Explicit markup blocks

Explicit markup blocks are text blocks in reStructuredText,

whose first line starts with two dots followed by a space ("explicit markup start")
whose second and continuation lines (if present) are indented relative to the first one
which end before a line that is not indented

Principle

+-----+-----------------+ |".. "|explicit markup | +-----+ block | | | +-----------------+

A blank line is required between explicit markup blocks and other text body elements (for example, a preceding paragraph with text). A blank line between explicit markup blocks is optional.

Sample:

Paragraph

.. [1] Body elements
.. [2] Body elements

Use

Explicit markup blocks are used for the following constructs:

Use	Sample
Internal hyperlink targets	.. _target:
External hyperlink targets	.. _target: http://www.beckhoff.de
Indirect hyperlink targets	.. _target: hyperlink-reference_
Anonymous hyperlink targets	.. __: Anonymous-hyperlink-target
Manually numbered footnotes	.. [1] Body elements
Automatically numbered footnotes	.. [#] Body elements
Automatic generation of footnote symbols	.. [*] Body elements
Quote (target)	.. [CIT] Citation
Substitution definition	.. \|ref\| type: definition
Internal comments	.. comment

Explicit markup blocks with additional properties:

Directives