12.1 Selective export

You may use tags to select the parts of a document that should be exported, or to exclude parts from export. This behavior is governed by two variables: org-export-select-tags and org-export-exclude-tags, respectively defaulting to '(:export:) and '(:noexport:).

1. Org first checks if any of the select tags is present in the buffer. If yes, all trees that do not carry one of these tags will be excluded. If a selected tree is a subtree, the heading hierarchy above it will also be selected for export, but not the text below those headings.
2. If none of the select tags is found, the whole buffer will be selected for export.
3. Finally, all subtrees that are marked by any of the exclude tags will be removed from the export buffer.

The variable org-export-with-tasks can be configured to select which kind of tasks should be included for export. See the docstring of the variable for more information.