Help with formatting footnotes...

users
#1

Hi! I'm new to LibreOffice, and I'm having problems trying to figure out how
to format more than one footnotes at a time. Everything else is working
beautifully for me, but this is really an important feature for me since I
deal with tons of footnotes on a regular basis. Any help would be much
appreciated! Thank you!

#2

Hi

I don't know if there are others ways to solve your problem, but I would
sugest this way:

To make a macro (How?) Like this:

1) Menu Tools-Macros-Save Macro
2) Here Appears a little windows that says something like this "Stop to
save macro" (Not to click yet)
3) Menu Insert-(Footnotes-Final Note). Here appears a windows for
Footnotes. Click Accept.
4) Click in window "Stop to save Macro" (Point 2)). Here appear a
window. Select MyMacros-Standard and then Select New Module: Appears a
window: Write the name-> "Footnotes" and Accept.
5) Menu Tools-Macros-Organize Macros-OpenOffice.org Basic... Here appear
a window. Select MyMacros-Standard-"Footnotes" (Your Macro). Click
Asign. Appears a new window. Select Save in
"OpenOffice.org-Writer" (Below the Comands Chart).
6) Now, select ADD, and appear a new window. Here, in the chart
"Category", roll down until the end to find "+ Macros OpenOffice.org".
Click it (+) and there appears + My Macros. Click it and Standard and
select "Footnotes" and Click ADD.
7) Now in the Commands Chart you can find "Footnotes" command. If You
select it you can modify the name if you want, with the command at
right. Then Assure that the tool bar is "Standard" (At the top of Chart)
8) Click Accept.
9) Now, in the Tool Bar of your document Appears a "Footnotes" icon (At
the top of the document). If you click it, it insert a footnote in your
document. Now You not need go to Menu-Insert-Footnotes and make the
footnote each time. With only one click you are going to insert the
footnotes that you need. It respect the consecutive numbers although you
save and close the document and then open and continue working.

I hope this help you to solve your problem. If you need adicional help
say me,

Regards,

Jorge Rodríguez

#3

Hi :slight_smile:
Jorge's answer is excellent and covers many different scenarios. I am not clear
what Gena means by "footnotes" but the various different things that i think
could be meant could all be done using Jorge's answer.

Gena, by footnotes do you mean
1. Notes added to a document that someone else wrote as students might do in
text-books or teachers might do to students papers or office-workers might do to
collaborate on a document?
2. References notes at the end of a document to show the source of ideas or
quotes, eg such as
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style_(footnotes)#Notes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Footnotes

The hundreds of footnotes dealt with each day, are they all in one book or
document or are they in many different documents (or many articles within a
magazine or something)?

Jorge's answer covers all those options and could be used for footers and more
too but there might be something more specifically relevant depending on what
Gena means by foot-notes.

Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#4

Hi,
I might be a little dumb here but I don't understand why styles won't do the trick. Could you explain more precisely where your problem lies?

#5

Hi All! Thank you for the replies!
When I say "footnotes," I am talking about the type used in academic
writing. Endnotes also have the same problem... For a simple explanation
of what footnotes and endnotes are, see:
http://www.aresearchguide.com/7footnot.html

Let me be a little more specific about my problem . . . while I am writing,
I use Zotero to insert footnotes containing citation information. Also, I
add footnotes manually when I need to add a little extra information. These
footnotes come up in a different font than I am using, and I also like to
change the font size to be a little smaller. I can not select all the
footnotes at once and change these things. I have to do each one manually,
which adds up quickly when you consider there are 50-60 per chapter of my 8
chapter dissertation. And then there are other documents that I am working
on too. I almost never have a piece of writing without footnotes.

The next problem I have encountered is how footnotes and endnotes appear in
.docx format; especially when I open them in Microsoft Word 2008 or 2011 for
Mac. Unfortunately, no matter how much I'd like to use LibreOffice instead
of Word, I have to submit my documents in .docx form to be read in Word. I
have already done this once, and I had to re-insert every footnote in Word
after transferring the document.

Because of these two problems, at this point, LibreOffice is simply unusable
for me - and probably for most academics and university students. It's a
shame, because I really love it otherwise - especially its support for
uncommon fonts (which I use a lot of). I can use N'Ko with LibreOffice, but
not with Word 2011. (For more info on N'Ko, see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N'Ko_script). While creating a macro may
work, footnotes and endnotes are something that really should work
automatically - especially for people who aren't good with computers, like
me! :slight_smile: And even if I do get that working, .docx files need to transfer
seamlessly to Word 2011. Unfortunately, even if I switch to LibreOffice,
the rest of my colleagues probably won't and so I need to be able to work
with them without problems.

I hope this explains everything! Thanks again!

#6

Hi :slight_smile:

You might find that using Shift and Ctrl V inserts text better than using Ctrl
V without the Shift key. I'm not sure how the "unformatted paste" will look
but it sometimes works :slight_smile:

I think the Documentation Team might be worth asking if you could join their
mailing list & forward it to them.

Can you use the older Doc format or do you really have to use DocX? Doc
(without the X) is more compatible with more systems than DocX. DocX even
misbehaves between different version of MS Office apparently, ie between MS
Office 2007 and MS Office 2010.

I find it odd that academia is supporting the move to restricting access to
information rather than supporting intellectual freedom
http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/
http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/opendocument/
But this sort of thing happens when people allow commercial interests to push
them.

Good luck and regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#7

1st workaround

You could try inserting a text box, I use them all the time, you can move them to where ever and adjust any of the parameters independent of the the main page, even from page to page..
the footnote numbers you can enter manually (eg 1, 2) and use the fonts superscript to look the same.

the only draw back as I can see is that when you click on the "1" say, it does not take you to the footnote.

Insert > Frame (then remove the borders)

  2nd work around

as far as submitting in .docx format is concerned, .doc is much "better!?" in translation and MS will open files as if in both, so if you must then you can manually edit "file.doc" to "file.docx", MS and LO will open it - perfectly.

regards

John B

#8

Hi Gena,

gena_hill schrieb:
[..]

Let me be a little more specific about my problem . . . while I am writing,
I use Zotero to insert footnotes containing citation information.

You insert this as true LibO footnotes?

   Also, I

add footnotes manually when I need to add a little extra information. These
footnotes come up in a different font than I am using, and I also like to
change the font size to be a little smaller. I can not select all the
footnotes at once and change these things. I have to do each one manually,
which adds up quickly when you consider there are 50-60 per chapter of my 8
chapter dissertation. And then there are other documents that I am working
on too. I almost never have a piece of writing without footnotes.

If they are true footnotes, they have the paragraph style 'footnote'. Goto Edit>Find&Replace and expand the dialog. Check "Search for Styles" and select "footnote" from the search drop down list. Then click Find all. Now all footnotes are marked and you can remove all hard formatting with Format>Clear Direct Formatting. Close dialog.

Now right click a footnote and select the item Edit Paragraph Style. In tap Font set the desired font and font size.

Kind regards
Regina

#9

Hi

  Gina, Do you have to share yours documets with yours colleagues and
they have to make changes ? If not you can do your work with LibreOffice
and make a "pdf" document with LibreOffice and send it to your
collegues.

Regards,

Jorge Rodríguez

#10

Thank you all for the tip on .doc vs. docx - I will play with that to see if
it works.
Still, the footnote issue remains a deal breaker for me!