[rmbyrro]

> If your document contains elements like footnotes, headers and footers, or watermarks, and it is converted to pageless, those elements will not be visible.

Headers and footers are print-oriented, but losing footnotes is not ok. They could have displayed on the side, or highlighted in some way to display on mouse over or click. Whatever, just make them available...

[kyrra]

(Googler, opinions are my own)

I've used the new pageless style for a while and losing footnotes was a little annoying at first, be we adapted. I don't have a perfect solution to it, there are alternatives you can do (glossary or something at the end, with a bookmark on each item, so you can link directly to it).

If you make heavy use of footnotes, don't use the new feature (as others have said). It's a tradeoff, and I mostly prefer pageless, especially when embedding images that are larger (width wise).

[jer0me]

Just spitballing, doesn't seem like you're on the team, but a possible solution could be a little popup when you hover over a footnote like Wikipedia has. Or maybe an option to put all the footnotes at the bottom of the document, except when printing.

[mvkel]

Requiring hover/tap for content context isn't good accessibility. Better to just find an alternative to footnotes.

[jonny_eh]

How would hovering work for a non-mouse user?

[jer0me]

Tapping, or perhaps it would appear when the cursor is next to the footnote?

[getcrunk]

+1 for tap/click, even for mouse user

[rmbyrro]

Maybe the team behind pageless sees footnotes from a print-oriented perspective.

I would look at them as sort of a content enrichment. Like a comment applied to the text.

Pageless has comments. Why would it be so bad to place footnotes alongside with comments? Or perhaps on the left side, below the headings index?

[dudus]

I agree, there's no reason to lose that feature. Just add the footnotes at the bottom of the doc, no matter how long it is and make the number references clickable to toggle between them.

I'd even go as far as say Headers and Footers should be preserved but just included once at the very top and very bottom. Unless you toggle back to page mode and then everything just works. No data loss.

Seems like an easy improvement to make to pageless mode in the short term.

[lrem]

Have you ever heard the term "analysis paralysis"?

[dudus]

Yes. I'm a prime example

[mpalmer]

Side display of footnotes a la Tufte would be an enticing option, but I guess that's comment real estate in Docs.

https://edwardtufte.github.io/tufte-css/#:~:text=Sidenotes%3...

[polote]

Then don't use the pageless feature and you will not have any issue

[zarkov99]

Pageless is great, except for the loss of footnotes. Why not fix that and have the best of both worlds?

[rmbyrro]

If footnotes are essential, I really won't use.

But I don't think this should stop us from discussing a way to possibly improving a product.

[TAKEMYMONEY]

Why not replace them with linked citations à la Wikipedia?