Scientific sources: footnote plus endnote with hyperlinks?

[flatpakuser]

I am writing on a scientific paper.

Here I need to have dynamic ¹ ³ numbers, a footnote and an endnote

Issues here are:

• I dont want to do it manually
• seems I can either make a footnote or an endnote
• I want to have hyperlinks in text that point to the endnote
• I have a custom heading before the endnote, and the endnote is not on the very last page

Like this:

A duck walked across a road, according to a passenger¹, that …

---

1: Immanuel Kant (2025)

(last page)

Image sources:

1. something
2. something

Literature:

1. Immanuel Kant (12.01.2025), “something with ducks”, https://example.org
2. bla

how can I add an endnote with such a header, AND a footnote?

here is the document if you like

document.odt (415.4 KB)

[ajlittoz]

Your “Literature” part looks like a bibliography. There is a rudimentary bibliography in Writer. If your need is not too sophisticated, it could do the trick.

You create first your list of “sources” in the built-in bibliography database and give each entry an “id” like KANT2025. You can insert in your text references like [KANT2025] with Insert>Bibliography Entry. You select one of the entries and the id surrounded by brackets in put into your text.

At the end of the document, the complete list of used entries is inserted with Insert>TOC & Index>TOC, Index or Bibliography.

I don’t understand how detailed your footnotes are. They look as if they duplicate bibliography. They are useful when they are more precise about the citation, e.g. you can have
“1 [KANT2025] page 45 line 10”
In this example I insert the (“global”) bibliography reference in the footnote and add more information to locate the citation.

In Writer, note anchor (in text) is always a hyperlink to the note. Reciprocally, the note number (in the note) is a hyperlink to the anchor in text.

Writer offers both footnotes and endnotes. As the name implies, footnotes are laid out at the bottom of the page wjhere the anchor occurs. Endnotes are collected at the very end of the document. Setting the endnotes in another location is not easy. You must jail a part of the text in a section (beware, what Writer calls a section a special feature designating some range within the document) and request notes to be collected at end of it. This is not user-friendly.

In addition, you can’t insert non-note text in the middle of the endnotes.Consequently adding headings must be done with a fake endnote (you replace its callout by a space character) you attach at an adequate location in your text (near the beginning for a global title). To make it look like a heading, you apply some paragraph style to the note. Take special attention to possible interaction with TOC.

For more detailed and targetd instruction, improve your “specification”. And don’t forget to mention OS name, LO version (because of subtle differences between platforms and releases) and save format (most recipes are only valid for .odt document).

[flatpakuser]

Hi, thanks for the details!

This looks extremely complex.

I can’t imagine why endnotes would be so messed up, who uses such a system?? I may just do a numbered list at the end, use normal footnotes, and have automatic numbering with manual bibliography at the end.

Or is there a way to create a bibliography at the end, from the numbered footnotes, like a list of contents?

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OS: Fedora Linux 41
Version: Latest Flatpak from Flathub
Format: odt of course

[ajlittoz]

@flatpakuser

This looks extremely complex.

Simply because you didn’t abstract enough what you want to do. Try to define as lean a structure as you can. Be as clear as possible in your mind. If you don’t see accurately your goal, you won’t be able to translate it into your paper. Don’t think in terms of features and how to force them into your mould. Think first about the significance of your sentences and how you prove your statements (citations, sources).

Usually a scientific paper meets external constraints like a formal outline or skeleton. Following these rules already achieves half the job.

@flatpakuser

I can’t imagine why endnotes…

Endnotes are as simple as footnotes when you accept them as the very last “block” in your document without intermediate text like (chapter) headings or sub-titles. Unfortunately there is a kind of shortcoming about what authors really need endnotes-wise.

@flatpakuser

I may just do a numbered list at the end

Why not? But you sure want to reference your sources from the text. To make sure you capture the correct reference number and this number is updated when you edit your list, you must use cross-references. Do you know how to insert them?

The list can be automatically numbered. I suggest to create a dedicated list style so that there is no spurious interference with other unrelated lists.

I don’t see why this list would be footnotes. There, you’d create a real mess. Your bibliography is simply the “special” numbered list. However by encoding it as a list, yiu lose the automatic alphabetical ordering of the bibliography feature. This order must be manually maintained and you’ll bump into difficulty if you don’t master numbered lists.

@flatpakuser

Or is there a way to create a bibliography at the end, from the numbered footnotes, like a list of contents?

No. Footnotes are not intended to be collected in any form of table/list. Bibliography and footnotes are semantically independent.

@flatpakuser

OS: Fedora Linux 41
Version: Latest Flatpak from Flathub

Why don’t you install directly from Fedora repository? This would be fully automatic without any risk. Presently, version is 24.8.4.2.