There are special superset number characters that are sometimes perfect for footnotes. Here they are:
¹ ² ³ ⁴ ⁵ ⁶ ⁷ ⁸ ⁹
I generally prefer to superscript the number myself, like:
<p>This next word<sup>1</sup> has a footnote.</p>
That way I can select it in CSS or JavaScript in case I want to do something special with it.
You’d probably add an anchor link around that as well to link to an ID elsewhere on the page that explains the footnote.
But sometimes it just isn’t practical or possible to use HTML as you author a bit of text. As I type, I’m writing in the WordPress Gutenberg editor. I can write in HTML block if I want, but it’s much more practical to use the default paragraph blocks, which have options for stuff like bold, italic, and strikethrough, but not for superscript. I don’t really wanna convert a block to HTML just to use a superscript number. So, a special Unicode character¹ it is.
- Another thing the Gutenberg editor can’t do is add an ID to a link, so it’s not really practical for me to offer a “jump back to the footnote” link down here. Sad face.
You can use
registerFromatType
to add superscript (and susbscript) options alongside strikethrough in the options flyout (why they didn’t just bundle it with the others is beyond me). I’ve been adding the code for it to all my projects using Gutenberg; it’s one of the few things that hasn’t driven me insane trying to figure out.Reminds me of https://www.npmjs.com/package/markdown-it-footnote but uh… that’s a different language…
Nice! I’d love to automate this footnote process a bit more and utilize
<sup>
tags.If I find time in the next week or two, I’ll try to draft up a minimal WordPress plugin to allow for a shortcode such as
[footnote src="https://..." title="..."]
and then generate those linked footnote numbers along with the actual footnote section automatically.Looks like several plugins already exist for this: https://www.cminds.com/5-fantastic-wordpress-footnotes-plugins/
Mark Cheret’s “footnotes” appears to be the most similar in function to what I was thinking with a bit more flexibility: https://wordpress.org/plugins/footnotes/