How to escape an asterisk on org-mode

How to escape an asterisk on org-mode

[James Ryland Miller]

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.

Re: How to escape an asterisk on org-mode

[Nick Dokos]

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

Re: How to escape an asterisk on org-mode

[Albert Krewinkel]

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

Re: How to escape an asterisk on org-mode

[James Miller]

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

Re: How to escape an asterisk on org-mode

[Nicolas Goaziou]

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