Footnotes and Citations

Footnotes

Footnotes are a way to include sources, notes, and other ancillary information in a document. You can create three main types of footnotes: manual, autonumber, and autonumber-label.

Each footnote has two parts:

• A reference - A footnote reference links to the footnote definition, and is specified using the syntax [label]_. The label depends on the footnote type.

• A definition - A footnote definition consists of an explicit markup start (“.. “), a label, and content (body elements). Each footnote automatically generates a hyperlink target pointing to itself. The text of the hyperlink target name is given by the footnote label.

Note

Footnotes can appear anywhere in your document, and all three footnote types can appear in the same document.

Manual footnotes

To create a manual footnote, specify the label with a whole number using the syntax [number]_

The following example creates a manual footnote with the label “1”.

Loremipsum dolor sit amet [1]_.

.. [1] This is a manual footnote.

The footnote reference is displayed as 1.

Autonumber footnotes

To create an autonumber footnote, specify the label with a single “#” character using the syntax [#]_

The following example creates an autonumber footnote. The number used depends on the type and location of other footnotes in the document.

Loremipsum dolor sit amet [#]_.

.. [#] This is an autonumber footnote.

The footnote reference is displayed as 2.

Autonumber-label footnotes

To create an autonumber-label footnote, specify the label with a single “#” character followed by a simple reference name using the syntax [#name]_.

The following example creates an autonumber-label footnote. The number used depends on the type and location of other footnotes in the document.

Loremipsum dolor sit amet [#MyFootnote]_.

.. [#MyFootNote] This is an autonumber-label footnote.

The footnote reference is displayed as 3.

Footnote rubric

Although footnotes can appear anywhere in your document, it is common to add them at the bottom of the document after a “Footnotes” rubric.

.. rubric:: Footnotes
.. [1] This is a manual footnote.
.. [#] This is an autonumber footnote.
.. [#MyFootNote] This is an autonumber-label footnote.

The “Footnotes” rubric and footnotes are shown below.

Footnotes

1

This is a manual footnote.

2

This is an autonumber footnote.

3

This is an autonumber-label footnote.

Note

The autonumber footnotes start at “2” because the manual footnote already uses “1”. Also, the number order depends on the footnote order, and not the reference order.

Citations

Citations are identical to footnotes except they use only alphanumeric labels such as [note] or [GVR2001]. Citation labels are simple reference names (case-insensitive single words consisting of alphanumerics plus internal hyphens, underscores, and periods; no whitespace). Citations may be rendered separately and differently from footnotes.

A citation reference, rubric, and definition are shown below.

Here is a citation reference [CIT2002]_.

.. rubric:: Citations

.. [CIT2002] This is the citation. It's just like a footnote, except the label is alphanumeric.

The citation reference is displayed as [CIT2002].

The “Citations” rubric and citation definition are shown below.

Citations

CIT2002

This is the citation. It’s just like a footnote, except the label is alphanumeric.