commentary footnotes working like biblical footnotes

[Kristin]

It is possible that I just don't know how to use the program, but I am fairly sure this is a feature request. It concerns commentary footnotes working like biblical footnotes.

 

When I am reading a commentary sometimes the author of the commentary is making their point and in the middle of their sentence there is a footnote. If I hover over the footnote I can see the footnote in the instant details, which is helpful. When the author's footnote is just another book, that is also normally sufficient. However, sometimes the author's footnote contains a bunch of supporting scripture links and I would like to read the verses.

 

I am aware that if I click on the footnote it will bring up the verses and I can click on them, but if I do, there is no practical way to get back to the sentence I was reading without starting over.

 

With all this said, it would be helpful if when clicking on a footnote that the footnote material opens in a new window, how it already does when clicking on a footnote in a biblical text.

 

Thank you for considering this.

[Mark Allison]

I might be misunderstanding what you're asking for, but if you click on a footnote, you can return to your prior place in the text by clicking the "back" button that appears in the lower right-hand corner of your pane when you move to a different location in the text.

 

 

Edited November 22, 2021 by Mark Allison

[Kristin]

Hi @Mark Allison,

Thank you for your response, but that is not quite it. It might be better if I use an actual example. If I open the ESV and type the word "beginning" there is a tiny little "a" to the left of "beginning." If I click it, it opens up all the text of that footnote to the right. The text contains Job 38:4-7, and if I click it, I now have my original text to the left, the crossrefs and footnotes in the middle, and Job on the right, and I can see everything. This works great.

 

By contrast...

 

If I open the ESV and type the word "beginning" I see JPS has something to say. If I open JPS, I see my text to the left and JPS to the right. JPS says, "bla bla bla Hosea 1:2" and if I click Hosea 1:2 everything works fine as above.

 

However, in the second paragraph it states, " It takes the initial word bereʾshit 2 to mean “at the beginning of time” notice the little footnote of "2" next to bereʾshit . This is not a biblical link, but rather a footnote.

If I click on the tiny little "2" the text jumps down and says "2. H. M. Orlinsky, Notes on the New Translation of the Torah....". So instead of opening the footnote to the right like a verse, it jumped down. There is no way to get back to where I was in the JPS without starting over. The back button in your screenshot is grayed out since there are no verses or books in question.

 

I hope this helps clarify the issue.

Kristin

 

[cralford]

Does clicking on the footnote number next to the note after it jumps down return you to the place where you were reading?

[Kristin]

Hi @cralford, yes, it does, thank you! I learned that a long time ago and totally forgot. @Mark Allison, what cralford said is super helpful, but if it could be considered in a future update for the footnotes to open to the right like the biblical notes do, that would be really helpful.

 

The advantage is that the way it is with the biblical notes it is easy for my eyes to go back and forth comparing the two texts. By contrast, the way the non-biblical notes work, the text jumps down, then back up, but I cannot compare the first text with the footnote side by side, which would be helpful. (It is actually needed, so what I do is copy the text and footnote to another place to put them side by side, but if it could just work like the biblical footnotes, that would help).

[cralford]

@Kristin Your welcome I just learned it in the last 6 months. You are getting at one of the places a print edition is better than current digital ones that I have seen. NICNT volumes use a lot of footnote that are key to the argument. Perhaps a panel containing the footnotes could be set up to scroll with the body text. Like NA28 and the Apparatus does. Bellow is a picture of what that might look like. Just some thoughts I have had on how to work around this. Your model is interesting as well.