# Footnotes as Sidenotes

**URL:** <https://forum.obsidian.md/t/footnotes-as-sidenotes/10533>\
**Category:** Help\
**Tags:** custom-css\
**Created:** [December 27, 2020, 6:44pm UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/footnotes-as-sidenotes/10533 "2020-12-27T18:44:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 12

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ArloZ](https://forum.obsidian.md/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/f08c70/32.png) [@ArloZ](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/ArloZ)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2022, 5:37am UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/footnotes-as-sidenotes/10533/12 "2022-03-28T05:37:49Z")

</div>

I got to an elegant snippet solution I really love (works only in live preview) that reformats both comments (the markdown syntax being `%%` on either side) and inline footnotes (written as so: `^[your footnote here]`) into side comments in the right margin. I prefer using this with the inline footnote syntax instead of comments. & of course feel free to change the colors to your preference. See below:

```auto
.cm-comment-start,
.cm-comment-end,
.cm-inline-footnote-start,
.cm-inline-footnote-end {
  color:transparent!important;
  font-size:.1em;
  letter-spacing:-1em;
}

.cm-comment-end::after,
.cm-inline-footnote-end::after {
  content: " 💬 ";
  font-size:16px;
  text-shadow: 0 0 0 #609486;
  position:relative;
  bottom:3px;
}

.cm-comment:not(.cm-comment-end):not(.cm-comment-start),
.cm-inline-footnote:not(.cm-inline-footnote-end):not(.cm-inline-footnote-start) {
  position:relative;
  z-index:100!important;
  display:block;
  margin-left:10px;
  margin-right:-265px;
  margin-top:-25px;
  float:right;
  width:250px;
  font-size:.75em;
  padding:10px;
  border: 1px solid black;
  box-shadow: 5px 8px #609486;
  color: black;
  background:white;
}

/* The following is optional to keep comments & inline footnotes syntax editable inline */

/*
.cm-active .cm-comment-start,
.cm-active .cm-comment-end,
.cm-active .cm-inline-footnote-start,
.cm-active .cm-inline-footnote-end {
  color:var(--text-faint)!important;
  font-size:1em;
  letter-spacing:initial;
}

.cm-active .cm-comment-end::after,
.cm-active .cm-inline-footnote-end::after {
  display:none;
}

*/

```

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