Some footnotes fail to compile to MSWord or PDF,

Scrivener Scrivener for Windows
1

I came across this problem when trying to compile a 60 page academic paper with just over 100 inspector footnotes. Compiling to MSWord would appear to work but while reading through the paper I would discover that some footnotes were doubled and others were missing altogether. I tried compiling to PDF and the doubling stopped but still some footnotes were missing. I converted all inspector notes to inline notes and recompiled. Then I discovered that at least some of the missing footnote markers appeared as this <$FM> in the main text of the paper but there was no corresponding reference in the footnote section. I also noticed that <$FM> as it appeared in the PDF was a link, Hovering over it revealed “scrivcmt:” followed by a massive serial number.

I found nothing describing this same problem on this site (searching for ‘footnote’ in the bug forum) or google. I did come across advice in other instances to try compiling to RTF.

Compiling to RTF seemed to work. The whole bug added several hours of work trying to find a work around and then later manually checking all footnotes for fear some might still be missing. I would like to know how serious the issue is so that I can plan around it on other projects, particularly when I want to compile directly to PDF.

I was using Scrivener Version: 3.0.1.0 (1274136) 64-bit - 28 Apr 2021

This link leads to some screenshots;
https://imgur.com/a/o9qZ3tG

2

The compiler is garbage right now. Footnotes are only part of the problem. I’d make arrangements for your next paper.

3

I’m having similar issues. Thousands of footnotes have disappeared and replaced with scrivcmt links. This is the only answer so far? This is far from being a paper. It’s a 90k word book that is nearly complete. Wtf am I supposed to do?

4

I should mention that for me, compiling to rtf was successful. My rtf file had all the footnotes where I expected them to be. I then opened the rtf in word, and saved to pdf. This work around was successful enough that I’m going to try the same approach for my thesis later.

1 Like
5

Ditto. But L&L really should massively fix the compile to MS Word feature. Does anyone know if this is being addressed, or has been in the latest version(s) of Scrivener 3.x for Windows?