How to combine two org files that each have footnotes?

How to combine two org files that each have footnotes?

[arozbiz]

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Most of my writing is academic and involves lots of footnotes. Sometimes it
is useful to be able to combine two separate files, each of which have
footnotes. How do I do so in a way that automatically renumbers the
footnotes in the file that comes second?

More specifically, I have file1.org and file2.org, and each of them have
three footnotes ([fn:1], [fn:2], and [fn:3]). I want to create file3.org,
which simply merges file1.org and file2.org, with the contents of file2.org
coming after the contents of file1.org. The problem is that the footnote
calls ([fn:#]) in the file2 section will end up pointing the file1
footnotes. What I really want is to automatically renumber all the
footnotes [fn:1]...[fn:6], but I don't know how to do this, given that org
permits multiple footnote calls to the same footnote.

Thanks,
Alan

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Re: How to combine two org files that each have footnotes?

[Russell Adams]

On Thu, Feb 11, 2021 at 11:49:32AM -0600, arozbiz@gmail.com wrote:
> Most of my writing is academic and involves lots of footnotes. Sometimes it
> is useful to be able to combine two separate files, each of which have
> footnotes. How do I do so in a way that automatically renumbers the
> footnotes in the file that comes second?
>
> More specifically, I have file1.org and file2.org, and each of them have
> three footnotes ([fn:1], [fn:2], and [fn:3]). I want to create file3.org,
> which simply merges file1.org and file2.org, with the contents of file2.org
> coming after the contents of file1.org. The problem is that the footnote
> calls ([fn:#]) in the file2 section will end up pointing the file1
> footnotes. What I really want is to automatically renumber all the
> footnotes [fn:1]...[fn:6], but I don't know how to do this, given that org
> permits multiple footnote calls to the same footnote.

Is this a case where bibliographic tools like Bibtex come into play?

Would "anonymous" footnotes help, then Org can dynamically number them?

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Re: How to combine two org files that each have footnotes?

[Christian Moe]

Hi,

This is actually easy because Org allows named footnotes (numbers are
really just a special case of names).

Make backup copies of your files for safety's sake, then visit file1.org
and M-% to replace all instances of "fn:" with (for example)
"fn:file1_". The footnotes will now be named fn:file1_1, fn:file1_2,
etc. At this point all your footnotes across the two documents are
already uniquely named (but you can of course also do the corresponding
thing to file2 if you like). Merge away.

Yours,
Christian



arozbiz@gmail.com writes:

> Most of my writing is academic and involves lots of footnotes. Sometimes it
> is useful to be able to combine two separate files, each of which have
> footnotes. How do I do so in a way that automatically renumbers the
> footnotes in the file that comes second?
>
> More specifically, I have file1.org and file2.org, and each of them have
> three footnotes ([fn:1], [fn:2], and [fn:3]). I want to create file3.org,
> which simply merges file1.org and file2.org, with the contents of file2.org
> coming after the contents of file1.org. The problem is that the footnote
> calls ([fn:#]) in the file2 section will end up pointing the file1
> footnotes. What I really want is to automatically renumber all the
> footnotes [fn:1]...[fn:6], but I don't know how to do this, given that org
> permits multiple footnote calls to the same footnote.
>
> Thanks,
> Alan

Re: How to combine two org files that each have footnotes?

[Kyle Meyer]

Christian Moe writes:

> Hi,
>
> This is actually easy because Org allows named footnotes (numbers are
> really just a special case of names).
>
> Make backup copies of your files for safety's sake, then visit file1.org
> and M-% to replace all instances of "fn:" with (for example)
> "fn:file1_". The footnotes will now be named fn:file1_1, fn:file1_2,
> etc. At this point all your footnotes across the two documents are
> already uniquely named (but you can of course also do the corresponding
> thing to file2 if you like). Merge away.

Yeah, that's the main method I can think of too
(<https://orgmode.org/list/87imi9iim3.fsf@kyleam.com>).  And after
merging, you can convert the references back to numbers by normalizing
with 'C-c C-x f n' if you'd like (and assuming what I wrote at the above
thread is correct).

Re: How to combine two org files that each have footnotes?

[arozbiz]

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Brilliant. Thank you both!

-Alan

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