CB Footnotes

A WordPress plugin that turns [Footnote]...[/Footnote] tags in your content into numbered, linked footnotes with a backlink, plus an auto-generated footnote list.

Ported from the footnotes functionality built into the cb-arcus2025 theme, generalised into a standalone plugin so any site can use it. Simplified to use a single running counter for the whole page, rather than the theme version's per-section counters.

Usage

Wrap any text in a post/page (or ACF field processed via the helper below) with the tag:

Some claim that needs a source.[Footnote]This is the footnote text, shown in the list at the bottom of the page.[/Footnote]

This is replaced with a numbered bracketed link, e.g. Some claim that needs a source.[1], and the footnote text is collected for display in a list.

Displaying the list

• By default, the footnote list is appended directly to the end of the content it was collected from (i.e. the end of the main post/page content), with minimal default styling.
• To place the list somewhere else within that same content instead (e.g. above a closing CTA block), add the [cbp_footnotes] shortcode wherever you want the <ol> of footnotes rendered. When present, the automatic end-of-content output is skipped in favour of the shortcode's position.

Processing content outside the_content

The plugin hooks the_content automatically. For other content sources (ACF fields, custom blocks, etc.), call the helper function directly:

$content = cbp_footnotes_process( get_field( 'my_field' ) );

Styling

The footnote list is wrapped in <div class="cbp-footnotes-box">, styled by assets/cbp-footnotes.css as a simple bordered box (light border, rounded corners, padding). The wrapper carries no width-constraint class — it inherits its width from the surrounding content column. There's no settings page for this — override it per site instead:

• Swap the wrapper class — return your own class name(s) from the cbp_footnotes_wrapper_class filter (e.g. if a theme's width-constraint class isn't called container), then style that class in your theme:

  add_filter( 'cbp_footnotes_wrapper_class', fn() => 'my-theme-footnotes' );

• Override the CSS directly — target .cbp-footnotes-box (and .cbp-footnotes-list, .cbp-footnote-backlink) in the theme's own stylesheet; it loads after the plugin's.
• Drop the default styling entirely — return false from cbp_footnotes_enqueue_styles to skip enqueuing cbp-footnotes.css altogether:

  add_filter( 'cbp_footnotes_enqueue_styles', '__return_false' );

Features

• [Footnote]...[/Footnote] tags converted to bracketed links + backlinked list entries
• Single running counter per page request — no section/scope configuration needed
• Only main-loop content feeds the counter: the_content runs outside the main loop (SEO/schema/TOC pre-passes, related-post loops) are left untouched, so a discarded pre-pass can neither consume numbers nor trigger the list early. Symptom this prevents: visible footnotes starting at [4] with no list in the DOM.
• Anchor targets carry scroll-margin-top derived from --nav-height (or --h-top), so jumps land below fixed headers
• Footnote list auto-appended to the end of the main content by default, wrapped in a bordered box
• [cbp_footnotes] shortcode for placing the list elsewhere within that same content
• cbp_footnotes_process() helper for processing content outside the main loop
• Styling overridable via filters (cbp_footnotes_wrapper_class, cbp_footnotes_enqueue_styles) — no settings page or database options

Installation

1. Upload or clone the cbp-footnotes folder into wp-content/plugins/
2. Activate the plugin via Plugins → Installed Plugins
3. Add [Footnote]...[/Footnote] tags to your content

File Structure

cbp-footnotes/
├── cbp-footnotes.php         # Main plugin file — class, hooks, shortcode, helper
├── assets/
│   └── cbp-footnotes.css     # Default bordered-box styling for the footnote list
└── README.md

Requirements

• WordPress 6.0+
• PHP 7.4+

Development

Follows the same conventions as other cbp-* plugins in this project:

• Single class, instantiated once via $GLOBALS
• No admin UI or options — intentionally minimal (MVP)