# Footnotes and indentation

**URL:** <https://talk.commonmark.org/t/footnotes-and-indentation/2030>\
**Category:** Extensions\
**Created:** [March 1, 2016, 12:02am UTC](https://talk.commonmark.org/t/footnotes-and-indentation/2030 "2016-03-01T00:02:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![xoofx](https://cdn.commonmark.org/user_avatar/talk.commonmark.org/xoofx/32/1424_2.png) [@xoofx](https://talk.commonmark.org/u/xoofx)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2016, 12:02am UTC](https://talk.commonmark.org/t/footnotes-and-indentation/2030/1 "2016-03-01T00:02:37Z")

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While trying to implement footnotes, what would be the best indentation rules for continuation? Should it be done a bit similar to the way CommonMark is already working for list?

PHP Markdown Extra and Pandoc for example require a fixed indentation of a tab, but in the philosophy of CommonMark shouldn’t we indent on the first non-whitespace char following the [^xxx]:

```auto
This is a text[^1]

[^1]: This is footnote
      > This is quote block

Tis is not a continuation
      

```

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**Author:** ![Crissov](https://cdn.commonmark.org/user_avatar/talk.commonmark.org/crissov/32/1455_2.png) [@Crissov](https://talk.commonmark.org/u/Crissov)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2016, 12:14pm UTC](https://talk.commonmark.org/t/footnotes-and-indentation/2030/2 "2016-03-01T12:14:10Z")

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If lazy continuation works for footnotes, shouldn’t it work the same for normal reference link definitions?

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**Author:** ![xoofx](https://cdn.commonmark.org/user_avatar/talk.commonmark.org/xoofx/32/1424_2.png) [@xoofx](https://talk.commonmark.org/u/xoofx)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2016, 12:28pm UTC](https://talk.commonmark.org/t/footnotes-and-indentation/2030/3 "2016-03-01T12:28:53Z")

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> [@Crissov](#):
>
> If lazy continuation works for footnotes, shouldn’t it work the same for normal reference link definitions?

Oops, sorry for the confusion. It is about regular continuation not lazy (I have edited my original post)

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**Author:** ![jgm](https://cdn.commonmark.org/user_avatar/talk.commonmark.org/jgm/32/1360_2.png) [@jgm](https://talk.commonmark.org/u/jgm)\
**Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 6:52am UTC](https://talk.commonmark.org/t/footnotes-and-indentation/2030/4 "2016-03-02T06:52:32Z")

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> [@xoofx](#):
>
> in the philosophy of CommonMark shouldn’t we indent on the first non-whitespace char following the [^xxx]:

The problem is that the footnote reference markers can be quite long. (I often use fairly descriptive ones, not just numbers.) So I think doing it the way pandoc does makes the most sense.

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**Author:** ![xoofx](https://cdn.commonmark.org/user_avatar/talk.commonmark.org/xoofx/32/1424_2.png) [@xoofx](https://talk.commonmark.org/u/xoofx)\
**Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 7:19am UTC](https://talk.commonmark.org/t/footnotes-and-indentation/2030/5 "2016-03-02T07:19:48Z")

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ah, I was suspecting this, without having using much them so far, so that make sense, thanks!

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**Author:** ![Crissov](https://cdn.commonmark.org/user_avatar/talk.commonmark.org/crissov/32/1455_2.png) [@Crissov](https://talk.commonmark.org/u/Crissov)\
**Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 8:49am UTC](https://talk.commonmark.org/t/footnotes-and-indentation/2030/6 "2016-03-02T08:49:34Z")

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Implementations could consider the label, maybe including the square brackets, to be a fixed length, say 3 characters, no matter its actual length, and then apply the usual indentation rules.