Long wind comin....



I am not asking for anyone to write code for me, I just was interested in hearing all your experts' opinions about the methodology.

I have decided to stop whining and complaining about Word's prejudice against footnotes and actually try to do something about it.

The most important thing that I need is two or more series of FN.

So I thought I would write (with other's help of course See below) a group of macros that would handle this.

I have already done a prototype macro that does the following:

1. Insert a BM named TMP at the present location in the main text area.(MTA)

2. Get the selected text MTA, navigate to the end of the custom footnote (CFN) area that I created (this is just on another page and has a bookmark (named "CFN_AREA") at its end), and insert the text that was chosen in MTA and BM it with a unique name.

3. Return to the MTA (BM "TMP") area and create a cross-reference from the position of BM TMP to the BM I created in the CFN area.

4. Return to the my CFN area after the the inserted unique BM and prompt to write the actual CFN.

Believe it or not, it works!

I also purchased this Word add-in:

Cross-references in Word – DocTools CrossReferenceManager

This allows me to highlight all CRs and browse them and see their CR location on another file window. So I can review that everything is in order.

But things get a little tricky. Because if I want to insert one of a CFN earlier in the MTA it will put the CFN at the end after all the other CFN, so we need to find a way sync things.

I asked chatGPT to write me code to get the number of a currently selected word in MTA and it actually worked the first time!!. (Apocalypse coming!!!!)

So it would seem that what we have to do is assign the number of the word in MTA to each CFN and then if later on we insert a CFN, it should put it in the relatively correct position in the CFN area.

Does this make sense? Have I overlooked anything?

Input is very appreciated!!

Thank you all!!

Susan

PS I think I will be trying to get ChatGPT to write the actual parts of the macros for me once I get the methodology ironed out, and won't have to bother forum members

PPS If I get rich from this I promise to split the dividends with everybody

PPPS If anyone would like to do this for pay, plz send me PM with a ballpark idea what it would cost...

The AI code you posted in the Microsoft forum clearly does not work.

__________________
Greg Maxey
Please visit my web site at http://www.gregmaxey.com/

How do you mean?
I copied and pasted it into a new module and worked fine.

Update edit:

I saw your explanation there. I tried it on a text of non-repeating words. So I guess that is why it worked for me. Well as a start....

Type:
test test test test test test test test


Select the third, fourth of fifth instance and run your code. It will return 1 each time.

__________________
Greg Maxey
Please visit my web site at http://www.gregmaxey.com/

After wasting an hour contemplating your idea, I'll be the first to say that I think it is impossible to reasonably do what you seem to want to do with VBA. After you have created all of your custom footnotes and were ready to final publish or print your document, then it would probably be possible to take that finalized document and create a list of custom note references at the end of the document, but to do this dynamically while you are working on a document I don't see it happening. Even if it could, it would probably take countless hours to work out and probably take a considerable amount of time to run with each change. Just my opinion.

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Greg Maxey
Please visit my web site at http://www.gregmaxey.com/

Regarding the final output, the total solution is already there. There are very sophisticated pagination programs that handle all the output. And there are many people here that know how to use them very well. But they are not programs that are for writers and content creators. They all work on codes.
The problem is for the content creator who needs the flexibility of a good word processor to create his content keep all notes separately and then deliver it to the the DTP expert.

If you want to see what I am talking about take a look at this. There is one main text in the middle and at least 10 (!!!) sets of "commentaries" i.e notes:

How they did this in the old days by hand is nothing less than a miracle

Attached Images

Screenshot_4.jpg (180.6 KB, 5 views)

I don't read Hebrew and you have yet to show me exactly what you are trying to do.


Word already gives you the ability to have "two or more sequences" of footnotes. You can start a new sequence with each section or a new sequence with each page.


If the video clip you sent sepcor accurately depicts what you are trying to do that Word can't do, why don't you use that program?


I'm just trying to explain that you can't fix what you call "a little tricky" with simple VBA solution. I don't think such a solution exist within VBA. Not claiming to be an expert, just expressing a reasoned opinion after looking at it a bit. Good luck.

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Greg Maxey
Please visit my web site at http://www.gregmaxey.com/