Can I define which section endnotes belong to?

[WriterMike]

I’ve written a book, and I would like to have an endnotes page to cite all my references at the end. Every chapter in the book has its own section. This was the only way I could find to make chapter titles single column and make the chapter content two-column. I’d like the endnotes page to have a title like the chapters, so I created a page with the endnotes title at the end of the document, highlighted the entire document, and created a new section. The problem I’m having is that when I create an endnote in one of the chapters, the endnote shows up at the end of that chapter, not at the end of the book. On the other hand, if I create an endnote on one of the chapter titles, the endnote shows up at the end of the document just like I want.

Is there any way to specify which section an endnote belongs to so they show up at the end of the parent section instead of the end of the chapter?

(I’m using LibreOffice Writer, version 4.1.3.2 under 64-bit Xubuntu Linux.)

[oweng]

The ODF v1.2 specification clearly supports nested (parent-child) sections, so defining a child section for each chapter (for multi-column layout) and a parent section to define where the endnotes are to be gathered seems possible.

EDIT: It seems however there is a bug in handling (or lack of clarity) as to how the “Collect at end of section” option for footnotes and endnotes is to be treated in the case of parent-child section arrangements. I have raised fdo#77708 as a result. I initially thought this was possible as the on-screen behaviour (under v4.1.4.2/v4.2.2.1) visually indicates the desired result. Upon closing and re-opening the file however (as pointed out) the endnotes are re-ordered. Refer an example (ODT) here. Basic outline of how I created the example (a clearer description is provided in the bug report):

1. Insert chapter 1 title and chapter 1 content.
2. Highlight chapter 1 content (not title) > Insert > Section… > define two columns.
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 for chapter 2.
4. Create a title for the endnotes.
5. Insert Table of Contents (ToC).
6. Highlight everything from chapter 1 title to endnote title > Insert > Section… > Footnotes/Endnotes tab check “Collect at end of section” option.
7. Insert endnotes as required.

The answer here details the same thing as step 6 above, but on a per-chapter basis.

[WriterMike]

I downloaded and opened the linked ODT document, but it looks like it has the exact same problem I am having. The endnotes linking to chapter headings show up at the end of the document, but the endnotes linking to chapter content show up at the end of the chapter. Could this problem be specific to my version of LibreOffice?

[oweng]

@WriterMike, you are right. On re-opening the example the footnotes are re-ordered (they were all re-ordered to the document end initially). I have reported a bug (linked in answer) and edited my answer for clarity.

[WriterMike]

Thanks for all your help, @oweng.