Insert a footnote

General principle

SPIP provides a typographic shortcut to insert a footnote, such as :

"All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players."[[William Shakespeare]]

which will display the following text :

"All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players." [1]

SPIP automatically generates:

  • the superscripted number
  • the direct link to the footnote
  • the display of the footnote text and the link to part of the text where the footnote was inserted.

Specific case

As mentioned in the SPIP online-help [2], you can also insert a footnote by using a syntax that will override the numbering of the footnote into any other symbol or text of your choice. At the beginning of the footnote, insert the reference in-between < >, eg. :

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet[[<*>dummy text.]].

will display the following :

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet [*].

This syntax could be particularly useful when you wish to insert a footnote that already appears somewhere else in your text [3] (you only want to re-call the footnote without duplicating it).

This syntax could be particularly useful when you wish to insert a footnote that already appears somewhere else in your text [[<3>]]

The HTML generated code

<span class="spip_note_ref">&nbsp;[<a href='#nb2' class='spip_note' rel='footnote' title='William Shakespeare.' id='nh2'>2</a>]</span>

and further below:

<p><span class="spip_note_ref">[<a href='#nh2' class='spip_note' title='Notes 2' rev='footnote'>2</a>]&nbsp;</span>William Shakespeare</p>

Footnotes and Templates

Beware, footnotes will only appear in your text if the #NOTES tag is specifically set in the template for this article.

Footnotes

[1William Shakespeare

[*dummy text.

According to Wikipedia a footnote can be used to provide :

  • additional information pertaining to the subject of the text,
  • attribute a quote or a viewpoint,
  • as an alternative to parenthetical references to acknowledge information gained from another source, or
  • to escape the limitations imposed on the word count of various academic and legal texts which do not take into account notes. Aggressive use of this strategy can lead to a text affected by "foot and note disease" (a derogation coined by John Betjeman). At SPIP, we’re not fond of typographic or writing diseases — try and make sure to limit the risk !

Author naema Published : Updated : 07/09/23

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