Footnotes

A footnote is a small mark in the text and a note at the foot of the page. In a chapter file it is two ordinary pieces of Markdown: a mark such as [^1] where the note belongs, and a line such as [^1]: Ninety-one, by the keeper's tally. for the note, usually at the end of the chapter. Any other Markdown tool reads them the same way.

Add one

1. Select the words the note belongs to (or just put the caret where the mark should go).
2. Choose Add footnote in the little bar that appears (the small raised x²), or press Alt+Shift+N, or choose Add a footnote here under More above the page.
3. The mark goes just after the selection, and the caret jumps to a new, empty note at the end of the chapter. Type the note.
4. Press Ctrl+Enter to go back to the mark. Pressing it again goes to the note.

Ctrl+Z takes the whole footnote back out, the mark and the empty note together.

What you see

• A mark is drawn raised, in the accent colour. Point at it to see the note's words in a small card.
• A mark with no note behind it is drawn red and dashed. A note that no mark points at is drawn dotted and grey: it is not printed anywhere.
• Ctrl-click (Cmd-click on a Mac) on a mark goes to its note.
• With Live on, a mark shows as its number and a note's label as "1.", unless the caret is on it. Clicking a number goes to the note.

Numbering

Footnotes are numbered from 1 in each chapter, in the order the marks come in the text, whatever you called them. [^smith] can be note 3. If two marks point at the same note, it is printed twice, once for each mark.

Rules

• A note is one paragraph. Lines indented by two spaces or more under it belong to it. Italics and bold work inside a note; a link is printed as its words and a picture is left out.
• A note cannot have a note of its own, and a footnote cannot go inside an alternate (put it just before or after one).
• Status marks do not reach into a note. A note takes no status colour, is not counted in the status totals, and the ready check ignores it.
• The words of notes are not in the word count, in the chapter, the book, your goals or the exports' totals. A mark is not a word either.
• Footnotes work in paragraphs, quotes and lists. In a heading a mark is printed as you wrote it.

Splitting and joining chapters

When you split a chapter, each note goes with the mark that cites it, wherever it was written: a note written at the end moves to the half that cites it, and is copied to both halves if both cite it. When you join two chapters, the notes of both go to the end of the joined chapter, and if the second chapter used an id that the first already has (both have a [^1]), the second chapter's mark and note are given a new one, so no note answers for another.

Exporting

Format	What you get
Word	Real Word footnotes, at the foot of the page, numbered by Word from 1 in each chapter (each chapter is its own section). Edit them in Word as any footnote
EPUB	EPUB 3 notes: each mark links to its note at the end of the chapter's file, which readers such as Apple Books show as a pop-up, and each note links back
PDF	Footnotes at the foot of the page, numbered from 1 in each chapter, in both layouts
Markdown	The footnotes as written. If a chapter uses an id that an earlier chapter already used, it is renamed so the one file still reads right
Plain text	Marks become [1], [2], and the notes are listed under "Notes" at the end of each chapter, numbered from 1 in each

The export dialog says if a note has no mark (it is left out). A mark with no note is printed as you wrote it, so you can find it.

Importing

A Word file's footnotes arrive as chapter footnotes: each footnote lands in the chapter that cites it, numbered from 1 there. A Markdown file with footnotes keeps them, and when it is cut into chapters each chapter gets the notes it cites.