Documentation

Use the following resource to work with Bible-specific design aspects.

Deduping

Some Bibles may require a process called deduping (removing deplicate footnotes). Identical notes should not appear multiple times on a single page. Instead, the note should only appear once, with multiple note references pointing to it.

To dedupe a note:

1. Change the letter of the second (or third if there are more) fnref in the text to match that of the first.
2. Renumber/reletter all of the note references that follow the first changed fnref on the page.
3. Cut the verse number from the beginning of the second footnote (if the translator notes include the verse) and paste it after the verse number for the first note. These should be separated by commas.
4. Delete the second note in the footnotes box.
5. Renumber/reletter the remaining notes.

Recommendation: Identify these as you are typesetting (refer to a list of duplicate notes, if available) and move the text box down on the page if deleting the note will cause you to lose a line. This lets you continue to typeset without having to worry about reflow when deduping.

Footnotes in Tables

InDesign places footnotes at the bottoms of pages/columns in a single text flow.

Table cells are essentially their own unique text areas and are therefore outside of the main text flow.

If there is flexibility in the choice of where notes can appear, it is recommended that the note be treated as a table note instead of a general footnote, thus keeping the note content with the table, regardless of the table’s placement.

If a note has to remain a footnote within the main footnote set, move the footnote to appear on the next body text element after the table and indicate with a {~?~TN} note the location of the fnref in the table cell. When typesetting, I'd make the “live” fnref tiny and invisible and put a matching literal character into the table cell. Confirm that the note numbers are still in the proper order for where the table was placed. If they are not, then the invisible/live fnref would need to be moved to be with a different paragraph to result in the proper order.

Center Column Cross-References

Center column cross-references can be handled in a variety of ways. The two most common approaches are as follows:

1. Build space above each new cross-reference paragraph
2. Place the notes at the top and bottom of pages.

When the notes fall at the top and bottom of the column, the notes whose references are in the left column fall at the top of the page while those for the right column fall at the bottom. These need to be separated manually, and the recommended approach is to add hard returns until the bottom notes are aligned.

If the notes for a single verse span both columns, the verse number may not need to repeat at the bottom of the page (this should be decided in the design stage). If the notes for a single verse span two pages, repeat the verse number at the top of the page where the note continues.

On some pages, there may be too many notes to fit in the center column on the same page as their references. When this happens, all of the runover notes are placed in a box at the bottom of the right column. If there are footnotes, these go above the footnotes. Adjust the notes to be in a single paragraph that does not use a hanging indent. Depending on the design, adjust tabs around the note numbers by changing them to spaces.

Run-In Chapters

Some Bibles will also include run-in chapters. These should be noted with a text line above them indicating that they should be run into the previous line. While there will still be a dropcap, the previous line needs to be justified.

1. Cut words from the end of the previous paragraph so that that paragraph is now ending as close to the margin as possible.
2. Paste that text directly after the chapter number.
3. Add a verse number 1 to where the chapter is starting in the middle of the line.
4. Change the previous paragraph so that the last line is fully justified.

Hanging Elements

Hanging verse numbers, cross-reference indicators, and quotation marks

While not required for all translations, many versions of the Bible will require that the design hang the verse numbers, cross-reference indicators, and/or quotation marks on paragraphs with a hanging indent. These include senselines (poetry), unnumbered lists, and certain letter styles.

The most common way of hanging verse numbers is to use tabs to isolate the verses along the left margin while hanging any cross-reference indicators or quotes on the main text of the verse. There are two methods of doing this.

1. Set up alternative styles for the various different combinations of these elements and then adjust the tab settings so that verse numbers are right-aligned with each other and all main text starts in the same spot.
2. Hang all content directly to the left of the main text. While this would still require alternative styles for the various combinations, you would just use the indentation settings of the paragraph styles to determine where each line should start so that everything aligns.

Note: Scribe IDTT files include alternative styles for all necessary combinations of these elements unless requested otherwise.