[xep-support] Footnotes

[Parr, Christopher]

Hi All,

I'm looking to solve a problem and I was wondering if anyone can suggest a
solution (I'm starting to think perhaps there isn't one).

Sorry if this gets long winded.

I produce documents and have no problem with footnotes. Our XML is set up so
that where a footnote needs to appear, there is a <footnote-text> tag inline
with the rest of the text. As there is no footnote numbering within the XML
I have to handle this myself.

The way it is done is by passing over the XML once and using java to find
the instances of the footnotes, building up a list of objects containing the
footnote number (generated using a counter) and the ID of the element. On
the second pass using the stylesheets, whenever I come across a need for a
footnote, I find the element ID in the data structure, and retrieve the
correct footnote number. I then do the same thing in the footer and output
the footnote text. This gives continuous footnote numbering from start to
finish of the document as opposed to the numbering starting at 1 on each
page.

What I now want to do is streamline the document: There can be many
identical footnotes within the document both on the same page and over many
pages. I need to merge these footnotes into a single footnote number so if
there are 20 identical footnote references in one page, I can have one
footnote number 20 times through out the text and one footnote at the bottom
(as opposed to footnote numbers 1 to 20 within the text on the same page,
and 20 identical footnotes in the footer).

I can build up a data structure within the java so that all footnote-text
elements containing the same text can be grouped (I now have an array of
objects each containing it's own array of element ID's), so I know they are
identical. What I'm stuck on is a way to identify when I have created a new
page and therefore need to increment the number by one. I have the following
problem scenario:

Footnote text 'amended by X' appears as the first 20 footnotes, but only the
first 18 appear on the first page. What I really need to do is output 18
footnote number 1's within the text of page one and have a footnote
reference to number 1 in the footer of page one. Then what I need is the
remaining footnote references as number 2 on the second page with footnote 2
in the footer of page 2. As I don't know when the text for page one has
ended I have no way of knowing that I need to increment the footnote number
and output the footnote text again (this time referring to footnote 2 in the
footer of page 2).

I'm starting to think this can't be done, but it must be a common publishing
issue.

If one exists can anyone point me to a solution?

Thanks in advance

Chris




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