Obsidian Footnotes Plugin

This hotkey lets you:

• Insert a new numbered footnote marker (e.g. [^1]) with auto-incremented index in your text
• Insert a new named footnote marker (e.g. [^Citation]) in your text
• Adds the corresponding footnote detail (e.g. [^1]: or [^Citation]: ) at the bottom of your text
• Places your cursor so you can fill in the details quickly
• Jump from your footnote TO the footnote detail
• Jump from your footnote detail BACK to the footnote

IMPORTANT: You must to set up your footnote hotkeys

After installing and activating this plugin, you still have to SET UP your hotkeys. This is easy and quick:

Settings -> Hotkeys -> Search for "Footnote" -> Customize Command -> Your preferred hotkeys

I personally use:

• Alt+0 as my auto-numbered footnote hotkey
• Alt+- as my named footnote hotkey

If you would like, you can further customize the plugin's behavior in Footnote Shortcut Settings.

Feature Details

Numbered Footnotes

Scenario: No previous numbered (e.g. "[^1]") footnotes exist

1. Given my cursor is where I want a numbered footnote to exist (e.g. Foo bar baz▊)
2. When I hit auto-numbered footnote hotkey
3. Then a new footnote marker (e.g. [^1]) is inserted where my cursor was (e.g. Foo bar baz[^1])
4. And a new footnote details marker (e.g. [^1]: ) is inserted on the last line of the document
5. And my cursor is now placed at the end of the detail marker (e.g. [^1]: ▊)

Scenario: Previous numbered (e.g. "[^1]") footnotes exist

1. Given there is one or more numbered footnotes in my text
2. And my cursor is where I want a numbered footnote to exist (e.g. Foo bar[^1] baz▊)
3. When I hit auto-numbered footnote hotkey
4. Then a new footnote marker with the next numbered index (e.g. [^2]) is inserted where my cursor was (e.g. Foo bar[^1] baz[^2])
5. And a new footnote details marker (e.g. [^2]: ) is inserted on the last line of the document
6. And my cursor is now placed at the end of the detail marker (e.g. [^2]: ▊)

Scenario: Chapter notes that merge into one document (footnote prefix)

1. Given my note is one chapter of a combined document, so plain numbers would collide across chapters
2. And I have enabled Per-note footnote prefix in the plugin settings (off by default)
3. And my note's properties (frontmatter) set a prefix, e.g. footnote-prefix: 2.
4. When I hit auto-numbered footnote hotkey
5. Then the new footnotes are numbered within that prefix (e.g. [^2.1], then [^2.2], …)
6. And notes without the property keep plain numbering ([^1], [^2], …)

Named Footnotes

Scenario: Add a named footnote

1. Given my cursor is where I want a named footnote to exist (e.g. Foo bar baz▊)
2. When I hit named footnote hotkey
3. Then an empty footnote marker (e.g. [^]) is inserted around my cursor (e.g. Foo bar baz[^▊])
4. Then, I fill in the name I want (e.g. Foo bar baz[^customName])
5. When I hit named footnote hotkey again
6. A matching footnote details marker (e.g. [^customName]: ) is inserted on the last line of the document
7. And my cursor is now placed at the end of the detail marker (e.g. [^customName]: ▊)

Universal

Footnote Popup Editing

• creating or jumping to a footnote opens its detail in a small editor right at your cursor, instead of moving your cursor to the bottom of the note
• close the popup by pressing the footnote hotkey again, hitting Escape, or clicking outside it
• can be disabled in settings to restore the classic jump-to-bottom behavior

Footnote Section Heading

• automatically adds a customizable heading separating your footnotes from the rest of your note
• disabled by default

Scenario: Jumping TO a footnote detail

1. Given I'm on a footnote detail line (e.g. [^1]: ▊)
2. When I hit auto-numbered footnote hotkey OR named footnote hotkey
3. Then my cursor is placed right after the first occurence of this footnote in my text (e.g. [^1]▊)

Scenario: Jumping BACK to a footnote

1. Given I'm on (or next to) a footnote (e.g. [^1]▊) in my text
2. When I hit auto-numbered footnote hotkey OR named footnote hotkey
3. Then my cursor is placed to the right of the footnote (e.g. [^1]: ▊)

More Info

• New to footnotes? +1creator's video tutorial covers footnotes in Obsidian and includes a full walkthrough of setting up and using this plugin.
• For more information, please check the plugin wiki.
  • Overview of how footnotes work in Obsidian
  • Debug Guide

Other Recommended Plugins

• If you're looking for the capability to "Automatically Re-Index Footnotes", check out the Linter plugin, which has the ability to re-index all your footnotes based on order of occurrence every time a note is changed or saved.

Background

This plugin is based on the great idea by jacob.4ristotle posted in the "Footnote Shortcut" thread.

Use case or problem:

I use Obsidian to take school notes, write essays and so on, and I find myself needing to add frequent footnotes. Currently, to add a new footnote, I need to:

• scroll to the bottom to check how many footnotes I already have
• type [^n] in the body of the note, where n is the next number
• move to the end of the note, type [^n] again, and then add my citation.

Proposed solution:

It would be convenient to have a shortcut to automate these steps. In particular, I envision that the shortcut would: Using the smallest natural number n that has not yet been used for a footnote

• add [^n] at the insertion point
• add [^n]: to the end of the note, and move the insertion point there.