Using Footnotes in TheBrain

Using Footnotes in TheBrain

Table of Contents

1. Make sure Standard Markdown is enabled

Footnotes require the brain to use Standard Markdown.

Go to:

Settings → Brain → Content Settings → Note Format

Then choose Switch to Standard Markdown… and confirm the change.

This is permanent for the brain, and older versions of TheBrain may no longer be able to open it.

2. Insert a footnote mark

1. Place your cursor where you want the footnote number or label.
2. Open the note’s Insert menu.
3. Choose Insert Footnote.
4. TheBrain inserts the next available number, already selected.
5. Keep the number or replace it with a custom label, such as:
   • [^1]
   • [^Klein 1978]
   • [^method]
6. Press Enter or the Right Arrow key.

The footnote mark appears in your sentence.

3. Write the footnote

Click the footnote mark. TheBrain jumps to the matching footnote at the bottom of the note, where you can type its explanation or source.

Example:

This is an important fact.[^1]

[^1]: Source or additional explanation.

4. Create a footnote definition directly

If your cursor is at the beginning of a line, with nothing except spaces before it, the menu changes to Insert Footnote Definition.

Use this when you want to create the footnote text itself at that location.

5. Read or navigate footnotes

• Hover over a footnote mark to preview its note.
• Click the mark to jump to the footnote.
• Hover over the mark beside the footnote text to see Go to mark.
• Click it to return to the original text.
• On a phone or tablet, tap once to show the preview, then tap it again to navigate.

6. Fix unfinished footnotes

TheBrain outlines incomplete footnotes in orange:

• A mark without a note says Click to add footnote.
• A note whose mark was deleted says Mark is missing.

Add the missing half to remove the orange outline.

7. Arrange or renumber footnotes

Right-click any footnote mark.

• Arrange Footnotes moves the footnote definitions to the bottom of the page in the order their marks appear.
• Renumber Footnotes changes them to 1, 2, 3… according to their order in the text.

Be careful: Renumber Footnotes replaces custom labels. For example, [^Klein 1978] becomes [^4]. You can use Undo if you do this accidentally.

Important limitations

• Two marks can share one label if you want to refer to the same footnote more than once.
• A footnote label cannot be empty or contain ].
• Footnotes cannot be placed inside table cells.
• Footnotes are saved using standard Markdown syntax, so they work well with tools such as Obsidian, GitHub, Typora, and Pandoc.