What is it?

The unoriginally-named Footnotes is one of several footnote plugins for WordPress. Like the others, its distinguishing feature is its syntax; it uses MediaWiki’s syntax, the same system used on Wikipedia. If you’re a frequent contributor to Wikipedia, or just like the way their <ref> footnotes work, Footnotes might well be the plugin for you.

Download

How do I use it?

As mentioned, Footnotes uses the same syntax as Wikipedia’s referencing system. You can view help for that system here, but I’ll also give my own quick run-down of what Footnotes can do.

Installation

Upload the footnotes directory to your wp-content/plugins directory, and activate the plugin in your WordPress admin panel.

Footnotes is compatible with WordPress versions 2.0 and above.

The ref Tag

The heart of Footnotes is the <ref> tag. Any text that you enclose with <ref> and </ref> will be used as a footnote right there in the text. You can give your footnotes names, if you like, by using <ref name="foo">Foo</ref>; this allows you to reference the same footnote again without repeating yourself, using <ref name="foo" />.

An Example

If an example might help, here I define two footnotes. The first is used only once, so I don’t give it a name; the second is used twice, so to save repeating myself I give it a name:

Prime Minister Gordon Brown1 today announced a move towards friendlier relations with France.2 A joint communique stated Britain and France’s desire to ‘[reform] the G8 to include more members and UN Security Council to include “permanent representation” for Africa, and “permanent membership” for Germany, India, Brazil and Japan’.3

And the source of the above paragraph:

Prime Minister Gordon Brown<ref>Wikipedia: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Brown">'Gordon Brown'</a>, accessed 27 March 2008.</ref> today announced a move towards friendlier relations with France.<ref name="bbc">BBC News: <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7315649.stm">'Brown seeks "Entente Formidable"'</a>, accessed 27 March 2008.</ref> A joint communique stated Britain and France's desire to '[reform] the G8 to include more members and UN Security Council to include "permanent representation" for Africa, and "permanent membership" for Germany, India, Brazil and Japan’.<ref name="bbc" />

Displaying the Footnotes

By default, Footnotes displays your footnotes at the end of your post. If you’d like to place them elsewhere, simply use the <references /> tag. Our example footnotes above produce the following output when <references /> is used:

Notes

1. ↑1 Wikipedia: ‘Gordon Brown’, accessed 27 March 2008.
2. ↑2 ↑3 BBC News: ‘Brown seeks “Entente Formidable”‘, accessed 27 March 2008.

If you use the references tag at some point in your post, Footnotes will not automatically append another copy of your references at the bottom of your post.

Changelog

2006-07-15: 1.0

Initial release

2006-07-15: 1.0.1

Added class to <ol>

2006-07-15: 1.0.2

Added references tag to allow for custom footnotes placement.

2006-07-16: 1.1

Added support for named references and for multiple references to the same footnote.