Whether one holds on to the Sola Scriptura principle, or to Prima Scriptura, we all agree that Scripture is the best means to interpret Scripture. And using this means of interpretation became easier and more efficient when in the 16th century Christians agreed to divide text of biblical books into chapters and verses. Very soon after that the great-great-grandparents of modern hyperlinks came to be — cross-references (xrefs).
One of the first English Study Bibles — the Geneva Bible (1560) uses xrefs extensively. Since that time xrefs are an indispensable part of many printed and digital Bibles.
By default a basic Bible layout produced by Publishing Assistant will display any footnotes or cross-references at the bottom of the page, with all of the footnotes presented first, followed by the collection of cross-references.
This standard Bible page design has its own benefits, but sometimes the translator, designer or publishing manager might want it a different way. Whether one would like to give a modern twist to traditional look, or save some space on the page, one way to do it is to merge footnotes and xrefs together. There are two ways to get this done.
1. With the help of Custom Layout
Select Yes for the Custom Layout option on the Custom Layout tab.
Push the Edit Page Layout button. Publishing Assistant will generate a default page design, which can be further customized in many ways.
Select the xref frame and delete it (right-click on the frame name in the Frame definition window will help).
Select the fnote frame, go to the SFMs property and right-click on it. Publishing Assistant will offer to add another SFM to the frame. Click OK.
Choose x in the Property Value dialog. Save your layout by clicking OK at the bottom right corner of the Custom Page Layout designer. Then, create a document.
Here it is.
2. Use a newly developed feature for basic Bible layouts available from the Footnotes tab.
Select Yes for Merge Fnotes and Xrefs.
Create Document and voila!
As you can see, the result is almost identical. Both methods resulted in 42 pages of Matthew. In the examples above all footnotes and cross-references are placed in a single paragraph. However, you can also choose to start each footnote or xref on a new line. Both of the above methods provide a separate character style for footnotes and xrefs. Thus the designer can still visually differentiate one from another for the benefits of the reader.