Adding \xt ... \xt* in footnotes + \em ... \em*

Question

To make use of the references check I am adding \xt … \xt* codes in footnotes, introductions and glossary definitions. It has been a great help to find and correct many errors.

It is working well in the introductions and glossary. But, I am not clear what to do in the footnotes. When it is at the end of a footnote it is easy as there is the \f* after it. But there are times when the reference is in the middle of the footnote (or very near the end with just punctuation after it). So do I close the \xt* and continue with a new \ft or just let the \ft close it for me? There are times when there is punctuation after it, so do I have a \xt … \ft .\f*?

A related problem is with emphasized words in the footnote. The team have added \fk around the words they want in bold. But that comes up as an error if the text isn’t in the verse. I am suggesting that they put \em instead. But I get errors saying the \em isn’t closed so I have to add an \em* code. But if it is at the beginning of the footnote I get and error saying that I have an empty \ft. And of course I have the same issue as above in terms of closing the \em* and adding another \ft to continue the rest of the footnote.

Of course I could just leave the \fk and deny the errors? I prefer to resolve errors than deny them but it is getting complicated.

It probably isn’t good to include two issues but they are related.

Any ideas?

Thanks
anon703820

Answer 1

You do need to close any character styles in footnotes, including \xt …\xt* and \em …\em*. However you also need to change these to embedded character styles, in other words you should use \+xt …\+xt* and \+em …\+em*. This will ensure the text displays correctly in your Paratext browser and eliminate the error saying that you have an empty \ft.

For cross references in footnotes you should do this:
\f + \fr 1:1 \ft Text Text \+xt Ref. 2:2\+xt*. Text Text.\f*
(Nerd Note: All footnote specific styles, those beginning with \f , \fk \ft \fq \fqa do not need to be closed because Paratext automatically closes them before starting the next style.)

For emphasized text the markup is basically the same:
\f + \fr 1:1 \ft \+em emphasized\+em* Text Text Text Text.\f*
Do not use \fk for bold because it is intended to mark key words in the text that are also in your footnote that you want formatted in some special manner.

Now if what you are emphasizing is an alternate translation, you should actually use \fqa … The text after \fqa is not checked against the text in the translation. For example:
\f + \fr 1:1 \fqa Emphasized \ft Text Text Text Text.\f*

If you would like to see some more examples of various kinds of markup in footnotes, I would refer you to the NIV resource in Paratext. There are a number of different variations in its 2000+ footnotes.

CrazyRocky
Biblica

Answer 2

Thank you! That solves my problem. Thanks too for pointing out the NIV resource, it is very helpful.

anon703820