Front matter, alerts & footnotes

Front matter

YAML front matter is a block of metadata at the very top of a file, between two --- lines. Static site generators such as Jekyll and Hugo, and apps such as Obsidian, use it:

---
title: Release checklist
author: Docs team
tags: [release, process]
date: 2026-09-25
---

# Release checklist

• In the preview, the front matter is shown as a small table of keys and values, like on GitHub.
• It's left out of exports (HTML, PDF, Word and EPUB).
• If it has a title, that becomes the title of the exported document.
• author (or authors), description (or summary, subject) and keywords (or tags) become the exported file's document properties: the Author, Subject and Keywords of a PDF, the Author, Subject, Comments and Tags of a Word document, and <meta> tags in HTML, and the creator, description and subject of an EPUB e-book. Lists are joined with commas.
• For EPUB export, lang (or language, such as fr or pt-BR) sets the book's language, and cover (or cover-image) names a picture, relative to the document, that becomes the book's cover.

Alerts

Alerts are GitHub's highlighted callouts. Format → Callout → Note (or Tip, Important, Warning, Caution) inserts one, quoting the selected text under it. Or start a quote with one of five markers:

> [!NOTE]
> Useful information that users should know.

> [!TIP]
> Helpful advice for doing things better.

> [!IMPORTANT]
> Key information users need to know.

> [!WARNING]
> Urgent info that needs immediate attention.

> [!CAUTION]
> Advises about risks or negative outcomes.

The preview and HTML export show them as coloured callouts with an icon and a title. PDF and Word exports show them as callouts labelled Note, Tip, Important, Warning or Caution. On GitHub, the same Markdown shows GitHub's alert style.

Footnotes

Footnotes put a reference number in the text and the note at the end of the document:

Markpion stores files locally.[^1]

[^1]: Nothing is uploaded unless you share the file yourself.

Format → Insert → Footnote (Ctrl+Alt+R, Cmd+Option+R on macOS) inserts the next free number at the cursor, adds the definition at the end of the document, and moves the cursor there so you can type the note.

Notes are numbered in the order they're first referenced, whatever their labels, and definitions that are never referenced are left out. In the exports:

Where	Footnotes
Preview, HTML export, Print / Save as PDF	Superscript links to a Footnotes section at the end, with links back
Export as PDF	Superscript numbers that link to a Footnotes section at the end of the document
Export as Word	Real Word footnotes: Word numbers them and places each note at the bottom of its page

Wiki links

Markpion understands the double-bracket links of wikis and note-taking apps:

You write	It links to
[[Setup Guide]]	Setup Guide.md in the same folder, shown as "Setup Guide"
[[docs/api|the API]]	docs/api.md, shown as "the API"
[[docs/api#Error Codes]]	the "Error Codes" heading in docs/api.md

The page is a path relative to the document, and .md is added when it has no extension. Type [[ to pick a document of the open folder from a list (and # after the page, or [[#, to pick one of its headings), and Ctrl+click (Cmd+click) a wiki link in the editor to open it. The preview, HTML, PDF and Word exports show wiki links as ordinary links.

Wiki links aren't part of GitHub Flavored Markdown, so GitHub and other Markdown apps show them as plain text. Missing pages and headings are reported like other broken links, and wiki links count in Links to this document. Renaming or moving a file in Markpion updates the wiki links to it, as it does for Markdown links, keeping their style ([[docs/guide]] stays without .md), heading and text.

Tags

Write # and a word anywhere in the text to tag a document: #draft, #project/alpha. You can also list tags in the front matter (tags: [draft, work]). A tag needs at least one letter (#1 isn't a tag), and # at the start of a heading, in code or in a link isn't one either.

The preview and HTML exports show inline tags as small highlighted labels (click one in the preview to list where else it's used); PDF and Word exports colour them blue. Edit → Go To → Tag… lists the tags of the open folder; see Tags. Other Markdown apps show tags as plain text.