Re: Playing down the text in org-mode

[Tim Cross <theophilusx@gmail.com>]

fatiparty--- via "General discussions about Org-mode." <emacs-orgmode@gnu.org> writes:

> In org-mode one can use the emphasizing tags 
>
> *word*   /word/   _word_
>
> Is there anything to perform the opposite, playing down the text?


No, there are no syntax elements in org mode to do this.

Part of the challenge here is that de-emphasis or 'play down' is not well
defined. Traditionally, I think the way you handled adding text which
was considered important enough to include, but perhaps tangential or
less important was to use a footnote or margin note. The point of
emphasis in text is to draw the readers eye (and attention) to
something. It is difficult to do the opposite. Furthermore, most
techniques used to try and do this really just amount to making the text
harder to read, which doesn't seem very beneficial for those readers who
want that additional information. 

Personally, I prefer footnotes, asides, margin notes over including less
important text within the important text because even if the text is
somehow marked visually to indicate it is less important, I still have
to scan it when reading. A footnote on the other hand tells me there is
additional information available if I want to read it and all I had to
scan was a letter. This is also why I prefer Oxford over Harvard
referencing styles.