Notes

Notes allow you to add your own comments and reminders to specific paragraphs in the 17th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style Online. Notes may also include live links to other Manual paragraphs. You can no longer add new Notes to the 16th edition.

There are two types of Notes:

1. A Paragraph Note is attached to a numbered paragraph as a whole.

2. An In-Line Note is attached to selected text within a paragraph.

Both types of Notes can be attached only to the numbered paragraphs of chapters 1–16. Each paragraph can contain any combination of Paragraph Notes and In-Line Notes.

Creating Paragraph Notes

To create a Paragraph Note,

1. Click on the Create Note icon, which is the second icon below the paragraph. (If the paragraph already contains one or more Notes, there will be four icons here; otherwise, there will be just two.)

2. A text-editing pane will open beneath the Manual paragraph, allowing you to create and format the text of your Note.

3. When you are finished creating the Note, click on the Save button beneath the text-editing pane. If you wish to discard the Note, click on the Cancel button instead.

4. The Note will appear in the My Notes section beneath the Manual paragraph, under the heading Paragraph Notes. It will not have a title. If you have more than one Paragraph Note attached to the paragraph, the Notes will appear in the order in which they were created.

Creating In-Line Notes

To create an In-Line Note,

1. Select the text within the paragraph to which you wish to attach a Note.

2. Click on the Create Note icon, which is the second icon below the paragraph. (If the paragraph already contains one or more Notes, there will be four icons here; otherwise, there will be just two.)

3. A text-editing pane will open beneath the Manual paragraph, allowing you to create and format the text of your Note.

4. When you are finished creating the Note, click on the Save button beneath the text-editing pane. If you wish to discard the Note, click on the Cancel button instead.

5. The Note will appear in the My Notes section beneath the Manual paragraph, under the heading In-Line Notes. The title of the Note will consist of the first few words of the selected Manual text. If you have more than one In-Line Note attached to the paragraph, the Notes will appear in the order in which they were created (not in the order of the Manual text to which they are attached).

6. The Manual text to which the Note is attached will appear highlighted. When you roll over the highlighted text, the Note will appear in a pop-up balloon.

Formatting Notes

Within the text-editing pane, you can format all or portions of your Note using many functions common to word-processing programs.

Using the drop-down menus, you can

  • Apply one of the predefined text formats
  • Select a font and a relative font size

Using the toolbar, you can

  • Add boldface, italic, underlining, or strike-through to text
  • Change the font color
  • Highlight text
  • Change the alignment of text
  • Convert text to a numbered list or a bulleted list
  • Add or remove indents
  • Add a horizontal rule
  • Add subscripts or superscripts
  • Insert special characters
  • Insert live links to Manual paragraphs
  • Undo or redo your most recent changes, or remove all character-level formatting

Viewing Notes

You can view your Notes only on the pages of the Manual paragraphs to which they are attached. Each paragraph that contains one or more Notes includes a section titled My Notes beneath the Manual paragraph. To view the Notes, click on the plus icon; to hide the Notes, click on the minus icon. Paragraph Notes appear before In-Line Notes, and Notes of both types appear in the order in which they were created.

You can also view the distribution of your Notes (though not the Notes themselves) in two locations:

1. On the main Table of Contents page. For any chapter that includes Notes, the Note icon appears to the right of the chapter title. (If there are also Bookmarks in the chapter, the Bookmark icon appears to the left of the Note icon.) The icon includes a number, indicating the number of Notes attached to paragraphs in that chapter. It does not identify which paragraphs contain the Notes.

2. On the chapter contents page for each chapter. Each paragraph that contains one or more Notes displays the Note icon to the right of the paragraph title. The icon includes a number, indicating the number of Notes attached to that paragraph. (If the paragraph also contains a Bookmark, the Bookmark icon appears to the left of the Note icon.) To go to that paragraph, click on the paragraph number or title or the Note icon.

The Note icons on both the main Table of Contents page and the chapter contents pages will be updated immediately when you create or delete a Note from a paragraph.

Editing Notes

To edit a Note,

1. Click on the plus icon next to My Notes to view the Note.

2. Click on the Edit link to the right of the Note.

3. The Note will open in a text-editing pane, allowing you to edit or format the Note.

4. When you are finished editing the Note, click on the Save button beneath the text-editing pane. If you wish to discard your changes to the Note, click on the Cancel button instead.

Searching Notes

When you are logged in to the Manual site, any Notes you have created are searchable along with the rest of the site’s contents. Search results that appear within Notes are listed under the Notes & Style Sheets tab. 

Deleting Notes

To delete a Note,

1. Click on the plus icon next to My Notes to view the Note.

2. Click on the Delete link to the right of the Note.

3. When the dialogue box appears, click on OK to delete the Note or Cancel to stop the deletion.

Printing Notes

You can print a Manual paragraph and its associated Notes using your browser’s print function. Be sure My Notes are displayed (click the plus icon) beneath the paragraph before you attempt to print. Notes cannot be printed individually or separately from the paragraph to which they are attached.

Saving Notes to Your Local System

If you have attached one or more Notes to a Manual paragraph, you can save the whole page to your local system and view it without logging in to the Manual site. The Save To function is intended to help you preserve and access content you have created, so it is activated only in paragraphs to which you have attached Notes.

To save a paragraph with Notes to your local system,

1. Click on the Save To icon, which is the fourth icon below the paragraph. (This icon does not appear in paragraphs that do not contain Notes.)

2. A new window will appear within the browser, displaying the page to be saved. At the bottom of the window, click on Yes to save the page or No to cancel the save.

3. Follow the prompts provided by your browser to save the page to your local system.

4. The page will be saved as an HTML file in the default location on your local system as specified in your browser settings. Any links within the page will be live, but to access the content indicated by the links, you will need to be logged in to the Manual site.

Emailing Notes

If you have attached one or more Notes to a Manual paragraph, you can e-mail the whole page to one or more people. The Email function is intended to help you share content you have created, so it is activated only in paragraphs to which you have attached Notes.

To email a paragraph with Notes,

1. Click on the Email icon, which is the third icon below the paragraph. (This icon does not appear in paragraphs that do not contain Notes.)

2. A new window will appear within the browser with the standard fields for an email message. The page to be emailed will appear as an attachment, which you can view by clicking on the link.

3. Fill in the email address(es) of the intended recipient(s) of the email message. The From field will automatically list the email address associated with your Manual account.

4. If you wish, you may add a message in the text box, and you may also edit the subject line provided by the email feature.

5. At the bottom of the window, click on Send or Cancel.

6. The page will be sent as an HTML file. Any links within the page will be live, but to access the content indicated by the links, the recipient will need to be a Manual subscriber and will need to log in to the site.