Often while we are writing a long document, we find that we only outlined some parts (or even white ) with the intention of returning on them later to complete or improve them. Naturally, these parts of the document should be marked in some way. We each have our little tricks about it. Some of the most common are:
- Post a comment in the LaTeX source code, with a special string such as "A REVIEW", so we can do a subsequent search on the file to quickly find these points. The disadvantage of this approach is that in PDF or printed version, such comments do not appear, so if we are taking to read the draft to someone else, not have a clear track which parts are incomplete and which not. Enter
- These special strings in the text, not comments. This leaves either version record source and in the printed version. The problem is that perhaps these notes "for oneself" should not be in the main text, for reading a bit clogged. Use
- margin notes (ie, the command \\ marginpar), to introduce specific notation. This solves the two problems above, but still has a minor inconvenience. The marginal note appears "more or less" to the height of the line that was used \\ marginpar, but not always exactly where you want. Furthermore, if the note refers to a specific point within the line (eg: a space between two words) there is no way to specify this information.
- To solve this problem I had created my own command inserted in the body of an ugly black box visible, along with a footnote explaining the reason for that brand. The black box was acting as a "call" to the footnotes.
But in recent days we have no alternative, I plan to use the next time you see me in this necessity. This package Todonotes . The idea is similar to the one I was using, but with many facilities to set the final aspect of note in the margin and its insertion point in the main text. Among other things, to specify the text color and background of the note, as well as the edge of the box that contains it, and this box connects through a line to the main text, to the point where the note was inserted in the source code. Also you can create notes on-line, that is, they are not going outside. Finally, almost more importantly, can generate a "list of notes" that includes all points of the document marked with these annotations, references to each page and color used. For if I have not explained well, I think a look at the manual clarify exactly what this package can do.
