I have a DOCX with footnotes that I wanna turn to pop-up notes in ePub on Kobo Forma

[droopy]

Willus, I really appreciate your "most recommended solution" of using Microsoft Word as the middle-man to go from PDF to an ebook format like ePub.

PDF-->MSWord-->CalibreConvert

I have MS Word 2016 at school. Which format should I save the converted PDF as:
1. the regular MS Word document
or
2. Strict Open XML document
or
3. Word XML document?

[droopy]

Hi all, I'm using Willus's most-recommended solution of getting MS Word as the middle man between PDF to ePub.

A book I currently have converted from PDF to middle-man-format DOCX has footnotes. What do I do if I want to prepare them for ePub? When I tap on the superscript in the main body of the text, I want to see the footnote pop up, just as in other ePubs I've read. Should I do this prep work in MS Word 2016 or in Calibre? Or in some other program?

[droopy]

I'm using Willus's "most recommend solution" of getting PDF converted to ePub. His "most recommend solution" is using MS Word as the middle man.

https://www.willus.com/k2pdfopt/pdf_conversion.shtml

A non-fiction book I have converted from PDF to middle-man-format DOCX has footnotes. What do I do if I want to prepare them for ePub?

When it's in ePub format, when I tap on the superscript in the main body of the text, I want to see the footnote pop up, just as in other ePubs I've read. Should I do this prep work in MS Word 2016 or in Calibre? Or in some other program?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by droopy

I'm using Willus's "most recommend solution" of getting PDF converted to ePub. His "most recommend solution" is using MS Word as the middle man.

https://www.willus.com/k2pdfopt/pdf_conversion.shtml

A non-fiction book I have converted from PDF to middle-man-format DOCX has footnotes. What do I do if I want to prepare them for ePub?

When it's in ePub format, when I tap on the superscript in the main body of the text, I want to see the footnote pop up, just as in other ePubs I've read. Should I do this prep work in MS Word 2016 or in Calibre? Or in some other program?

On the Forma, you will need to convert from epub to kepub.epub. RMSDK on the Kobo does not do popup footnotes.

[droopy]

My calibre is set up to auto-convert epub to kepub when I send the book to my Kobo.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by droopy

My calibre is set up to auto-convert epub to kepub when I send the book to my Kobo.

In that case, if your footnotes are properly constructed, you should get popups.

[droopy]

dnsb,
no, the footnotes are not properly constructed at all.

I got Microsoft Word 2016 to open the book PDF. Just as in the PDF, the footnotes in MS Word have a smaller font size than the body. Unlike the PDF, the footnotes in MS Word are no longer at the bottom of the page; instead, they could be in the middle of the page (this is what Word's PDF Reflow does).

Also, the footnote superscript numbers in the body of the text are not linked to the footnote itself.

Is there an automated way to get the footnotes "properly constructed" (not actually sure what that means)?

Thanks all.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by droopy

dnsb,
no, the footnotes are not properly constructed at all.

I got Microsoft Word 2016 to open the book PDF. Just as in the PDF, the footnotes in MS Word have a smaller font size than the body. Unlike the PDF, the footnotes in MS Word are no longer at the bottom of the page; instead, they could be in the middle of the page (this is what Word's PDF Reflow does).

Also, the footnote superscript numbers in the body of the text are not linked to the footnote itself.

Is there an automated way to get the footnotes "properly constructed" (not actually sure what that means)?

Thanks all.

I've played with the Sigil FootnoteLinker plugin but don't know if it is suitable for what you need. See [Plugin] FootnoteLinker Sigil plugin for some information on it. Good luck!

[BetterRed]

My experience is that some PDF's will retain their footnotes linkages when opened in Word and others don't. If there are a lot of footnotes that have lost their linkages I usually give up trying to convert the PDF, broken footnotes are invariably one of many problems.

If there only a few I fix them individually in Word, and let calibre convert them into popup notes (did I mention I hate popup notes).

I find that PDFs from sources that use professional document writers (think tanks, some gov't agencies, technical publishers etc) have far fewer problems like broken footnotes that other sources.

BR

[willus]

Originally Posted by droopy

Hi Willus,
I've tried k2pdfopt_GUI_2.0 but I stick with your program because of the preview. The GUI_2.0 program doesn't have a preview.

A program called "GUI" should not be removing "pictures" (the preview box) from a program that it's supposed to improve.

To be fair, I added the preview after Wallauer created his GUI--so it's not that he really removed anything. He just never implemented it.

[willus]

Originally Posted by droopy

Hi all, I'm using Willus's most-recommended solution of getting MS Word as the middle man between PDF to ePub.

A book I currently have converted from PDF to middle-man-format DOCX has footnotes. What do I do if I want to prepare them for ePub? When I tap on the superscript in the main body of the text, I want to see the footnote pop up, just as in other ePubs I've read. Should I do this prep work in MS Word 2016 or in Calibre? Or in some other program?

This may be better posted in the epub forum. Maybe a moderator could move it?

[AlanHK]

Originally Posted by droopy

I got Microsoft Word 2016 to open the book PDF. Just as in the PDF, the footnotes in MS Word have a smaller font size than the body. Unlike the PDF, the footnotes in MS Word are no longer at the bottom of the page; instead, they could be in the middle of the page (this is what Word's PDF Reflow does).

Also, the footnote superscript numbers in the body of the text are not linked to the footnote itself.

Is there an automated way to get the footnotes "properly constructed" (not actually sure what that means)?

"Proper" footnotes are those that are linked to a text anchor (eg, *, a superscript).
You probably just have formatted text; no real link.

No fully auto way to fix that. In Word, you can search for the smaller font size, then ctrl-X the footnote text, and go to the reference mark, insert footnote, paste the text.

Once you've restructured the doc, you can export to epub and hopefully get working footnotes.

[JSWolf]

The problem is that the source is PDF. It's a terrible format to convert from. Then you dump that mess into Word without there being proper styles so you get another layer of mess onto of the original mess from the conversion. Basically you've made a mess on top of another mess and you then expect it to work. You have two issues. You have to fix the mess made by the PDF conversion and then you have to fix the mess in Word by dumping all the formatting and replace it all with styles.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by droopy

dnsb,
no, the footnotes are not properly constructed at all.

I got Microsoft Word 2016 to open the book PDF. Just as in the PDF, the footnotes in MS Word have a smaller font size than the body. Unlike the PDF, the footnotes in MS Word are no longer at the bottom of the page; instead, they could be in the middle of the page (this is what Word's PDF Reflow does).

Sure, of course they are--they aren't footnotes any more; they're simply regular, but small, content at the bottom of any given page.

Also, the footnote superscript numbers in the body of the text are not linked to the footnote itself.

Yup.

Is there an automated way to get the footnotes "properly constructed" (not actually sure what that means)?

Thanks all.

No, there's no automated way. This is why most commercial formatters don't bother with the PDF-Word-->Whatever option, because speaking frankly, it doesn't work worth a damn. It's why converting from PDF is the single most onerous task, for more-complexly-formatted files.

If you have a PDF with footnotes, etc., you are almost always better off going the AbbyyFineReader route. Footnotes are invariably lost when you try to do the 'save as" or 'convert to" etc., Word route from a pdf.

What you have now, you have to go through and recreate the footnotes, in Word, using the automated functionality, one-by-one. OR, you could open it up in HTML and code them--one by one. But those are pretty much your two choices.

Hitch

[JSWolf]

Given that PDF is meant to simulate print, it's no wonder the footnotes are not links. They would be like they are in a pBook at the bottom of the page.