Re: Bad footnotes when including org files

[James Harkins <jamshark70@gmail.com>]

Xavier Garrido <xavier.garrido <at> gmail.com> writes:

> 
> Hi Orgers,
> 
> I am having some troubles with several org files that I want to include 
> into one general org file. To do that I use the #+INCLUDE: keywords and 
> actually, everything is working well until I add some footnotes in both 
> files. Let me show you a minimal example where the footnote numbering is 
> getting weird
> 
> When I export to LaTeX the latest file, I get two footnotes with the 
> same number. The problem can be solved by changing the label of the 
> second footnote to [fn:2] but it means that I have to reorganize and 
> reorder footnotes within all the org files I will include. I am 
> wondering if it is possible to run, for example, 
> =org-footnote-renumber-fn:N= function when including files in such way 
> the user will not have to take care footnote labels.

I had exactly this problem in a big project. Poking around the customization
group org-footnote, I found:

Org Footnote Auto Label: Value Menu Create a random label
   State: SAVED and set.
   Non-nil means define automatically new labels for footnotes.
   Possible values are:
   
   nil        Prompt the user for each label.
   t          Create unique labels of the form [fn:1], [fn:2], etc.
   confirm    Like t, but let the user edit the created value.
              The label can be removed from the minibuffer to create
              an anonymous footnote.
   random	   Automatically generate a unique, random label.
   plain      Automatically create plain number labels like [1].

I switched to random labels, and no problem since then.

I don't find any evidence of a function that will automatically switch
existing footnotes to random IDs, though, and I'm afraid I'm short of time
this morning. It should be possible, but I guess nobody has done it.

But, do set the custom var to use random labels. It will prevent the problem
for all new footnotes.

hjh