On Thu, Sep 28, 2017 at 1:28 PM Kaushal Modi <kaushal.modi@gmail.com> wrote:

> .. and so on, and then one can have
>
> :EXPORT_WITH_EMPHASIZE: t
>
> or
>
> :EXPORT_WITH_EMPHASIZE:
>
> in the subtree property.
>
> Is there a reason why this support wasn't added in the first place?
> (Or does a method already exist to allow me to do the above?)
>
> I can work on a patch if it's OK to enable this functionality.
>

From a quick testing, this works:

diff --git a/lisp/ox.el b/lisp/ox.el
index 4d3d7afb9d6..473608e82b2 100644
--- a/lisp/ox.el
+++ b/lisp/ox.el
@@ -119,7 +119,7 @@
     (:with-date nil "date" org-export-with-date)
     (:with-drawers nil "d" org-export-with-drawers)
     (:with-email nil "email" org-export-with-email)
-    (:with-emphasize nil "*" org-export-with-emphasize)
+    (:with-emphasize "EXPORT_WITH_EMPHASIZE" "*" org-export-with-emphasize)
     (:with-entities nil "e" org-export-with-entities)
     (:with-fixed-width nil ":" org-export-with-fixed-width)
     (:with-footnotes nil "f" org-export-with-footnotes)
@@ -2924,7 +2924,7 @@ returned by the function."
       ?\s)))))
         ;; ... emphasis...
         ((bold italic strike-through underline)
- (and (not (plist-get info :with-emphasize))
+ (and (not (org-string-nw-p (plist-get info :with-emphasize)))
       (let ((marker (cl-case (org-element-type datum)
       (bold "*")
       (italic "/")

I can have the same done for all options in a final patch.
-- 

Kaushal Modi