Use case or problem
I am attempting to create a Parent Note that contains similar content to a Child Note. The Child Note specifically includes additional information that I do not want in the Parent Note, and also includes several footnotes that I do want in the Parent Note. The goal is for me to be able to see the Child Note’s footnotes as easily and innately as a normal footnote, but within the Parent Note.
For example, my Child Note might look like this:
“Lorem ipsum[^1]”
- A Latin phrase
The parent note might look like this:
“Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.”
The goal would be to add the Child Note Footnote 1 to the Parent Note so it appears like so:
"Lorem ipsum[^1]
- A Latin phrase
with a hoverable footnote number that displays a popover, editable preview of the footnote.
However, the actual application is not that simple. Since creating a footnote like the example for the Parent Note simply creates a new footnote for the parent, and I want them to be the same, what I really need is the ability to connect footnotes, like block-links:
"Lorem ipsum[Child Note*1]
In this example I use the asterisk to denote a reference directly to another note’s footnote, because # refers to headings and ^ refers to blocks.
This is not possible the way Obsidian stands currently, however. In fact, there is no way to make an easily hoverable footnote that is connected to another note, even using the options we currently have like embeds and block links.
Embedding the Child Note Footnote 1 into a Parent Note Footnote 1 would look like this:
“Lorem ipsum ![[Child Note^block-link-numbers|*alias-number]]”
which renders in a non-footnote appearing fashion (annoying but expected) and actually doesn’t allow you to see the content of the footnote, as you can see in my example below. Hovering over the link shows a blank screen, which reveals the footnote content only if you click inside of it. Which is both counterintuitive and frustrating.
Proposed solution
I propose one of the below solutions:
- Obsidian adds the specific “link footnote” feature that allows you to type [[Child Note*Footnote Number]] to get a footnote that, when hovered, shows the footnote from the Child Note. This creates inter-note footnotes, which seem like a rather linky, second-brain, Obsidian goal.
- Obsidian simply adds the feature to hover over embedded footnotes using the traditional block link formatting ![[Child Note^footnote-block-link]].
Current workaround
My current workaround is a rather time-consuming and frustrating option where I copy-and-paste the Child Note footnote into a Parent Note footnote of the same number, with a link to the Child Note:
“Lorem ipsum[^1]”
- [[Child Note]] - a Latin phrase