Re: Basic orgmode tutorial

[Memnon Anon <gegendosenfleisch@googlemail.com>]

Dan Davison <davison@stats.ox.ac.uk> writes:

> Yes, exactly. I want to counter some of the recent pessimism on this
> topic. Org-mode is very attractive to people in its own right, and as it
> happens it is implemented in emacs. I know one person who has used
> org-mode constantly for a couple of years now, purely for the agenda and
> todo lists, without ever aquiring any ability or interest in using emacs
> per se. She knows the keys to change TODO states, set timestamps and
> call up the agenda and that was all that was needed. Although only
> scraping the surface of what org-mode can do, the fact that someone who
> otherwise only uses MS Word and firefox is still using org-mode after
> two years says something *extremely* positive about org-mode.
[...]
> That also brings up the question of org-CUA-compatible -- would that be
> set in this putative newbie org configuration?
[...]
> So what I am saying is that org-mode is sufficiently attractive that we
> should expect non-emacs users to be attracted to it, and that we should
> be optimistic about the ability of such people to start using
> org-mode. And that yes, we need to work on the configuration for them.

I recently installed emacs for a co-student of mine, just to give her 
the ability to have the outline. She struggled with organizing her notes
on her research (first semester ;), so I suggested to her to have a look
at the outline tools out there; after she tried some of the solutions
available, I finally showed her orgmode, and she really chose org.
Reason: Cleaner look, less clutter: Some of the menus in the other 
programs were overwhelming for her and org offered her exactly what she
wanted. She is a student with average computer/software knowledge: Watch
movies, use firefox, use openoffice. And thats it.

I will ask her for feedback, I haven't spoken to her lately.

One thing, however, I noticed at once: 
I installed for her the official emacs windows build, and the inconsistent
mouse usage was a problem. Inconsistent not in itself, just different to
what she learned and expects how mouse, copy and paste, selecting text
etc. works. It broke her pattern of usage, and it was interesting to
see, how confusing that is from an outside perspective. ;). 

I wish I had chosen Lennart Borgmanns Built, which, I guess - I am on
linux only, comes with a more sensible set of preconfigurations.

Memnon

...

P.S.: Crazy idea: Would it be possible to use the mouse to move
      Headlines like M-up/M-down does? I do not understand it, but again
      and again I see computerusers cherishing their beloved rodent.
      Even heavy computer users find it hard to remember keystrokes.
      Or they are just unwilling to invest the effort ...