Simple, really. Each footnote should end in a little number, like (¶3), to indicate where in the text the corresponding superscript is. In this case, the 3rd paragraph.

I'd like this because I always tend to read the footnotes first, and if I see an interesting one, I end up searching all over the page to find the little number than referred to it.

Also useful for footnotes that are so long that by the time you read them, you've forgotten where you were in the text.

For scholars, the return marks could be indicated by a made-up latin abbreviation which no one knows the full meaning of; such as (pe. uu'm 3)
-- phundug, May 12 2011

ibid.
-- LoriZ, May 12 2011


{1} What a good idea! ^1
{2} I don't usually annotate just to say that,
{3} but "a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds" ^2
{4} [+]

____________________

^1 {1} How is is it possible no one's suggested it before?
^2 {3} Attributed to RW Emerson.
-- mouseposture, May 12 2011


Wikipedia already does this.
-- mitxela, May 13 2011


isn't that what numbered footnotes are for? they are always in order, so easier to find.
-- metarinka, May 13 2011


Yes, a lot of places use numbered footnotes, or even asteriskoid symbols of increasing complexity--daggers, double daggers et c. Which do help in tracking back up through footnotes.

What is suggested here is a system more like the line numbers I see for the footnotes in annotated Shakespeare's plays. Which is to say that part of this idea is still slightly baked.

I suggest a rectangular symbol that looks like the page, with a dot in the general area of the asterisk. You'd need a symbol for each of, say, eight areas.
-- baconbrain, May 15 2011


I like [baconbrain]'s "page map" idea.
-- phundug, May 16 2011


Shall I compare {3}
to a summers day? Though art more loveley and more temperate. {4} (bidirectional)
winds do shake the buds of {5}
-- pashute, May 16 2011



random, halfbakery