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Footnotes

Footnotes are useful for adding citations or references to notes or in your text. When you add a footnote, a number appears in the text and it is a reference to a note that appears at the bottom of the page or table.

In Paligo, you can create as many footnotes as you need in each topic. If you need to refer to the same footnote several times in the same topic, you can create the footnote once, and then use footnote references to refer back to it.

Published content showing two paragraphs on a page. Both paragraphs have a footnote reference to footnote number 1, which is shown as square brackets with a 1 inside.
A footnote at the bottom of a page. It has a number in square brackets and then the text of the footnote.

To add a footnote in a topic:

  1. Edit a topic and select the position in your text where you want the first reference to the footnote to appear.

    Note

    For example, if you have a topic where three paragraphs all need to reference the footnote, select a position in the first of these paragraphs.

  2. Press Alt + Enter ⏎ (Windows) or Command ⌘ + Enter ⏎ (Mac) to display the Element Context Menu.

    Element context menu shows a search field and a list of elements that are valid at the current position.
  3. Enter footnote and select it from the menu.

    A topic being edited. It shows a paragraph and the element context menu. The footnote option is highlighted on the menu.

    Note

    Paligo adds a footnote and it appears below the selected text. This is so that there is plenty of space for you to enter the footnote text. When you publish the content, the footnote will not appear here, it will be in the footnotes at the bottom of the page.

    A footnote at the bottom of a page. It has a number in square brackets and then the text of the footnote.

    If you add a footnote in a table cell, Paligo adds the list of footnotes after the table.

  4. Enter the text for the footnote in the para element that appears below the footnote element.

  5. Select Save. Save icon.

Tip

If you need to refer to the same footnote again, see Refer to Existing Footnote.

To refer to a footnote that already exists in your topic, use the footnoteref element. For this to work, the footnote needs to have an ID and you also need to use the linkedto attribute.

When you publish the topic, both the footnote and the footnoteref will have references to the same footnote.

Published content showing two paragraphs on a page. Both paragraphs have a footnote reference to footnote number 1, which is shown as square brackets with a 1 inside.
A footnote at the bottom of a page. It has a number in square brackets and then the text of the footnote.
  1. Open the topic that contains the footnote.

  2. Select the footnote in the text.

  3. Look in the Element Attributes Panel.

    • If the footnote does not have an xml:id, you need to generate an ID, see step 4.

    • If the footnote has an xml:id, skip step 4 and continue with step 5 to copy the xml:id.

  4. Select the footnote element in the Element Context Menu and choose Generate ID.

    Element structure menu has the footnote element selected, revealing a dropdown menu. In the menu, the Generate ID option is highlighted.

    Paligo creates an ID for the footnote element.

  5. Copy the entire value of the xml:id including the footnote-idm prefix in Element Attributes Panel.

    Element attributes section showing the xml:id of a footnote element. The xml:id has a unique value that begins with footnote-idm and is then followed with a long number.
  6. Select the position for the next footnote to appear.

  7. Press Alt + Enter ⏎ (Windows) or Command ⌘ + Enter ⏎ (Mac) to display the Element Context Menu.

    Element context menu shows a search field and a list of elements that are valid at the current position.
  8. Enter footnoteref and select it from the menu.

  9. Select the footnoteref element in the text.

  10. Paste the xmlid of the footnote as the value for linkend element in Element Attributes Panel.

    The element attributes section showing the footnoteref element attributes. It has a single attribute called linkend. The linkend value is set to the xml:id of a footnote.
  11. Select Save. Save icon.