Sorry, I'm stumbling badly here. I now realize the org-footnote-auto-label needs to be set to avoid the default (t) behavior of doing numbered footnotes ( [fn:1] ) after C-c C-x f auto-inserts. Good. But where do the in-buffer settings go? I assume they go in the .org file you're currently working in? At the top maybe?

On Wed, Mar 13, 2013 at 9:56 AM, Lawrence Bottorff <galaxybeinglambda@gmail.com> wrote:
On Wed, Mar 13, 2013 at 1:17 AM, Aaron Ecay <aaronecay@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Lawrence,

You can have footnotes be inserted automatically:
- in their own section (by default at the bottom of the document, though
  you can move it anywhere)
- at the end of the current section, or
- inline with the text

For the first behavior, set the variable ‘org-footnote-define-inline’ to
nil.  For the second, set both ‘org-footnote-define-inline’ and
‘org-footnote-section’ to nil.  And for the third, set
‘org-footnote-define-inline’ to something other than nil.

Let's say I want the "default" behavior, i.e. the expansion of the footnote definitions in their own section. Here's a line in my .org file:

1. Re-read Stephenson's "Metaphysics in the Royal Society 1715-2010" [fn:: Stephenson: Leibnitz], especially for the description of "monads."

Now what do I do? The expansion/definition of this placeholder is 

"Some Remarks"; "Essays and Other Writings"; Stephenson, Neal; HarperCollins Publishers; 978-0-06-202443-5; 2012; pp 38-57.

Where does this expansion go? Do I do M->, hit the Enter a few times and type it in? But then how does the placeholder above know to link to it? And the ‘org-footnote-define-inline’ etc. look like elisp variable names. Do I set them in my .emacs? That doesn't seem quite right since I might be juggling many different .org files, each with a different footnote style.

You can place footnote definitions manually wherever you choose.

You can use the line
#+INCLUDE: "file.org"
to include one org file inside another for export purposes.  I don’t
know off the top of my head whether this works to import footnote
definitions from a separate file, though I don’t see a reason why it
shouldn’t.  Try it and see!  (It almost certainly won’t allow footnotes
in one file to be links to locations in another.)

--
Aaron Ecay