Adobe InDesign/footnotes symbols

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Expert: InDesign Pro - 9/10/2009


Question
Hello, I have a report sent to me in PDF form that uses foot notes (a little 1 or 2 that is raised after a word and is in italic). When I copy the information into Indesign it comes through as a regular 1 etc. where in indesign do I make the change? Many thanks!

Answer

InDesign's Character P
Hi Yvonne, thanks for the question.

These are called superscript numbers and there's a few ways to use them. First of all, if you're using an professional Open Type font (many are shipped with InDesign) they will have true superscript numbers included and all you have to do is activate them for the specific character. The reason they don't transfer over well from other documents is that most (all?) other programs *cheat* when making them.

The easiest way if you're using and Open Type font is to put your cursor in the location where you would like to add the footnote and open the Glyphs panel found under the Type menu. If you are using an Open Type font you will see tiny little arrows in some of the character boxes. If you click and hold you will see other options for that character, and inside the number 1 should be a superscript version.

The other way is to type a regular number character and then highlight it using your cursor. Once you have it selected, in the Character panel's fly out menu (little button top right of the Character panel) there is an option to superscript it. (See attached image.) If you are using a professional font it will use the proper character, if you are using a regular font, it will fake it for you.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

Scott
    Questioner's Rating
    Rating(1-10)Knowledgeability = 9Clarity of Response = 7Politeness = 10
    CommentThank you the firts sugguestion worked fine, the second, I had a hard time finding the fly out menu. I did learn that I cold highlight the number and then click on the control + shift + = keys to get there the same way. Many thanks


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