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Footnotes

Footnotes

Footnotes enable you to annotate text with additional information that is not appropriate for inline inclusion or to indicate the source for facts or other material used in the text. Footnotes consist of two main elements, a footnote callout that is visible in the text and footnote content that is typically placed at the the bottom of a page. Footnote callouts are linked to footnote content.

Numerical Callouts

Remember:

We recommend using numerical callouts when your footnote content consists of words.

By default, footnotes are indicated by numerical callouts. Heretto CCMS automatically manages their order. For example, if you insert a new footnote between existing footnotes, their order updates according to their position in the topic.

Figure 1. Numerical Callouts Added to Paragraphs A and C in the Content Editor.

In this example, callout 1 corresponds to Paragraph A and callout 2 corresponds to Paragraph C.

example of footnotes with numerical annotations.
Figure 2. Numerical Callouts Added to Paragraphs A, B, and C in the Content Editor.

In this example, a footnote is added to Paragraph B. The order of the numerical footnotes updates automatically.

example of footnotes with numerical callouts that are automatically updated when you insert new footnote elements.

Custom Callouts

Remember:

We recommend using custom callouts with symbols when your footnote content consists of numbers.

You can customize callouts to use symbols or letters instead of numbers by setting the callout attribute value for the footnote element. Custom callouts do not update automatically. For example, if you insert a new footnote between existing footnotes with symbols as callouts, you need to update the order of footnotes at the bottom of the page manually.

Figure 3. Custom Callouts with Symbols Added to Paragraphs A and C.

In this example, callout * corresponds to Paragraph A and callout ** corresponds to Paragraph C.

example of symbols in callouts

Using One Footnote Multiple Times

You can annotate multiple pieces of text in a topic with the same footnote. For more information, see Apply One Footnote Multiple Times in a Topic

Figure 4. One footnote used multiple times in a topic.

In this example, one footnote with callout 1 is added to three paragraphs in a topic.

multiple footnote annotations

Footnotes in Output

Depending on the output type and your output customizations, footnotes can render differently in different output types. For example, in some outputs footnotes may be rendered as endnotes. You can change the way footnotes render by customizing your publishing scenarios.

Figure 5. Footnotes in a PDF Output.

In this example, footnote callouts render as links in the text but at the bottom of the page they render as non-clickable superscript characters.

example of footnotes in a PDF output
Figure 6. Footnotes in the HTML5 Output.

In this example, footnote callouts render as links both in the text and at the bottom of the page. You can click a callout to jump between the footnote callout and the corresponding footnote content.

example of footnotes rendered in the HTML5 output

Insert a Footnote

You can enrich your content by adding footnotes. Footnotes appear outside the main document body and provide additional information about pieces of the content.

A gif tat shows how to insert a footnote element
  1. In a topic, place your cursor where you want the footnote callout to appear and press Ctrl+Enter (Windows) or Cmd+Enter (Mac).
  2. From the quick insert menu that opens, select Footnote and press Enter.

    A default, numbered footnote callout is added at your cursor location. The Content Editor scrolls to the bottom of the topic where the footnote element is added. Your cursor is automatically placed inside the footnote.

  3. In the Footnotes section at the bottom of the topic, add footnote content.
  4. Add more footnotes as needed.

You can add as many footnotes in a topic as you want. By default, footnotes are numbered starting from 1. You can modify footnote callouts.

example of content with multiple footnotes

Modify Footnote Callouts

You can modify footnote callouts and change them to a number, letter, or symbol. By default, a footnote callout is a number visible in line with text as a superscript element that is linked to the footnote content at the end of the topic.

To modify footnote callouts, you add a value to the callout attribute in a footnote element.

Important:

Footnotes with custom callouts do not update automatically when you add new footnotes. We recommend using default footnote callouts for textual content and symbols for footnote callouts with numerical content.

A gif showing how to add a custom footnote callout
Insert a footnote element to a topic. See Insert a Footnote.
  1. Select a footnote by doing any of the following:
    • Place your cursor directly after the footnote callout. In the example, the footnote callout is 1.

      Numeric footnote callout (1) added to text in a paragraph
    • At the bottom of the topic, in the Footnotes section, place your cursor anywhere in the Footnote content. In this example, footnote content is Footnote content.

  2. Open the Attributes tab and in the callout field add a custom callout for the footnote.

The footnote callout changes in both the content and Footnotes section.

Layer 1

Apply One Footnote Multiple Times in a Topic

You can add one footnote to multiple pieces of text in a topic. To do that, you create cross-references that link to a footnote element.
Insert a footnote element in a topic. See Insert a Footnote.

Set an ID attribute value for the footnote element to be reused

  1. Scroll to the bottom of a topic and place your cursor in the footnote element.
  2. Open the Attributes tab and in the id field add a value.

    The identifier (id) you set is used by the CCMS to identify the footnote element you want to link to.

    A gif showing how to add an id value to a footnote element

Link to the footnote element

  1. Place your cursor where you want the footnote callout to appear and press Ctrl+Enter (Windows) or Cmd+Enter (Mac).
  2. From the quick insert menu that opens, select Cross Reference and press Enter.
  3. Click the cross-reference element and select Change.
  4. In the Link dialog, from the Link To drop-down menu, select An Element in this file (Local link).
  5. Click Select Element.
  6. Select the footnote element that you want to link to and click the Insert Content button.
    A gif that shows how to use an xref to link to an existing footnote

    You created a link to the footnote element that looks similar to this:

    <xref scope="local" type="fn" href="#concept-7749/fn-id"></xref>
    Note:

    The required type="fn" attribute is added to the xref automatically.

  7. Link the footnote again as needed.
You applied one footnote to two or more pieces of text in a topic.multiple footnote annotations

Remove a Footnote

You can remove unwanted footnotes by removing the footnote element from the Footnotes section.

  1. In the Content Library, open a topic that contains one or more footnotes.
  2. Scroll down to the Footnotes section at the end of the topic and place your cursor in the footnote that you want to remove.
  3. In the footer breadcrumbs, click Footnote and select Remove.
    empty footnote placeholder that remains after removing contents of a footnote

You removed both the footnote callout and content from the topic.