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