Re: Beginner footnotes question

[Eric Abrahamsen <eric@ericabrahamsen.net>]

Lawrence Bottorff <galaxybeinglambda@gmail.com> writes:

> 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.

Did you read the Footnotes section of the Org manual? In your example
above, the Stephenson footnote should either look like this:

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

Where the whole definition is inlined, and other footnotes can refer to
this definition as [fn:stephenson], or else:

[fn:stephenson] in one or more locations in the file, and then a
footnote definition elsewhere in the file (where exactly is determined
by `org-footnote-section') that looks like:

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

You can use this line:

#+STARTUP: fninline
or
#+STARTUP: nofninline

To switch between the two styles on a per-file basis. As far as I can
tell, however, `org-footnote-section' is a global variable.

In particular, the notation you mention -- [fn:: Stephenson:
Leibnitz] -- isn't legal, the double colons are only for an "anonymous"
footnote definition that only works in one place.

Though it's perfectly feasible to type out your footnote references and
definitions by hand, you'll be much happier if you set your
configuration variables properly, and then use "C-c C-x f" as your sole
tool for manipulating footnotes.

Hope that wasn't confusing (or wrong!),

Eric