Hello, how does Scrivener import multiple Word documents into a Scrivener project, each containing its own endnotes? Can Scrivener consolidate the endnotes in a consistent manner and assign them correct numbering during the compilation process? Or is it preferable to first merge the Word documents within Word and then import them into Scrivener as a single document? - My question just concerns managing endnotes in Scrivener after importing the documents from Word.
I would suggest this as the safest route.
Or, you could try both and report back on what happened.
When a document is created in Scrivener, you can use the Inspector to add notes, which will be anchored to specific locations in the text. From that point on, they will go where the text does: if you merge or split the document, the notes will be attached to the same chunk(s) of text in the new document(s).
Internally, each Binder item has a folder, which contains a text document, a notes document, and possibly others depending on what features of Scrivener you use.
When you import a document, Scrivener pulls the notes out to a notes document. From that point on, the document behaves exactly as it would have if it were created in Scrivener. (Provided that Scrivener recognizes them as notes. It is possible for Word to create text that looks like an endnote but is not actually anchored to the text. Those will be handled as text.)
Which is a lot of words to say that Scrivener doesn’t care. Notes are notes.
If you have a lot of notes – say for chapters in a thesis – I would recommend importing the smallest chunk first. That will let you see how the process works before you overwhelm yourself with potentially hundreds of notes.
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See my reply. I would recommend the exact opposite.
Especially if you want to treat them as separate documents in Scrivener. Why merge them if you’re just going to split them up again?
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I stand c o r r e c t e d. (Spaces to make 20)
@kewms, thank you so much. You’ve been incredibly helpful.
Another way to think about it:
The numbering of footnotes/endnotes is just for the viewer/reader. As Word or Scriv internally represent them, foot/endnotes do not have numbers at all, they just have assigned text locations.
Thus if you import two different Word docs, the foot/endnotes get imported, but no numbering of them is imported. If you compiled the result as a single thing from Scrivener, the foot/endnotes would be numbered sequentially just as you would expect.
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And if you want to see the footnote numbering not only in the compiled output but in the Inspector as well, activate View/Text Editing/Show Compiled Footnote Numbers in Inspector.
However, this only works after a Compile and only represents the footnote numbering in the document that has just been compiled. Footnotes in the Inspector will not be auto-renumbered if you later add or remove footnotes, or move text chunks to which the footnotes are anchored. Only another Compile will update the numbering in the Inspector.
And don’t get confused: If you have only compiled a part of your draft containing only a part of your footnotes, only these will be numbered in the Inspector. This is because these numbers only refer to the last compiled document.
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