Problems with heading for endnote section and ‘format styles’, related to epub conver

[MGA]

Dear friends,

I am currently working on converting a DOCX / ODT into EPUB format. I learned that it is a very good method to use Styles rather than making linebreaks and other formating manually when you are making an EPUB. So I have been pursuing this method without much problems, until the time came to make the endnotes section.

For some reason there is no apparent way to create any heading saying “ENDNOTES”. If I try to make a heading according to the ordinary method I did throughout the document, ie. applying Styles and using one of the saved layouts and put this at the very end of the document, then when I try to create an endnote in the main text, the first note would automatically generate a pagebreak and end up on the page after the intended heading. And this is despite the fact that the settings for the heading style in question does not have any pagebreak in its settings.

And I can’t find a function for adding a heading in the settings for foot- and endnotes, (one could have thought it would be easily available there…)

I would be very grateful for any kind support.



Specifics:
LO version: 24.2.3.2 (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community

OS: Windows 10.0 Build 19045;
19045.4291
22H2

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by MGA

I learned that it is a very good method to use Styles rather than making linebreaks and other formating manually when you are making an EPUB.

No, it applies to ANY use of a wordprocessor. Direct formatting dates back to nearly 30 years ago.

Don't use Insert "End Notes" or "Insert Footnotes" at all. While it does work for paper/pdf output sometimes if you delete the [ref] in the text the actual note is deleted too.

Create an extra "chapter" after any chapter with note references for the notes, so that starts a new page and thus a separate HTML file in the epub.
Put a bookmark at the note and a bookmark at the reference, which should be like [2] not a small superscript [2] . Add links. The source link should include the preceding words as well as the [2] so it's easy for a finger tap. The note must be one paragraph and end with [Back], which is a link to the bookmark at the source reference.

Two references can't use the same note, or [Back] won't work. Repeat the note.

Putting notes as a sort of chapter after each chapter is so that people can read them if their ereader has no support for links. Only some readers do footnotes as popup, and only if one short paragraph.

If they are all scholarly references, then you can also put them in an appendix chapter called References with a sub-heading without page break (like level 3) so they are accessible in the System TOC.

In any ebook, footnotes are simply paragraphs with a bookmark linked to from the main text with a link back to the point in the main text. There is no concept of footnotes at bottom of a page, endnotes or headers or footers in ebooks, only paper and PDFs.

While it's possible to convert a docx made from an odt that has footnotes and endnotes my "manual" method 100% works and a copy of the LO Writer or MS Word doc is easily edited for paper or PDF /POD etc to be conventional footnotes and endnotes.

Don't try and slavishly copy how paper documents look. If you have been producing paper documents for years essentially using the wordprocessor as a glass typewriter, forget everything!

It's really hard to convert a document done for paper to ideal for ebooks, but trivial to take a WP file that translates well to ebook, to paper / PDF. For a start you can have a different set of styles with same names for paper/PDF as a template and load that with "overwrite" into a renamed copy of the file. That can even automatically headers and footers. Then you only need minimal editing.

[MGA]

Dear Quoth,

Amazing, thank you for having so much patience with this rookie. All your help in this and previos threads is priceless.

[MGA]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Direct formatting dates back to nearly 30 years ago.

hehehe, I see...

[Quoth]

In my first job I had to do my weekly report on a mechanical typewriter. It looked 50 years old.
Some years later I was using Wordstar on CP/M by the time the PC launched. It was really just a glass typewriter with editing. It and early wordperfect only had direct formatting.

I was introduced to styles with decent Desktop Publishing (DTP) in the early 1990s where the text was created as plain text and imported. I've not used DTP for over 15 years.

Most DTP is now obsolete due to style features of MS Word and LO Writer and decent PDF export. Adobe's InDesign is based on a totally ancient system designed by Aldus, and never released before Adobe bought Aldus, and fudged for ebooks. Still popular with corporate and may be of value for text books that are fixed layout as electronic versions. IMO a total waste of money for anything else.

[MGA]

Originally Posted by Quoth

In my first job I had to do my weekly report on a mechanical typewriter. It looked 50 years old.
Some years later I was using Wordstar on CP/M by the time the PC launched. It was really just a glass typewriter with editing. It and early wordperfect only had direct formatting.

(---)

Thanks for sharing!

BTW, just one other little question, if I may? Is it better to use hyperlink rather than cross reference for connecting the passage in the main text with the "note"?

[Quoth]

Yes.
Insert Bookmarks at places hyperlinks will point to. Usually at the start of a paragraph
Then add the Hyperlinks somewhere else.

Bookmarks become "anchors" in the ebook HTML.
Make the Hyperlinks encompass enough text to easily tap. Think of them as buttons and the bookmarks as the destination.

You need a bookmark also at the paragraph with the hyperlink to note and then just after the note a [Back] that is hyperlink to that source paragraph.

[MGA]

Thank you Quoth,

I believeI have a grasp of those things thanks to your explanation, but what I meant is that it seems the cross reference function will do that jobb as well, and perhaps even be more custom designed for that purpose, as far as I can see, (unlike the hyper links which can do this as well, but seems designed to generate links pointing to targets external to the document.)

So I wonder if there is a particular reason to avoid using cross reference?

[Quoth]

Hyperlinks can be just internal links.
The bookmark name is prefixed by # instead of a full URL or else select Document option and then you can browse for bookmark
This is a full external url: https://www.corvidspress.com
This is an internal url for bookmark ch1: #ch1
When the ebook is created the # will be prefixed by the name of the automatically created chapter file both in the links and the anchors.

I've no assurance that "cross reference" feature creates the second back text, url and bookmark correctly or that it converts properly. I've not used it for years in MS Word or LO Writer. I see no advantage to it.