Contents | < Browse | Browse >
Footnotes
*********

   A "footnote" is for a reference that documents or elucidates the
primary text.(1)

   In Texinfo, footnotes are created with the `@footnote' command.
This command is followed immediately by a left brace, then by the text
of the footnote, and then by a terminating right brace.  The template
is:

     @footnote{TEXT}

   Footnotes may be of any length, but are usually short.

   For example, this clause is followed by a sample footnote(2); in the
Texinfo source, it looks like this:

     ...a sample footnote @footnote{Here is the sample
     footnote.}; in the Texinfo source...

   In a printed manual or book, the reference mark for a footnote is a
small, superscripted number; the text of the footnote is written at the
bottom of the page, below a horizontal line.

   In Info, the reference mark for a footnote is a pair of parentheses
with the footnote number between them, like this: `(1)'.

   Info has two footnote styles, which determine where the text of the
footnote is located:

   * In the `End' node style, all the footnotes for a single node are
     placed at the end of that node.  The footnotes are separated from
     the rest of the node by a line of dashes with the word `Footnotes'
     within it.  Each footnote begins with an `(N)' reference mark.

     Here is an example of a single footnote in the end of node style:

           --------- Footnotes ---------
          
          (1)  Here is a sample footnote.

   * In the `Separate' node style, all the footnotes for a single node
     are placed in an automatically constructed node of their own.  In
     this style, a "footnote reference" follows each `(N)' reference
     mark in the body of the node.  The footnote reference is actually
     a cross reference which you use to reach the footnote node.

     The name of the node containing the footnotes is constructed by
     appending `-Footnotes' to the name of the node that contains the
     footnotes. (Consequently, the footnotes' node for the `Footnotes'
     node is `Footnotes-Footnotes'!)  The footnotes' node has an `Up'
     node pointer that leads back to its parent node.

     Here is how the first footnote in this manual looks after being
     formatted for Info in the separate node style:

          File: texinfo.info  Node: Overview-Footnotes, Up: Overview
          
          (1) Note that the first syllable of "Texinfo" is
          pronounced like "speck", not "hex". ...

   A Texinfo file may be formatted into an Info file with either
footnote style.

   Use the `@footnotestyle' command to specify an Info file's footnote
style.  Write this command at the beginning of a line followed by an
argument, either `end' for the end node style or `separate' for the
separate node style.

   For example,

     @footnotestyle end

or
     @footnotestyle separate

   Write an `@footnotestyle' command before or shortly after the
end-of-header line at the beginning of a Texinfo file.  (If you include
the `@footnotestyle' command between the start-of-header and
end-of-header lines, the region formatting commands will format
footnotes as specified.)

   If you do not specify a footnote style, the formatting commands use
their default style.  Currently, `makeinfo' uses the `end' style, while
`texinfo-format-buffer' and `texinfo-format-region' use the `separate'
style.

   This chapter contains two footnotes.

   ---------- Footnotes ----------

   (1)  A footnote should complement or expand upon the primary text,
but a reader should not need to read a footnote to understand the
primary text.  For a thorough discussion of footnotes, see `The Chicago
Manual of Style', which is published by the University of Chicago Press.

   (2)  Here is the sample footnote.