Two columns footnote – breaking page unnecessary

[binjomin]

Almost every week I have this problem. See screenshot and footnote 4 there which is about the end of the document.

If I write the text “normally”, then a completely unexpected and unnecessary page break gets inserted somewhere, creating a lot of unwanted blank space.

If, however, I enter a newline before the footnote, then blank space disappears. Paradoxically, because how can it be that when I insert newline then all of a sudden the space becomes enough? More space is being created by entering more input?

Expected behavior: any way to be able to fit things on the last page, with normal line breaks, footnote, 2 columns, and no blank space being created.

[binjomin]

The second screenshot from my previous post (just system did not allow me to upload both of them in the same post).

[binjomin]

Workaround: remove the problematic footnote, clipboard its content, and re-create it. Then it works without breaking until further edit or closing-reopening. But it is still a bothersome bug.

[EarnestAl]

There are no formatting marks shown but it is a complex document with different elements. Without having a sample, say two pages with random text showing the problem, anything would be a guess. Can you provide a sample?

[Edit]
Bug 98287 - Mixing footnotes between sections leads to unwanted page break after the first footnote and pushes the second footnote to the next page

You could add yourself to the CC list there (requires new bugzilla login)

[binjomin]

Sure, thank you! Here is the document:

omek72-vajera.odt (154.5 KB)

Also, thanks for the bug report and for the update, I added myself to the CC list. Also, I did the update from Version 7 to Version 24 and still experience the same behavior, as you wrote.

[ajlittoz]

I could not find any hint about the cause of the problem (other than the bug mentioned by @EarnestAl). Several factors make analysis difficult. Your document is plagued with direct formatting (in practically every paragraph). You inserted drawing objects instead of using text primitives (this is most obvious in the headline title or the impressum). Remember that drawing objects interact very weakly with text, needing manual processing to get what you want. Text boxes (like the impressum) offer only a limited formatting possibility. Your impressum would have been better implemented with a text frame where you can style and format text “as usual”.

I checked that no paragraph has Keep with next flag enabled (which could force a page break). However, it looks like hyphenation parameters have an impact on the issue. This seems “illogical” to me but it changes the layout (I mention I didn’t install hu_HU hyphenation rules, consequently full words are moved).

Contents balancing between columns also plays a part in the behaviour. But it does not fix completely the issue.

The split paragraph parameters seem to offer more levers. However, this end up with a single word (to attach the note) at top of page.

I also analysed your last page to look at possible “links” between paragraphs, such as Keep with next, making them an atomic block responsible for the page break. No such thing, even when I suspected your rectangle (as a poor surrogate for a border around a set of paragraphs; this should have been done with a frame with its own border).

In documents with complex layout like yours, eliminate direct formatting. It makes things difficult and frequently breaks “standard” formatting features. It is easier to diagnose problems when you need not extract them from ambient direct formatting. Styling makes documents “lightweight” and easier to tune.

[EarnestAl]

Here is a sample I made earlier today
TestTextFlowWithFootnote.odt (37.0 KB)

Playing around with it I found:

1. Clicking Enter with the cursor in the first page at the end of the line after the the red “wall” put everything on one page.
2. Page Line spacing made no difference
3. Playing with Widows and Orphans made it worse and might be part of the problem.
4. Right click in a section, select Edit Section. Click the Options button and in the tab Footnote/Endnotes tick the box Collect at end of text. It re-paginated nicely but left the problem of separated footnotes in @binjomin sample document and footnotes in unexpected places

I think the last option might be a more stable workaround