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readingaloud · 02-18-2007, 12:09 PM

I've made a truly startling discovery.

In eBooks, or at least the ones I make for my iLiad and Sony Reader, footnotes belong ... AT THE FOOT OF THE PAGE!

One of the problems with these readers is that they don't do well with the kind of back-and-forth page flipping you need for most reference books. There's nothing more annoying than seeing a footnote marker and not knowing where to find the information or whether it's even worth looking for. If you put the footnotes where the name implies, you can simply glance down the page and see whether you want to read the note, perhaps read it, and then go right back. It's mildly annoying when long notes need to be split to the following page, but at least you know where to go for them, and how to get back.

Having said this, I'm painfully aware that the only eBooks I've got that put footnotes in the right place are the ones that I've painstakingly created for myself, using InDesign. The commercial eBooks I have make footnotes into endnotes, and thus essentially inaccessible. That's where the notes are in most of the e-texts I find online, too, and it's a pain in the neck to move them to their proper places. Even where the note is interpolated into the text (usually at the end of the paragraph), it's a fussy process to get them put right.

But I like to make eBooks that look BETTER than paper books, and for me it's worth the effort.

02-18-2007, 12:09 PM	#1
readingaloud Enthusiast Posts: 34 Karma: 55 Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Switzerland Device: iRex iLiad; Sony Reader; Amazon Kindle	Footnotes, anyone? I've made a truly startling discovery. In eBooks, or at least the ones I make for my iLiad and Sony Reader, footnotes belong ... AT THE FOOT OF THE PAGE! One of the problems with these readers is that they don't do well with the kind of back-and-forth page flipping you need for most reference books. There's nothing more annoying than seeing a footnote marker and not knowing where to find the information or whether it's even worth looking for. If you put the footnotes where the name implies, you can simply glance down the page and see whether you want to read the note, perhaps read it, and then go right back. It's mildly annoying when long notes need to be split to the following page, but at least you know where to go for them, and how to get back. Having said this, I'm painfully aware that the only eBooks I've got that put footnotes in the right place are the ones that I've painstakingly created for myself, using InDesign. The commercial eBooks I have make footnotes into endnotes, and thus essentially inaccessible. That's where the notes are in most of the e-texts I find online, too, and it's a pain in the neck to move them to their proper places. Even where the note is interpolated into the text (usually at the end of the paragraph), it's a fussy process to get them put right. But I like to make eBooks that look BETTER than paper books, and for me it's worth the effort.