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* How to escape an asterisk on org-mode
@ 2014-06-12  4:29 James Ryland Miller
  2014-06-12  5:14 ` Nick Dokos
  2014-06-12  8:01 ` Albert Krewinkel
  0 siblings, 2 replies; 5+ messages in thread
From: James Ryland Miller @ 2014-06-12  4:29 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: emacs-orgmode

Hi Org Mode:

I'm trying to escape an asterisk character, i.e. "*" to use in regular
text. I.e., "The person wanted to say *BSD". And I don't want to use a
verbatim or code block because monospace is not what I need.

I've tried \* to escape the character and it doesn't work. I'm on Org 8.2.5h.

Thanks in advance.

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 5+ messages in thread

* Re: How to escape an asterisk on org-mode
  2014-06-12  4:29 How to escape an asterisk on org-mode James Ryland Miller
@ 2014-06-12  5:14 ` Nick Dokos
  2014-06-12  8:01 ` Albert Krewinkel
  1 sibling, 0 replies; 5+ messages in thread
From: Nick Dokos @ 2014-06-12  5:14 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: emacs-orgmode

James Ryland Miller <james.ryland.miller@gmail.com> writes:

> Hi Org Mode:
>
> I'm trying to escape an asterisk character, i.e. "*" to use in regular
> text. I.e., "The person wanted to say *BSD". And I don't want to use a
> verbatim or code block because monospace is not what I need.
>
> I've tried \* to escape the character and it doesn't work. I'm on Org 8.2.5h.
>

*What* doesn't work?

Since you don't tell us, I tried exporting the following to latex and
html:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
* foo
The person wanted to say *BSD.

--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

and it works fine in both cases (albeit in Org-mode version 8.2.6 (release_8.2.6-1122-g1d7c75)).

-- 
Nick

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 5+ messages in thread

* Re: How to escape an asterisk on org-mode
  2014-06-12  4:29 How to escape an asterisk on org-mode James Ryland Miller
  2014-06-12  5:14 ` Nick Dokos
@ 2014-06-12  8:01 ` Albert Krewinkel
  2014-06-12  9:23   ` James Miller
  1 sibling, 1 reply; 5+ messages in thread
From: Albert Krewinkel @ 2014-06-12  8:01 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: James Ryland Miller; +Cc: emacs-orgmode

Hi James,

James Ryland Miller <james.ryland.miller@gmail.com> writes:
> I'm trying to escape an asterisk character, i.e. "*" to use in regular
> text. I.e., "The person wanted to say *BSD". And I don't want to use a
> verbatim or code block because monospace is not what I need.
>
> I've tried \* to escape the character and it doesn't work. I'm on Org 8.2.5h.

There is currently no way to escape characters in this way.  Using an
asterisk like in your example should work fine -- except if the text
after it makes it seem like the asterisk is actually markup. (e.g.
"The person wanted to say *BSD.  Now this is bold*"

Whether an asterisk is treated as a symbol or as markup follows some
rather complicated rules, but there are two simple rules that make the
behavior predictable:

1. Asterisks intended for markup must occur right before and after the
   words that are to be printed in bold, i.e. *this is bold*, but
   * neither this* is,  *nor this *.

2. Markup cannot span more than two lines:
   *this
   is not
   bold*

HTH

Albert



-- 
Albert Krewinkel
GPG: 8eed e3e2 e8c5 6f18 81fe  e836 388d c0b2 1f63 1124

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 5+ messages in thread

* Re: How to escape an asterisk on org-mode
  2014-06-12  8:01 ` Albert Krewinkel
@ 2014-06-12  9:23   ` James Miller
  2014-06-12 17:20     ` Nicolas Goaziou
  0 siblings, 1 reply; 5+ messages in thread
From: James Miller @ 2014-06-12  9:23 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Albert Krewinkel; +Cc: emacs-orgmode@gnu.org

Thank you very much. That was most informative. 

Sent from James Miller's iPhone. 

> On Jun 12, 2014, at 3:01 AM, Albert Krewinkel <tarleb@moltkeplatz.de> wrote:
> 
> Hi James,
> 
> James Ryland Miller <james.ryland.miller@gmail.com> writes:
>> I'm trying to escape an asterisk character, i.e. "*" to use in regular
>> text. I.e., "The person wanted to say *BSD". And I don't want to use a
>> verbatim or code block because monospace is not what I need.
>> 
>> I've tried \* to escape the character and it doesn't work. I'm on Org 8.2.5h.
> 
> There is currently no way to escape characters in this way.  Using an
> asterisk like in your example should work fine -- except if the text
> after it makes it seem like the asterisk is actually markup. (e.g.
> "The person wanted to say *BSD.  Now this is bold*"
> 
> Whether an asterisk is treated as a symbol or as markup follows some
> rather complicated rules, but there are two simple rules that make the
> behavior predictable:
> 
> 1. Asterisks intended for markup must occur right before and after the
>   words that are to be printed in bold, i.e. *this is bold*, but
>   * neither this* is,  *nor this *.
> 
> 2. Markup cannot span more than two lines:
>   *this
>   is not
>   bold*
> 
> HTH
> 
> Albert
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Albert Krewinkel
> GPG: 8eed e3e2 e8c5 6f18 81fe  e836 388d c0b2 1f63 1124

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 5+ messages in thread

* Re: How to escape an asterisk on org-mode
  2014-06-12  9:23   ` James Miller
@ 2014-06-12 17:20     ` Nicolas Goaziou
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 5+ messages in thread
From: Nicolas Goaziou @ 2014-06-12 17:20 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: James Miller; +Cc: Albert Krewinkel, emacs-orgmode@gnu.org

Hello,

James Miller <james.ryland.miller@gmail.com> writes:

> Thank you very much. That was most informative. 

For completeness, you can "escape" an asterisk in Org using entities, in
this case \ast{}, or \star{}:

 "The person wanted to say \ast{}BSD. Now this is bold*"

Unfortunately, for obvious reasons, this will not work in verbatim
snippets, i.e, ~...~ and =...=, which is why at some point, Org will
need to allow escaping ~ and = there.


Regards,

-- 
Nicolas Goaziou

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 5+ messages in thread

end of thread, other threads:[~2014-06-12 17:20 UTC | newest]

Thread overview: 5+ messages (download: mbox.gz / follow: Atom feed)
-- links below jump to the message on this page --
2014-06-12  4:29 How to escape an asterisk on org-mode James Ryland Miller
2014-06-12  5:14 ` Nick Dokos
2014-06-12  8:01 ` Albert Krewinkel
2014-06-12  9:23   ` James Miller
2014-06-12 17:20     ` Nicolas Goaziou

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