Marginal notes (LaTeX2e unofficial reference manual (November 2018))

Previous: \parindent & \parskip, Up: Making paragraphs [Contents][Index]

### 15.4 Marginal notes

Synopsis, one of:

    \marginpar{right}
    \marginpar[left]{right}

Create a note in the margin. The first line of the note will have the same baseline as the line in the text where the `\marginpar` occurs.

The margin that LaTeX uses for the note depends on the current layout (see Document class options) and also on `\reversemarginpar` (see below). If you are using one-sided layout (document option `oneside`) then it goes in the right margin. If you are using two-sided layout (document option `twoside`) then it goes in the outside margin. If you are in two-column layout (document option `twocolumn`) then it goes in the nearest margin.

If you declare `\reversemarginpar` then LaTeX will place subsequent marginal notes in the opposite margin to that given in the prior paragraph. Revert that to the default position with `\normalmarginpar`.

When you specify the optional argument left then it is used for a note in the left margin, while the mandatory argument right is used for a note in the right margin.

Normally, a note’s first word will not be hyphenated. You can enable hyphenation there by beginning left or right with `\hspace{0pt}`.

These parameters affect the formatting of the note:

`\marginparpush`

  Minimum vertical space between notes; default ‘`7pt`’ for ‘`12pt`’ documents, ‘`5pt`’ else.

`\marginparsep`

  Horizontal space between the main text and the note; default ‘`11pt`’ for ‘`10pt`’ documents, ‘`10pt`’ else.

`\marginparwidth`

  Width of the note itself; default for a one-sided ‘`10pt`’ document is ‘`90pt`’, ‘`83pt`’ for ‘`11pt`’, and ‘`68pt`’ for ‘`12pt`’; ‘`17pt`’ more in each case for a two-sided document. In two column mode, the default is ‘`48pt`’.

The standard LaTeX routine for marginal notes does not prevent notes from falling off the bottom of the page.

Unofficial LaTeX2e reference manual