Scrivener For Dummies

Understanding the Types of Footnotes

Scrivener offers two basic styles of footnotes: linked and inline. Both styles give you the same ultimate result when you compile the manuscript. The choice is merely a matter of personal preference.

Linked footnotes

Linked footnotes appear within the text as an underlined word in a gray box, while the actual footnote text is relegated to the Comments & Footnotes pane in the Inspector, thus minimizing distraction while still being visible.

Linked footnotes are especially suited for long notes that might visually disrupt the flow of your text while you’re working, or for times when you want to view all footnotes in a document together in one place (the Inspector sidebar).

For even less intrusive footnoting, you can set up linked footnotes so that they use a special marker, instead of linking to a word. See the “Using footnote markers” section, later in this chapter, for more information.

Inline footnotes

Inline footnotes place the footnote text in its entirety within the manuscript, surrounded by a gray box. Inline footnotes are best if you want to be able to view them immediately with the text they reference or don’t want to have to use the mouse to access their contents.

Inline footnotes also have the added advantage of not needing an anchor, which means they can be placed anywhere within the document — at the beginning or end, or in a document that doesn’t yet contain text.

A special type of inline footnotes — called referenced footnotes ...