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Has anyone a suggestion what one could do to mark some parts of a text as "own opinion?".

I am writing a report on which basis the team will decide further steps. So I am reviewing several approaches and I would like to somehow include some "meta" thoughts/criticisms in the report as well. But they should be easily spotted by a reader as my own subjective opinions/ recommendations as distinct from the objective review of the methods.

I was thinking of maybe a vertical line in the margin, spanning one or multiple paragraphs, with some text say something like 'things to keep in mind'. But I am open to any suggestion.

P.R.
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  • Perhaps the package todonotes is useful. However, marginal comments are not great if you have lots to say. If you are wordy, consider setting your comments between the normal paragraphs, and use a different (i.e., smaller) font size and switch from a serif to a sans serif font. If you are inclined to shiny bells and whistles, then consider using tcolorbox to box the text or put a line on one (or more) sides, add shading, etc. Easy to make the potential mistake of making your opinion stand out more than the report -- though maybe that's a good thing at the discussion stage.... – jon Jul 02 '15 at 16:07
  • Yes I am using todo for simple comments to myself and the reviewers. I decided against them for these 'my own opinion' parts, because they will include considerable amounts of text as well as math and stuff. – P.R. Jul 02 '15 at 16:08
  • the shading option is not too bad, ideally I would like to have some text in the margins 'explaining' why these parts are shaded – P.R. Jul 02 '15 at 16:10
  • @P.R. It they are comments in the middle of paragraph, may be \newcommand*\personalopinion[1]{\textcolor{orange}{$\langle$\emph{#1}$\rangle$}}. And if you need more than one paragraph, may be a tcolorbox that puts a vertical line on the lateral? – Manuel Jul 02 '15 at 16:13
  • it wont be comments in the middle of a paragraph. From my current use, I think it will span at least on paragraph but stay within one (sub/subsub)section. I am looking in tcolorbox now – P.R. Jul 02 '15 at 16:15
  • I do not want to have comments on comments, so nesting is not an issue. Using todo with inline would work as a work-around, but again it might not be immediately obvious to the reader what that colouring means. – P.R. Jul 02 '15 at 16:20
  • Here's a method, if you wanted comments from different users (or on different topics, or of different importance) to be color coded, either intertext or collected at the end: http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/140310/multiple-lists-of-to-do-notes/168160#168160 – Steven B. Segletes Jul 02 '15 at 17:00

1 Answers1

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Often, less is more. Compare a simple implementation and a fancier one. Not much is, if anything, is gained beyond demonstrating a knowledge of specialized packages.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{libertine}

\usepackage{tcolorbox}
\tcbuselibrary{breakable, skins}
\tcbset{breakable, enhanced jigsaw}% + other stylings...
\usepackage{lipsum, kantlipsum}
\newcommand{\comm}[1]{%
  \begin{tcolorbox}#1\end{tcolorbox}}

\newcommand{\xcomm}[1]{%
  \begin{quote}
    \footnotesize\sffamily \textsc{\textbf{commentary}}.\quad #1
  \end{quote}}

\newcommand{\xproem}[1]{%
  \begin{quote}
    \footnotesize\sffamily \textsc{\textbf{note}}.\quad #1
  \end{quote}}

\begin{document}


\xproem{Text set in this style represents my reflections on this project}

\lipsum[1]

\xcomm{\kant[1]}

\lipsum[2]

\xcomm{\kant[2]}

\lipsum[3]

\xcomm{\kant[3]}

\lipsum[4]

\xcomm{\kant[4]}

\lipsum[5]

\xcomm{\kant[5]}


% Or this -- but what does the colours and boxing add?
\newpage
\begin{tcolorbox}
\textbf{Note:} All text with this background represents a my own comments.
\end{tcolorbox}

\lipsum[1]

\comm{\kant[1]}

\lipsum[2]

\comm{\kant[2]}

\lipsum[3]

\comm{\kant[3]}

\lipsum[4]

\comm{\kant[4]}

\lipsum[5]

\comm{\kant[5]}

\end{document}
jon
  • 22,325
  • I like the first version. different than I envisioned it first, but I agree with you that less is more in this context – P.R. Jul 02 '15 at 17:10
  • @P.R. -- Cheers. I often struggle between balancing what is useful, simple, and elegant with my desire to do "cool" things in LaTeX just because I can. Aside from learning from others, this site is also a good outlet for relieving the pent-up desire to do or see the cool stuff. – jon Jul 02 '15 at 17:16