Title: Easy Footnotes
Author: Jason Yingling
Published: <strong>December 20, 2014</strong>
Last modified: July 7, 2025

---

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# Easy Footnotes

 By [Jason Yingling](https://profiles.wordpress.org/yingling017/)

[Download](https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/easy-footnotes.1.1.13.zip)

 * [Details](https://twd.wordpress.org/plugins/easy-footnotes/#description)
 * [Reviews](https://twd.wordpress.org/plugins/easy-footnotes/#reviews)
 *  [Installation](https://twd.wordpress.org/plugins/easy-footnotes/#installation)
 * [Development](https://twd.wordpress.org/plugins/easy-footnotes/#developers)

 [Support](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/easy-footnotes/)

## Description

Easy Footnotes lets you add footnotes throughout your WordPress posts by using the
shortcode [efn_note]Footnote content.[/efn_note]. Easy Footnotes will automatically
add the number of the footnote where the shortcode was entered and add the full 
footnote text to the bottom of your post in an ordered list with a corresponding
number.

Hovering the footnote label will show the user the full text of the footnote using
the jQuery Qtip2 plugin. Clicking on the footnote label will take the user down 
the page to the corresponding footnote at the bottom of the WordPress post. Each
footnote at the bottom of the post has a icon that can be clicked to return to that
particular footnote within the post copy.

That’s all it takes to start adding footnotes to your WordPress blog!

## Screenshots

 * [[
 * Displaying a footnote on hover.
 * [[
 * Several footnotes (feetnote?) at the bottom of the post.

## Installation

 1. Upload the ‘easy-footnotes’ folder to the ‘/wp-content/plugins/’ directory.
 2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
 3. That’s it! Now simply start using the [efn_note]Footnote content goes here.[/efn_note]
    shortcode within your posts.

## FAQ

### How do I insert a footnote into my post.

Simply use the shortcode [efn_note]Footnote content goes here[/efn_note] and Easy
Footnotes will enter numeric footnotes into your post that open on hover and take
the user to the footnote at the bottom of the page on click.

### That’s awesome!

I know, but that’s not really a question.

### Oh right, why is that so awesome?

Because it’s easy. And it’s integrated with the qTip2 jQuery plugin to display your
footnotes in lovely tooltips on hover. Plus it automatically numbers your footnotes
in the order you enter them into your post.

### How can I change the markup for the footnote label?

Just use the `efn_footnote_label` filter in your functions.php to edit the output.

    ```
        function efn_change_label_markup( $output, $label ) {
            return '' . $label . '';
        }
        add_filter( 'efn_footnote_label', 'efn_change_label_markup', 10, 2 );
    ```

### Can I disable the qTip functionality?

Place the following code in your functions.php file to disable the qTip features.

    ```
        function efn_deregister_scripts() {
            wp_deregister_style( 'qtipstyles' );
            wp_deregister_script( 'imagesloaded' );
            wp_deregister_script( 'qtip' );
            wp_deregister_script( 'qtipcall' );
        }
        add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 'efn_deregister_scripts' );
    ```

### How can I reset the footnote count?

Use on the beginning of your page with the short code: `[efn_reset][/efn_reset]`

This is a hard reset to fix a bug with themes/plugins using `do_shortcode( get_the_content())`
outside the main loop and causing duplicate footnotes. 1.1.9 should have updates
to not require this.

## Reviews

![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/b6f1f8d2fff4291d38b51653760232baaf723f2778e7d096923b76280c9fb9f3?
s=60&d=retro&r=g)

### 󠀁[No option to place the footnotes](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/no-option-to-place-the-footnotes/)󠁿

 [scientificnotes](https://profiles.wordpress.org/scientificnotes/) April 4, 2025

​Easy Footnotes is an excellent plugin that delivers on its promise of simplicity
and speed. It allows for effortless insertion of footnotes, automatically numbering
them and appending them to the end of posts. The hover-over functionality enhances
user experience by displaying footnote content without navigating away from the 
main text. However, a notable limitation is the inability to position footnotes 
elsewhere within a post. Introducing a shortcode, such as [efn_notes], to specify
footnote placement would significantly enhance its versatility.​

![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/12e58d016c0b983e5128e00e5d729bef4d7c7274c0712278f91144913d74f2f2?
s=60&d=retro&r=g)

### 󠀁[True to its name – Easy to use](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/true-to-its-name-easy-to-use/)󠁿

 [delphineous](https://profiles.wordpress.org/delphineous/) March 19, 2025

The Easy Footnotes plug-in is simple and easy to use. I use it to add sub-context,
references, and any other information that is relevant to the content but would 
otherwise disrupt the flow of the post.

![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/08ae7bb90737478914cf0515332958b30fa86d76a00f6a43330549449c813ae1?
s=60&d=retro&r=g)

### 󠀁[Excellent plugin](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/excellent-plugin-7108/)󠁿

 [kambro](https://profiles.wordpress.org/kambro/) May 29, 2021

As simple as good plugin. Nothing wore required. Thank you to the developers.

![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/81f7c0f70b4bc71827d43fb734cbe401903befb3ef9e5407d32b1ec88acf0725?
s=60&d=retro&r=g)

### 󠀁[Just What the Post Doctor Ordered](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/just-what-the-post-doctor-ordered/)󠁿

 [silverliebt](https://profiles.wordpress.org/silverliebt/) June 20, 2020

This plugin came in extremely handy when I was recently marking up a long post with
art, text and footnotes for my site on Chris Marker. I can verify as well that it
even works within the now quite popular Elementor visual builder. I cannot say for
sure yet but the paragraphs that contain EFN shortcodes seem to load more slowly
than regular paragraphs; perhaps there is some code optimization in order, but I
will leave that to your developers. I would also like to recommend some additional
CSS for those who would like a numerical marker, already small due to the sup tag,
to stand out more, by adding, for example: sup { top: -.5em; background: linen; 
padding: 6px; border-radius: 4px; border: 1px #ccc solid; } This will give the touch/
click target a bit more room due to the padding (and therefore better UX), and visually
make the footnote stand out in a pretty professional manner. Choose your own colors.
Once again, excellent plugin, many thanks for saving the day!

![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/570cacaa9388f1d48d5a8b02e795b469c569dcb066b413e8db93f68768093d9e?
s=60&d=retro&r=g)

### 󠀁[Sober and efficient extension](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/sober-and-efficient-extension/)󠁿

 [spitfrog](https://profiles.wordpress.org/spitfrog/) April 17, 2020

The [efn_note] tags should be in colour and bold to make them easier to find in 
the text. Thank you very much for this nice work.

![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/1a47045a2426ee301b813e8e66a9b23758d7292df1003f091bcc9d7b48a3506e?
s=60&d=retro&r=g)

### 󠀁[Great functionality. Simple to use.](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/great-functionality-simple-to-use/)󠁿

 [Clarus Dignus](https://profiles.wordpress.org/clarus-dignus/) October 8, 2019

Install and wrap footnote content in shortcode. This plugin does everything else.
E.g. Automated numbering, hover box, footnotes at end of post etc. Works well with
Gutenberg. My favorite feature is being able to disable the footnote section at 
the bottom of the post/page and instead rely entirely on the hover box.

 [ Read all 33 reviews ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/easy-footnotes/reviews/)

## Contributors & Developers

“Easy Footnotes” is open source software. The following people have contributed 
to this plugin.

Contributors

 *   [ Jason Yingling ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/yingling017/)
 *   [ twinpictures ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/twinpictures/)

“Easy Footnotes” has been translated into 5 locales. Thank you to [the translators](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/easy-footnotes/contributors)
for their contributions.

[Translate “Easy Footnotes” into your language.](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/easy-footnotes)

### Interested in development?

[Browse the code](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/easy-footnotes/), check
out the [SVN repository](https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/easy-footnotes/), or 
subscribe to the [development log](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/easy-footnotes/)
by [RSS](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/easy-footnotes/?limit=100&mode=stop_on_copy&format=rss).

## Changelog

#### 1.1.13

 * Fixed textdomain loading issue for WordPress 6.7 compatibility by preventing 
   early translation calls during class construction.

#### 1.1.12

 * Bugfix for instances where `the_content` is called multiple times in a page.

#### 1.1.11

 * Made combined footnote functionality from 1.1.9 enabled by a setting to avoid
   breaking sites that rely on the old behavior.
 * Now can be turned on with “Combine duplicate footnotes” setting in Easy Footnotes
   settings.

#### 1.1.10

 * Fixes a bug with sites that called the_content() multiple times not displaying
   footnotes due to `easy_footnote_reset` running.
 * `easy_footnote_reset` now only runs when an option is activated. This had previously
   been implemented as a workaround for a bug that was addressed in 1.1.9.

#### 1.1.9

 * Adds support for duplicate footnotes using the same number
 * Fixes a bug with multiple footnotes showing at the bottom when do_shortcode()
   is run on the_content outside the main loop.
 * Add better i18n support for the plugin
 * Adds [efn_reset] shortcode to reset the footnote count

#### 1.1.8

 * WordPress 6.6 support

#### 1.1.6

 * Removing themes.pizza references
 * WordPress 6.0.2 support
 * PHP 8.0 support

#### 1.1.5

 * WordPress 5.5 compatability

#### 1.1.4

 * Fixing typo on FAQ page

#### 1.1.3

 * Adding div.easy-footnote-title into $footnote_label for filtering with `efn_footnote_label`

#### 1.1.2

 * Fixed issue with default settings not being set on new installations
 * Added conditional logic check if settings exist to avoid PHP Warnings
 * Fixed undefined index of $efn_output when not using Easy Footnotes label

#### 1.1.1

 * Added `efn_footnote_list_output` filter for editing entire Easy Footnote output
   after content
 * Updating SVN to include missing JS file

#### 1.1.0

 * Improved accessibility for keyboard navigation of footnotes
 * Started improving code to follow WordPress Coding Standards guidelines
 * Added second option for footnotes using `[efn_note]` to phase out non-prefixed`[
   note]`
 * Added `easy_footnote_label` hook to filter footnote labels
 * Added `before_footnote` and `after_footnote` filters to add content before or
   after footnote lists after content.

#### 1.0.16

 * Fixing footnote counts for the last time! (Hopefully)
 * Added post ID to footnote IDs to make them more unique
 * New setting to hide the footnotes after content in Settings > Easy Footnotes
 * Prep for a bigger update and beginning Gutenberg support

#### 1.0.15

 * Being a noob and not testing a link added in on settings page. It works now.

#### 1.0.14

 * CSS tweak in admin screen

#### 1.0.13

 * Fixing PHP notice on shortcode when content not found

#### 1.0.12

 * Changing how footnotes are numbered to avoid duplicates caused by `the_content`
   filtering being applied earlier in themes.

#### 1.0.11

 * Fixed bug to prevent tooltips from opening off the screen

#### 1.0.10

 * Added in extra sanitization for user inputs within admin

#### 1.0.9

 * Fixed issue causing notice of undefined index on admin screen. Adjustment to 
   how footnote’s handle html special chars.

#### 1.0.8

 * Added the Qtip2 unfocus event for hiding footnotes on iPad and other touch devices.

#### 1.0.7

 * Fixed issue where Footnote title was showing on pages without any footnotes once
   activated through the settings. Also changed the priority of the add_filter(‘
   the_content’) call to be 20 in order to show above Jetpack Related Posts

#### 1.0.6

 * Added the ability to insert a title above the footnote section at the bottom 
   of the post content. This is controlled in the Easy Footnotes Settings page that
   can be found under Settings in the WordPress Dashboard.

#### 1.0.5

 * Updating logic for appending footnotes to the bottom of posts. Now only appends
   to single posts, custom post types and pages that are using the main post query.
   Also fixed footnote count when multiple posts are shown in the content on one
   page, such as the home page. Footnotes outside of the single post also now link
   to the footnote within the single post.

#### 1.0.4

 * Fixed bug where footnotes were being appended to the end of the content on home
   pages and ignoring the more tag

#### 1.0.3

 * Added a delay of 400ms to the footnote closing so it stays open better when hovered

#### 1.0.2

 * I messed up the version tag on 1.0.1. Just upping ti 1.0.2 for precautions.

#### 1.0.1

 * Footnotes now stay open when moused over for interacting with links

#### 1.0.0

 * Initial release

## Meta

 *  Version **1.1.13**
 *  Last updated **9 months ago**
 *  Active installations **8,000+**
 *  WordPress version ** 3.0.1 or higher **
 *  Tested up to **6.8.5**
 *  Languages
 * [Chinese (Taiwan)](https://tw.wordpress.org/plugins/easy-footnotes/), [English (US)](https://wordpress.org/plugins/easy-footnotes/),
   [Korean](https://ko.wordpress.org/plugins/easy-footnotes/), [Russian](https://ru.wordpress.org/plugins/easy-footnotes/),
   [Spanish (Chile)](https://cl.wordpress.org/plugins/easy-footnotes/), and [Spanish (Spain)](https://es.wordpress.org/plugins/easy-footnotes/).
 *  [Translate into your language](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/easy-footnotes)
 * Tags
 * [blogging](https://twd.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/blogging/)[footnotes](https://twd.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/footnotes/)
   [hover](https://twd.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/hover/)[read](https://twd.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/read/)
   [tooltips](https://twd.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/tooltips/)
 *  [Advanced View](https://twd.wordpress.org/plugins/easy-footnotes/advanced/)

## Ratings

 4.8 out of 5 stars.

 *  [  30 5-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/easy-footnotes/reviews/?filter=5)
 *  [  2 4-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/easy-footnotes/reviews/?filter=4)
 *  [  0 3-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/easy-footnotes/reviews/?filter=3)
 *  [  1 2-star review     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/easy-footnotes/reviews/?filter=2)
 *  [  0 1-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/easy-footnotes/reviews/?filter=1)

[Add my review](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/easy-footnotes/reviews/#new-post)

[See all reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/easy-footnotes/reviews/)

## Contributors

 *   [ Jason Yingling ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/yingling017/)
 *   [ twinpictures ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/twinpictures/)

## Support

Got something to say? Need help?

 [View support forum](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/easy-footnotes/)

## Donate

Would you like to support the advancement of this plugin?

 [ Donate to this plugin ](http://jasonyingling.me)