Footnotes at the bottom of the page

Question

For anyone interested – putting the above title in the search window didn't produce anything I mean. And I welcome better ideas. I work with a Dutch language version, so I hope I use the right terms.
Working on juridical textbooks with hundreds of sometimes long footnotes, I sometimes come to the next problem. It is possible to automatically let long footnotes break over two pages (see other threads to get explained how). But suppose there is another footnote marker a little after the 'long' one. This seems a bit too much for Indesign. Both markers and both footnotes go to the next page, leaving a big white gap, in mid-paragraph, at the bottom of the preceeding page.
My solution:
- cut the second footnote marker;
- add the right footnote number as normal text (probably in superscript) at that spot;
- paste the footnote marker at the end of the top paragraph on the next page;
- make a text style with text color set to paper (white);
- apply this text style to the pasted footnote marker.
Now it looks like the footnote marker is on the first page, and the entire footnote is on the second page (the real footnote marker is invisible). If in a later stage footnotes are added or text overruns, you can easily look for the 'white' text style to adapt things.
You can also use this trick when there is either space for the marker or for the footnote text at the bottom of a page but not for both, leaving at least one white line (although to the most of us, that will sound less urgent).
But of course it would be nice if Adobe solves this in a future version (I already suggested them to do so.)

Answer 1

An 8 line footnote will not normally take 8 lines of text: usually, the
type size is smaller and so is the leading in footnotes.
Personally, I don't mind a gap of up to 4 text lines or so if necessary
to keep the footnote indicator and the start of the footnote on the same
page (obviously, once the footnote starts on the page, it can flow on to
the next page; and this InDesign can cope with!). Although I would never
have such a gap in the middle of paragraph normally, in this case,
because there is also a footnote at the bottom of the page, it does not
stand out so much to my eye.
I didn't know that Word allows what you say. I'm surprised that it does.
This is what the Chicago Manual of Style (15th ed.) has to say about
your problem: "In a work containing many long footnotes, it may be
difficult to fit them onto the pages they pertain to, especially in an
illustrated work. A basic requirement for all footnotes is that they at
least begin on the page on which they are referenced. Several long
footnotes with their references falling close together toward the end of
a page present a major problem in page makeup. There is also the matter
of appearance; a page consisting almost exclusively of footnotes is
daunting. For some remedies, see 16.36–40."
And the first remedy (16.36): "Avoiding overlong footnotes: Lengthy,
discursive notes should be reduced or integrated into the text..."
Obviously, nobody can force you to take this advice. But you're asking
the InDesign team to spend days and or months of programming to
accommodate your editor or publisher's bad practice in allowing such
long footnotes in the first place, despite what I think is a consensus
that apart from the "daunting look," this will also cause "a major
problem in page makeup." And your solution is to have the footnote begin
on a different page from its text indicator, whereas Chicago says "A
basic requirement for all footnotes is that they at least begin on the
page on which they are referenced." Many readers would, I think, agree
with that assertion!
Anyway, the more flexibility the better, as far as I'm concerned. But I
seems to me that it's wrong to expect the InDesign team to offer a
solution to a problem that is caused by bad editorial practice. Fix the
editors, not the programmers!
Ariel