It is possible to convert plain-text notes to linked Word notes from the Post Processing Cleanup dialog with the option, Convert plain-text Footnotes and Endnotes to Word Footnotes and Endnotes. With this function, it is even possible to automatically “round-trip” linked notes to plain text and back again during Auto-Redact and eXtyles Advanced Processes, meaning that these eXtyles functions can have access to note content while preserving their Word properties.

The ability to convert plain-text notes back to linked Word notes opens up various possible workflows for handling footnotes and endnotes with eXtyles. The most appropriate workflow for your editing team will depend on several factors, and ultimately on the intended output(s) from the eXtyled Word document.

Possible note workflows include the following:

• Convert linked notes to plain-text: Depending on your configuration, linked notes may be converted to plain text during Activation, or at any time during Cleanup or Post-Processing Cleanup. Plain-text notes may then be styled and automatically processed by eXtyles.
• Convert to Linked Notes for Downstream Processing: Having converted the linked notes to plain text, or starting with original plain text notes, you can convert the notes back to linked notes from the Post Processing Cleanup dialog after eXtyles processing, for example to allow the Word file to be printed to PDF or imported into Adobe InDesign with footnotes and endnotes in the correct locations.
• Retain Linked Notes throughout the eXtyles Process: It is possible to leave the notes linked on document Activation, but then to use round-tripping to allow Auto-Redact to work on the note content, and also to give processes such as Citation Matching access to the notes to mark bibliographic citations or citations of, for example, tables and figures that occur in the notes. 

Converting Plain Text Notes to Linked Notes

To convert plain text notes to linked notes, click Post Processing Cleanup from the eXtyles menu to open the Post Processing Cleanup dialog. Then, select Convert plain-text Footnotes and Endnotes to Word Footnotes and Endnotes, and click OK. If you only want to run this one function, be sure to Clear All settings before selecting this option.

Requirements

There are some requirements to the way that notes can be set up in the Word document if the function to convert plain-text notes to linked Word notes is to work correctly:

• The document must contain only either footnotes or endnotes, not a mixture of the two.
• All notes must be numbered with Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, etc.).
• The notes must be placed either at the end of the document or at the end of the document section in which they are cited (see further on for information about handling notes on a per-section basis).
• If the notes have been converted to plain text and styled from the paragraph styling palette, all notes must contain one and only one paragraph styled with your Footnote or Endnote paragraph style. Second and subsequent paragraphs must be styled with another style(s) (e.g., a Footnote Continued paragraph).
• Each note must have a matching citation, and vice versa. This can be confirmed by using Citation Matching and resolving any note-related errors.
• The notes must be in ascending numerical Note that note conversion can cope with out-of-order citations, as long as the citations refer to the correct notes and the notes themselves are in ascending order.

Whole-Document versus Section-by-Section Conversion of Notes

The eXtyles functions to convert linked notes to plain text and to convert them back to linked notes can be set up to process notes either on a whole-document basis or by section. In the latter case, notes can be converted to plain text and “re-linked” from the end of the Word section in which  they are cited, making it possible to support note numbering that restarts with each section.

Note that processing notes by section means that plain-text notes must be placed at the end of the section in which they are cited, not at the end of the document, irrespective of whether the note numbering restarts at 1 for each section.

A third possibility is to set these functions up so that the user is prompted to select for each document whether the notes should be handled on a whole-document or section-by-section basis.

Please contact your Inera support representative at eXtyles-support@inera.com if you would like to add support for section-by-section numbering of notes.