Diagrams, math and footnotes
Mermaid diagrams and math formulas render live as you type or read, and footnotes stay attached to where you wrote them.
Mermaid diagrams
Write a fenced ```mermaid code block; it renders inline, fitted to the width of the
document. Click the diagram, or its Expand button, to open it in a zoom-and-pan lightbox:
- Scroll wheel or pinch to zoom.
- Drag to pan.
- +, −, and Reset buttons, or Esc / the X button, to close.
Pressing Enter or Space while a diagram is focused opens the same lightbox. This lightbox is shared with Images.
Math
- Inline math:
$…$, rendered live as you type. - Display math:
$$…$$. It can span multiple soft-wrapped lines of a single paragraph, but not across a blank line — a blank line always starts a new block. - A formula wider than the document scrolls horizontally inside its own box instead of overflowing the page.
- Double-click a rendered formula to edit its source.
Footnotes
Write a reference as [^label] and its definition anywhere in the document as
[^label]: definition text. While you're editing, the definition displays inline right where you
wrote it. In reading mode, in a share link, and in exports, every definition collects into a
"Footnotes" section at the end of the document instead.
Limits
- Footnote references and their entries in the end section aren't clickable or independently
editable — edit the
[^label]:line itself to change the text. - A Mermaid diagram or display math dropped into a table cell is moved to just below the table when the note is saved, and the cell is left empty — a cell holds one line and these do not. The diagram or formula itself is unchanged. See Tables.
- Display math only spans lines that stay inside one paragraph; a blank line always ends it, even mid-formula.
Export
Mermaid diagrams and math both carry into PDF and Word exports — a diagram as an embedded image, and a formula as its raw source. See Export for the details of each format.