. But I see no reason why it wouldn’t work well there, too. “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”

[ajlittoz]

You’re welcome.

[judylawson5]

Hi,

Using Libre Office 6.2 … trying to re-start endnote numbering for each new chapter. I seriously cannot understand anything above, or where to find half of it … so just going to do it manually. judylawson5

[ajlittoz]

The question above is different from mere endnote numbering restart. It is a much more elaborate issue. If you have a specific problem, ask your own question and describe your situation as accurately and completely as possible.