Built-in footnote/endnote support

I just saw this. This is so long overdue.

My other problem is that WordPress still voids my footnote hyperlinks, created by LiveWriter, whenever I go into visual mode.

https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/search.php?q=footnote

Hey Esmi,

Its the same thing. I work with LiverWriter, a Windows product for my WordPress–a Windows endorsed product–and yet they are incompatible at a key point. Your solution is that I get a plug-in to fix a problem that should not be a problem. Just throw a list of plug-ins at me, as if that helps me. LiveWriter worked great with WordPress, for a year or two, way back, until WordPress changed something in how they code footnotes. Ive no idea what it was. Then whammo, LiveWriter hyperlinks are voided as soon as one looks in “Visual” mode. I am forced to stay in Text mode entirely if I have any footnotes. Its not my problem, its not up to me to fix it.

I understand that you volunteer help, but for myself, your help more often than not does not help me or address my complaint. It throws the onus back on the user to fix a problem WordPress created.

I appreciate your frustration but, in reality it is impossible for an application like WordPress to be all things to all people. Hence plugins that allow you to “customise” your WP installs.

LiveWriter worked great with WordPress, for a year or two, way back

Actually I think the issue was that LiveWriter either stopped being developed or started down a completely new development path. Have you tried looking for another weblog client?

Of course WordPress should not be all things for all people. But in any product, things are put on a balance as to whether or not they are valuable to a large enough percentage of users to justify its implementation. Like why have categories AND tags, or summaries, or featured images? Of those items, I only use tags…and I bet you, most people are confused with the two features (tags vs categories).

My point is more a business argument for WordPress. You build in features that make the most sense to bring in the users you would love to have. Blogging is no longer only for you to tell your friends about your vacation… Academics, Journalists, Tech Reviewers are all trying to use blogs to report on information that needs citations. You build it into the product and (1) you bring a useful feature to WordPress.com and (2) standardize a process that everybody tries to hack into their own installs (hence third party snaffoos like LiveWriter).

You build in features that make the most sense to bring in the users you would love to have.

So far, this is the only topic I have seen in this forum asking for this functionality to be built into WP core. So it would seem to be a fairly niche requirement.

Hey Esmi,

Your reply to me was actually more helpful because you told me something about LiveWriter. I just took a look at my Programs, Microsoft suite and I notice LiveWriter has been dropped, at least in what I have.

Ive tried other blogging programs galore. I liked Scribefire until it imploded. I have no idea if it’s back up. I tried many others. LiveWriter worked the best for me,and because it is very compatible with MSWord.

I do a lot of footnotes for what I do. I agree with the previous poster who makes the point about academic use.

I dont want another third-party program to handle footnotes which I have to also interact with. That inserts another step and that makes no sense to me. I would like a blogging program that creates reverse linking footnotes (as LiverWriter does) which wont be voided as soon as I go into Visual mode.

The problem, having made the footnotes all nicely hyper-linked, as soon as I go into “visual mode” it just voids them by changing the code.

I raised this with someone within the WP development department. He admitted it was a problem but a solution was not likely to be forthcoming. That was years ago, and I still see no solution.

I will look around for another blogging program.

LiveWriter is still on that linked list you gave: https://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-live/essentials-other#essentials=overviewother

Thanks for that link. I’ve amended that Codex page to point to Writer instead of LiveWriter.

Interestingly enough, footnotes ARE built into WordPress.com, via its Markdown integration. Namely, if you enable Markdown, you can write something like the following:

I have more [^1] to say up here.

[^1]: To say down here.

This will insert footnotes into the WP page.

So, I suppose there are two ways of reading this. First, no longer do we need a plugin to support footnotes OOTB. Second, WP has setup an issue where you can insert footnotes via Markdown (which, to be honest, you could’ve manually done so via what they call page jumps), but no automated manner.

I’m a bit torn here. Coming from a coding background, I have no problem coding things in HTML or Markdown. But to instruct a non-techy to do the same is a bit harder.

Another note, it looks like the WordPress blog that reported the introduction of markdown praises the inclusion of footnoting. So, it looks like my request is not quite a “niche requirement”.

wordpress.com has a lot of additional features that are only available to self-hosted users via plugins.

Unfortunately “enable markdown” (as per instructions here) is only available on the free WordPress site. I can see it on my backup free WordPress blog, but not on my main blog. So that does not help me.

Well goodness. I downloaded the new “writer” and tested and “visual view” in WordPress is not voiding the footnote links. Thats a good. I am glad you pointed me to that list.

Are there any blogging programs that do footnotes within the program itself, much like a word processor?

That would be really cool and exactly I would want.

WordPress is not voiding the footnote links

That’s excellent news! ??

Are there any blogging programs that do footnotes within the program itself, much like a word processor?

Unfortunately, I’ve never used any of the weblog clients, so you’re really asking the wrong person. All I can suggest is you try out any of that list that are free and see which suits your needs best.