Capture templates

You can use templates to generate different types of capture notes, and to store them in different places. For example, if you would like to store new tasks under a heading ‘Tasks’ in file TODO.org, and journal entries in a date tree in journal.org you could use:

(setq org-capture-templates
 '(("t" "Todo" entry (file+headline "~/org/gtd.org" "Tasks")
        "* TODO %?\n  %i\n  %a")
   ("j" "Journal" entry (file+datetree "~/org/journal.org")
        "* %?\nEntered on %U\n  %i\n  %a")))

In these entries, the first string is the key to reach the template, the second is a short description. Then follows the type of the entry and a definition of the target location for storing the note. Finally, the template itself, a string with %-escapes to fill in information based on time and context.

When you call M-x org-capture, Org will prompt for a key to select the template (if you have more than one template) and then prepare the buffer like

* TODO
  [[file:link to where you were when initiating capture]]

During expansion of the template, special %-escapes¹⁰ allow dynamic insertion of content. Here is a small selection of the possibilities, consult the manual for more.

%a          annotation, normally the link created with org-store-link
%i          initial content, the region when capture is called with C-u.
%t, %T      timestamp, date only, or date and time
%u, %U      like above, but inactive timestamps