footnotes with paragraph breaks

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footnotes with paragraph breaks

dan34
Is there a way to have a paragraph break inside a footnote? I can't get this to work. It doesn't include the second paragraph. Shouldn't everything within the square brackets be treated as the footnote text?
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Re: footnotes with paragraph breaks

mojavelinux
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Multiple paragraphs in a footnote is not a supported use case (primarily because it's an improper use case for a footnote according to style manuals).

It is, however, possible to insert a manual break between lines in a footnote to create the appearance of multiple paragraphs. Here's an example:

This is subject text.footnote:[This is the first paragraph about this text.
pass:p[ +]
pass:p[ +]
This is the second paragraph about this text.]

Without the pass lines, Asciidoctor sees the lines above and below as separate paragraphs, the first with an unterminated footnote macro. A blank line is a definitive break between paragraphs. Thus, a footnote must be contiguous lines.

-Dan

On Sat, Dec 26, 2015 at 6:46 AM, dan34 [via Asciidoctor :: Discussion] <[hidden email]> wrote:
Is there a way to have a paragraph break inside a footnote? I can't get this to work. It doesn't include the second paragraph. Shouldn't everything within the square brackets be treated as the footnote text?


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NAML



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Dan Allen | @mojavelinux | http://google.com/profiles/dan.j.allen
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Re: footnotes with paragraph breaks

dan34
Thanks for you reply.  Your suggestion works to force a break.

Could you refer me to a sytle manual that forbids multi-paragraph footnotes? A quick google search turned up nothing.

I have frequently seen multi-paragraph footnotes used in published works. A quick check of three books from my shelf turned up several examples.
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Re: footnotes with paragraph breaks

mojavelinux
Administrator
From MLA {1}:

"MLA discourages extensive use of explanatory or digressive notes."

"Because long explanatory notes can be distracting to readers, most academic style guidelines (including MLA and APA, the American Psychological Association) recommend limited use of endnotes/footnotes"

I think publishers that use multi-paragraph footnotes are abusing the structural element. Just because these publishers do it doesn't mean they should be.

My opinion is that a multi-paragraph footnote is an indicator of a structural problem in the text. If you feel the need to insert a big content note, then you didn't explain something right somewhere in the main text. They should only be used when something would be far to digressive from the text to mention, and even then it should be curtailed as much as possible.

If you need a longer description, consider a sidebar. (But I think that most sidebars are also indicators of structural problems in the text and should also be avoided where ever possible).

But I'm glad to solution works for your case, but I recognized that sometimes we don't have a choice and just need to duplicate what is already there. I think the fact that it looks a little ugly is a good thing because it reminds us that the footnote should be trimmed at some point.

-Dan


On Sun, Dec 27, 2015 at 11:23 AM, dan34 [via Asciidoctor :: Discussion] <[hidden email]> wrote:
Thanks for you reply.  Your suggestion works to force a break.

Could you refer me to a sytle manual that forbids multi-paragraph footnotes? A quick google search turned up nothing.

I have frequently seen multi-paragraph footnotes used in published works. A quick check of three books from my shelf turned up several examples.


If you reply to this email, your message will be added to the discussion below:
http://discuss.asciidoctor.org/footnotes-with-paragraph-breaks-tp4130p4132.html
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To unsubscribe from Asciidoctor :: Discussion, click here.
NAML



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Dan Allen | @mojavelinux | http://google.com/profiles/dan.j.allen