fatiparty--- via "General discussions about Org-mode." <emacs-orgmode@gnu.org> writes:
> In org-mode one can use the emphasizing tags > > *word* /word/ _word_ > > Is there anything to perform the opposite, playing down the text? No, there are no syntax elements in org mode to do this. Part of the challenge here is that de-emphasis or 'play down' is not well defined. Traditionally, I think the way you handled adding text which was considered important enough to include, but perhaps tangential or less important was to use a footnote or margin note. The point of emphasis in text is to draw the readers eye (and attention) to something. It is difficult to do the opposite. Furthermore, most techniques used to try and do this really just amount to making the text harder to read, which doesn't seem very beneficial for those readers who want that additional information. Personally, I prefer footnotes, asides, margin notes over including less important text within the important text because even if the text is somehow marked visually to indicate it is less important, I still have to scan it when reading. A footnote on the other hand tells me there is additional information available if I want to read it and all I had to scan was a letter. This is also why I prefer Oxford over Harvard referencing styles.
