Blogs > Cliopatria > Footnotes/Endnotes & Blogs

Jun 12, 2005

Footnotes/Endnotes & Blogs




It has always been a source of irritation (and not a little frustration) to me that HTML or XHTML does not have a specification for an endnote or footnote—either its reference mark or its textual expression. This is a document element that scholars use all the time. Apparently, the W3C authors did not agree. As a result, endnote/footnotes are a challenge on the web. (If it is not a document element, what is it, then?) Like any good historian, I have my suspicions about the reasons for this lucana, but that is neither here nor there.

Sharon, a fellow Cliopat and proprietor of Early Modern Notes, wished for a blog footnote plug-in the other day. While I can’t manage a plug-in, I wrote a CSS technique specifically for blogs this afternoon. Since the explanation is a bit long, I've housed it at my blog: HistoryTalk. I’d love to hear from anyone who tries it out, especially folks on using a Wintel platform. (ppetrik AT gmu DOT edu) To any high-level programmers out there: TypePad and WordPress plug-ins would be nice; to any Dashboard widget writers: a widget would be good, too. I know that there are some tech-heads that lurk at Crooked Timber and other tech blogs who surface when technical issues arise. Gang, here’s a chance to do the world of scholarship a favor.



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Lisa Roy Vox - 6/13/2005

There is a Movable Type plugin for footnotes (see--there are many good things to be said about Movable Type). I've been working on a longish post incorporating it, that I haven't "published" that post (in Movable Type parlance) yet or I'd show you an example. But if you have the Textile 2 plugin (it should automatically come with your installation or upgrade if you have 3.x) for Movable Type, the directions for inserting footnotes into your posts are on this page: http://www.bradchoate.com/mt/docs/mtmanual_textile2.html
The plugin is here if you gave an earlier installation: http://bradchoate.com/weblog/2004/02/19/textile-retouched
It's rather simple, and it looks rather nice. I actually just discovered the capability myself.
Since Ralph Luker just tagged me for a meme, humph, I'll test it out in that post later today if anyone wants to see what it looks like.