Re: structure editing in brainstorming mode

[Bernt Hansen <bernt@norang.ca>]

"Rustom Mody" <rustompmody@gmail.com> writes:

> 1. Multiple heading demotion
>
> Lets say I start writing down some points maybe with/without some
> additional text
> * Cat
> * Dog
>
> And now I decide to put all these into a superheading 'My Pets'
> The only way I know is to enter
> * My Pets
> before Cat and then demote each subtree -- if there were not two but
> ten I'd have to do that 10 times

This sounds like a great use for a keyboard macro

Hit S-Tab until you get Contents view which shows headlines only (the
rest of the content is folded) and position the cursor on the first
headline to be demoted

C-x (
M-S-right
M-x org-forward-same-level
C-x )

Then just C-x e to repeat the macro and demote the current headline and
move forward to the next one.  If you're demoting consecutive entries
then you can do C-x e for the first and just 'e' for each successive one
to repeat the macro. (eg. C-x e e e e demotes this headline and the 3
following it)

>
> 2. Converting heading type
>
> Sometimes one assumes that the points are 'small' and so are entered
> as + points. Thus
> * Pets
>   + Cat
>   + Dog
> and then at some point it emerges that the +es had better be changed
> to headings that is (the requisite number of) *s.  Any easy way of
> doing that?

You can just use query replace for this

Highlight the entries to convert and then

C-M-%

and change 
'^  \+'
to
'**'  (or '***' if you are using odd levels only)

HTH,
-Bernt