Footnote Inline Editor

An Obsidian plugin to add footnotes and edit their text in a popup, without scrolling to the bottom of your note to find the definition.

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What it does

• Click to edit: click any footnote number in your text (Live Preview or Reading view) and the edit popup opens pre-filled with the note's text. Save and it's written back in place; you never leave the spot you were reading.
• Insert footnote at cursor: drops an auto-numbered [^1] where you're typing, creates the matching [^1]: … definition at the end of the note, and immediately opens a small popup so you can write the note text. Your cursor never leaves the spot you were writing.
• Edit footnote at cursor: keyboard alternative to clicking: put your cursor on any footnote marker (either the [^1] in the body or its definition at the bottom) and run the command.
• Delete: the popup's Delete button removes the definition and every reference to that footnote in one undoable step.
• Word-like tidying (v1.2.0): footnotes behave the way they do in Word. Delete a definition at the bottom and its in-text markers disappear; delete the last marker and the definition goes; numbered footnotes always read 1, 2, 3, … in reading order (inserting mid-text shifts the later ones up); the definitions block stays sorted to match; and renaming a definition's label carries its markers along. Named footnotes like [^kant] keep their labels. Runs after the note goes quiet for a moment, never mid-keystroke.

Multi-line footnotes are supported (they're stored with the 4-space indentation Obsidian expects for continuation lines).

Usage

Both actions are Obsidian commands. Run them from the Command Palette (Cmd/Ctrl+P) or bind a hotkey under Settings → Hotkeys:

• Footnote Inline Editor: Insert footnote at cursor
• Footnote Inline Editor: Edit footnote at cursor

There's also a ribbon button (pencil icon) for inserting a footnote.

In the popup, Cmd/Ctrl+Enter saves and Esc cancels.

Settings

• Auto-number footnotes (on by default): new footnotes are numbered 1, 2, 3, …. Turn it off to be prompted for a custom label each time.
• Click footnote number to edit (on by default): clicking a marker opens the edit popup instead of previewing or jumping to the definition.
• Keep footnotes tidy automatically (on by default): the Word-like behavior above. Turn it off to manage markers and numbering by hand.

Install into your vault (manual)

This plugin isn't in the community store, so install it manually:

1. Build it (already done if main.js is present):

   npm install
   npm run build
   

2. Create a folder in your vault: <YourVault>/.obsidian/plugins/footnote-inline-editor/
3. Copy main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css into it.
4. In Obsidian: Settings → Community plugins, make sure Restricted Mode is off, then enable Footnote Inline Editor.

To develop with live rebuilds, run npm run dev and symlink or copy the folder into your vault's plugins directory.

Layout

• src/footnotes.ts: pure functions that locate and rewrite footnote references and definitions.
• src/main.ts: the plugin, the edit popup, click handling, and the settings tab.

Publishing to the community plugin store

1. Push this repo to GitHub (public).
2. Create a GitHub release whose tag is exactly the version in manifest.json (e.g. 1.1.0), and attach main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css as release assets.
3. Fork obsidianmd/obsidian-releases, add an entry to community-plugins.json, and open a pull request.
4. Full checklist: Obsidian docs: Submit your plugin.

Support

If this plugin adds value for you and you would like to help support continued development, please use the buttons below:

License

MIT