Skip to main content

Refer to Existing Footnote

To refer to a footnote that already exists in your topic, use the footnoteref element. For this to work, the footnote needs to have an ID and you also need to use the linkedto attribute.

When you publish the topic, both the footnote and the footnoteref will have references to the same footnote.

Published content showing two paragraphs on a page. Both paragraphs have a footnote reference to footnote number 1, which is shown as square brackets with a 1 inside.
A footnote at the bottom of a page. It has a number in square brackets and then the text of the footnote.

  1. Open the topic that contains the footnote.

  2. Select the footnote in the text.

  3. Look in the Element Attributes Panel.

    • If the footnote does not have an xml:id, you need to generate an ID, see step 4.

    • If the footnote has an xml:id, skip step 4 and continue with step 5 to copy the xml:id.

  4. Select the footnote element in the Element Context Menu and choose Generate ID.

    Element structure menu has the footnote element selected, revealing a dropdown menu. In the menu, the Generate ID option is highlighted.

    Paligo creates an ID for the footnote element.

  5. Copy the entire value of the xml:id including the footnote-idm prefix in Element Attributes Panel.

    Element attributes section showing the xml:id of a footnote element. The xml:id has a unique value that begins with footnote-idm and is then followed with a long number.

  6. Select the position for the next footnote to appear.

  7. Press Alt + Enter ⏎ (Windows) or Command ⌘ + Enter ⏎ (Mac) to display the Element Context Menu.

    Element context menu shows a search field and a list of elements that are valid at the current position.

  8. Enter footnoteref and select it from the menu.

  9. Select the footnoteref element in the text.

  10. Paste the xmlid of the footnote as the value for linkend element in Element Attributes Panel.

    The element attributes section showing the footnoteref element attributes. It has a single attribute called linkend. The linkend value is set to the xml:id of a footnote.

  11. Select Save. Save icon.