From fd1491f26520e3b47086659050ccde69af506c06 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Edward Longman <eialongman@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 7 Jun 2021 17:51:19 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] Add FAQ section to README

---
 README.md | 33 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 33 insertions(+)

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 3fb484f..82eee4d 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -2,6 +2,39 @@
 LaTeX Documents for the University of Southampton. Mainly for Thesis and project reports
 
 For slides with Beamer, please see https://git.soton.ac.uk/sw2f11/latex-slides-template
+
+## FAQ
+#### Q: How do I include an "Accessed on", "Visited on", "Date last Accessed" or "Last visited" note for urls?
+The bibliography is formatted by the `natbib` package that does not support the `urldate` field in `.bib` files.
+As a work around, add a `note={Accessed on 2020-01-01}` to the relevant bib entry.
+
+For more info see [this Stack Exchange question](https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/103133/problems-with-natbib-strange-url-format-and-urldate-not-shown).
+
+#### Q: How do I fix a bib entry with special characters (`&``%`)?
+You may get an error like "Paragraph ended before \\BR@@bibitem was complete"
+or there may be a cascade of errors because of an unclosed `\begin` statement.
+
+The short term solution is to manually "escape" special characters in the `.bib` url fields,
+i.e. `url = {http://www.somesite.com/8%20report}` => `url = {http://www.somesite.com/8\%20report}`.
+
+Unfortunately, the longer term solution requires editing some source files.
+Locate the `plainnat.bst` (or `biblatex.bst` file, if using `biblatex`)
+and add the following in the file at the end of `FUNCTION {begin.bib}`
+```
+    "\providecommand{\BIBdecl}{\relax}"
+    write$ newline$
+    "\BIBdecl"
+    write$ newline$
+```
+Then add ``\newcommand{\BIBdecl}{\catcode`\%=12 }`` before `\begin{document}` in your `.tex` document source.
+
+[Stack Exchange Source](https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/140143/hyperref-with-pagebackref-requires-manual-escaping-of-percentage-signs-in-urls)
+
+#### Q: Can I use `biblatex` instead of `natbib`?
+Yes you can. Since this template has existed longer than `biblatex` it uses the older `natbib`.
+there are good reasons to change to `biblatex` but `natbib` is still preferred by journals,
+so using `natbib` will mean that source material from papers will not need to be modified,
+
 ## Your `{TEXMF}` root subdirectory
 For Tex Live: This whole folder can be moved into the `~/texmf` directory to begin using the class files.
 
-- 
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