The Org Manual

This manual is for Org version 9.6.

Copyright © 2004–2024 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with the Front-Cover Texts being “A GNU Manual,” and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled “GNU Free Documentation License.”

(a) The FSF’s Back-Cover Text is: “You have the freedom to copy and modify this GNU manual.”

Table of Contents

https://orgmode.org

This is the official manual for the latest Org mode release.


1 Introduction


1.1 Summary

Org Mode is an authoring tool and a TODO lists manager for GNU Emacs. It relies on a lightweight plain-text markup language used in files with the ‘.org’ extension.

As an authoring tool, Org helps you write structured documents and provides exporting facilities. Org files can also be used for literate programming and reproducible research. As a TODO lists manager, Org helps you organize your tasks in a flexible way, from daily needs to detailed project-planning, allowing logging, multiple views on your tasks, exporting your agendas, etc.

Org mode is implemented on top of Outline mode, which makes it possible to keep the content of large files well structured. Visibility cycling and structure editing help to work with the tree. Tables are easily created with a built-in table editor. Plain text URL-like links connect to websites, emails, Usenet messages, BBDB entries, and any files related to the projects.

Org develops organizational tasks around notes files that contain lists or information about projects as plain text. Project planning and task management make use of metadata which is part of an outline node. Based on this data, specific entries can be extracted in queries and create dynamic agenda views that also integrate the Emacs calendar and diary. Org can be used to implement many different project planning schemes, such as David Allen’s GTD system.

Org files can serve as a single source authoring system with export to many different formats such as HTML, LaTeX, Open Document, and Markdown. New export backends can be derived from existing ones, or defined from scratch.

Org files can include source code blocks, which makes Org uniquely suited for authoring technical documents with code examples. Org source code blocks are fully functional; they can be evaluated in place and their results can be captured in the file. This makes it possible to create a single file reproducible research compendium.

Org keeps simple things simple. When first fired up, it should feel like a straightforward, easy to use outliner. Complexity is not imposed, but a large amount of functionality is available when needed. Org is a toolbox. Many users actually run only a—very personal—fraction of Org’s capabilities, and know that there is more whenever they need it.

All of this is achieved with strictly plain text files, the most portable and future-proof file format. Org runs in Emacs. Emacs is one of the most widely ported programs, so that Org mode is available on every major platform.

There is a website for Org which provides links to the newest version of Org, as well as additional information, frequently asked questions (FAQ), links to tutorials, etc. This page is located at https://orgmode.org.

An earlier version (7.3) of this manual was available as a paperback book from the Network Theory Ltd. publishing company, closed in 2009.


1.2 Installation

Org is included in distributions of GNU Emacs, you probably do not need to install it. Most users will simply activate Org and begin exploring its features.

If, for one reason or another, you want to install Org on top of this pre-packaged version, you can use the Emacs package system or clone Org’s git repository. We strongly recommend sticking to a single installation method.

When installing Org on top of the pre-packaged version, please note that Org stable versions are meant to be fully compatible with the last three stable versions of Emacs but not with older Emacsen.

Using Emacs packaging system

Recent Emacs distributions include a packaging system which lets you install Elisp libraries. You can install Org from the “package menu”, with M-x list-packages. See Package Menu.

Important: You need to do this in a session where no ‘.org’ file has been visited, i.e., where no Org built-in function have been loaded. Otherwise autoload Org functions will mess up the installation.

Using Org’s git repository

You can clone Org’s repository and install Org like this:

$ cd ~/src/
$ git clone https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/emacs/org-mode.git
$ cd org-mode/
$ make autoloads

Note that in this case, ‘make autoloads’ is mandatory: it defines Org’s version in ‘org-version.el’ and Org’s autoloads in ‘org-loaddefs.el’.

Make sure you set the load path correctly in your Emacs init file:

(add-to-list 'load-path "~/src/org-mode/lisp")

You can also compile with ‘make’, generate the documentation with ‘make doc’, create a local configuration with ‘make config’ and install Org with ‘make install’. Please run ‘make help’ to get the list of compilation/installation options.

For more detailed explanations on Org’s build system, please check the Org Build System page on Worg.

Installing Org’s contributed packages

Org’s repository used to contain ‘contrib/’ directory for add-ons contributed by others. As of Org 9.5, the directory has been moved to the dedicated org-contrib repository, which you can install separately as a package from NonGNU ELPA.

There are enough valuable packages maintained outside of the Org repository. Worg has a list of org-contrib and external packages, certainly it is not exhaustive.


1.3 Activation

Org mode buffers need Font Lock to be turned on: this is the default in Emacs1.

There are compatibility issues between Org mode and some other Elisp packages (see Packages that conflict with Org mode). Please take the time to check the list.

For a better experience, the three Org commands org-store-link, org-capture and org-agenda ought to be accessible anywhere in Emacs, not just in Org buffers. To that effect, you need to bind them to globally available keys, like the ones reserved for users (see (elisp)Key Binding Conventions). Here are suggested bindings, please modify the keys to your own liking.

(global-set-key (kbd "C-c l") #'org-store-link)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c a") #'org-agenda)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c c") #'org-capture)

Files with the ‘.org’ extension use Org mode by default. To turn on Org mode in a file that does not have the extension ‘.org’, make the first line of a file look like this:

MY PROJECTS    -*- mode: org; -*-

which selects Org mode for this buffer no matter what the file’s name is. See also the variable org-insert-mode-line-in-empty-file.

Many commands in Org work on the region if the region is active. To make use of this, you need to have Transient Mark mode turned on, which is the default. If you do not like it, you can create an active region by using the mouse to select a region, or pressing C-SPC twice before moving point.


1.4 Feedback

If you find problems with Org, or if you have questions, remarks, or ideas about it, please send an email to the Org mailing list . You can subscribe to the list from this web page. If you are not a member of the mailing list, your mail will be passed to the list after a moderator has approved it2. We ask you to read and respect the GNU Kind Communications Guidelines when sending messages on this mailing list. Please allow up to one month for the response and followup if no response is received on the bug report.

For bug reports, please first try to reproduce the bug with the latest version of Org available—if you are running an outdated version, it is quite possible that the bug has been fixed already. If the bug persists, prepare a report and provide as much information as possible, including the version information of Emacs (M-x emacs-version) and Org (M-x org-version), as well as the Org related setup in the Emacs init file. The easiest way to do this is to use the command

M-x org-submit-bug-report <RET>

which puts all this information into an Emacs mail buffer so that you only need to add your description. If you are not sending the Email from within Emacs, please copy and paste the content into your Email program.

Sometimes you might face a problem due to an error in your Emacs or Org mode setup. Before reporting a bug, it is very helpful to start Emacs with minimal customizations and reproduce the problem. Doing so often helps you determine if the problem is with your customization or with Org mode itself. You can start a typical minimal session with a command like the example below.

$ emacs -Q -l /path/to/minimal-org.el

However if you are using Org mode as distributed with Emacs, a minimal setup is not necessary. In that case it is sufficient to start Emacs as ‘emacs -Q’. The ‘minimal-org.el’ setup file can have contents as shown below.

;;; Minimal setup to load latest `org-mode'.

;; Activate debugging.
(setq debug-on-error t
      debug-on-signal nil
      debug-on-quit nil)

;; Add latest Org mode to load path.
(add-to-list 'load-path (expand-file-name "/path/to/org-mode/lisp"))

If you are using Org mode version from Git repository, you can start minimal session using make.

# Bare Emacs
make repro
# or pass extra arguments
make repro REPRO_ARGS="-l /path/to/minimal/config.el /tmp/bug.org"

If an error occurs, a “backtrace” can be very useful—see below on how to create one. Often a small example file helps, along with clear information about:

  1. What exactly did you do?
  2. What did you expect to happen?
  3. What happened instead?

Thank you for helping to improve this program.

How to create a useful backtrace

If working with Org produces an error with a message you do not understand, you may have hit a bug. The best way to report this is by providing, in addition to what was mentioned above, a backtrace. This is information from the built-in debugger about where and how the error occurred. Here is how to produce a useful backtrace:

  1. Reload uncompiled versions of all Org mode Lisp files. The backtrace contains much more information if it is produced with uncompiled code. To do this, use
    C-u M-x org-reload <RET>
    

    or, from the menu: Org → Refresh/Reload → Reload Org uncompiled.

  2. Then, activate the debugger:
    M-x toggle-debug-on-error <RET>
    

    or, from the menu: Options → Enter Debugger on Error.

  3. Do whatever you have to do to hit the error. Do not forget to document the steps you take.
  4. When you hit the error, a ‘*Backtrace*’ buffer appears on the screen. Save this buffer to a file—for example using C-x C-w—and attach it to your bug report.

1.5 Typesetting Conventions Used in this Manual

TODO keywords, tags, properties, etc.

Org uses various syntactical elements: TODO keywords, tags, property names, keywords, blocks, etc. In this manual we use the following conventions:

TODO
WAITING

TODO keywords are written with all capitals, even if they are user-defined.

boss
ARCHIVE

Tags are case-sensitive. User-defined tags are usually written in lowercase; built-in tags with special meaning are written as they should appear in the document, usually with all capitals.

Release
PRIORITY

User-defined properties are capitalized; built-in properties with special meaning are written with all capitals.

TITLE
BEGIN’ … ‘END

Keywords and blocks are written in uppercase to enhance their readability, but you can use lowercase in your Org files.

Key bindings and commands

The manual lists both the keys and the corresponding commands for accessing a functionality. Org mode often uses the same key for different functions, depending on context. The command that is bound to such keys has a generic name, like org-metaright. In the manual we will, wherever possible, give the function that is internally called by the generic command. For example, in the chapter on document structure, M-RIGHT will be listed to call org-do-demote, while in the chapter on tables, it will be listed to call org-table-move-column-right.


2 Document Structure

Org is an outliner. Outlines allow a document to be organized in a hierarchical structure, which, least for me, is the best representation of notes and thoughts. An overview of this structure is achieved by folding, i.e., hiding large parts of the document to show only the general document structure and the parts currently being worked on. Org greatly simplifies the use of outlines by compressing the entire show and hide functionalities into a single command, org-cycle, which is bound to the TAB key.


2.1 Headlines

Headlines define the structure of an outline tree. Org headlines start on the left margin3 with one or more stars followed by a space. For example:

* Top level headline
** Second level
*** Third level
    some text
*** Third level
    more text
* Another top level headline

The name defined in org-footnote-section is reserved. Do not use it as a title for your own headings.

Some people find the many stars too noisy and would prefer an outline that has whitespace followed by a single star as headline starters. This can be achieved using a Org Indent minor mode. See A Cleaner Outline View for more information.

Headlines are not numbered. However, you may want to dynamically number some, or all, of them. See Dynamic Headline Numbering.

An empty line after the end of a subtree is considered part of it and is hidden when the subtree is folded. However, if you leave at least two empty lines, one empty line remains visible after folding the subtree, in order to structure the collapsed view. See the variable org-cycle-separator-lines to modify this behavior.


2.2 Visibility Cycling


2.2.1 Global and local cycling

Outlines make it possible to hide parts of the text in the buffer. Org uses just two commands, bound to TAB and S-TAB to change the visibility in the buffer.

TAB (org-cycle)

Subtree cycling: Rotate current subtree among the states

,-> FOLDED -> CHILDREN -> SUBTREE --.
'-----------------------------------'

Point must be on a headline for this to work4.

S-TAB (org-global-cycle)
C-u TAB

Global cycling: Rotate the entire buffer among the states

,-> OVERVIEW -> CONTENTS -> SHOW ALL --.
'--------------------------------------'

When S-TAB is called with a numeric prefix argument N, view contents only up to headlines of level N.

Note that inside tables (see Tables), S-TAB jumps to the previous field instead.

You can run global cycling using TAB only if point is at the very beginning of the buffer, but not on a headline, and org-cycle-global-at-bob is set to a non-nil value.

C-u C-u TAB (org-set-startup-visibility)

Switch back to the startup visibility of the buffer (see Initial visibility).

C-u C-u C-u TAB (org-show-all)

Show all, including drawers.

C-c C-r (org-reveal)

Reveal context around point, showing the current entry, the following heading and the hierarchy above. It is useful for working near a location that has been exposed by a sparse tree command (see Sparse Trees) or an agenda command (see Commands in the Agenda Buffer). With a prefix argument, show, on each level, all sibling headings. With a double prefix argument, also show the entire subtree of the parent.

C-c C-k (org-show-branches)

Expose all the headings of the subtree, but not their bodies.

C-c TAB (org-show-children)

Expose all direct children of the subtree. With a numeric prefix argument N, expose all children down to level N.

C-c C-x b (org-tree-to-indirect-buffer)

Show the current subtree in an indirect buffer5. With a numeric prefix argument N, go up to level N and then take that tree. If N is negative then go up that many levels. With a C-u prefix, do not remove the previously used indirect buffer.

C-c C-x v (org-copy-visible)

Copy the visible text in the region into the kill ring.


2.2.2 Initial visibility

When Emacs first visits an Org file, the global state is set to showeverything, i.e., all file content is visible6. This can be configured through the variable org-startup-folded, or on a per-file basis by adding one of the following lines anywhere in the buffer:

#+STARTUP: overview
#+STARTUP: content
#+STARTUP: showall
#+STARTUP: show2levels
#+STARTUP: show3levels
#+STARTUP: show4levels
#+STARTUP: show5levels
#+STARTUP: showeverything

Furthermore, any entries with a ‘VISIBILITY’ property (see Properties and Columns) get their visibility adapted accordingly. Allowed values for this property are ‘folded’, ‘children’, ‘content’, and ‘all’.

C-u C-u TAB (org-set-startup-visibility)

Switch back to the startup visibility of the buffer, i.e., whatever is requested by startup options and ‘VISIBILITY’ properties in individual entries.


2.2.3 Catching invisible edits

Sometimes you may inadvertently edit an invisible part of the buffer and be confused on what has been edited and how to undo the mistake. Setting org-fold-catch-invisible-edits to non-nil helps preventing this. See the docstring of this option on how Org should catch invisible edits and process them.


2.3 Motion

The following commands jump to other headlines in the buffer.

C-c C-n (org-next-visible-heading)

Next heading.

C-c C-p (org-previous-visible-heading)

Previous heading.

C-c C-f (org-forward-heading-same-level)

Next heading same level.

C-c C-b (org-backward-heading-same-level)

Previous heading same level.

C-c C-u (outline-up-heading)

Backward to higher level heading.

C-c C-j (org-goto)

Jump to a different place without changing the current outline visibility. Shows the document structure in a temporary buffer, where you can use the following keys to find your destination:

TABCycle visibility.
DOWN / UPNext/previous visible headline.
RETSelect this location.
/Do a Sparse-tree search

The following keys work if you turn off org-goto-auto-isearch

n / pNext/previous visible headline.
f / bNext/previous headline same level.
uOne level up.
09Digit argument.
qQuit.

See also the variable org-goto-interface.


2.4 Structure Editing

M-RET (org-meta-return)

Insert a new heading, item or row.

If the command is used at the beginning of a line, and if there is a heading or a plain list item (see Plain Lists) at point, the new heading/item is created before the current line. When used at the beginning of a regular line of text, turn that line into a heading.

When this command is used in the middle of a line, the line is split and the rest of the line becomes the new item or headline. If you do not want the line to be split, customize org-M-RET-may-split-line.

Calling the command with a C-u prefix unconditionally inserts a new heading at the end of the current subtree, thus preserving its contents. With a double C-u C-u prefix, the new heading is created at the end of the parent subtree instead.

C-RET (org-insert-heading-respect-content)

Insert a new heading at the end of the current subtree.

M-S-RET (org-insert-todo-heading)

Insert new TODO entry with same level as current heading. See also the variable org-treat-insert-todo-heading-as-state-change.

C-S-RET (org-insert-todo-heading-respect-content)

Insert new TODO entry with same level as current heading. Like C-RET, the new headline is inserted after the current subtree.

TAB (org-cycle)

In a new entry with no text yet, the first TAB demotes the entry to become a child of the previous one. The next TAB makes it a parent, and so on, all the way to top level. Yet another TAB, and you are back to the initial level.

M-LEFT (org-do-promote)
M-RIGHT (org-do-demote)

Promote or demote current heading by one level.

When there is an active region—i.e., when Transient Mark mode is active—promotion and demotion work on all headlines in the region. To select a region of headlines, it is best to place both point and mark at the beginning of a line, mark at the beginning of the first headline, and point at the line just after the last headline to change.

M-S-LEFT (org-promote-subtree)

Promote the current subtree by one level.

M-S-RIGHT (org-demote-subtree)

Demote the current subtree by one level.

M-UP (org-move-subtree-up)

Move subtree up, i.e., swap with previous subtree of same level.

M-DOWN (org-move-subtree-down)

Move subtree down, i.e., swap with next subtree of same level.

C-c @ (org-mark-subtree)

Mark the subtree at point. Hitting repeatedly marks subsequent subtrees of the same level as the marked subtree.

C-c C-x C-w (org-cut-subtree)

Kill subtree, i.e., remove it from buffer but save in kill ring. With a numeric prefix argument N, kill N sequential subtrees.

C-c C-x M-w (org-copy-subtree)

Copy subtree to kill ring. With a numeric prefix argument N, copy the N sequential subtrees.

C-c C-x C-y (org-paste-subtree)

Yank subtree from kill ring. This does modify the level of the subtree to make sure the tree fits in nicely at the yank position. The yank level can also be specified with a numeric prefix argument, or by yanking after a headline marker like ‘****’.

C-y (org-yank)

Depending on the variables org-yank-adjusted-subtrees and org-yank-folded-subtrees, Org’s internal yank command pastes subtrees folded and in a clever way, using the same command as C-c C-x C-y. With the default settings, no level adjustment takes place, but the yanked tree is folded unless doing so would swallow text previously visible. Any prefix argument to this command forces a normal yank to be executed, with the prefix passed along. A good way to force a normal yank is C-u C-y. If you use yank-pop after a yank, it yanks previous kill items plainly, without adjustment and folding.

C-c C-x c (org-clone-subtree-with-time-shift)

Clone a subtree by making a number of sibling copies of it. You are prompted for the number of copies to make, and you can also specify if any timestamps in the entry should be shifted. This can be useful, for example, to create a number of tasks related to a series of lectures to prepare. For more details, see the docstring of the command org-clone-subtree-with-time-shift.

C-c C-w (org-refile)

Refile entry or region to a different location. See Refile and Copy.

C-c ^ (org-sort)

Sort same-level entries. When there is an active region, all entries in the region are sorted. Otherwise the children of the current headline are sorted. The command prompts for the sorting method, which can be alphabetically, numerically, by time—first timestamp with active preferred, creation time, scheduled time, deadline time—by priority, by TODO keyword—in the sequence the keywords have been defined in the setup—or by the value of a property. Reverse sorting is possible as well. You can also supply your own function to extract the sorting key. With a C-u prefix, sorting is case-sensitive.

C-x n s (org-narrow-to-subtree)

Narrow buffer to current subtree.

C-x n b (org-narrow-to-block)

Narrow buffer to current block.

C-x n w (widen)

Widen buffer to remove narrowing.

C-c * (org-toggle-heading)

Turn a normal line or plain list item into a headline—so that it becomes a subheading at its location. Also turn a headline into a normal line by removing the stars. If there is an active region, turn all lines in the region into headlines. If the first line in the region was an item, turn only the item lines into headlines. Finally, if the first line is a headline, remove the stars from all headlines in the region.

Note that when point is inside a table (see Tables), the Meta-Cursor keys have different functionality.


2.5 Sparse Trees

An important feature of Org mode is the ability to construct sparse trees for selected information in an outline tree, so that the entire document is folded as much as possible, but the selected information is made visible along with the headline structure above it7. Just try it out and you will see immediately how it works.

Org mode contains several commands creating such trees, all these commands can be accessed through a dispatcher:

C-c / (org-sparse-tree)

This prompts for an extra key to select a sparse-tree creating command.

C-c / r or C-c / / (org-occur)

Prompts for a regexp (see Regular Expressions) and shows a sparse tree with all matches. If the match is in a headline, the headline is made visible. If the match is in the body of an entry, headline and body are made visible. In order to provide minimal context, also the full hierarchy of headlines above the match is shown, as well as the headline following the match. Each match is also highlighted; the highlights disappear when the buffer is changed by an editing command, or by pressing C-c C-c8. When called with a C-u prefix argument, previous highlights are kept, so several calls to this command can be stacked.

M-g n or M-g M-n (next-error)

Jump to the next sparse tree match in this buffer.

M-g p or M-g M-p (previous-error)

Jump to the previous sparse tree match in this buffer.

For frequently used sparse trees of specific search strings, you can use the variable org-agenda-custom-commands to define fast keyboard access to specific sparse trees. These commands will then be accessible through the agenda dispatcher (see The Agenda Dispatcher). For example:

(setq org-agenda-custom-commands
      '(("f" occur-tree "FIXME")))

defines the key f as a shortcut for creating a sparse tree matching the string ‘FIXME’.

The other sparse tree commands select headings based on TODO keywords, tags, or properties and are discussed later in this manual.

To print a sparse tree, you can use the Emacs command ps-print-buffer-with-faces which does not print invisible parts of the document. Or you can use the command C-c C-e C-v to export only the visible part of the document and print the resulting file.


2.6 Plain Lists

Within an entry of the outline tree, hand-formatted lists can provide additional structure. They also provide a way to create lists of checkboxes (see Checkboxes). Org supports editing such lists, and every exporter (see Exporting) can parse and format them.

Org knows ordered lists, unordered lists, and description lists.

  • Unordered list items start with ‘-’, ‘+’, or ‘*9 as bullets.
  • Ordered list items start with a numeral followed by either a period or a right parenthesis10, such as ‘1.’ or ‘1)11 If you want a list to start with a different value—e.g., 20—start the text of the item with ‘[@20]12. Those constructs can be used in any item of the list in order to enforce a particular numbering.
  • Description list items are unordered list items, and contain the separator ‘::’ to distinguish the description term from the description.

Items belonging to the same list must have the same indentation on the first line. In particular, if an ordered list reaches number ‘10.’, then the 2-digit numbers must be written left-aligned with the other numbers in the list. An item ends before the next line that is less or equally indented than its bullet/number.

A list ends whenever every item has ended, which means before any line less or equally indented than items at top level. It also ends before two blank lines. In that case, all items are closed. Here is an example:

* Lord of the Rings
My favorite scenes are (in this order)
1. The attack of the Rohirrim
2. Eowyn's fight with the witch king
   + this was already my favorite scene in the book
   + I really like Miranda Otto.
3. Peter Jackson being shot by Legolas
   - on DVD only
   He makes a really funny face when it happens.
But in the end, no individual scenes matter but the film as a whole.
Important actors in this film are:
- Elijah Wood :: He plays Frodo
- Sean Astin :: He plays Sam, Frodo's friend.  I still remember him
     very well from his role as Mikey Walsh in /The Goonies/.

Org supports these lists by tuning filling and wrapping commands to deal with them correctly, and by exporting them properly (see Exporting). Since indentation is what governs the structure of these lists, many structural constructs like ‘#+BEGIN_’ blocks can be indented to signal that they belong to a particular item.

If you find that using a different bullet for a sub-list—than that used for the current list-level—improves readability, customize the variable org-list-demote-modify-bullet. To get a greater difference of indentation between items and theirs sub-items, customize org-list-indent-offset.

The following commands act on items when point is in the first line of an item—the line with the bullet or number. Some of them imply the application of automatic rules to keep list structure intact. If some of these actions get in your way, configure org-list-automatic-rules to disable them individually.

TAB (org-cycle)

Items can be folded just like headline levels. Normally this works only if point is on a plain list item. For more details, see the variable org-cycle-include-plain-lists. If this variable is set to integrate, plain list items are treated like low-level headlines. The level of an item is then given by the indentation of the bullet/number. Items are always subordinate to real headlines, however; the hierarchies remain completely separated. In a new item with no text yet, the first TAB demotes the item to become a child of the previous one. Subsequent TABs move the item to meaningful levels in the list and eventually get it back to its initial position.

M-RET (org-insert-heading)

Insert new item at current level. With a prefix argument, force a new heading (see Structure Editing). If this command is used in the middle of an item, that item is split in two, and the second part becomes the new item13. If this command is executed before item’s body, the new item is created before the current one.

M-S-RET

Insert a new item with a checkbox (see Checkboxes).

S-UP
S-DOWN

Jump to the previous/next item in the current list, but only if org-support-shift-select is off14. If not, you can still use paragraph jumping commands like C-UP and C-DOWN to quite similar effect.

M-UP
M-DOWN

Move the item including subitems up/down15, i.e., swap with previous/next item of same indentation. If the list is ordered, renumbering is automatic.

M-LEFT
M-RIGHT

Decrease/increase the indentation of an item, leaving children alone.

M-S-LEFT
M-S-RIGHT

Decrease/increase the indentation of the item, including subitems. Initially, the item tree is selected based on current indentation. When these commands are executed several times in direct succession, the initially selected region is used, even if the new indentation would imply a different hierarchy. To use the new hierarchy, break the command chain by moving point.

As a special case, using this command on the very first item of a list moves the whole list. This behavior can be disabled by configuring org-list-automatic-rules. The global indentation of a list has no influence on the text after the list.

C-c C-c

If there is a checkbox (see Checkboxes) in the item line, toggle the state of the checkbox. In any case, verify bullets and indentation consistency in the whole list.

C-c -

Cycle the entire list level through the different itemize/enumerate bullets (‘-’, ‘+’, ‘*’, ‘1.’, ‘1)’) or a subset of them, depending on org-plain-list-ordered-item-terminator, the type of list, and its indentation. With a numeric prefix argument N, select the Nth bullet from this list. If there is an active region when calling this, all lines are converted to list items. With a prefix argument, the selected text is changed into a single item. If the first line already was a list item, any item marker is removed from the list. Finally, even without an active region, a normal line is converted into a list item.

C-c *

Turn a plain list item into a headline—so that it becomes a subheading at its location. See Structure Editing, for a detailed explanation.

C-c C-*

Turn the whole plain list into a subtree of the current heading. Checkboxes (see Checkboxes) become ‘TODO’, respectively ‘DONE’, keywords when unchecked, respectively checked.

S-LEFT
S-RIGHT

This command also cycles bullet styles when point is in on the bullet or anywhere in an item line, details depending on org-support-shift-select.

C-c ^

Sort the plain list. Prompt for the sorting method: numerically, alphabetically, by time, or by custom function.


2.7 Drawers

Sometimes you want to keep information associated with an entry, but you normally do not want to see it. For this, Org mode has drawers. They can contain anything but a headline and another drawer. Drawers look like this:

** This is a headline
Still outside the drawer
:DRAWERNAME:
This is inside the drawer.
:END:
After the drawer.

You can interactively insert a drawer at point by calling org-insert-drawer, which is bound to C-c C-x d. With an active region, this command puts the region inside the drawer. With a prefix argument, this command calls non-interactive function org-insert-property-drawer, which creates a ‘PROPERTIES’ drawer right below the current headline. Org mode uses this special drawer for storing properties (see Properties and Columns). You cannot use it for anything else.

Completion over drawer keywords is also possible using M-TAB16.

Visibility cycling (see Visibility Cycling) on the headline hides and shows the entry, but keep the drawer collapsed to a single line. In order to look inside the drawer, you need to move point to the drawer line and press TAB there.

You can also arrange for state change notes (see Tracking TODO state changes) and clock times (see Clocking Work Time) to be stored in a ‘LOGBOOK’ drawer. If you want to store a quick note there, in a similar way to state changes, use

C-c C-z

Add a time-stamped note to the ‘LOGBOOK’ drawer.


2.8 Blocks

Org mode uses ‘#+BEGIN’ … ‘#+END’ blocks for various purposes from including source code examples (see Literal Examples) to capturing time logging information (see Clocking Work Time). These blocks can be folded and unfolded by pressing TAB in the ‘#+BEGIN’ line. You can also get all blocks folded at startup by configuring the variable org-hide-block-startup or on a per-file basis by using

#+STARTUP: hideblocks
#+STARTUP: nohideblocks

3 Tables

Org comes with a fast and intuitive table editor. Spreadsheet-like calculations are supported using the Emacs Calc package (see GNU Emacs Calculator Manual).


3.1 Built-in Table Editor

Org makes it easy to format tables in plain ASCII. Any line with ‘|’ as the first non-whitespace character is considered part of a table. ‘|’ is also the column separator17. Moreover, a line starting with ‘|-’ is a horizontal rule. It separates rows explicitly. Rows before the first horizontal rule are header lines. A table might look like this:

| Name  | Phone | Age |
|-------+-------+-----|
| Peter |  1234 |  17 |
| Anna  |  4321 |  25 |

A table is re-aligned automatically each time you press TAB, RET or C-c C-c inside the table. TAB also moves to the next field—RET to the next row—and creates new table rows at the end of the table or before horizontal lines. The indentation of the table is set by the first line. Horizontal rules are automatically expanded on every re-align to span the whole table width. So, to create the above table, you would only type

|Name|Phone|Age|
|-

and then press TAB to align the table and start filling in fields. Even faster would be to type ‘|Name|Phone|Age’ followed by C-c RET.

When typing text into a field, Org treats DEL, Backspace, and all character keys in a special way, so that inserting and deleting avoids shifting other fields. Also, when typing immediately after point was moved into a new field with TAB, S-TAB or RET, the field is automatically made blank. If this behavior is too unpredictable for you, configure the option org-table-auto-blank-field.

Creation and conversion

C-c | (org-table-create-or-convert-from-region)

Convert the active region to table. If every line contains at least one TAB character, the function assumes that the material is tab separated. If every line contains a comma, comma-separated values (CSV) are assumed. If not, lines are split at whitespace into fields. You can use a prefix argument to force a specific separator: C-u forces CSV, C-u C-u forces TAB, C-u C-u C-u prompts for a regular expression to match the separator, and a numeric argument N indicates that at least N consecutive spaces, or alternatively a TAB will be the separator.

If there is no active region, this command creates an empty Org table. But it is easier just to start typing, like | N a m e | P h o n e | A g e RET | - TAB.

Re-aligning and field motion

C-c C-c (org-table-align)

Re-align the table without moving point.

TAB (org-table-next-field)

Re-align the table, move to the next field. Creates a new row if necessary.

M-x org-table-blank-field

Blank the current table field or active region.

S-TAB (org-table-previous-field)

Re-align, move to previous field.

RET (org-table-next-row)

Re-align the table and move down to next row. Creates a new row if necessary. At the beginning or end of a line, RET still inserts a new line, so it can be used to split a table.

M-a (org-table-beginning-of-field)

Move to beginning of the current table field, or on to the previous field.

M-e (org-table-end-of-field)

Move to end of the current table field, or on to the next field.

Column and row editing

M-LEFT (org-table-move-column-left)

Move the current column left.

M-RIGHT (org-table-move-column-right)

Move the current column right.

M-S-LEFT (org-table-delete-column)

Kill the current column.

M-S-RIGHT (org-table-insert-column)

Insert a new column at point position. Move the recent column and all cells to the right of this column to the right.

M-UP (org-table-move-row-up)

Move the current row up.

M-DOWN (org-table-move-row-down)

Move the current row down.

M-S-UP (org-table-kill-row)

Kill the current row or horizontal line.

S-UP (org-table-move-cell-up)

Move cell up by swapping with adjacent cell.

S-DOWN (org-table-move-cell-down)

Move cell down by swapping with adjacent cell.

S-LEFT (org-table-move-cell-left)

Move cell left by swapping with adjacent cell.

S-RIGHT (org-table-move-cell-right)

Move cell right by swapping with adjacent cell.

M-S-DOWN (org-table-insert-row)

Insert a new row above the current row. With a prefix argument, the line is created below the current one.

C-c - (org-table-insert-hline)

Insert a horizontal line below current row. With a prefix argument, the line is created above the current line.

C-c RET (org-table-hline-and-move)

Insert a horizontal line below current row, and move point into the row below that line.

C-c ^ (org-table-sort-lines)

Sort the table lines in the region. The position of point indicates the column to be used for sorting, and the range of lines is the range between the nearest horizontal separator lines, or the entire table. If point is before the first column, you are prompted for the sorting column. If there is an active region, the mark specifies the first line and the sorting column, while point should be in the last line to be included into the sorting. The command prompts for the sorting type, alphabetically, numerically, or by time. You can sort in normal or reverse order. You can also supply your own key extraction and comparison functions. When called with a prefix argument, alphabetic sorting is case-sensitive.

Regions

C-c C-x M-w (org-table-copy-region)

Copy a rectangular region from a table to a special clipboard. Point and mark determine edge fields of the rectangle. If there is no active region, copy just the current field. The process ignores horizontal separator lines.

C-c C-x C-w (org-table-cut-region)

Copy a rectangular region from a table to a special clipboard, and blank all fields in the rectangle. So this is the “cut” operation.

C-c C-x C-y (org-table-paste-rectangle)

Paste a rectangular region into a table. The upper left corner ends up in the current field. All involved fields are overwritten. If the rectangle does not fit into the present table, the table is enlarged as needed. The process ignores horizontal separator lines.

M-RET (org-table-wrap-region)

Split the current field at point position and move the rest to the line below. If there is an active region, and both point and mark are in the same column, the text in the column is wrapped to minimum width for the given number of lines. A numeric prefix argument may be used to change the number of desired lines. If there is no region, but you specify a prefix argument, the current field is made blank, and the content is appended to the field above.

Calculations

C-c + (org-table-sum)

Sum the numbers in the current column, or in the rectangle defined by the active region. The result is shown in the echo area and can be inserted with C-y.

S-RET (org-table-copy-down)

When current field is empty, copy from first non-empty field above. When not empty, copy current field down to next row and move point along with it.

Depending on the variable org-table-copy-increment, integer and time stamp field values, and fields prefixed or suffixed with a whole number, can be incremented during copy. Also, a 0 prefix argument temporarily disables the increment.

This key is also used by shift-selection and related modes (see Packages that conflict with Org mode).

Miscellaneous

C-c ` (org-table-edit-field)

Edit the current field in a separate window. This is useful for fields that are not fully visible (see Column Width and Alignment). When called with a C-u prefix, just make the full field visible, so that it can be edited in place. When called with two C-u prefixes, make the editor window follow point through the table and always show the current field. The follow mode exits automatically when point leaves the table, or when you repeat this command with C-u C-u C-c `.

M-x org-table-import

Import a file as a table. The table should be TAB or whitespace separated. Use, for example, to import a spreadsheet table or data from a database, because these programs generally can write TAB-separated text files. This command works by inserting the file into the buffer and then converting the region to a table. Any prefix argument is passed on to the converter, which uses it to determine the separator.

C-c | (org-table-create-or-convert-from-region)

Tables can also be imported by pasting tabular text into the Org buffer, selecting the pasted text with C-x C-x and then using the C-c | command (see Creation and conversion).

M-x org-table-export

Export the table, by default as a TAB-separated file. Use for data exchange with, for example, spreadsheet or database programs. The format used to export the file can be configured in the variable org-table-export-default-format. You may also use properties ‘TABLE_EXPORT_FILE’ and ‘TABLE_EXPORT_FORMAT’ to specify the file name and the format for table export in a subtree. Org supports quite general formats for exported tables. The exporter format is the same as the format used by Orgtbl radio tables, see Translator functions, for a detailed description.

M-x org-table-header-line-mode

Turn on the display of the first data row of the table at point in the window header line when this first row is not visible anymore in the buffer. You can activate this minor mode by default by setting the option org-table-header-line-p to t.

M-x org-table-transpose-table-at-point

Transpose the table at point and eliminate hlines.


3.2 Column Width and Alignment

The width of columns is automatically determined by the table editor. The alignment of a column is determined automatically from the fraction of number-like versus non-number fields in the column.

Editing a field may modify alignment of the table. Moving a contiguous row or column—i.e., using TAB or RET—automatically re-aligns it. If you want to disable this behavior, set org-table-automatic-realign to nil. In any case, you can always align manually a table:

C-c C-c (org-table-align)

Align the current table.

Setting the option org-startup-align-all-tables re-aligns all tables in a file upon visiting it. You can also set this option on a per-file basis with:

#+STARTUP: align
#+STARTUP: noalign

Sometimes a single field or a few fields need to carry more text, leading to inconveniently wide columns. Maybe you want to hide away several columns or display them with a fixed width, regardless of content, as shown in the following example.

|---+---------------------+--------|           |---+-------…+…|
|   | <6>                 |        |           |   | <6>   …|…|
| 1 | one                 | some   |   ----\   | 1 | one   …|…|
| 2 | two                 | boring |   ----/   | 2 | two   …|…|
| 3 | This is a long text | column |           | 3 | This i…|…|
|---+---------------------+--------|           |---+-------…+…|

To set the width of a column, one field anywhere in the column may contain just the string ‘<N>’ where N specifies the width as a number of characters. You control displayed width of columns with the following tools:

C-c TAB (org-table-toggle-column-width)

Shrink or expand current column.

If a width cookie specifies a width W for the column, shrinking it displays the first W visible characters only. Otherwise, the column is shrunk to a single character.

When called before the first column or after the last one, ask for a list of column ranges to operate on.

C-u C-c TAB (org-table-shrink)

Shrink all columns with a column width. Expand the others.

C-u C-u C-c TAB (org-table-expand)

Expand all columns.

To see the full text of a shrunk field, hold the mouse over it: a tool-tip window then shows the full contents of the field. Alternatively, C-h . (display-local-help) reveals them, too. For convenience, any change near the shrunk part of a column expands it.

Setting the option org-startup-shrink-all-tables shrinks all columns containing a width cookie in a file the moment it is visited. You can also set this option on a per-file basis with:

#+STARTUP: shrink

If you would like to overrule the automatic alignment of number-rich columns to the right and of string-rich columns to the left, you can use ‘<r>’, ‘<c>’ or ‘<l>’ in a similar fashion. You may also combine alignment and field width like this: ‘<r10>’.

Lines which only contain these formatting cookies are removed automatically upon exporting the document.


3.3 Column Groups

When Org exports tables, it does so by default without vertical lines because that is visually more satisfying in general. Occasionally however, vertical lines can be useful to structure a table into groups of columns, much like horizontal lines can do for groups of rows. In order to specify column groups, you can use a special row where the first field contains only ‘/’. The further fields can either contain ‘<’ to indicate that this column should start a group, ‘>’ to indicate the end of a column, or ‘<>’ (no space between ‘<’ and ‘>’) to make a column a group of its own. Upon export, boundaries between column groups are marked with vertical lines. Here is an example:

| N | N^2 | N^3 | N^4 | sqrt(n) | sqrt[4](N) |
|---+-----+-----+-----+---------+------------|
| / |  <  |     |  >  |       < |          > |
| 1 |  1  |  1  |  1  |       1 |          1 |
| 2 |  4  |  8  | 16  |  1.4142 |     1.1892 |
| 3 |  9  | 27  | 81  |  1.7321 |     1.3161 |
|---+-----+-----+-----+---------+------------|
#+TBLFM: $2=$1^2::$3=$1^3::$4=$1^4::$5=sqrt($1)::$6=sqrt(sqrt(($1)))

It is also sufficient to just insert the column group starters after every vertical line you would like to have:

| N | N^2 | N^3 | N^4 | sqrt(n) | sqrt[4](N) |
|---+-----+-----+-----+---------+------------|
| / | <   |     |     | <       |            |

3.4 The Orgtbl Minor Mode

If you like the intuitive way the Org table editor works, you might also want to use it in other modes like Text mode or Mail mode. The minor mode Orgtbl mode makes this possible. You can always toggle the mode with M-x orgtbl-mode. To turn it on by default, for example in Message mode, use

(add-hook 'message-mode-hook #'turn-on-orgtbl)

Furthermore, with some special setup, it is possible to maintain tables in arbitrary syntax with Orgtbl mode. For example, it is possible to construct LaTeX tables with the underlying ease and power of Orgtbl mode, including spreadsheet capabilities. For details, see Tables in Arbitrary Syntax.


3.5 The Spreadsheet

The table editor makes use of the Emacs Calc package to implement spreadsheet-like capabilities. It can also evaluate Emacs Lisp forms to derive fields from other fields. While fully featured, Org’s implementation is not identical to other spreadsheets. For example, Org knows the concept of a column formula that will be applied to all non-header fields in a column without having to copy the formula to each relevant field. There is also a formula debugger, and a formula editor with features for highlighting fields in the table corresponding to the references at point in the formula, moving these references by arrow keys.


3.5.1 References

To compute fields in the table from other fields, formulas must reference other fields or ranges. In Org, fields can be referenced by name, by absolute coordinates, and by relative coordinates. To find out what the coordinates of a field are, press C-c ? in that field, or press C-c } to toggle the display of a grid.

Field references

Formulas can reference the value of another field in two ways. Like in any other spreadsheet, you may reference fields with a letter/number combination like ‘B3’, meaning the second field in the third row. However, Org prefers to use another, more general representation that looks like this:18

@ROW$COLUMN

Column specifications can be absolute like ‘$1’, ‘$2’, …, ‘$N’, or relative to the current column, i.e., the column of the field which is being computed, like ‘$+1’ or ‘$-2’. ‘$<’ and ‘$>’ are immutable references to the first and last column, respectively, and you can use ‘$>>>’ to indicate the third column from the right.

The row specification only counts data lines and ignores horizontal separator lines, or “hlines”. Like with columns, you can use absolute row numbers ‘@1’, ‘@2’, …, ‘@N’, and row numbers relative to the current row like ‘@+3’ or ‘@-1’. ‘@<’ and ‘@>’ are immutable references the first and last row in the table, respectively. You may also specify the row relative to one of the hlines: ‘@I’ refers to the first hline, ‘@II’ to the second, etc. ‘@-I’ refers to the first such line above the current line, ‘@+I’ to the first such line below the current line. You can also write ‘@III+2’ which is the second data line after the third hline in the table.

@0’ and ‘$0’ refer to the current row and column, respectively, i.e., to the row/column for the field being computed. Also, if you omit either the column or the row part of the reference, the current row/column is implied.

Org’s references with unsigned numbers are fixed references in the sense that if you use the same reference in the formula for two different fields, the same field is referenced each time. Org’s references with signed numbers are floating references because the same reference operator can reference different fields depending on the field being calculated by the formula.

Here are a few examples:

@2$32nd row, 3rd column (same as ‘C2’)
$5column 5 in the current row (same as ‘E&’)
@2current column, row 2
@-1$-3field one row up, three columns to the left
@-I$2field just under hline above current row, column 2
@>$5field in the last row, in column 5

Range references

You may reference a rectangular range of fields by specifying two field references connected by two dots ‘..’. The ends are included in the range. If both fields are in the current row, you may simply use ‘$2..$7’, but if at least one field is in a different row, you need to use the general ‘@ROW$COLUMN’ format at least for the first field, i.e., the reference must start with ‘@’ in order to be interpreted correctly. Examples:

$1..$3first three fields in the current row
$P..$Qrange, using column names (see Advanced features)
$<<<..$>>start in third column, continue to the last but one
@2$1..@4$3nine fields between these two fields (same as ‘A2..C4’)
@-1$-2..@-13 fields in the row above, starting from 2 columns on the left
@I..IIbetween first and second hline, short for ‘@I..@II

Range references return a vector of values that can be fed into Calc vector functions. Empty fields in ranges are normally suppressed, so that the vector contains only the non-empty fields. For other options with the mode switches ‘E’, ‘N’ and examples, see Formula syntax for Calc.

Field coordinates in formulas

One of the very first actions during evaluation of Calc formulas and Lisp formulas is to substitute ‘@#’ and ‘$#’ in the formula with the row or column number of the field where the current result will go to. The traditional Lisp formula equivalents are org-table-current-dline and org-table-current-column. Examples:

if(@# % 2, $#, string(""))

Insert column number on odd rows, set field to empty on even rows.

$2 = '(identity remote(FOO, @@#$1))

Copy text or values of each row of column 1 of the table named FOO into column 2 of the current table.

@3 = 2 * remote(FOO, @1$$#)

Insert the doubled value of each column of row 1 of the table named FOO into row 3 of the current table.

For the second and third examples, table FOO must have at least as many rows or columns as the current table. Note that this is inefficient19 for large number of rows.

Named references

$name’ is interpreted as the name of a column, parameter or constant. Constants are defined globally through the variable org-table-formula-constants, and locally—for the file—through a line like this example:

#+CONSTANTS: c=299792458. pi=3.14 eps=2.4e-6

Also, properties (see Properties and Columns) can be used as constants in table formulas: for a property ‘Xyz’ use the name ‘$PROP_Xyz’, and the property will be searched in the current outline entry and in the hierarchy above it. If you have the ‘constants.el’ package, it will also be used to resolve constants, including natural constants like ‘$h’ for Planck’s constant, and units like ‘$km’ for kilometers20. Column names and parameters can be specified in special table lines. These are described below, see Advanced features. All names must start with a letter, and further consist of letters and numbers.

Remote references

You may also reference constants, fields and ranges from a different table, either in the current file or even in a different file. The syntax is

remote(NAME,REF)

where NAME can be the name of a table in the current file as set by a ‘#+NAME:’ line before the table. It can also be the ID of an entry, even in a different file, and the reference then refers to the first table in that entry. REF is an absolute field or range reference as described above for example ‘@3$3’ or ‘$somename’, valid in the referenced table.

When NAME has the format ‘@ROW$COLUMN’, it is substituted with the name or ID found in this field of the current table. For example ‘remote($1, @@>$2)’ ⇒ ‘remote(year_2013, @@>$1)’. The format ‘B3’ is not supported because it can not be distinguished from a plain table name or ID.


3.5.2 Formula syntax for Calc

A formula can be any algebraic expression understood by the Emacs Calc package. Note that Calc has the non-standard convention that ‘/’ has lower precedence than ‘*’, so that ‘a/b*c’ is interpreted as ‘(a/(b*c))’. Before evaluation by calc-eval (see Calling Calc from Your Lisp Programs), variable substitution takes place according to the rules described above.

The range vectors can be directly fed into the Calc vector functions like vmean and vsum.

A formula can contain an optional mode string after a semicolon. This string consists of flags to influence Calc and other modes during execution. By default, Org uses the standard Calc modes (precision 12, angular units degrees, fraction and symbolic modes off). The display format, however, has been changed to ‘(float 8)’ to keep tables compact. The default settings can be configured using the variable org-calc-default-modes.

p20

Set the internal Calc calculation precision to 20 digits.

n3’, ‘s3’, ‘e2’, ‘f4

Normal, scientific, engineering or fixed format of the result of Calc passed back to Org. Calc formatting is unlimited in precision as long as the Calc calculation precision is greater.

D’, ‘R

Degree and radian angle modes of Calc.

F’, ‘S

Fraction and symbolic modes of Calc.

u

Units simplification mode of Calc. Calc is also a symbolic calculator and is capable of working with values having a unit, represented with numerals followed by a unit string in Org table cells. This mode instructs Calc to simplify the units in the computed expression before returning the result.

T’, ‘t’, ‘U

Duration computations in Calc or Lisp, Durations and time values.

E

If and how to consider empty fields. Without ‘E’ empty fields in range references are suppressed so that the Calc vector or Lisp list contains only the non-empty fields. With ‘E’ the empty fields are kept. For empty fields in ranges or empty field references the value ‘nan’ (not a number) is used in Calc formulas and the empty string is used for Lisp formulas. Add ‘N’ to use 0 instead for both formula types. For the value of a field the mode ‘N’ has higher precedence than ‘E’.

N

Interpret all fields as numbers, use 0 for non-numbers. See the next section to see how this is essential for computations with Lisp formulas. In Calc formulas it is used only occasionally because there number strings are already interpreted as numbers without ‘N’.

L

Literal, for Lisp formulas only. See the next section.

Unless you use large integer numbers or high-precision calculation and display for floating point numbers you may alternatively provide a printf format specifier to reformat the Calc result after it has been passed back to Org instead of letting Calc already do the formatting21. A few examples:

$1+$2Sum of first and second field
$1+$2;%.2fSame, format result to two decimals
exp($2)+exp($1)Math functions can be used
$0;%.1fReformat current cell to 1 decimal
($3-32)*5/9Degrees F → C conversion
$c/$1/$cmHz → cm conversion, using ‘constants.el
tan($1);Dp3s1Compute in degrees, precision 3, display SCI 1
sin($1);Dp3%.1eSame, but use printf specifier for display
vmean($2..$7)Compute column range mean, using vector function
vmean($2..$7);ENSame, but treat empty fields as 0
taylor($3,x=7,2)Taylor series of $3, at x=7, second degree

Calc also contains a complete set of logical operations (see Logical Operations). For example

if($1 < 20, teen, string(""))

"teen"’ if age ‘$1’ is less than 20, else the Org table result field is set to empty with the empty string.

if("$1" =​= "nan" || "$2" =​= "nan", string(""), $1 + $2); E f-1

Sum of the first two columns. When at least one of the input fields is empty the Org table result field is set to empty. ‘E’ is required to not convert empty fields to 0. ‘f-1’ is an optional Calc format string similar to ‘%.1f’ but leaves empty results empty.

if(typeof(vmean($1..$7)) =​= 12, string(""), vmean($1..$7)); E

Mean value of a range unless there is any empty field. Every field in the range that is empty is replaced by ‘nan’ which lets ‘vmean’ result in ‘nan’. Then ‘typeof =’ 12= detects the ‘nan’ from vmean and the Org table result field is set to empty. Use this when the sample set is expected to never have missing values.

if("$1..$7" =​= "[]", string(""), vmean($1..$7))

Mean value of a range with empty fields skipped. Every field in the range that is empty is skipped. When all fields in the range are empty the mean value is not defined and the Org table result field is set to empty. Use this when the sample set can have a variable size.

vmean($1..$7); EN

To complete the example before: Mean value of a range with empty fields counting as samples with value 0. Use this only when incomplete sample sets should be padded with 0 to the full size.

You can add your own Calc functions defined in Emacs Lisp with defmath and use them in formula syntax for Calc.


3.5.3 Emacs Lisp forms as formulas

It is also possible to write a formula in Emacs Lisp. This can be useful for string manipulation and control structures, if Calc’s functionality is not enough.

A formula is evaluated as a Lisp form when it starts with a single-quote followed by an opening parenthesis. Cell table references are interpolated into the Lisp form before execution. The evaluation should return either a string or a number. Evaluation modes and a printf format used to render the returned values can be specified after a semicolon.

By default, references are interpolated as literal Lisp strings: the field content is replaced in the Lisp form stripped of leading and trailing white space and surrounded in double-quotes. For example:

'(concat $1 $2)

concatenates the content of columns 1 and column 2.

When the ‘N’ flag is used, all referenced elements are parsed as numbers and interpolated as Lisp numbers, without quotes. Fields that cannot be parsed as numbers are interpolated as zeros. For example:

'(+ $1 $2);N

adds columns 1 and 2, equivalent to Calc’s ‘$1+$2’. Ranges are inserted as space-separated fields, so they can be embedded in list or vector syntax. For example:

'(apply '+ '($1..$4));N

computes the sum of columns 1 to 4, like Calc’s ‘vsum($1..$4)’.

When the ‘L’ flag is used, all fields are interpolated literally: the cell content is replaced in the Lisp form stripped of leading and trailing white space and without quotes. If a reference is intended to be interpreted as a string by the Lisp form, the reference operator itself should be enclosed in double-quotes, like ‘"$3"’. The ‘L’ flag is useful when strings and numbers are used in the same Lisp form. For example:

'(substring "$1" $2 $3);L

extracts the part of the string in column 1 between the character positions specified in the integers in column 2 and 3 and it is easier to read than the equivalent:

'(substring $1 (string-to-number $2) (string-to-number $3))

3.5.4 Durations and time values

If you want to compute time values use the ‘T’, ‘t’, or ‘U’ flag, either in Calc formulas or Elisp formulas:

|  Task 1 |   Task 2 |    Total |
|---------+----------+----------|
|    2:12 |     1:47 | 03:59:00 |
|    2:12 |     1:47 |    03:59 |
| 3:02:20 | -2:07:00 |     0.92 |
#+TBLFM: @2$3=$1+$2;T::@3$3=$1+$2;U::@4$3=$1+$2;t

Input duration values must be of the form ‘HH:MM[:SS]’, where seconds are optional. With the ‘T’ flag, computed durations are displayed as ‘HH:MM:SS’ (see the first formula above). With the ‘U’ flag, seconds are omitted so that the result is only ‘HH:MM’ (see second formula above). Zero-padding of the hours field depends upon the value of the variable org-table-duration-hour-zero-padding.

With the ‘t’ flag, computed durations are displayed according to the value of the option org-table-duration-custom-format, which defaults to hours and displays the result as a fraction of hours (see the third formula in the example above).

Negative duration values can be manipulated as well, and integers are considered as seconds in addition and subtraction.


3.5.5 Field and range formulas

To assign a formula to a particular field, type it directly into the field, preceded by ‘:=’, for example ‘vsum(@II..III)’. When you press TAB or RET or C-c C-c with point still in the field, the formula is stored as the formula for this field, evaluated, and the current field is replaced with the result.

Formulas are stored in a special ‘TBLFM’ keyword located directly below the table. If you type the equation in the fourth field of the third data line in the table, the formula looks like ‘@3$4=$1+$2’. When inserting/deleting/swapping column and rows with the appropriate commands, absolute references (but not relative ones) in stored formulas are modified in order to still reference the same field. To avoid this from happening, in particular in range references, anchor ranges at the table borders (using ‘@<’, ‘@>’, ‘$<’, ‘$>’), or at hlines using the ‘@I’ notation. Automatic adaptation of field references does not happen if you edit the table structure with normal editing commands—you must fix the formulas yourself.

Instead of typing an equation into the field, you may also use the following command

C-u C-c = (org-table-eval-formula)

Install a new formula for the current field. The command prompts for a formula with default taken from the ‘TBLFM’ keyword, applies it to the current field, and stores it.

The left-hand side of a formula can also be a special expression in order to assign the formula to a number of different fields. There is no keyboard shortcut to enter such range formulas. To add them, use the formula editor (see Editing and debugging formulas) or edit the ‘TBLFM’ keyword directly.

$2=

Column formula, valid for the entire column. This is so common that Org treats these formulas in a special way, see Column formulas.

@3=

Row formula, applies to all fields in the specified row. ‘@>=’ means the last row.

@1$2..@4$3=

Range formula, applies to all fields in the given rectangular range. This can also be used to assign a formula to some but not all fields in a row.

$NAME=

Named field, see Advanced features.


3.5.6 Column formulas

When you assign a formula to a simple column reference like ‘$3=’, the same formula is used in all fields of that column, with the following very convenient exceptions: (i) If the table contains horizontal separator hlines with rows above and below, everything before the first such hline is considered part of the table header and is not modified by column formulas. Therefore a header is mandatory when you use column formulas and want to add hlines to group rows, like for example to separate a total row at the bottom from the summand rows above. (ii) Fields that already get a value from a field/range formula are left alone by column formulas. These conditions make column formulas very easy to use.

To assign a formula to a column, type it directly into any field in the column, preceded by an equal sign, like ‘=$1+$2’. When you press TAB or RET or C-c C-c with point still in the field, the formula is stored as the formula for the current column, evaluated and the current field replaced with the result. If the field contains only ‘=’, the previously stored formula for this column is used. For each column, Org only remembers the most recently used formula. In the ‘TBLFM’ keyword, column formulas look like ‘$4=$1+$2’. The left-hand side of a column formula can not be the name of column, it must be the numeric column reference or ‘$>’.

Instead of typing an equation into the field, you may also use the following command:

C-c = (org-table-eval-formula)

Install a new formula for the current column and replace current field with the result of the formula. The command prompts for a formula, with default taken from the ‘TBLFM’ keyword, applies it to the current field and stores it. With a numeric prefix argument, e.g., C-5 C-c =, the command applies it to that many consecutive fields in the current column.


3.5.7 Lookup functions

Org has three predefined Emacs Lisp functions for lookups in tables.

(org-lookup-first VAL S-LIST R-LIST &optional PREDICATE)

Searches for the first element S in list S-LIST for which

(PREDICATE VAL S)

is non-nil; returns the value from the corresponding position in list R-LIST. The default PREDICATE is equal. Note that the parameters VAL and S are passed to PREDICATE in the same order as the corresponding parameters are in the call to org-lookup-first, where VAL precedes S-LIST. If R-LIST is nil, the matching element S of S-LIST is returned.

(org-lookup-last VAL S-LIST R-LIST &optional PREDICATE)

Similar to org-lookup-first above, but searches for the last element for which PREDICATE is non-nil.

(org-lookup-all VAL S-LIST R-LIST &optional PREDICATE)

Similar to org-lookup-first, but searches for all elements for which PREDICATE is non-nil, and returns all corresponding values. This function can not be used by itself in a formula, because it returns a list of values. However, powerful lookups can be built when this function is combined with other Emacs Lisp functions.

If the ranges used in these functions contain empty fields, the ‘E’ mode for the formula should usually be specified: otherwise empty fields are not included in S-LIST and/or R-LIST which can, for example, result in an incorrect mapping from an element of S-LIST to the corresponding element of R-LIST.

These three functions can be used to implement associative arrays, count matching cells, rank results, group data, etc. For practical examples see this tutorial on Worg.


3.5.8 Editing and debugging formulas

You can edit individual formulas in the minibuffer or directly in the field. Org can also prepare a special buffer with all active formulas of a table. When offering a formula for editing, Org converts references to the standard format (like ‘B3’ or ‘D&’) if possible. If you prefer to only work with the internal format (like ‘@3$2’ or ‘$4’), configure the variable org-table-use-standard-references.

C-c = or C-u C-c = (org-table-eval-formula)

Edit the formula associated with the current column/field in the minibuffer. See Column formulas, and Field and range formulas.

C-u C-u C-c = (org-table-eval-formula)

Re-insert the active formula (either a field formula, or a column formula) into the current field, so that you can edit it directly in the field. The advantage over editing in the minibuffer is that you can use the command C-c ?.

C-c ? (org-table-field-info)

While editing a formula in a table field, highlight the field(s) referenced by the reference at point position in the formula.

C-c } (org-table-toggle-coordinate-overlays)

Toggle the display of row and column numbers for a table, using overlays. These are updated each time the table is aligned; you can force it with C-c C-c.

C-c { (org-table-toggle-formula-debugger)

Toggle the formula debugger on and off. See below.

C-c ' (org-table-edit-formulas)

Edit all formulas for the current table in a special buffer, where the formulas are displayed one per line. If the current field has an active formula, point in the formula editor marks it. While inside the special buffer, Org automatically highlights any field or range reference at point position. You may edit, remove and add formulas, and use the following commands:

C-c C-c or C-x C-s (org-table-fedit-finish)

Exit the formula editor and store the modified formulas. With C-u prefix, also apply the new formulas to the entire table.

C-c C-q (org-table-fedit-abort)

Exit the formula editor without installing changes.

C-c C-r (org-table-fedit-toggle-ref-type)

Toggle all references in the formula editor between standard (like ‘B3’) and internal (like ‘@3$2’).

TAB (org-table-fedit-lisp-indent)

Pretty-print or indent Lisp formula at point. When in a line containing a Lisp formula, format the formula according to Emacs Lisp rules. Another TAB collapses the formula back again. In the open formula, TAB re-indents just like in Emacs Lisp mode.

M-TAB (lisp-complete-symbol)

Complete Lisp symbols, just like in Emacs Lisp mode.

S-UP, S-DOWN, S-LEFT, S-RIGHT

Shift the reference at point. For example, if the reference is ‘B3’ and you press S-RIGHT, it becomes ‘C3’. This also works for relative references and for hline references.

M-S-UP (org-table-fedit-line-up)

Move the test line for column formulas up in the Org buffer.

M-S-DOWN (org-table-fedit-line-down)

Move the test line for column formulas down in the Org buffer.

M-UP (org-table-fedit-scroll-up)

Scroll up the window displaying the table.

M-DOWN (org-table-fedit-scroll-down)

Scroll down the window displaying the table.

C-c }

Turn the coordinate grid in the table on and off.

Making a table field blank does not remove the formula associated with the field, because that is stored in a different line—the ‘TBLFM’ keyword line. During the next recalculation, the field will be filled again. To remove a formula from a field, you have to give an empty reply when prompted for the formula, or to edit the ‘TBLFM’ keyword.

You may edit the ‘TBLFM’ keyword directly and re-apply the changed equations with C-c C-c in that line or with the normal recalculation commands in the table.

Using multiple ‘TBLFM’ lines

You may apply the formula temporarily. This is useful when you want to switch the formula applied to the table. Place multiple ‘TBLFM’ keywords right after the table, and then press C-c C-c on the formula to apply. Here is an example:

| x | y |
|---+---|
| 1 |   |
| 2 |   |
#+TBLFM: $2=$1*1
#+TBLFM: $2=$1*2

Pressing C-c C-c in the line of ‘#+TBLFM: $2=$1*2’ yields:

| x | y |
|---+---|
| 1 | 2 |
| 2 | 4 |
#+TBLFM: $2=$1*1
#+TBLFM: $2=$1*2

If you recalculate this table, with C-u C-c *, for example, you get the following result from applying only the first ‘TBLFM’ keyword.

| x | y |
|---+---|
| 1 | 1 |
| 2 | 2 |
#+TBLFM: $2=$1*1
#+TBLFM: $2=$1*2

Debugging formulas

When the evaluation of a formula leads to an error, the field content becomes the string ‘#ERROR’. If you want to see what is going on during variable substitution and calculation in order to find a bug, turn on formula debugging in the Tbl menu and repeat the calculation, for example by pressing C-u C-u C-c = RET in a field. Detailed information are displayed.


3.5.9 Updating the table

Recalculation of a table is normally not automatic, but needs to be triggered by a command. To make recalculation at least semi-automatic, see Advanced features.

In order to recalculate a line of a table or the entire table, use the following commands:

C-c * (org-table-recalculate)

Recalculate the current row by first applying the stored column formulas from left to right, and all field/range formulas in the current row.

C-u C-c * or C-u C-c C-c

Recompute the entire table, line by line. Any lines before the first hline are left alone, assuming that these are part of the table header.

C-u C-u C-c * or C-u C-u C-c C-c (org-table-iterate)

Iterate the table by recomputing it until no further changes occur. This may be necessary if some computed fields use the value of other fields that are computed later in the calculation sequence.

M-x org-table-recalculate-buffer-tables

Recompute all tables in the current buffer.

M-x org-table-iterate-buffer-tables

Iterate all tables in the current buffer, in order to converge table-to-table dependencies.


3.5.10 Advanced features

If you want the recalculation of fields to happen automatically, or if you want to be able to assign names22 to fields and columns, you need to reserve the first column of the table for special marking characters.

C-# (org-table-rotate-recalc-marks)

Rotate the calculation mark in first column through the states ‘#’, ‘*’, ‘!’, ‘$’. When there is an active region, change all marks in the region.

Here is an example of a table that collects exam results of students and makes use of these features:

|---+---------+--------+--------+--------+-------+------|
|   | Student | Prob 1 | Prob 2 | Prob 3 | Total | Note |
|---+---------+--------+--------+--------+-------+------|
| ! |         |     P1 |     P2 |     P3 |   Tot |      |
| # | Maximum |     10 |     15 |     25 |    50 | 10.0 |
| ^ |         |     m1 |     m2 |     m3 |    mt |      |
|---+---------+--------+--------+--------+-------+------|
| # | Peter   |     10 |      8 |     23 |    41 |  8.2 |
| # | Sam     |      2 |      4 |      3 |     9 |  1.8 |
|---+---------+--------+--------+--------+-------+------|
|   | Average |        |        |        |  25.0 |      |
| ^ |         |        |        |        |    at |      |
| $ | max=50  |        |        |        |       |      |
|---+---------+--------+--------+--------+-------+------|
#+TBLFM: $6=vsum($P1..$P3)::$7=10*$Tot/$max;%.1f::$at=vmean(@-II..@-I);%.1f

Important: Please note that for these special tables, recalculating the table with C-u C-c * only affects rows that are marked ‘#’ or ‘*’, and fields that have a formula assigned to the field itself. The column formulas are not applied in rows with empty first field.

The marking characters have the following meaning:

!

The fields in this line define names for the columns, so that you may refer to a column as ‘$Tot’ instead of ‘$6’.

^

This row defines names for the fields above the row. With such a definition, any formula in the table may use ‘$m1’ to refer to the value ‘10’. Also, if you assign a formula to a names field, it is stored as ‘$name = ...’.

_

Similar to ‘^’, but defines names for the fields in the row below.

$

Fields in this row can define parameters for formulas. For example, if a field in a ‘$’ row contains ‘max=50’, then formulas in this table can refer to the value 50 using ‘$max’. Parameters work exactly like constants, only that they can be defined on a per-table basis.

#

Fields in this row are automatically recalculated when pressing TAB or RET or S-TAB in this row. Also, this row is selected for a global recalculation with C-u C-c *. Unmarked lines are left alone by this command.

*

Selects this line for global recalculation with C-u C-c *, but not for automatic recalculation. Use this when automatic recalculation slows down editing too much.

/

Do not export this line. Useful for lines that contain the narrowing ‘<N>’ markers or column group markers.

Finally, just to whet your appetite for what can be done with the fantastic Calc package, here is a table that computes the Taylor series of degree n at location x for a couple of functions.

|---+-------------+---+-----+--------------------------------------|
|   | Func        | n | x   | Result                               |
|---+-------------+---+-----+--------------------------------------|
| # | exp(x)      | 1 | x   | 1 + x                                |
| # | exp(x)      | 2 | x   | 1 + x + x^2 / 2                      |
| # | exp(x)      | 3 | x   | 1 + x + x^2 / 2 + x^3 / 6            |
| # | x^2+sqrt(x) | 2 | x=0 | x*(0.5 / 0) + x^2 (2 - 0.25 / 0) / 2 |
| # | x^2+sqrt(x) | 2 | x=1 | 2 + 2.5 x - 2.5 + 0.875 (x - 1)^2    |
| * | tan(x)      | 3 | x   | 0.0175 x + 1.77e-6 x^3               |
|---+-------------+---+-----+--------------------------------------|
#+TBLFM: $5=taylor($2,$4,$3);n3

3.6 Org Plot

Org Plot can produce graphs of information stored in Org tables, either graphically or in ASCII art.

Graphical plots using Gnuplot

Org Plot can produce 2D and 3D graphs of information stored in Org tables using Gnuplot and Gnuplot mode. To see this in action, ensure that you have both Gnuplot and Gnuplot mode installed on your system, then call C-c " g or M-x org-plot/gnuplot on the following table.

#+PLOT: title:"Citas" ind:1 deps:(3) type:2d with:histograms set:"yrange [0:]"
| Sede      | Max cites | H-index |
|-----------+-----------+---------|
| Chile     |    257.72 |   21.39 |
| Leeds     |    165.77 |   19.68 |
| Sao Paolo |     71.00 |   11.50 |
| Stockholm |    134.19 |   14.33 |
| Morelia   |    257.56 |   17.67 |

Org Plot supports a range of plot types, and provides the ability to add more. For example, a radar plot can be generated like so:

#+PLOT: title:"An evaluation of plaintext document formats" transpose:yes type:radar min:0 max:4
| Format            | Fine-grained-control | Initial Effort | Syntax simplicity | Editor Support | Integrations | Ease-of-referencing | Versatility |
|-------------------+----------------------+----------------+-------------------+----------------+--------------+---------------------+-------------|
| Word              |                    2 |              4 |                 4 |              2 |            3 |                   2 |           2 |
| LaTeX             |                    4 |              1 |                 1 |              3 |            2 |                   4 |           3 |
| Org Mode          |                    4 |              2 |               3.5 |              1 |            4 |                   4 |           4 |
| Markdown          |                    1 |              3 |                 3 |              4 |            3 |                   3 |           1 |
| Markdown + Pandoc |                  2.5 |            2.5 |               2.5 |              3 |            3 |                   3 |           2 |

Notice that Org Plot is smart enough to apply the table’s headers as labels. Further control over the labels, type, content, and appearance of plots can be exercised through the ‘PLOT’ keyword preceding a table. See below for a complete list of Org Plot options. For more information and examples see the Org Plot tutorial.

Plot options

set

Specify any Gnuplot option to be set when graphing.

title

Specify the title of the plot.

ind

Specify which column of the table to use as the ‘x’ axis.

deps

Specify the columns to graph as a Lisp style list, surrounded by parentheses and separated by spaces for example ‘dep:(3 4)’ to graph the third and fourth columns. Defaults to graphing all other columns aside from the ‘ind’ column.

transpose

When ‘y’, ‘yes’, or ‘t’ attempt to transpose the table data before plotting. Also recognizes the shorthand option ‘trans’.

type

Specify the type of the plot, by default one of ‘2d’, ‘3d’, ‘radar’, or ‘grid’. Available types can be customized with org-plot/preset-plot-types.

with

Specify a ‘with’ option to be inserted for every column being plotted, e.g., ‘lines’, ‘points’, ‘boxes’, ‘impulses’. Defaults to ‘lines’.

file

If you want to plot to a file, specify ‘"path/to/desired/output-file"’.

labels

List of labels to be used for the ‘deps’. Defaults to the column headers if they exist.

line

Specify an entire line to be inserted in the Gnuplot script.

map

When plotting ‘3d’ or ‘grid’ types, set this to ‘t’ to graph a flat mapping rather than a ‘3d’ slope.

min

Provides a minimum axis value that may be used by a plot type. Implicitly assumes the ‘y’ axis is being referred to. Can explicitly provide a value for a either the ‘x’ or ‘y’ axis with ‘xmin’ and ‘ymin’.

max

Provides a maximum axis value that may be used by a plot type. Implicitly assumes the ‘y’ axis is being referred to. Can explicitly provide a value for a either the ‘x’ or ‘y’ axis with ‘xmax’ and ‘ymax’.

ticks

Provides a desired number of axis ticks to display, that may be used by a plot type. If none is given a plot type that requires ticks will use org--plot/sensible-tick-num to try to determine a good value.

timefmt

Specify format of Org mode timestamps as they will be parsed by Gnuplot. Defaults to ‘%Y-%m-%d-%H:%M:%S’.

script

If you want total control, you can specify a script file—place the file name between double-quotes—which will be used to plot. Before plotting, every instance of ‘$datafile’ in the specified script will be replaced with the path to the generated data file. Note: even if you set this option, you may still want to specify the plot type, as that can impact the content of the data file.

ASCII bar plots

While point is on a column, typing C-c `` a or M-x orgtbl-ascii-plot create a new column containing an ASCII-art bars plot. The plot is implemented through a regular column formula. When the source column changes, the bar plot may be updated by refreshing the table, for example typing C-u C-c *.

| Sede          | Max cites |              |
|---------------+-----------+--------------|
| Chile         |    257.72 | WWWWWWWWWWWW |
| Leeds         |    165.77 | WWWWWWWh     |
| Sao Paolo     |     71.00 | WWW;         |
| Stockholm     |    134.19 | WWWWWW:      |
| Morelia       |    257.56 | WWWWWWWWWWWH |
| Rochefourchat |      0.00 |              |
#+TBLFM: $3='(orgtbl-ascii-draw $2 0.0 257.72 12)

The formula is an Elisp call.

Function: orgtbl-ascii-draw value min max &optional width

Draw an ASCII bar in a table.

VALUE is the value to plot.

MIN is the value displayed as an empty bar. MAX is the value filling all the WIDTH. Sources values outside this range are displayed as ‘too small’ or ‘too large’.

WIDTH is the number of characters of the bar plot. It defaults to ‘12’.


5 TODO Items

Org mode does not maintain TODO lists as separate documents34. Instead, TODO items are an integral part of the notes file, because TODO items usually come up while taking notes! With Org mode, simply mark any entry in a tree as being a TODO item. In this way, information is not duplicated, and the entire context from which the TODO item emerged is always present.

Of course, this technique for managing TODO items scatters them throughout your notes file. Org mode compensates for this by providing methods to give you an overview of all the things that you have to do.


5.1 Basic TODO Functionality

Any headline becomes a TODO item when it starts with the word ‘TODO’, for example:

*** TODO Write letter to Sam Fortune

The most important commands to work with TODO entries are:

C-c C-t (org-todo)

Rotate the TODO state of the current item among

,-> (unmarked) -> TODO -> DONE --.
'--------------------------------'

If TODO keywords have fast access keys (see Fast access to TODO states), prompt for a TODO keyword through the fast selection interface; this is the default behavior when org-use-fast-todo-selection is non-nil.

The same state changing can also be done “remotely” from the agenda buffer with the t command key (see Commands in the Agenda Buffer).

S-RIGHT S-LEFT

Select the following/preceding TODO state, similar to cycling. Useful mostly if more than two TODO states are possible (see Extended Use of TODO Keywords). See also Packages that conflict with Org mode, for a discussion of the interaction with shift-selection. See also the variable org-treat-S-cursor-todo-selection-as-state-change.

C-c / t (org-show-todo-tree)

View TODO items in a sparse tree (see Sparse Trees). Folds the entire buffer, but shows all TODO items—with not-DONE state—and the headings hierarchy above them. With a prefix argument, or by using C-c / T, search for a specific TODO. You are prompted for the keyword, and you can also give a list of keywords like ‘KWD1|KWD2|...’ to list entries that match any one of these keywords. With a numeric prefix argument N, show the tree for the Nth keyword in the variable org-todo-keywords. With two prefix arguments, find all TODO states, both un-done and done.

M-x org-agenda t (org-todo-list)

Show the global TODO list. Collects the TODO items (with not-DONE states) from all agenda files (see Agenda Views) into a single buffer. The new buffer is in Org Agenda mode, which provides commands to examine and manipulate the TODO entries from the new buffer (see Commands in the Agenda Buffer). See The global TODO list, for more information.

S-M-RET (org-insert-todo-heading)

Insert a new TODO entry below the current one.

Changing a TODO state can also trigger tag changes. See the docstring of the option org-todo-state-tags-triggers for details.


5.2 Extended Use of TODO Keywords

By default, marked TODO entries have one of only two states: TODO and DONE. Org mode allows you to classify TODO items in more complex ways with TODO keywords (stored in org-todo-keywords). With special setup, the TODO keyword system can work differently in different files.

Note that tags are another way to classify headlines in general and TODO items in particular (see Tags).


5.2.1 TODO keywords as workflow states

You can use TODO keywords to indicate different, possibly sequential states in the process of working on an item, for example35:

(setq org-todo-keywords
      '((sequence "TODO" "FEEDBACK" "VERIFY" "|" "DONE" "DELEGATED")))

The vertical bar separates the TODO keywords (states that need action) from the DONE states (which need no further action). If you do not provide the separator bar, the last state is used as the DONE state.

With this setup, the command C-c C-t cycles an entry from ‘TODO’ to ‘FEEDBACK’, then to ‘VERIFY’, and finally to ‘DONE’ and ‘DELEGATED’. You may also use a numeric prefix argument to quickly select a specific state. For example C-3 C-c C-t changes the state immediately to ‘VERIFY’. Or you can use S-RIGHT and S-LEFT to go forward and backward through the states. If you define many keywords, you can use in-buffer completion (see Completion) or a special one-key selection scheme (see Fast access to TODO states) to insert these words into the buffer. Changing a TODO state can be logged with a timestamp, see Tracking TODO state changes, for more information.


5.2.2 TODO keywords as types

The second possibility is to use TODO keywords to indicate different types of action items. For example, you might want to indicate that items are for “work” or “home”. Or, when you work with several people on a single project, you might want to assign action items directly to persons, by using their names as TODO keywords. This type of functionality is actually much better served by using tags (see Tags), so the TODO implementation is kept just for backward compatibility.

Using TODO types, it would be set up like this:

(setq org-todo-keywords '((type "Fred" "Sara" "Lucy" "|" "DONE")))

In this case, different keywords do not indicate states, but rather different types. So the normal work flow would be to assign a task to a person, and later to mark it DONE. Org mode supports this style by adapting the workings of the command C-c C-t36. When used several times in succession, it still cycles through all names, in order to first select the right type for a task. But when you return to the item after some time and execute C-c C-t again, it will switch from any name directly to ‘DONE’. Use prefix arguments or completion to quickly select a specific name. You can also review the items of a specific TODO type in a sparse tree by using a numeric prefix to C-c / t. For example, to see all things Lucy has to do, you would use C-3 C-c / t. To collect Lucy’s items from all agenda files into a single buffer, you would use the numeric prefix argument as well when creating the global TODO list: C-3 M-x org-agenda t.


5.2.3 Multiple keyword sets in one file

Sometimes you may want to use different sets of TODO keywords in parallel. For example, you may want to have the basic TODO/DONE, but also a workflow for bug fixing, and a separate state indicating that an item has been canceled—so it is not DONE, but also does not require action. Your setup would then look like this:

(setq org-todo-keywords
      '((sequence "TODO" "|" "DONE")
        (sequence "REPORT" "BUG" "KNOWNCAUSE" "|" "FIXED")
        (sequence "|" "CANCELED")))

The keywords should all be different, this helps Org mode keep track of which subsequence should be used for a given entry. In this setup, C-c C-t only operates within a sub-sequence, so it switches from ‘DONE’ to (nothing) to ‘TODO’, and from ‘FIXED’ to (nothing) to ‘REPORT’. Therefore you need a mechanism to initially select the correct sequence. In addition to typing a keyword or using completion (see Completion), you may also apply the following commands:

C-u C-u C-c C-t
C-S-RIGHT
C-S-LEFT

These keys jump from one TODO sub-sequence to the next. In the above example, C-u C-u C-c C-t or C-S-RIGHT would jump from ‘TODO’ or ‘DONE’ to ‘REPORT’, and any of the words in the second row to ‘CANCELED’. Note that the C-S- key binding conflict with shift-selection (see Packages that conflict with Org mode).

S-RIGHT
S-LEFT

S-LEFT and S-RIGHT walk through all keywords from all sub-sequences, so for example S-RIGHT would switch from ‘DONE’ to ‘REPORT’ in the example above. For a discussion of the interaction with shift-selection, see Packages that conflict with Org mode.


5.2.4 Fast access to TODO states

If you would like to quickly change an entry to an arbitrary TODO state instead of cycling through the states, you can set up keys for single-letter access to the states. This is done by adding the selection character after each keyword, in parentheses37. For example:

(setq org-todo-keywords
      '((sequence "TODO(t)" "|" "DONE(d)")
        (sequence "REPORT(r)" "BUG(b)" "KNOWNCAUSE(k)" "|" "FIXED(f)")
        (sequence "|" "CANCELED(c)")))

If you then press C-c C-t followed by the selection key, the entry is switched to this state. SPC can be used to remove any TODO keyword from an entry38.


5.2.5 Setting up keywords for individual files

It can be very useful to use different aspects of the TODO mechanism in different files. For file-local settings, you need to add special lines to the file which set the keywords and interpretation for that file only. For example, to set one of the two examples discussed above, you need one of the following lines, starting in column zero anywhere in the file:

#+TODO: TODO FEEDBACK VERIFY | DONE CANCELED

You may also write ‘#+SEQ_TODO’ to be explicit about the interpretation, but it means the same as ‘#+TODO’, or

#+TYP_TODO: Fred Sara Lucy Mike | DONE

A setup for using several sets in parallel would be:

#+TODO: TODO(t) | DONE(d)
#+TODO: REPORT(r) BUG(b) KNOWNCAUSE(k) | FIXED(f)
#+TODO: | CANCELED(c)

To make sure you are using the correct keyword, type ‘#+’ into the buffer and then use M-TAB to complete it (see Completion).

Remember that the keywords after the vertical bar—or the last keyword if no bar is there—must always mean that the item is DONE, although you may use a different word. After changing one of these lines, use C-c C-c with point still in the line to make the changes known to Org mode39.


5.2.6 Faces for TODO keywords

Org mode highlights TODO keywords with special faces: org-todo for keywords indicating that an item still has to be acted upon, and org-done for keywords indicating that an item is finished. If you are using more than two different states, you might want to use special faces for some of them. This can be done using the variable org-todo-keyword-faces. For example:

(setq org-todo-keyword-faces
      '(("TODO" . org-warning) ("STARTED" . "yellow")
        ("CANCELED" . (:foreground "blue" :weight bold))))

While using a list with face properties as shown for ‘CANCELEDshould work, this does not always seem to be the case. If necessary, define a special face and use that. A string is interpreted as a color. The variable org-faces-easy-properties determines if that color is interpreted as a foreground or a background color.


5.2.7 TODO dependencies

The structure of Org files—hierarchy and lists—makes it easy to define TODO dependencies. Usually, a parent TODO task should not be marked as done until all TODO subtasks, or children tasks, are marked as done. Sometimes there is a logical sequence to (sub)tasks, so that one subtask cannot be acted upon before all siblings above it have been marked as done. If you customize the variable org-enforce-todo-dependencies, Org blocks entries from changing state to DONE while they have TODO children that are not DONE. Furthermore, if an entry has a property ‘ORDERED’, each of its TODO children is blocked until all earlier siblings are marked as done. Here is an example:

* TODO Blocked until (two) is done
** DONE one
** TODO two

* Parent
:PROPERTIES:
:ORDERED:  t
:END:
** TODO a
** TODO b, needs to wait for (a)
** TODO c, needs to wait for (a) and (b)

You can ensure an entry is never blocked by using the ‘NOBLOCKING’ property (see Properties and Columns):

* This entry is never blocked
:PROPERTIES:
:NOBLOCKING: t
:END:
C-c C-x o (org-toggle-ordered-property)

Toggle the ‘ORDERED’ property of the current entry. A property is used for this behavior because this should be local to the current entry, not inherited from entries above like a tag (see Tags). However, if you would like to track the value of this property with a tag for better visibility, customize the variable org-track-ordered-property-with-tag.

C-u C-u C-u C-c C-t

Change TODO state, regardless of any state blocking.

If you set the variable org-agenda-dim-blocked-tasks, TODO entries that cannot be marked as done because of unmarked children are shown in a dimmed font or even made invisible in agenda views (see Agenda Views).

You can also block changes of TODO states by using checkboxes (see Checkboxes). If you set the variable org-enforce-todo-checkbox-dependencies, an entry that has unchecked checkboxes is blocked from switching to DONE.

If you need more complex dependency structures, for example dependencies between entries in different trees or files, check out the module ‘org-depend.el’ in the ‘org-contrib’ repository.


5.3 Progress Logging

To record a timestamp and a note when changing a TODO state, call the command org-todo with a prefix argument.

C-u C-c C-t (org-todo)

Prompt for a note and record a the time of the TODO state change. The note is inserted as a list item below the headline, but can also be placed into a drawer, see Tracking TODO state changes.

If you want to be more systematic, Org mode can automatically record a timestamp and optionally a note when you mark a TODO item as DONE, or even each time you change the state of a TODO item. This system is highly configurable, settings can be on a per-keyword basis and can be localized to a file or even a subtree. For information on how to clock working time for a task, see Clocking Work Time.


5.3.1 Closing items

The most basic automatic logging is to keep track of when a certain TODO item was marked as done. This can be achieved with40

(setq org-log-done 'time)

Then each time you turn an entry from a TODO (not-done) state into any of the DONE states, a line ‘CLOSED: [timestamp]’ is inserted just after the headline. If you turn the entry back into a TODO item through further state cycling, that line is removed again. If you turn the entry back to a non-TODO state (by pressing C-c C-t SPC for example), that line is also removed, unless you set org-closed-keep-when-no-todo to non-nil. If you want to record a note along with the timestamp, use41

(setq org-log-done 'note)

You are then prompted for a note, and that note is stored below the entry with a ‘Closing Note’ heading.


5.3.2 Tracking TODO state changes

You might want to automatically keep track of when a state change occurred and maybe take a note about this change. You can either record just a timestamp, or a time-stamped note. These records are inserted after the headline as an itemized list, newest first42. When taking a lot of notes, you might want to get the notes out of the way into a drawer (see Drawers). Customize the variable org-log-into-drawer to get this behavior—the recommended drawer for this is called ‘LOGBOOK43. You can also overrule the setting of this variable for a subtree by setting a ‘LOG_INTO_DRAWER’ property.

Since it is normally too much to record a note for every state, Org mode expects configuration on a per-keyword basis for this. This is achieved by adding special markers ‘!’ (for a timestamp) or ‘@’ (for a note with timestamp) in parentheses after each keyword. For example, with the setting

(setq org-todo-keywords
      '((sequence "TODO(t)" "WAIT(w@/!)" "|" "DONE(d!)" "CANCELED(c@)")))

You not only define global TODO keywords and fast access keys, but also request that a time is recorded when the entry is set to ‘DONE’, and that a note is recorded when switching to ‘WAIT’ or ‘CANCELED44. The setting for ‘WAIT’ is even more special: the ‘!’ after the slash means that in addition to the note taken when entering the state, a timestamp should be recorded when leaving the ‘WAIT’ state, if and only if the target state does not configure logging for entering it. So it has no effect when switching from ‘WAIT’ to ‘DONE’, because ‘DONE’ is configured to record a timestamp only. But when switching from ‘WAIT’ back to ‘TODO’, the ‘/!’ in the ‘WAIT’ setting now triggers a timestamp even though ‘TODO’ has no logging configured.

You can use the exact same syntax for setting logging preferences local to a buffer:

#+TODO: TODO(t) WAIT(w@/!) | DONE(d!) CANCELED(c@)

To record a timestamp without a note for TODO keywords configured with ‘@’, just type C-c C-c to enter a blank note when prompted.

In order to define logging settings that are local to a subtree or a single item, define a ‘LOGGING’ property in this entry. Any non-empty ‘LOGGING’ property resets all logging settings to nil. You may then turn on logging for this specific tree using ‘STARTUP’ keywords like ‘lognotedone’ or ‘logrepeat’, as well as adding state specific settings like ‘TODO(!)’. For example:

* TODO Log each state with only a time
  :PROPERTIES:
  :LOGGING: TODO(!) WAIT(!) DONE(!) CANCELED(!)
  :END:
* TODO Only log when switching to WAIT, and when repeating
  :PROPERTIES:
  :LOGGING: WAIT(@) logrepeat
  :END:
* TODO No logging at all
  :PROPERTIES:
  :LOGGING: nil
  :END:

5.3.3 Tracking your habits

Org has the ability to track the consistency of a special category of TODO, called “habits.” To use habits, you have to enable the habit module by customizing the variable org-modules.

A habit has the following properties:

  1. The habit is a TODO item, with a TODO keyword representing an open state.
  2. The property ‘STYLE’ is set to the value ‘habit’ (see Properties and Columns).
  3. The TODO has a scheduled date, usually with a ‘.+’ style repeat interval. A ‘++’ style may be appropriate for habits with time constraints, e.g., must be done on weekends, or a ‘+’ style for an unusual habit that can have a backlog, e.g., weekly reports.
  4. The TODO may also have minimum and maximum ranges specified by using the syntax ‘.+2d/3d’, which says that you want to do the task at least every three days, but at most every two days.
  5. State logging for the DONE state is enabled (see Tracking TODO state changes), in order for historical data to be represented in the consistency graph. If it is not enabled it is not an error, but the consistency graphs are largely meaningless.

To give you an idea of what the above rules look like in action, here’s an actual habit with some history:

** TODO Shave
   SCHEDULED: <2009-10-17 Sat .+2d/4d>
   :PROPERTIES:
   :STYLE:    habit
   :LAST_REPEAT: [2009-10-19 Mon 00:36]
   :END:
   - State "DONE"       from "TODO"       [2009-10-15 Thu]
   - State "DONE"       from "TODO"       [2009-10-12 Mon]
   - State "DONE"       from "TODO"       [2009-10-10 Sat]
   - State "DONE"       from "TODO"       [2009-10-04 Sun]
   - State "DONE"       from "TODO"       [2009-10-02 Fri]
   - State "DONE"       from "TODO"       [2009-09-29 Tue]
   - State "DONE"       from "TODO"       [2009-09-25 Fri]
   - State "DONE"       from "TODO"       [2009-09-19 Sat]
   - State "DONE"       from "TODO"       [2009-09-16 Wed]
   - State "DONE"       from "TODO"       [2009-09-12 Sat]

What this habit says is: I want to shave at most every 2 days—given by the ‘SCHEDULED’ date and repeat interval—and at least every 4 days. If today is the 15th, then the habit first appears in the agenda (see Agenda Views) on Oct 17, after the minimum of 2 days has elapsed, and will appear overdue on Oct 19, after four days have elapsed.

What’s really useful about habits is that they are displayed along with a consistency graph, to show how consistent you’ve been at getting that task done in the past. This graph shows every day that the task was done over the past three weeks, with colors for each day. The colors used are:

Blue

If the task was not to be done yet on that day.

Green

If the task could have been done on that day.

Yellow

If the task was going to be overdue the next day.

Red

If the task was overdue on that day.

In addition to coloring each day, the day is also marked with an asterisk if the task was actually done that day, and an exclamation mark to show where the current day falls in the graph.

There are several configuration variables that can be used to change the way habits are displayed in the agenda.

org-habit-graph-column

The buffer column at which the consistency graph should be drawn. This overwrites any text in that column, so it is a good idea to keep your habits’ titles brief and to the point.

org-habit-preceding-days

The amount of history, in days before today, to appear in consistency graphs.

org-habit-following-days

The number of days after today that appear in consistency graphs.

org-habit-show-habits-only-for-today

If non-nil, only show habits in today’s agenda view. The default value is t. Pressing C-u K in the agenda toggles this variable.

Lastly, pressing K in the agenda buffer causes habits to temporarily be disabled and do not appear at all. Press K again to bring them back. They are also subject to tag filtering, if you have habits which should only be done in certain contexts, for example.


5.4 Priorities

If you use Org mode extensively, you may end up with enough TODO items that it starts to make sense to prioritize them. Prioritizing can be done by placing a priority cookie into the headline of a TODO item right after the TODO keyword, like this:

*** TODO [#A] Write letter to Sam Fortune

By default, Org mode supports three priorities: ‘A’, ‘B’, and ‘C’. ‘A’ is the highest priority. An entry without a cookie is treated as equivalent if it had priority ‘B’. Priorities make a difference only for sorting in the agenda (see Weekly/daily agenda). Outside the agenda, they have no inherent meaning to Org mode. The cookies are displayed with the face defined by the variable org-priority-faces, which can be customized.

You can also use numeric values for priorities, such as

*** TODO [#1] Write letter to Sam Fortune

When using numeric priorities, you need to set org-priority-highest, org-priority-lowest and org-priority-default to integers, which must all be strictly inferior to 65.

Priorities can be attached to any outline node; they do not need to be TODO items.

C-c , (org-priority)

Set the priority of the current headline. The command prompts for a priority character ‘A’, ‘B’ or ‘C’. When you press SPC instead, the priority cookie, if one is set, is removed from the headline. The priorities can also be changed “remotely” from the agenda buffer with the , command (see Commands in the Agenda Buffer).

S-UP (org-priority-up)
S-DOWN (org-priority-down)

Increase/decrease the priority of the current headline45. Note that these keys are also used to modify timestamps (see Creating Timestamps). See also Packages that conflict with Org mode, for a discussion of the interaction with shift-selection.

You can change the range of allowed priorities by setting the variables org-priority-highest, org-priority-lowest, and org-priority-default. For an individual buffer, you may set these values (highest, lowest, default) like this (please make sure that the highest priority is earlier in the alphabet than the lowest priority):

#+PRIORITIES: A C B

Or, using numeric values:

#+PRIORITIES: 1 10 5

5.5 Breaking Down Tasks into Subtasks

It is often advisable to break down large tasks into smaller, manageable subtasks. You can do this by creating an outline tree below a TODO item, with detailed subtasks on the tree46. To keep an overview of the fraction of subtasks that have already been marked as done, insert either ‘[/]’ or ‘[%]’ anywhere in the headline. These cookies are updated each time the TODO status of a child changes, or when pressing C-c C-c on the cookie. For example:

* Organize Party [33%]
** TODO Call people [1/2]
*** TODO Peter
*** DONE Sarah
** TODO Buy food
** DONE Talk to neighbor

If a heading has both checkboxes and TODO children below it, the meaning of the statistics cookie become ambiguous. Set the property ‘COOKIE_DATA’ to either ‘checkbox’ or ‘todo’ to resolve this issue.

If you would like to have the statistics cookie count any TODO entries in the subtree (not just direct children), configure the variable org-hierarchical-todo-statistics. To do this for a single subtree, include the word ‘recursive’ into the value of the ‘COOKIE_DATA’ property.

* Parent capturing statistics [2/20]
  :PROPERTIES:
  :COOKIE_DATA: todo recursive
  :END:

If you would like a TODO entry to automatically change to DONE when all children are done, you can use the following setup:

(defun org-summary-todo (n-done n-not-done)
  "Switch entry to DONE when all subentries are done, to TODO otherwise."
  (let (org-log-done org-todo-log-states)   ; turn off logging
    (org-todo (if (= n-not-done 0) "DONE" "TODO"))))

(add-hook 'org-after-todo-statistics-hook #'org-summary-todo)

Another possibility is the use of checkboxes to identify (a hierarchy of) a large number of subtasks (see Checkboxes).


5.6 Checkboxes

Every item in a plain list47 (see Plain Lists) can be made into a checkbox by starting it with the string ‘[ ]’. This feature is similar to TODO items (see TODO Items), but is more lightweight. Checkboxes are not included into the global TODO list, so they are often great to split a task into a number of simple steps. Or you can use them in a shopping list.

Here is an example of a checkbox list.

* TODO Organize party [2/4]
  - [-] call people [1/3]
    - [ ] Peter
    - [X] Sarah
    - [ ] Sam
  - [X] order food
  - [ ] think about what music to play
  - [X] talk to the neighbors

Checkboxes work hierarchically, so if a checkbox item has children that are checkboxes, toggling one of the children checkboxes makes the parent checkbox reflect if none, some, or all of the children are checked.

The ‘[2/4]’ and ‘[1/3]’ in the first and second line are cookies indicating how many checkboxes present in this entry have been checked off, and the total number of checkboxes present. This can give you an idea on how many checkboxes remain, even without opening a folded entry. The cookies can be placed into a headline or into (the first line of) a plain list item. Each cookie covers checkboxes of direct children structurally below the headline/item on which the cookie appears48. You have to insert the cookie yourself by typing either ‘[/]’ or ‘[%]’. With ‘[/]’ you get an ‘n out of m’ result, as in the examples above. With ‘[%]’ you get information about the percentage of checkboxes checked (in the above example, this would be ‘[50%]’ and ‘[33%]’, respectively). In a headline, a cookie can count either checkboxes below the heading or TODO states of children, and it displays whatever was changed last. Set the property ‘COOKIE_DATA’ to either ‘checkbox’ or ‘todo’ to resolve this issue.

If the current outline node has an ‘ORDERED’ property, checkboxes must be checked off in sequence, and an error is thrown if you try to check off a box while there are unchecked boxes above it.

The following commands work with checkboxes:

C-c C-c (org-toggle-checkbox)

Toggle checkbox status or—with prefix argument—checkbox presence at point. With a single prefix argument, add an empty checkbox or remove the current one49. With a double prefix argument, set it to ‘[-]’, which is considered to be an intermediate state.

C-c C-x C-b (org-toggle-checkbox)

Toggle checkbox status or—with prefix argument—checkbox presence at point. With double prefix argument, set it to ‘[-]’, which is considered to be an intermediate state.

  • If there is an active region, toggle the first checkbox in the region and set all remaining boxes to the same status as the first. With a prefix argument, add or remove the checkbox for all items in the region.
  • If point is in a headline, toggle checkboxes in the region between this headline and the next—so not the entire subtree.
  • If there is no active region, just toggle the checkbox at point.
C-c C-x C-r (org-toggle-radio-button)

Toggle checkbox status by using the checkbox of the item at point as a radio button: when the checkbox is turned on, all other checkboxes on the same level will be turned off. With a universal prefix argument, toggle the presence of the checkbox. With a double prefix argument, set it to ‘[-]’.

C-c C-c can be told to consider checkboxes as radio buttons by setting ‘#+ATTR_ORG: :radio t’ right before the list or by calling M-x org-list-checkbox-radio-mode to activate this minor mode.

M-S-RET (org-insert-todo-heading)

Insert a new item with a checkbox. This works only if point is already in a plain list item (see Plain Lists).

C-c C-x o (org-toggle-ordered-property)

Toggle the ‘ORDERED’ property of the entry, to toggle if checkboxes must be checked off in sequence. A property is used for this behavior because this should be local to the current entry, not inherited like a tag. However, if you would like to track the value of this property with a tag for better visibility, customize org-track-ordered-property-with-tag.

C-c # (org-update-statistics-cookies)

Update the statistics cookie in the current outline entry. When called with a C-u prefix, update the entire file. Checkbox statistic cookies are updated automatically if you toggle checkboxes with C-c C-c and make new ones with M-S-RET. TODO statistics cookies update when changing TODO states. If you delete boxes/entries or add/change them by hand, use this command to get things back into sync.


6 Tags

An excellent way to implement labels and contexts for cross-correlating information is to assign tags to headlines. Org mode has extensive support for tags.

Every headline can contain a list of tags; they occur at the end of the headline. Tags are normal words containing letters, numbers, ‘_’, and ‘@’. Tags must be preceded and followed by a single colon, e.g., ‘:work:’. Several tags can be specified, as in ‘:work:urgent:’. Tags by default are in bold face with the same color as the headline. You may specify special faces for specific tags using the variable org-tag-faces, in much the same way as you can for TODO keywords (see Faces for TODO keywords).


6.1 Tag Inheritance

Tags make use of the hierarchical structure of outline trees. If a heading has a certain tag, all subheadings inherit the tag as well. For example, in the list

* Meeting with the French group      :work:
** Summary by Frank                  :boss:notes:
*** TODO Prepare slides for him      :action:

the final heading has the tags ‘work’, ‘boss’, ‘notes’, and ‘action’ even though the final heading is not explicitly marked with those tags. You can also set tags that all entries in a file should inherit just as if these tags were defined in a hypothetical level zero that surrounds the entire file. Use a line like this50

#+FILETAGS: :Peter:Boss:Secret:

To limit tag inheritance to specific tags, or to turn it off entirely, use the variables org-use-tag-inheritance and org-tags-exclude-from-inheritance.

When a headline matches during a tags search while tag inheritance is turned on, all the sublevels in the same tree—for a simple match form—match as well51. The list of matches may then become very long. If you only want to see the first tags match in a subtree, configure the variable org-tags-match-list-sublevels (not recommended).

Tag inheritance is relevant when the agenda search tries to match a tag, either in the tags or tags-todo agenda types. In other agenda types, org-use-tag-inheritance has no effect. Still, you may want to have your tags correctly set in the agenda, so that tag filtering works fine, with inherited tags. Set org-agenda-use-tag-inheritance to control this: the default value includes all agenda types, but setting this to nil can really speed up agenda generation.


6.2 Setting Tags

Tags can simply be typed into the buffer at the end of a headline. After a colon, M-TAB offers completion on tags. There is also a special command for inserting tags:

C-c C-q (org-set-tags-command)

Enter new tags for the current headline. Org mode either offers completion or a special single-key interface for setting tags, see below. After pressing RET, the tags are inserted and aligned to org-tags-column. When called with a C-u prefix, all tags in the current buffer are aligned to that column, just to make things look nice. Tags are automatically realigned after promotion, demotion, and TODO state changes (see Basic TODO Functionality).

C-c C-c (org-set-tags-command)

When point is in a headline, this does the same as C-c C-q.

Org supports tag insertion based on a list of tags. By default this list is constructed dynamically, containing all tags currently used in the buffer52. You may also globally specify a hard list of tags with the variable org-tag-alist. Finally you can set the default tags for a given file using the ‘TAGS’ keyword, like

#+TAGS: @work @home @tennisclub
#+TAGS: laptop car pc sailboat

If you have globally defined your preferred set of tags using the variable org-tag-alist, but would like to use a dynamic tag list in a specific file, add an empty ‘TAGS’ keyword to that file:

#+TAGS:

If you have a preferred set of tags that you would like to use in every file, in addition to those defined on a per-file basis by ‘TAGS’ keyword, then you may specify a list of tags with the variable org-tag-persistent-alist. You may turn this off on a per-file basis by adding a ‘STARTUP’ keyword to that file:

#+STARTUP: noptag

By default Org mode uses the standard minibuffer completion facilities for entering tags. However, it also implements another, quicker, tag selection method called fast tag selection. This allows you to select and deselect tags with just a single key press. For this to work well you should assign unique letters to most of your commonly used tags. You can do this globally by configuring the variable org-tag-alist in your Emacs init file. For example, you may find the need to tag many items in different files with ‘@home’. In this case you can set something like:

(setq org-tag-alist '(("@work" . ?w) ("@home" . ?h) ("laptop" . ?l)))

If the tag is only relevant to the file you are working on, then you can instead set the ‘TAGS’ keyword as:

#+TAGS: @work(w)  @home(h)  @tennisclub(t)  laptop(l)  pc(p)

The tags interface shows the available tags in a splash window. If you want to start a new line after a specific tag, insert ‘\n’ into the tag list

#+TAGS: @work(w) @home(h) @tennisclub(t) \n laptop(l) pc(p)

or write them in two lines:

#+TAGS: @work(w)  @home(h)  @tennisclub(t)
#+TAGS: laptop(l)  pc(p)

You can also group together tags that are mutually exclusive by using braces, as in:

#+TAGS: { @work(w)  @home(h)  @tennisclub(t) }  laptop(l)  pc(p)

you indicate that at most one of ‘@work’, ‘@home’, and ‘@tennisclub’ should be selected. Multiple such groups are allowed.

Do not forget to press C-c C-c with point in one of these lines to activate any changes.

To set these mutually exclusive groups in the variable org-tags-alist, you must use the dummy tags :startgroup and :endgroup instead of the braces. Similarly, you can use :newline to indicate a line break. The previous example would be set globally by the following configuration:

(setq org-tag-alist '((:startgroup . nil)
                      ("@work" . ?w) ("@home" . ?h)
                      ("@tennisclub" . ?t)
                      (:endgroup . nil)
                      ("laptop" . ?l) ("pc" . ?p)))

If at least one tag has a selection key then pressing C-c C-c automatically presents you with a special interface, listing inherited tags, the tags of the current headline, and a list of all valid tags with corresponding keys53.

Pressing keys assigned to tags adds or removes them from the list of tags in the current line. Selecting a tag in a group of mutually exclusive tags turns off any other tag from that group.

In this interface, you can also use the following special keys:

TAB

Enter a tag in the minibuffer, even if the tag is not in the predefined list. You can complete on all tags present in the buffer and globally pre-defined tags from org-tag-alist and org-tag-persistent-alist. You can also add several tags: just separate them with a comma.

SPC

Clear all tags for this line.

RET

Accept the modified set.

C-g

Abort without installing changes.

q

If q is not assigned to a tag, it aborts like C-g.

!

Turn off groups of mutually exclusive tags. Use this to (as an exception) assign several tags from such a group.

C-c

Toggle auto-exit after the next change (see below). If you are using expert mode, the first C-c displays the selection window.

This method lets you assign tags to a headline with very few keys. With the above setup, you could clear the current tags and set ‘@home’, ‘laptop’ and ‘pc’ tags with just the following keys: C-c C-c SPC h l p RET. Switching from ‘@home’ to ‘@work’ would be done with C-c C-c w RET or alternatively with C-c C-c C-c w. Adding the non-predefined tag ‘sarah’ could be done with C-c C-c TAB s a r a h RET.

If you find that most of the time you need only a single key press to modify your list of tags, set the variable org-fast-tag-selection-single-key. Then you no longer have to press RET to exit fast tag selection—it exits after the first change. If you then occasionally need more keys, press C-c to turn off auto-exit for the current tag selection process (in effect: start selection with C-c C-c C-c instead of C-c C-c). If you set the variable to the value expert, the special window is not even shown for single-key tag selection, it comes up only when you press an extra C-c.


6.3 Tag Hierarchy

Tags can be defined in hierarchies. A tag can be defined as a group tag for a set of other tags. The group tag can be seen as the “broader term” for its set of tags. Defining multiple group tags and nesting them creates a tag hierarchy.

One use-case is to create a taxonomy of terms (tags) that can be used to classify nodes in a document or set of documents.

When you search for a group tag, it return matches for all members in the group and its subgroups. In an agenda view, filtering by a group tag displays or hide headlines tagged with at least one of the members of the group or any of its subgroups. This makes tag searches and filters even more flexible.

You can set group tags by using brackets and inserting a colon between the group tag and its related tags—beware that all whitespaces are mandatory so that Org can parse this line correctly:

#+TAGS: [ GTD : Control Persp ]

In this example, ‘GTD’ is the group tag and it is related to two other tags: ‘Control’, ‘Persp’. Defining ‘Control’ and ‘Persp’ as group tags creates a hierarchy of tags:

#+TAGS: [ Control : Context Task ]
#+TAGS: [ Persp : Vision Goal AOF Project ]

That can conceptually be seen as a hierarchy of tags:

  • GTD
    • Persp
      • Vision
      • Goal
      • AOF
      • Project
    • Control
      • Context
      • Task

You can use the :startgrouptag, :grouptags and :endgrouptag keyword directly when setting org-tag-alist directly:

(setq org-tag-alist '((:startgrouptag)
                      ("GTD")
                      (:grouptags)
                      ("Control")
                      ("Persp")
                      (:endgrouptag)
                      (:startgrouptag)
                      ("Control")
                      (:grouptags)
                      ("Context")
                      ("Task")
                      (:endgrouptag)))

The tags in a group can be mutually exclusive if using the same group syntax as is used for grouping mutually exclusive tags together; using curly brackets.

#+TAGS: { Context : @Home @Work @Call }

When setting org-tag-alist you can use :startgroup and :endgroup instead of :startgrouptag and :endgrouptag to make the tags mutually exclusive.

Furthermore, the members of a group tag can also be regular expressions, creating the possibility of a more dynamic and rule-based tag structure (see Regular Expressions). The regular expressions in the group must be specified within curly brackets. Here is an expanded example:

#+TAGS: [ Vision : {V@.+} ]
#+TAGS: [ Goal : {G@.+} ]
#+TAGS: [ AOF : {AOF@.+} ]
#+TAGS: [ Project : {P@.+} ]

Searching for the tag ‘Project’ now lists all tags also including regular expression matches for ‘P@.+’, and similarly for tag searches on ‘Vision’, ‘Goal’ and ‘AOF’. For example, this would work well for a project tagged with a common project-identifier, e.g., ‘P@2014_OrgTags’.

If you want to ignore group tags temporarily, toggle group tags support with org-toggle-tags-groups, bound to C-c C-x q. If you want to disable tag groups completely, set org-group-tags to nil.


6.4 Tag Searches

Once a system of tags has been set up, it can be used to collect related information into special lists.

C-c / m or C-c \ (org-match-sparse-tree)

Create a sparse tree with all headlines matching a tags search. With a C-u prefix argument, ignore headlines that are not a TODO line.

M-x org-agenda m (org-tags-view)

Create a global list of tag matches from all agenda files. See Matching tags and properties.

M-x org-agenda M (org-tags-view)

Create a global list of tag matches from all agenda files, but check only TODO items and force checking subitems (see the option org-tags-match-list-sublevels).

These commands all prompt for a match string which allows basic Boolean logic like ‘+boss+urgent-project1’, to find entries with tags ‘boss’ and ‘urgent’, but not ‘project1’, or ‘Kathy|Sally’ to find entries which are tagged, like ‘Kathy’ or ‘Sally’. The full syntax of the search string is rich and allows also matching against TODO keywords, entry levels and properties. For a complete description with many examples, see Matching tags and properties.


7 Properties and Columns

A property is a key-value pair associated with an entry. Properties can be set so they are associated with a single entry, with every entry in a tree, or with the whole buffer.

There are two main applications for properties in Org mode. First, properties are like tags, but with a value. Imagine maintaining a file where you document bugs and plan releases for a piece of software. Instead of using tags like ‘release_1’, ‘release_2’, you can use a property, say ‘Release’, that in different subtrees has different values, such as ‘1.0’ or ‘2.0’. Second, you can use properties to implement (very basic) database capabilities in an Org buffer. Imagine keeping track of your music CDs, where properties could be things such as the album, artist, date of release, number of tracks, and so on.

Properties can be conveniently edited and viewed in column view (see Column View).


7.1 Property Syntax

Properties are key–value pairs. When they are associated with a single entry or with a tree they need to be inserted into a special drawer (see Drawers) with the name ‘PROPERTIES’, which has to be located right below a headline, and its planning line (see Deadlines and Scheduling) when applicable. Each property is specified on a single line, with the key—surrounded by colons—first, and the value after it. Keys are case-insensitive. Here is an example:

* CD collection
** Classic
*** Goldberg Variations
    :PROPERTIES:
    :Title:     Goldberg Variations
    :Composer:  J.S. Bach
    :Artist:    Glenn Gould
    :Publisher: Deutsche Grammophon
    :NDisks:    1
    :END:

Depending on the value of org-use-property-inheritance, a property set this way is associated either with a single entry, or with the subtree defined by the entry, see Property Inheritance.

You may define the allowed values for a particular property ‘Xyz’ by setting a property ‘Xyz_ALL’. This special property is inherited, so if you set it in a level 1 entry, it applies to the entire tree. When allowed values are defined, setting the corresponding property becomes easier and is less prone to typing errors. For the example with the CD collection, we can pre-define publishers and the number of disks in a box like this:

* CD collection
  :PROPERTIES:
  :NDisks_ALL:  1 2 3 4
  :Publisher_ALL: "Deutsche Grammophon" Philips EMI
  :END:

Properties can be inserted on buffer level. That means they apply before the first headline and can be inherited by all entries in a file. Property blocks defined before first headline needs to be located at the top of the buffer, allowing only comments above.

Properties can also be defined using lines like:

#+PROPERTY: NDisks_ALL 1 2 3 4

If you want to add to the value of an existing property, append a ‘+’ to the property name. The following results in the property ‘var’ having the value ‘foo=1 bar=2’.

#+PROPERTY: var  foo=1
#+PROPERTY: var+ bar=2

It is also possible to add to the values of inherited properties. The following results in the ‘Genres’ property having the value ‘Classic Baroque’ under the ‘Goldberg Variations’ subtree.

* CD collection
** Classic
    :PROPERTIES:
    :Genres: Classic
    :END:
*** Goldberg Variations
    :PROPERTIES:
    :Title:     Goldberg Variations
    :Composer:  J.S. Bach
    :Artist:    Glenn Gould
    :Publisher: Deutsche Grammophon
    :NDisks:    1
    :Genres+:   Baroque
    :END:

Note that a property can only have one entry per drawer.

Property values set with the global variable org-global-properties can be inherited by all entries in all Org files.

The following commands help to work with properties:

M-TAB (pcomplete)

After an initial colon in a line, complete property keys. All keys used in the current file are offered as possible completions.

C-c C-x p (org-set-property)

Set a property. This prompts for a property name and a value. If necessary, the property drawer is created as well.

C-u M-x org-insert-drawer

Insert a property drawer into the current entry. The drawer is inserted early in the entry, but after the lines with planning information like deadlines. If before first headline the drawer is inserted at the top of the drawer after any potential comments.

C-c C-c (org-property-action)

With point in a property drawer, this executes property commands.

C-c C-c s (org-set-property)

Set a property in the current entry. Both the property and the value can be inserted using completion.

S-RIGHT (org-property-next-allowed-value)
S-LEFT (org-property-previous-allowed-value)

Switch property at point to the next/previous allowed value.

C-c C-c d (org-delete-property)

Remove a property from the current entry.

C-c C-c D (org-delete-property-globally)

Globally remove a property, from all entries in the current file.

C-c C-c c (org-compute-property-at-point)

Compute the property at point, using the operator and scope from the nearest column format definition.


7.2 Special Properties

Special properties provide an alternative access method to Org mode features, like the TODO state or the priority of an entry, discussed in the previous chapters. This interface exists so that you can include these states in a column view (see Column View), or to use them in queries. The following property names are special and should not be used as keys in the properties drawer:

ALLTAGSAll tags, including inherited ones.
BLOCKEDt if task is currently blocked by children or siblings.
CATEGORYThe category of an entry.
CLOCKSUMThe sum of CLOCK intervals in the subtree. org-clock-sum
must be run first to compute the values in the current buffer.
CLOCKSUM_TThe sum of CLOCK intervals in the subtree for today.
org-clock-sum-today must be run first to compute the
values in the current buffer.
CLOSEDWhen was this entry closed?
DEADLINEThe deadline timestamp.
FILEThe filename the entry is located in.
ITEMThe headline of the entry.
PRIORITYThe priority of the entry, a string with a single letter.
SCHEDULEDThe scheduling timestamp.
TAGSThe tags defined directly in the headline.
TIMESTAMPThe first keyword-less timestamp in the entry.
TIMESTAMP_IAThe first inactive timestamp in the entry.
TODOThe TODO keyword of the entry.

7.3 Property Searches

To create sparse trees and special lists with selection based on properties, the same commands are used as for tag searches (see Tag Searches).

C-c / m or C-c \ (org-match-sparse-tree)

Create a sparse tree with all matching entries. With a C-u prefix argument, ignore headlines that are not a TODO line.

M-x org-agenda m (org-tags-view)

Create a global list of tag/property matches from all agenda files.

M-x org-agenda M (org-tags-view)

Create a global list of tag matches from all agenda files, but check only TODO items and force checking of subitems (see the option org-tags-match-list-sublevels).

The syntax for the search string is described in Matching tags and properties.

There is also a special command for creating sparse trees based on a single property:

C-c / p

Create a sparse tree based on the value of a property. This first prompts for the name of a property, and then for a value. A sparse tree is created with all entries that define this property with the given value. If you enclose the value in curly braces, it is interpreted as a regular expression and matched against the property values (see Regular Expressions).


7.4 Property Inheritance

The outline structure of Org documents lends itself to an inheritance model of properties: if the parent in a tree has a certain property, the children can inherit this property. Org mode does not turn this on by default, because it can slow down property searches significantly and is often not needed. However, if you find inheritance useful, you can turn it on by setting the variable org-use-property-inheritance. It may be set to t to make all properties inherited from the parent, to a list of properties that should be inherited, or to a regular expression that matches inherited properties. If a property has the value nil, this is interpreted as an explicit un-define of the property, so that inheritance search stops at this value and returns nil.

Org mode has a few properties for which inheritance is hard-coded, at least for the special applications for which they are used:

COLUMNS

The ‘COLUMNS’ property defines the format of column view (see Column View). It is inherited in the sense that the level where a ‘COLUMNS’ property is defined is used as the starting point for a column view table, independently of the location in the subtree from where columns view is turned on.

CATEGORY

For agenda view, a category set through a ‘CATEGORY’ property applies to the entire subtree.

ARCHIVE

For archiving, the ‘ARCHIVE’ property may define the archive location for the entire subtree (see Moving a tree to an archive file).

LOGGING

The ‘LOGGING’ property may define logging settings for an entry or a subtree (see Tracking TODO state changes).


7.5 Column View

A great way to view and edit properties in an outline tree is column view. In column view, each outline node is turned into a table row. Columns in this table provide access to properties of the entries. Org mode implements columns by overlaying a tabular structure over the headline of each item. While the headlines have been turned into a table row, you can still change the visibility of the outline tree. For example, you get a compact table by switching to “contents” view—S-TAB S-TAB, or simply c while column view is active—but you can still open, read, and edit the entry below each headline. Or, you can switch to column view after executing a sparse tree command and in this way get a table only for the selected items. Column view also works in agenda buffers (see Agenda Views) where queries have collected selected items, possibly from a number of files.


7.5.1 Defining columns

Setting up a column view first requires defining the columns. This is done by defining a column format line.


7.5.1.1 Scope of column definitions

To specify a format that only applies to a specific tree, add a ‘COLUMNS’ property to the top node of that tree, for example:

** Top node for columns view
   :PROPERTIES:
   :COLUMNS: %25ITEM %TAGS %PRIORITY %TODO
   :END:

A ‘COLUMNS’ property within a property drawer before first headline will apply to the entire file. As an addition to property drawers, keywords can also be defined for an entire file using a line like:

#+COLUMNS: %25ITEM %TAGS %PRIORITY %TODO

If a ‘COLUMNS’ property is present in an entry, it defines columns for the entry itself, and for the entire subtree below it. Since the column definition is part of the hierarchical structure of the document, you can define columns on level 1 that are general enough for all sublevels, and more specific columns further down, when you edit a deeper part of the tree.


7.5.1.2 Column attributes

A column definition sets the attributes of a column. The general definition looks like this:

%[WIDTH]PROPERTY[(TITLE)][{SUMMARY-TYPE}]

Except for the percent sign and the property name, all items are optional. The individual parts have the following meaning:

WIDTH

An integer specifying the width of the column in characters. If omitted, the width is determined automatically.

PROPERTY

The property that should be edited in this column. Special properties representing meta data are allowed here as well (see Special Properties).

TITLE

The header text for the column. If omitted, the property name is used.

SUMMARY-TYPE

The summary type. If specified, the column values for parent nodes are computed from the children54.

Supported summary types are:

+Sum numbers in this column.
+;%.1fLike ‘+’, but format result with ‘%.1f’.
$Currency, short for ‘+;%.2f’.
minSmallest number in column.
maxLargest number.
meanArithmetic mean of numbers.
XCheckbox status, ‘[X]’ if all children are ‘[X]’.
X/Checkbox status, ‘[n/m]’.
X%Checkbox status, ‘[n%]’.
:Sum times, HH:MM, plain numbers are minutes.
:minSmallest time value in column.
:maxLargest time value.
:meanArithmetic mean of time values.
@minMinimum age55 (in days/hours/mins/seconds).
@maxMaximum age (in days/hours/mins/seconds).
@meanArithmetic mean of ages (in days/hours/mins/seconds).
est+Add low-high estimates.

You can also define custom summary types by setting org-columns-summary-types.

The ‘est+’ summary type requires further explanation. It is used for combining estimates, expressed as low-high ranges. For example, instead of estimating a particular task will take 5 days, you might estimate it as 5–6 days if you’re fairly confident you know how much work is required, or 1–10 days if you do not really know what needs to be done. Both ranges average at 5.5 days, but the first represents a more predictable delivery.

When combining a set of such estimates, simply adding the lows and highs produces an unrealistically wide result. Instead, ‘est+’ adds the statistical mean and variance of the subtasks, generating a final estimate from the sum. For example, suppose you had ten tasks, each of which was estimated at 0.5 to 2 days of work. Straight addition produces an estimate of 5 to 20 days, representing what to expect if everything goes either extremely well or extremely poorly. In contrast, ‘est+’ estimates the full job more realistically, at 10–15 days.

Here is an example for a complete columns definition, along with allowed values56.

:COLUMNS:  %25ITEM %9Approved(Approved?){X} %Owner %11Status \
                   %10Time_Estimate{:} %CLOCKSUM %CLOCKSUM_T
:Owner_ALL:    Tammy Mark Karl Lisa Don
:Status_ALL:   "In progress" "Not started yet" "Finished" ""
:Approved_ALL: "[ ]" "[X]"

The first column, ‘%25ITEM’, means the first 25 characters of the item itself, i.e., of the headline. You probably always should start the column definition with the ‘ITEM’ specifier. The other specifiers create columns ‘Owner’ with a list of names as allowed values, for ‘Status’ with four different possible values, and for a checkbox field ‘Approved’. When no width is given after the ‘%’ character, the column is exactly as wide as it needs to be in order to fully display all values. The ‘Approved’ column does have a modified title (‘Approved?’, with a question mark). Summaries are created for the ‘Time_Estimate’ column by adding time duration expressions like HH:MM, and for the ‘Approved’ column, by providing an ‘[X]’ status if all children have been checked. The ‘CLOCKSUM’ and ‘CLOCKSUM_T’ columns are special, they lists the sums of CLOCK intervals in the subtree, either for all clocks or just for today.


7.5.2 Using column view

Turning column view on or off

C-c C-x C-c (org-columns)

Turn on column view. If point is before the first headline in the file, column view is turned on for the entire file, using the ‘#+COLUMNS’ definition. If point is somewhere inside the outline, this command searches the hierarchy, up from point, for a ‘COLUMNS’ property that defines a format. When one is found, the column view table is established for the tree starting at the entry that contains the ‘COLUMNS’ property. If no such property is found, the format is taken from the ‘#+COLUMNS’ line or from the variable org-columns-default-format, and column view is established for the current entry and its subtree.

r or g on a columns view line (org-columns-redo)

Recreate the column view, to include recent changes made in the buffer.

C-c C-c or q on a columns view line (org-columns-quit)

Exit column view.

Editing values

LEFT, RIGHT, UP, DOWN

Move through the column view from field to field.

1..9,0

Directly select the Nth allowed value, 0 selects the 10th value.

n or S-RIGHT (org-columns-next-allowed-value)
p or S-LEFT (org-columns-previous-allowed-value)

Switch to the next/previous allowed value of the field. For this, you have to have specified allowed values for a property.

e (org-columns-edit-value)

Edit the property at point. For the special properties, this invokes the same interface that you normally use to change that property. For example, the tag completion or fast selection interface pops up when editing a ‘TAGS’ property.

C-c C-c (org-columns-toggle-or-columns-quit)

When there is a checkbox at point, toggle it. Else exit column view.

v (org-columns-show-value)

View the full value of this property. This is useful if the width of the column is smaller than that of the value.

a (org-columns-edit-allowed)

Edit the list of allowed values for this property. If the list is found in the hierarchy, the modified values is stored there. If no list is found, the new value is stored in the first entry that is part of the current column view.

Modifying column view on-the-fly

< (org-columns-narrow)
> (org-columns-widen)

Make the column narrower/wider by one character.

S-M-RIGHT (org-columns-new)

Insert a new column, to the left of the current column.

S-M-LEFT (org-columns-delete)

Delete the current column.


7.5.3 Capturing column view

Since column view is just an overlay over a buffer, it cannot be exported or printed directly. If you want to capture a column view, use a ‘columnview’ dynamic block (see Dynamic Blocks). The frame of this block looks like this:

* The column view
#+BEGIN: columnview :hlines 1 :id "label"

#+END:

This dynamic block has the following parameters:

:id

This is the most important parameter. Column view is a feature that is often localized to a certain (sub)tree, and the capture block might be at a different location in the file. To identify the tree whose view to capture, you can use four values:

local

Use the tree in which the capture block is located.

global

Make a global view, including all headings in the file.

file:FILENAME

Run column view at the top of the FILENAME file.

LABEL

Call column view in the tree that has an ‘ID’ property with the value LABEL. You can use M-x org-id-copy to create a globally unique ID for the current entry and copy it to the kill-ring.

:match

When set to a string, use this as a tags/property match filter to select only a subset of the headlines in the scope set by the :id parameter.

:hlines

When t, insert an hline after every line. When a number N, insert an hline before each headline with level <= N.

:vlines

When non-nil, force column groups to get vertical lines.

:maxlevel

When set to a number, do not capture entries below this level.

:skip-empty-rows

When non-nil, skip rows where the only non-empty specifier of the column view is ‘ITEM’.

:exclude-tags

List of tags to exclude from column view table: entries with these tags will be excluded from the column view.

:indent

When non-nil, indent each ‘ITEM’ field according to its level.

:format

Specify a column attribute (see Column attributes) for the dynamic block.

The following commands insert or update the dynamic block:

org-columns-insert-dblock

Insert a dynamic block capturing a column view. Prompt for the scope or ID of the view.

This command can be invoked by calling org-dynamic-block-insert-dblock (C-c C-x x) and selecting “columnview” (see Dynamic Blocks).

C-c C-c C-c C-x C-u (org-dblock-update)

Update dynamic block at point. point needs to be in the ‘#+BEGIN’ line of the dynamic block.

C-u C-c C-x C-u (org-update-all-dblocks)

Update all dynamic blocks (see Dynamic Blocks). This is useful if you have several clock table blocks, column-capturing blocks or other dynamic blocks in a buffer.

You can add formulas to the column view table and you may add plotting instructions in front of the table—these survive an update of the block. If there is a ‘TBLFM’ keyword after the table, the table is recalculated automatically after an update.

An alternative way to capture and process property values into a table is provided by Eric Schulte’s ‘org-collector.el’, which is a package in ‘org-contrib57. It provides a general API to collect properties from entries in a certain scope, and arbitrary Lisp expressions to process these values before inserting them into a table or a dynamic block.


8 Dates and Times

To assist project planning, TODO items can be labeled with a date and/or a time. The specially formatted string carrying the date and time information is called a timestamp in Org mode. This may be a little confusing because timestamp is often used as indicating when something was created or last changed. However, in Org mode this term is used in a much wider sense.


8.1 Timestamps

A timestamp is a specification of a date (possibly with a time or a range of times) in a special format, either ‘<2003-09-16 Tue>’ or ‘<2003-09-16 Tue 09:39>’ or ‘<2003-09-16 Tue 12:00-12:30>58. A timestamp can appear anywhere in the headline or body of an Org tree entry. Its presence causes entries to be shown on specific dates in the agenda (see Weekly/daily agenda). We distinguish:

Plain timestamp; Event; Appointment

A simple timestamp just assigns a date/time to an item. This is just like writing down an appointment or event in a paper agenda. In the agenda display, the headline of an entry associated with a plain timestamp is shown exactly on that date.

* Meet Peter at the movies
  <2006-11-01 Wed 19:15>
* Discussion on climate change
  <2006-11-02 Thu 20:00-22:00>
Timestamp with repeater interval

A timestamp may contain a repeater interval, indicating that it applies not only on the given date, but again and again after a certain interval of N hours (h), days (d), weeks (w), months (m), or years (y). The following shows up in the agenda every Wednesday:

* Pick up Sam at school
  <2007-05-16 Wed 12:30 +1w>
Diary-style expression entries

For more complex date specifications, Org mode supports using the special expression diary entries implemented in the Emacs Calendar package59. For example, with optional time:

* 22:00-23:00 The nerd meeting on every 2nd Thursday of the month
  <%%(diary-float t 4 2)>
Time/Date range

Two timestamps connected by ‘--’ denote a range. The headline is shown on the first and last day of the range, and on any dates that are displayed and fall in the range. Here is an example:

** Meeting in Amsterdam
   <2004-08-23 Mon>--<2004-08-26 Thu>
Inactive timestamp

Just like a plain timestamp, but with square brackets instead of angular ones. These timestamps are inactive in the sense that they do not trigger an entry to show up in the agenda.

* Gillian comes late for the fifth time
  [2006-11-01 Wed]

8.2 Creating Timestamps

For Org mode to recognize timestamps, they need to be in the specific format. All commands listed below produce timestamps in the correct format.

C-c . (org-time-stamp)

Prompt for a date and insert a corresponding timestamp. When point is at an existing timestamp in the buffer, the command is used to modify this timestamp instead of inserting a new one. When this command is used twice in succession, a time range is inserted.

When called with a prefix argument, use the alternative format which contains date and time. The default time can be rounded to multiples of 5 minutes. See the option org-time-stamp-rounding-minutes.

With two prefix arguments, insert an active timestamp with the current time without prompting.

C-c ! (org-time-stamp-inactive)

Like C-c ., but insert an inactive timestamp that does not cause an agenda entry.

C-c C-c

Normalize timestamp, insert or fix day name if missing or wrong.

C-c < (org-date-from-calendar)

Insert a timestamp corresponding to point date in the calendar.

C-c > (org-goto-calendar)

Access the Emacs calendar for the current date. If there is a timestamp in the current line, go to the corresponding date instead.

C-c C-o (org-open-at-point)

Access the agenda for the date given by the timestamp or -range at point (see Weekly/daily agenda).

S-LEFT (org-timestamp-down-day)
S-RIGHT (org-timestamp-up-day)

Change date at point by one day. These key bindings conflict with shift-selection and related modes (see Packages that conflict with Org mode).

S-UP (org-timestamp-up)
S-DOWN (org-timestamp-down)

On the beginning or enclosing bracket of a timestamp, change its type. Within a timestamp, change the item under point. Point can be on a year, month, day, hour or minute. When the timestamp contains a time range like ‘15:30-16:30’, modifying the first time also shifts the second, shifting the time block with constant length. To change the length, modify the second time. Note that if point is in a headline and not at a timestamp, these same keys modify the priority of an item (see Priorities). The key bindings also conflict with shift-selection and related modes (see Packages that conflict with Org mode).

C-c C-y (org-evaluate-time-range)

Evaluate a time range by computing the difference between start and end. With a prefix argument, insert result after the time range (in a table: into the following column).


8.2.1 The date/time prompt

When Org mode prompts for a date/time, the default is shown in default date/time format, and the prompt therefore seems to ask for a specific format. But it in fact accepts date/time information in a variety of formats. Generally, the information should start at the beginning of the string. Org mode finds whatever information is in there and derives anything you have not specified from the default date and time. The default is usually the current date and time, but when modifying an existing timestamp, or when entering the second stamp of a range, it is taken from the stamp in the buffer. When filling in information, Org mode assumes that most of the time you want to enter a date in the future: if you omit the month/year and the given day/month is before today, it assumes that you mean a future date60. If the date has been automatically shifted into the future, the time prompt shows this with ‘(=>F)’.

For example, let’s assume that today is June 13, 2006. Here is how various inputs are interpreted, the items filled in by Org mode are in bold.

3-2-5⇒ 2003-02-05
2/5/3⇒ 2003-02-05
142006-06-14
122006-07-12
2/52007-02-05
Fri⇒ nearest Friday (default date or later)
sep 152006-09-15
feb 152007-02-15
sep 12 9⇒ 2009-09-12
12:452006-06-13 12:45
22 sept 0:342006-09-22 0:34
w4⇒ ISO week for of the current year 2006
2012 w4 fri⇒ Friday of ISO week 4 in 2012
2012-w04-5⇒ Same as above

Furthermore you can specify a relative date by giving, as the first thing in the input: a plus/minus sign, a number and a letter—‘h’, ‘d’, ‘w’, ‘m’ or ‘y’—to indicate a change in hours, days, weeks, months, or years. With ‘h’ the date is relative to the current time, with the other letters and a single plus or minus, the date is relative to today at 00:00. With a double plus or minus, it is relative to the default date. If instead of a single letter, you use the abbreviation of day name, the date is the Nth such day, e.g.:

+0⇒ today
.⇒ today
+2h⇒ two hours from now
+4d⇒ four days from today
+4⇒ same as +4d
+2w⇒ two weeks from today
++5⇒ five days from default date
+2tue⇒ second Tuesday from now

The function understands English month and weekday abbreviations. If you want to use un-abbreviated names and/or other languages, configure the variables parse-time-months and parse-time-weekdays.

Not all dates can be represented in a given Emacs implementation. By default Org mode forces dates into the compatibility range 1970–2037 which works on all Emacs implementations. If you want to use dates outside of this range, read the docstring of the variable org-read-date-force-compatible-dates.

You can specify a time range by giving start and end times or by giving a start time and a duration (in HH:MM format). Use one or two dash(es) as the separator in the former case and use ‘+’ as the separator in the latter case, e.g.:

11am-1:15pm⇒ 11:00-13:15
11h-13h15⇒ same as above
11am--1:15pm⇒ same as above
11am+2:15⇒ same as above

Parallel to the minibuffer prompt, a calendar is popped up61. When you exit the date prompt, either by clicking on a date in the calendar, or by pressing RET, the date selected in the calendar is combined with the information entered at the prompt. You can control the calendar fully from the minibuffer:

RETChoose date at point in calendar.
mouse-1Select date by clicking on it.
S-RIGHTOne day forward.
S-LEFTOne day backward.
S-DOWNOne week forward.
S-UPOne week backward.
M-S-RIGHTOne month forward.
M-S-LEFTOne month backward.
>Scroll calendar forward by one month.
<Scroll calendar backward by one month.
M-vScroll calendar forward by 3 months.
C-vScroll calendar backward by 3 months.
C-.Select today’s date62

The actions of the date/time prompt may seem complex, but I assure you they will grow on you, and you will start getting annoyed by pretty much any other way of entering a date/time out there. To help you understand what is going on, the current interpretation of your input is displayed live in the minibuffer63.


8.2.2 Custom time format

Org mode uses the standard ISO notation for dates and times as it is defined in ISO 8601. If you cannot get used to this and require another representation of date and time to keep you happy, you can get it by customizing the variables org-display-custom-times and org-time-stamp-custom-formats.

C-c C-x C-t (org-toggle-time-stamp-overlays)

Toggle the display of custom formats for dates and times.

Org mode needs the default format for scanning, so the custom date/time format does not replace the default format. Instead, it is put over the default format using text properties. This has the following consequences:

  • You cannot place point onto a timestamp anymore, only before or after.
  • The S-UP and S-DOWN keys can no longer be used to adjust each component of a timestamp. If point is at the beginning of the stamp, S-UP and S-DOWN change the stamp by one day, just like S-LEFT S-RIGHT. At the end of the stamp, change the time by one minute.
  • If the timestamp contains a range of clock times or a repeater, these are not overlaid, but remain in the buffer as they were.
  • When you delete a timestamp character-by-character, it only disappears from the buffer after all (invisible) characters belonging to the ISO timestamp have been removed.
  • If the custom timestamp format is longer than the default and you are using dates in tables, table alignment will be messed up. If the custom format is shorter, things do work as expected.

8.3 Deadlines and Scheduling

A timestamp may be preceded by special keywords to facilitate planning. Both the timestamp and the keyword have to be positioned immediately after the task they refer to.

DEADLINE

Meaning: the task—most likely a TODO item, though not necessarily—is supposed to be finished on that date.

On the deadline date, the task is listed in the agenda. In addition, the agenda for today carries a warning about the approaching or missed deadline, starting org-deadline-warning-days before the due date, and continuing until the entry is marked as done. An example:

*** TODO write article about the Earth for the Guide
    DEADLINE: <2004-02-29 Sun>
    The editor in charge is [[bbdb:Ford Prefect]]

You can specify a different lead time for warnings for a specific deadlines using the following syntax. Here is an example with a warning period of 5 days ‘DEADLINE: <2004-02-29 Sun -5d>’. This warning is deactivated if the task gets scheduled and you set org-agenda-skip-deadline-prewarning-if-scheduled to t.

SCHEDULED

Meaning: you are planning to start working on that task on the given date.

The headline is listed under the given date64. In addition, a reminder that the scheduled date has passed is present in the compilation for today, until the entry is marked as done, i.e., the task is automatically forwarded until completed.

*** TODO Call Trillian for a date on New Years Eve.
    SCHEDULED: <2004-12-25 Sat>

If you want to delay the display of this task in the agenda, use ‘SCHEDULED: <2004-12-25 Sat -2d>’: the task is still scheduled on the 25th but will appear two days later. In case the task contains a repeater, the delay is considered to affect all occurrences; if you want the delay to only affect the first scheduled occurrence of the task, use ‘--2d’ instead. See org-scheduled-delay-days and org-agenda-skip-scheduled-delay-if-deadline for details on how to control this globally or per agenda.

Important: Scheduling an item in Org mode should not be understood in the same way that we understand scheduling a meeting. Setting a date for a meeting is just a simple appointment, you should mark this entry with a simple plain timestamp, to get this item shown on the date where it applies. This is a frequent misunderstanding by Org users. In Org mode, scheduling means setting a date when you want to start working on an action item.

You may use timestamps with repeaters in scheduling and deadline entries. Org mode issues early and late warnings based on the assumption that the timestamp represents the nearest instance of the repeater. However, the use of diary expression entries like

<%%(diary-float t 42)>

in scheduling and deadline timestamps is limited. Org mode does not know enough about the internals of each function to issue early and late warnings. However, it shows the item on each day where the expression entry matches.


8.3.1 Inserting deadlines or schedules

The following commands allow you to quickly insert a deadline or to schedule an item:65

C-c C-d (org-deadline)

Insert ‘DEADLINE’ keyword along with a stamp. The insertion happens in the line directly following the headline. Remove any ‘CLOSED’ timestamp . When called with a prefix argument, also remove any existing deadline from the entry. Depending on the variable org-log-redeadline, take a note when changing an existing deadline66.

C-c C-s (org-schedule)

Insert ‘SCHEDULED’ keyword along with a stamp. The insertion happens in the line directly following the headline. Remove any ‘CLOSED’ timestamp. When called with a prefix argument, also remove the scheduling date from the entry. Depending on the variable org-log-reschedule, take a note when changing an existing scheduling time67.

C-c / d (org-check-deadlines)

Create a sparse tree with all deadlines that are either past-due, or which will become due within org-deadline-warning-days. With C-u prefix, show all deadlines in the file. With a numeric prefix, check that many days. For example, C-1 C-c / d shows all deadlines due tomorrow.

C-c / b (org-check-before-date)

Sparse tree for deadlines and scheduled items before a given date.

C-c / a (org-check-after-date)

Sparse tree for deadlines and scheduled items after a given date.

Note that org-schedule and org-deadline supports setting the date by indicating a relative time e.g., ‘+1d’ sets the date to the next day after today, and ‘--1w’ sets the date to the previous week before any current timestamp.


8.3.2 Repeated tasks

Some tasks need to be repeated again and again. Org mode helps to organize such tasks using a so-called repeater in a ‘DEADLINE’, ‘SCHEDULED’, or plain timestamps68. In the following example:

** TODO Pay the rent
   DEADLINE: <2005-10-01 Sat +1m>

the ‘+1m’ is a repeater; the intended interpretation is that the task has a deadline on ‘<2005-10-01>’ and repeats itself every (one) month starting from that time. You can use yearly, monthly, weekly, daily and hourly repeat cookies by using the ‘y’, ‘m’, ‘w’, ‘d’ and ‘h’ letters. If you need both a repeater and a special warning period in a deadline entry, the repeater should come first and the warning period last

DEADLINE: <2005-10-01 Sat +1m -3d>

Deadlines and scheduled items produce entries in the agenda when they are over-due, so it is important to be able to mark such an entry as done once you have done so. When you mark a ‘DEADLINE’ or a ‘SCHEDULED’ with the TODO keyword ‘DONE’, it no longer produces entries in the agenda. The problem with this is, however, is that then also the next instance of the repeated entry will not be active. Org mode deals with this in the following way: when you try to mark such an entry as done, using C-c C-t, it shifts the base date of the repeating timestamp by the repeater interval, and immediately sets the entry state back to TODO69. In the example above, setting the state to ‘DONE’ would actually switch the date like this:

** TODO Pay the rent
   DEADLINE: <2005-11-01 Tue +1m>

To mark a task with a repeater as DONE, use C-- 1 C-c C-t, i.e., org-todo with a numeric prefix argument of ‘-1’.

A timestamp70 is added under the deadline, to keep a record that you actually acted on the previous instance of this deadline.

As a consequence of shifting the base date, this entry is no longer visible in the agenda when checking past dates, but all future instances will be visible.

With the ‘+1m’ cookie, the date shift is always exactly one month. So if you have not paid the rent for three months, marking this entry DONE still keeps it as an overdue deadline. Depending on the task, this may not be the best way to handle it. For example, if you forgot to call your father for 3 weeks, it does not make sense to call him 3 times in a single day to make up for it. Finally, there are tasks, like changing batteries, which should always repeat a certain time after the last time you did it. For these tasks, Org mode has special repeaters ‘++’ and ‘.+’. For example:

** TODO Call Father
   DEADLINE: <2008-02-10 Sun ++1w>
   Marking this DONE shifts the date by at least one week, but also
   by as many weeks as it takes to get this date into the future.
   However, it stays on a Sunday, even if you called and marked it
   done on Saturday.

** TODO Empty kitchen trash
   DEADLINE: <2008-02-08 Fri 20:00 ++1d>
   Marking this DONE shifts the date by at least one day, and also
   by as many days as it takes to get the timestamp into the future.
   Since there is a time in the timestamp, the next deadline in the
   future will be on today's date if you complete the task before
   20:00.

** TODO Check the batteries in the smoke detectors
   DEADLINE: <2005-11-01 Tue .+1m>
   Marking this DONE shifts the date to one month after today.

** TODO Wash my hands
   DEADLINE: <2019-04-05 08:00 Fri .+1h>
   Marking this DONE shifts the date to exactly one hour from now.

You may have both scheduling and deadline information for a specific task. If the repeater is set for the scheduling information only, you probably want the repeater to be ignored after the deadline. If so, set the variable org-agenda-skip-scheduled-if-deadline-is-shown to repeated-after-deadline. However, any scheduling information without a repeater is no longer relevant once the task is done, and thus, removed upon repeating the task. If you want both scheduling and deadline information to repeat after the same interval, set the same repeater for both timestamps.

An alternative to using a repeater is to create a number of copies of a task subtree, with dates shifted in each copy. The command C-c C-x c was created for this purpose; it is described in Structure Editing.


8.4 Clocking Work Time

Org mode allows you to clock the time you spend on specific tasks in a project. When you start working on an item, you can start the clock. When you stop working on that task, or when you mark the task done, the clock is stopped and the corresponding time interval is recorded. It also computes the total time spent on each subtree71 of a project. And it remembers a history or tasks recently clocked, so that you can jump quickly between a number of tasks absorbing your time.

To save the clock history across Emacs sessions, use:

(setq org-clock-persist 'history)
(org-clock-persistence-insinuate)

When you clock into a new task after resuming Emacs, the incomplete clock72 is retrieved (see Resolving idle time (1)) and you are prompted about what to do with it.


8.4.1 Clocking commands

C-c C-x C-i (org-clock-in)

Start the clock on the current item (clock-in). This inserts the ‘CLOCK’ keyword together with a timestamp. If this is not the first clocking of this item, the multiple ‘CLOCK’ lines are wrapped into a ‘LOGBOOK’ drawer (see also the variable org-clock-into-drawer). You can also overrule the setting of this variable for a subtree by setting a ‘CLOCK_INTO_DRAWER’ or ‘LOG_INTO_DRAWER’ property. When called with a C-u prefix argument, select the task from a list of recently clocked tasks. With two C-u C-u prefixes, clock into the task at point and mark it as the default task; the default task is always be available with letter d when selecting a clocking task. With three C-u C-u C-u prefixes, force continuous clocking by starting the clock when the last clock stopped.

While the clock is running, Org shows the current clocking time in the mode line, along with the title of the task. The clock time shown is all time ever clocked for this task and its children. If the task has an effort estimate (see Effort Estimates), the mode line displays the current clocking time against it73. If the task is a repeating one (see Repeated tasks), show only the time since the last reset of the task74. You can exercise more control over show time with the ‘CLOCK_MODELINE_TOTAL’ property. It may have the values ‘current’ to show only the current clocking instance, ‘today’ to show all time clocked on this tasks today—see also the variable org-extend-today-until, all to include all time, or auto which is the default75. Clicking with mouse-1 onto the mode line entry pops up a menu with clocking options.

C-c C-x C-o (org-clock-out)

Stop the clock (clock-out). This inserts another timestamp at the same location where the clock was last started. It also directly computes the resulting time in inserts it after the time range as ‘=>HH:MM’. See the variable org-log-note-clock-out for the possibility to record an additional note together with the clock-out timestamp76.

C-c C-x C-x (org-clock-in-last)

Re-clock the last clocked task. With one C-u prefix argument, select the task from the clock history. With two C-u prefixes, force continuous clocking by starting the clock when the last clock stopped.

C-c C-x C-e (org-clock-modify-effort-estimate)

Update the effort estimate for the current clock task.

C-c C-c or C-c C-y (org-evaluate-time-range)

Recompute the time interval after changing one of the timestamps. This is only necessary if you edit the timestamps directly. If you change them with S-<cursor> keys, the update is automatic.

C-S-UP (org-clock-timestamps-up)
C-S-DOWN (org-clock-timestamps-down)

On CLOCK log lines, increase/decrease both timestamps so that the clock duration keeps the same value.

S-M-UP (org-timestamp-up)
S-M-DOWN (org-timestamp-down)

On ‘CLOCK’ log lines, increase/decrease the timestamp at point and the one of the previous, or the next, clock timestamp by the same duration. For example, if you hit S-M-UP to increase a clocked-out timestamp by five minutes, then the clocked-in timestamp of the next clock is increased by five minutes.

C-c C-t (org-todo)

Changing the TODO state of an item to DONE automatically stops the clock if it is running in this same item.

C-c C-x C-q (org-clock-cancel)

Cancel the current clock. This is useful if a clock was started by mistake, or if you ended up working on something else.

C-c C-x C-j (org-clock-goto)

Jump to the headline of the currently clocked in task. With a C-u prefix argument, select the target task from a list of recently clocked tasks.

C-c C-x C-d (org-clock-display)

Display time summaries for each subtree in the current buffer. This puts overlays at the end of each headline, showing the total time recorded under that heading, including the time of any subheadings. You can use visibility cycling to study the tree, but the overlays disappear when you change the buffer (see variable org-remove-highlights-with-change) or press C-c C-c.

The l key may be used in the agenda (see Weekly/daily agenda) to show which tasks have been worked on or closed during a day.

Important: note that both org-clock-out and org-clock-in-last can have a global keybinding and do not modify the window disposition.


8.4.2 The clock table

Org mode can produce quite complex reports based on the time clocking information. Such a report is called a clock table, because it is formatted as one or several Org tables.

org-clock-report

Insert or update a clock table. When called with a prefix argument, jump to the first clock table in the current document and update it. The clock table includes archived trees.

This command can be invoked by calling org-dynamic-block-insert-dblock (C-c C-x x) and selecting “clocktable” (see Dynamic Blocks).

C-c C-c or C-c C-x C-u (org-dblock-update)

Update dynamic block at point. Point needs to be in the ‘BEGIN’ line of the dynamic block.

C-u C-c C-x C-u

Update all dynamic blocks (see Dynamic Blocks). This is useful if you have several clock table blocks in a buffer.

S-LEFT
S-RIGHT (org-clocktable-try-shift)

Shift the current ‘:block’ interval and update the table. Point needs to be in the ‘#+BEGIN: clocktable’ line for this command. If ‘:block’ is ‘today’, it is shifted to ‘today-1’, etc.

Here is an example of the frame for a clock table as it is inserted into the buffer by org-clock-report:

#+BEGIN: clocktable :maxlevel 2 :emphasize nil :scope file
#+END:

The ‘#+BEGIN’ line contains options to define the scope, structure, and formatting of the report. Defaults for all these options can be configured in the variable org-clocktable-defaults.

First there are options that determine which clock entries are to be selected:

:maxlevel

Maximum level depth to which times are listed in the table. Clocks at deeper levels are summed into the upper level.

:scope

The scope to consider. This can be any of the following:

nilthe current buffer or narrowed region
filethe full current buffer
subtreethe subtree where the clocktable is located
treeNthe surrounding level N tree, for example ‘tree3
treethe surrounding level 1 tree
agendaall agenda files
("file" ...)scan these files
FUNCTIONscan files returned by calling FUNCTION with no argument
file-with-archivescurrent file and its archives
agenda-with-archivesall agenda files, including archives
:block

The time block to consider. This block is specified either absolutely, or relative to the current time and may be any of these formats:

2007-12-31New year eve 2007
2007-12December 2007
2007-W50ISO-week 50 in 2007
2007-Q22nd quarter in 2007
2007the year 2007
today’, ‘yesterday’, ‘today-Na relative day
thisweek’, ‘lastweek’, ‘thisweek-Na relative week
thismonth’, ‘lastmonth’, ‘thismonth-Na relative month
thisyear’, ‘lastyear’, ‘thisyear-Na relative year
untilnow77all clocked time ever

When this option is not set, Org falls back to the value in org-clock-display-default-range, which defaults to the current year.

Use S-LEFT or S-RIGHT to shift the time interval.

:tstart

A time string specifying when to start considering times. Relative times like ‘"<-2w>"’ can also be used. See Matching tags and properties for relative time syntax.

:tend

A time string specifying when to stop considering times. Relative times like ‘"<now>"’ can also be used. See Matching tags and properties for relative time syntax.

:wstart

The starting day of the week. The default is 1 for Monday.

:mstart

The starting day of the month. The default is 1 for the first.

:step

Set to ‘day’, ‘week’, ‘semimonth’, ‘month’, ‘quarter’, or ‘year’ to split the table into chunks. To use this, either ‘:block’, or ‘:tstart’ and ‘:tend’ are required.

:stepskip0

When non-nil, do not show steps that have zero time.

:fileskip0

When non-nil, do not show table sections from files which did not contribute.

:match

A tags match to select entries that should contribute. See Matching tags and properties for the match syntax.

Then there are options that determine the formatting of the table. There options are interpreted by the function org-clocktable-write-default, but you can specify your own function using the ‘:formatter’ parameter.

:emphasize

When non-nil, emphasize level one and level two items.

:lang

Language78 to use for descriptive cells like “Task”.

:link

Link the item headlines in the table to their origins.

:narrow

An integer to limit the width of the headline column in the Org table. If you write it like ‘50!’, then the headline is also shortened in export.

:indent

Indent each headline field according to its level.

:filetitle

Show title in the file column if the file has a ‘#+title’.

:hidefiles

Hide the file column when multiple files are used to produce the table.

:tcolumns

Number of columns to be used for times. If this is smaller than ‘:maxlevel’, lower levels are lumped into one column.

:level

Should a level number column be included?

:sort

A cons cell containing the column to sort and a sorting type. E.g., ‘:sort (1 . ?a)’ sorts the first column alphabetically.

:compact

Abbreviation for ‘:level nil :indent t :narrow 40! :tcolumns 1’. All are overwritten except if there is an explicit ‘:narrow’.

:timestamp

A timestamp for the entry, when available. Look for ‘SCHEDULED’, ‘DEADLINE’, ‘TIMESTAMP’ and ‘TIMESTAMP_IA’ special properties (see Special Properties), in this order.

:tags

When this flag is non-nil, show the headline’s tags.

:properties

List of properties shown in the table. Each property gets its own column.

:inherit-props

When this flag is non-nil, the values for ‘:properties’ are inherited.

:formula

Content of a ‘TBLFM’ keyword to be added and evaluated. As a special case, ‘:formula %’ adds a column with % time. If you do not specify a formula here, any existing formula below the clock table survives updates and is evaluated.

:formatter

A function to format clock data and insert it into the buffer.

To get a clock summary of the current level 1 tree, for the current day, you could write:

#+BEGIN: clocktable :maxlevel 2 :block today :scope tree1 :link t
#+END:

To use a specific time range you could write79

#+BEGIN: clocktable :tstart "<2006-08-10 Thu 10:00>"
                    :tend "<2006-08-10 Thu 12:00>"
#+END:

A range starting a week ago and ending right now could be written as

#+BEGIN: clocktable :tstart "<-1w>" :tend "<now>"
#+END:

A summary of the current subtree with % times would be

#+BEGIN: clocktable :scope subtree :link t :formula %
#+END:

A horizontally compact representation of everything clocked during last week would be

#+BEGIN: clocktable :scope agenda :block lastweek :compact t
#+END:

8.4.3 Resolving idle time and continuous clocking

Resolving idle time

If you clock in on a work item, and then walk away from your computer—perhaps to take a phone call—you often need to “resolve” the time you were away by either subtracting it from the current clock, or applying it to another one.

By customizing the variable org-clock-idle-time to some integer, such as 10 or 15, Emacs can alert you when you get back to your computer after being idle for that many minutes80, and ask what you want to do with the idle time. There will be a question waiting for you when you get back, indicating how much idle time has passed constantly updated with the current amount, as well as a set of choices to correct the discrepancy:

k

To keep some or all of the minutes and stay clocked in, press k. Org asks how many of the minutes to keep. Press RET to keep them all, effectively changing nothing, or enter a number to keep that many minutes.

K

If you use the shift key and press K, it keeps however many minutes you request and then immediately clock out of that task. If you keep all of the minutes, this is the same as just clocking out of the current task.

s

To keep none of the minutes, use s to subtract all the away time from the clock, and then check back in from the moment you returned.

S

To keep none of the minutes and just clock out at the start of the away time, use the shift key and press S. Remember that using shift always leave you clocked out, no matter which option you choose.

C

To cancel the clock altogether, use C. Note that if instead of canceling you subtract the away time, and the resulting clock amount is less than a minute, the clock is still canceled rather than cluttering up the log with an empty entry.

What if you subtracted those away minutes from the current clock, and now want to apply them to a new clock? Simply clock in to any task immediately after the subtraction. Org will notice that you have subtracted time “on the books”, so to speak, and will ask if you want to apply those minutes to the next task you clock in on.

There is one other instance when this clock resolution magic occurs. Say you were clocked in and hacking away, and suddenly your cat chased a mouse who scared a hamster that crashed into your UPS’s power button! You suddenly lose all your buffers, but thanks to auto-save you still have your recent Org mode changes, including your last clock in.

If you restart Emacs and clock into any task, Org will notice that you have a dangling clock which was never clocked out from your last session. Using that clock’s starting time as the beginning of the unaccounted-for period, Org will ask how you want to resolve that time. The logic and behavior is identical to dealing with away time due to idleness; it is just happening due to a recovery event rather than a set amount of idle time.

You can also check all the files visited by your Org agenda for dangling clocks at any time using M-x org-resolve-clocks RET (or C-c C-x C-z).

Continuous clocking

You may want to start clocking from the time when you clocked out the previous task. To enable this systematically, set org-clock-continuously to non-nil. Each time you clock in, Org retrieves the clock-out time of the last clocked entry for this session, and start the new clock from there.

If you only want this from time to time, use three universal prefix arguments with org-clock-in and two C-u C-u with org-clock-in-last.

Clocking out automatically after some idle time

When you often forget to clock out before being idle and you don’t want to manually set the clocking time to take into account, you can set org-clock-auto-clockout-timer to a number of seconds and add ‘(org-clock-auto-clockout-insinuate)’ to your ‘.emacs’ file.

When the clock is running and Emacs is idle for more than this number of seconds, the clock will be clocked out automatically.

Use ‘M-x org-clock-toggle-auto-clockout RET’ to temporarily turn this on or off.


8.5 Effort Estimates

If you want to plan your work in a very detailed way, or if you need to produce offers with quotations of the estimated work effort, you may want to assign effort estimates to entries. If you are also clocking your work, you may later want to compare the planned effort with the actual working time, a great way to improve planning estimates.

Effort estimates are stored in a special property ‘EFFORT’. Multiple formats are supported, such as ‘3:12’, ‘1:23:45’, or ‘1d3h5min’; see the file ‘org-duration.el’ for more detailed information about the format.

You can set the effort for an entry with the following commands:

C-c C-x e (org-set-effort)

Set the effort estimate for the current entry. With a prefix argument, set it to the next allowed value—see below. This command is also accessible from the agenda with the e key.

C-c C-x C-e (org-clock-modify-effort-estimate)

Modify the effort estimate of the item currently being clocked.

Clearly the best way to work with effort estimates is through column view (see Column View). You should start by setting up discrete values for effort estimates, and a ‘COLUMNS’ format that displays these values together with clock sums—if you want to clock your time. For a specific buffer you can use:

#+PROPERTY: Effort_ALL 0 0:10 0:30 1:00 2:00 3:00 4:00 5:00 6:00 7:00
#+COLUMNS: %40ITEM(Task) %17Effort(Estimated Effort){:} %CLOCKSUM

or, even better, you can set up these values globally by customizing the variables org-global-properties and org-columns-default-format. In particular if you want to use this setup also in the agenda, a global setup may be advised.

The way to assign estimates to individual items is then to switch to column mode, and to use S-RIGHT and S-LEFT to change the value. The values you enter are immediately summed up in the hierarchy. In the column next to it, any clocked time is displayed.

If you switch to column view in the daily/weekly agenda, the effort column summarizes the estimated work effort for each day81, and you can use this to find space in your schedule. To get an overview of the entire part of the day that is committed, you can set the option org-agenda-columns-add-appointments-to-effort-sum. The appointments on a day that take place over a specified time interval are then also added to the load estimate of the day.

Effort estimates can be used in secondary agenda filtering that is triggered with the / key in the agenda (see Commands in the Agenda Buffer). If you have these estimates defined consistently, two or three key presses narrow down the list to stuff that fits into an available time slot.


8.6 Taking Notes with a Relative Timer

Org provides two types of timers. There is a relative timer that counts up, which can be useful when taking notes during, for example, a meeting or a video viewing. There is also a countdown timer.

The relative and countdown are started with separate commands.

C-c C-x 0 (org-timer-start)

Start or reset the relative timer. By default, the timer is set to 0. When called with a C-u prefix, prompt the user for a starting offset. The prompt will default to a timer string at point (if any), providing a convenient way to restart taking notes after a break in the process. When called with a double prefix argument C-u C-u, change all timer strings in the active region by a certain amount. This can be used to fix timer strings if the timer was not started at exactly the right moment.

C-c C-x ; (org-timer-set-timer)

Start a countdown timer. The user is prompted for a duration. org-timer-default-timer sets the default countdown value. Giving a numeric prefix argument overrides this default value. This command is available as ; in agenda buffers.

Once started, relative and countdown timers are controlled with the same commands.

C-c C-x . (org-timer)

Insert a relative time into the buffer. The first time you use this, the timer starts. Using a prefix argument restarts it.

C-c C-x - (org-timer-item)

Insert a description list item with the current relative time. With a prefix argument, first reset the timer to 0.

M-RET (org-insert-heading)

Once the timer list is started, you can also use M-RET to insert new timer items.

C-c C-x , (org-timer-pause-or-continue)

Pause the timer, or continue it if it is already paused.

C-c C-x _ (org-timer-stop)

Stop the timer. After this, you can only start a new timer, not continue the old one. This command also removes the timer from the mode line.


9 Refiling and Archiving

Once information is in the system, it may need to be moved around. Org provides Refile, Copy and Archive commands for this. Refile and Copy helps with moving and copying outlines. Archiving helps to keep the system compact and fast.


9.1 Refile and Copy

When reviewing the captured data, you may want to refile or to copy some of the entries into a different list, for example into a project. Cutting, finding the right location, and then pasting the note is cumbersome. To simplify this process, you can use the following special command:

C-c C-w (org-refile)

Refile the entry or region at point. This command offers possible locations for refiling the entry and lets you select one with completion. The item (or all items in the region) is filed below the target heading as a subitem. Depending on org-reverse-note-order, it is either the first or last subitem.

By default, all level 1 headlines in the current buffer are considered to be targets, but you can have more complex definitions across a number of files. See the variable org-refile-targets for details. If you would like to select a location via a file-path-like completion along the outline path, see the variables org-refile-use-outline-path and org-outline-path-complete-in-steps. If you would like to be able to create new nodes as new parents for refiling on the fly, check the variable org-refile-allow-creating-parent-nodes. When the variable org-log-refile82 is set, a timestamp or a note is recorded whenever an entry is refiled.

C-u C-c C-w

Use the refile interface to jump to a heading.

C-u C-u C-c C-w (org-refile-goto-last-stored)

Jump to the location where org-refile last moved a tree to.

C-2 C-c C-w

Refile as the child of the item currently being clocked.

C-3 C-c C-w

Refile and keep the entry in place. Also see org-refile-keep to make this the default behavior, and beware that this may result in duplicated ‘ID’ properties.

C-0 C-c C-w or C-u C-u C-u C-c C-w (org-refile-cache-clear)

Clear the target cache. Caching of refile targets can be turned on by setting org-refile-use-cache. To make the command see new possible targets, you have to clear the cache with this command.

C-c M-w (org-refile-copy)

Copying works like refiling, except that the original note is not deleted.

C-c C-M-w (org-refile-reverse)

Works like refiling, except that it temporarily toggles how the value of org-reverse-note-order applies to the current buffer. So if org-refile would append the entry as the last entry under the target header, org-refile-reverse will prepend it as the first entry, and vice-versa.


9.2 Archiving

When a project represented by a (sub)tree is finished, you may want to move the tree out of the way and to stop it from contributing to the agenda. Archiving is important to keep your working files compact and global searches like the construction of agenda views fast.

C-c C-x C-a (org-archive-subtree-default)

Archive the current entry using the command specified in the variable org-archive-default-command.


9.2.1 Moving a tree to an archive file

The most common archiving action is to move a project tree to another file, the archive file.

C-c C-x C-s or short C-c $ (org-archive-subtree)

Archive the subtree starting at point position to the location given by org-archive-location.

C-u C-c C-x C-s

Check if any direct children of the current headline could be moved to the archive. To do this, check each subtree for open TODO entries. If none is found, the command offers to move it to the archive location. If point is not on a headline when this command is invoked, check level 1 trees.

C-u C-u C-c C-x C-s

As above, but check subtree for timestamps instead of TODO entries. The command offers to archive the subtree if it does contain a timestamp, and that timestamp is in the past.

The default archive location is a file in the same directory as the current file, with the name derived by appending ‘_archive’ to the current file name. You can also choose what heading to file archived items under, with the possibility to add them to a datetree in a file. For information and examples on how to specify the file and the heading, see the documentation string of the variable org-archive-location.

There is also an in-buffer option for setting this variable, for example:

#+ARCHIVE: %s_done::

If you would like to have a special archive location for a single entry or a (sub)tree, give the entry an ‘ARCHIVE’ property with the location as the value (see Properties and Columns).

When a subtree is moved, it receives a number of special properties that record context information like the file from where the entry came, its outline path the archiving time etc. Configure the variable org-archive-save-context-info to adjust the amount of information added.

When org-archive-subtree-save-file-p is non-nil, save the target archive buffer.


9.2.2 Internal archiving

If you want to just switch off—for agenda views—certain subtrees without moving them to a different file, you can use the ‘ARCHIVE’ tag.

A headline that is marked with the ‘ARCHIVE’ tag (see Tags) stays at its location in the outline tree, but behaves in the following way:

  • It does not open when you attempt to do so with a visibility cycling command (see Visibility Cycling). You can force cycling archived subtrees with C-c C-TAB, or by setting the option org-cycle-open-archived-trees. Also normal outline commands, like org-show-all, open archived subtrees.
  • During sparse tree construction (see Sparse Trees), matches in archived subtrees are not exposed, unless you configure the option org-sparse-tree-open-archived-trees.
  • During agenda view construction (see Agenda Views), the content of archived trees is ignored unless you configure the option org-agenda-skip-archived-trees, in which case these trees are always included. In the agenda you can press v a to get archives temporarily included.
  • Archived trees are not exported (see Exporting), only the headline is. Configure the details using the variable org-export-with-archived-trees.
  • Archived trees are excluded from column view unless the variable org-columns-skip-archived-trees is configured to nil.

The following commands help manage the ‘ARCHIVE’ tag:

C-c C-x a (org-toggle-archive-tag)

Toggle the archive tag for the current headline. When the tag is set, the headline changes to a shadowed face, and the subtree below it is hidden.

C-u C-c C-x a

Check if any direct children of the current headline should be archived. To do this, check each subtree for open TODO entries. If none is found, the command offers to set the ‘ARCHIVE’ tag for the child. If point is not on a headline when this command is invoked, check the level 1 trees.

C-c C-TAB (org-cycle-force-archived)

Cycle a tree even if it is tagged with ‘ARCHIVE’.

C-c C-x A (org-archive-to-archive-sibling)

Move the current entry to the Archive Sibling. This is a sibling of the entry with the heading ‘Archive’ and the archive tag. The entry becomes a child of that sibling and in this way retains a lot of its original context, including inherited tags and approximate position in the outline.


10 Capture and Attachments

An important part of any organization system is the ability to quickly capture new ideas and tasks, and to associate reference material with them. Org does this using a process called capture. It also can store files related to a task (attachments) in a special directory. Finally, it can parse RSS feeds for information. To learn how to let external programs (for example a web browser) trigger Org to capture material, see Protocols for External Access.


10.1 Capture

Capture lets you quickly store notes with little interruption of your work flow. Org’s method for capturing new items is heavily inspired by John Wiegley’s excellent Remember package.


10.1.1 Setting up capture

The following customization sets a default target file for notes.

(setq org-default-notes-file (concat org-directory "/notes.org"))

You may also define a global key for capturing new material (see Activation).


10.1.2 Using capture

M-x org-capture (org-capture)

Display the capture templates menu. If you have templates defined (see Capture templates), it offers these templates for selection or use a new Org outline node as the default template. It inserts the template into the target file and switch to an indirect buffer narrowed to this new node. You may then insert the information you want.

C-c C-c (org-capture-finalize)

Once you have finished entering information into the capture buffer, C-c C-c returns you to the window configuration before the capture process, so that you can resume your work without further distraction. When called with a prefix argument, finalize and then jump to the captured item.

C-c C-w (org-capture-refile)

Finalize the capture process by refiling the note to a different place (see Refile and Copy). Please realize that this is a normal refiling command that will be executed—so point position at the moment you run this command is important. If you have inserted a tree with a parent and children, first move point back to the parent. Any prefix argument given to this command is passed on to the org-refile command.

C-c C-k (org-capture-kill)

Abort the capture process and return to the previous state.

You can also call org-capture in a special way from the agenda, using the k c key combination. With this access, any timestamps inserted by the selected capture template defaults to the date at point in the agenda, rather than to the current date.

To find the locations of the last stored capture, use org-capture with prefix commands:

C-u M-x org-capture

Visit the target location of a capture template. You get to select the template in the usual way.

C-u C-u M-x org-capture

Visit the last stored capture item in its buffer.

You can also jump to the bookmark org-capture-last-stored, which is automatically created unless you set org-capture-bookmark to nil.

To insert the capture at point in an Org buffer, call org-capture with a C-0 prefix argument.


10.1.3 Capture templates

You can use templates for different types of capture items, and for different target locations. The easiest way to create such templates is through the customize interface.

C

Customize the variable org-capture-templates.

Before we give the formal description of template definitions, let’s look at an example. Say you would like to use one template to create general TODO entries, and you want to put these entries under the heading ‘Tasks’ in your file ‘~/org/gtd.org’. Also, a date tree in the file ‘journal.org’ should capture journal entries. A possible configuration would look like:

(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")))

If you then press t from the capture menu, Org will prepare the template for you like this:

* TODO
  [[file:LINK TO WHERE YOU INITIATED CAPTURE]]

During expansion of the template, ‘%a’ has been replaced by a link to the location from where you called the capture command. This can be extremely useful for deriving tasks from emails, for example. You fill in the task definition, press C-c C-c and Org returns you to the same place where you started the capture process.

To define special keys to capture to a particular template without going through the interactive template selection, you can create your key binding like this:

(define-key global-map (kbd "C-c x")
  (lambda () (interactive) (org-capture nil "x")))

10.1.3.1 Template elements

Now lets look at the elements of a template definition. Each entry in org-capture-templates is a list with the following items:

keys

The keys that selects the template, as a string, characters only, for example ‘"a"’, for a template to be selected with a single key, or ‘"bt"’ for selection with two keys. When using several keys, keys using the same prefix key must be sequential in the list and preceded by a 2-element entry explaining the prefix key, for example:

("b" "Templates for marking stuff to buy")

If you do not define a template for the C key, this key opens the Customize buffer for this complex variable.

description

A short string describing the template, shown during selection.

type

The type of entry, a symbol. Valid values are:

entry

An Org mode node, with a headline. Will be filed as the child of the target entry or as a top-level entry. The target file should be an Org file.

item

A plain list item, placed in the first plain list at the target location. Again the target file should be an Org file.

checkitem

A checkbox item. This only differs from the plain list item by the default template.

table-line

A new line in the first table at the target location. Where exactly the line will be inserted depends on the properties :prepend and :table-line-pos (see below).

plain

Text to be inserted as it is.

target

Specification of where the captured item should be placed. In Org files, targets usually define a node. Entries will become children of this node. Other types will be added to the table or list in the body of this node. Most target specifications contain a file name. If that file name is the empty string, it defaults to org-default-notes-file. A file can also be given as a variable or as a function called with no argument. When an absolute path is not specified for a target, it is taken as relative to org-directory.

Valid values are:

(file "path/to/file")

Text will be placed at the beginning or end of that file.

(id "id of existing org entry")

Filing as child of this entry, or in the body of the entry.

(file+headline "filename" "node headline")

Fast configuration if the target heading is unique in the file.

(file+olp "filename" "Level 1 heading" "Level 2" ...)

For non-unique headings, the full path is safer.

(file+regexp "filename" "regexp to find location")

Use a regular expression to position point.

(file+olp+datetree "filename" [ "Level 1 heading" ...])

This target83 creates a heading in a date tree84 for today’s date. If the optional outline path is given, the tree will be built under the node it is pointing to, instead of at top level. Check out the :time-prompt and :tree-type properties below for additional options.

(file+function "filename" function-finding-location)

A function to find the right location in the file.

(clock)

File to the entry that is currently being clocked.

(function function-finding-location)

Most general way: write your own function which both visits the file and moves point to the right location.

template

The template for creating the capture item. If you leave this empty, an appropriate default template will be used. Otherwise this is a string with escape codes, which will be replaced depending on time and context of the capture call. You may also get this template string from a file85, or dynamically, from a function using either syntax:

(file "/path/to/template-file")
(function FUNCTION-RETURNING-THE-TEMPLATE)
properties

The rest of the entry is a property list of additional options. Recognized properties are:

:prepend

Normally new captured information will be appended at the target location (last child, last table line, last list item, …). Setting this property changes that.

:immediate-finish

When set, do not offer to edit the information, just file it away immediately. This makes sense if the template only needs information that can be added automatically.

:jump-to-captured

When set, jump to the captured entry when finished.

:empty-lines

Set this to the number of lines to insert before and after the new item. Default 0, and the only other common value is 1.

:empty-lines-after

Set this to the number of lines that should be inserted after the new item. Overrides :empty-lines for the number of lines inserted after.

:empty-lines-before

Set this to the number of lines that should be inserted before the new item. Overrides :empty-lines for the number lines inserted before.

:clock-in

Start the clock in this item.

:clock-keep

Keep the clock running when filing the captured entry.

:clock-resume

If starting the capture interrupted a clock, restart that clock when finished with the capture. Note that :clock-keep has precedence over :clock-resume. When setting both to non-nil, the current clock will run and the previous one will not be resumed.

:time-prompt

Prompt for a date/time to be used for date/week trees and when filling the template. Without this property, capture uses the current date and time. Even if this property has not been set, you can force the same behavior by calling org-capture with a C-1 prefix argument.

:tree-type

Use week to make a week tree instead of the month-day tree, i.e., place the headings for each day under a heading with the current ISO week. Use month to group entries by month only. Default is to group entries by day.

:unnarrowed

Do not narrow the target buffer, simply show the full buffer. Default is to narrow it so that you only see the new material.

:table-line-pos

Specification of the location in the table where the new line should be inserted. It should be a string like ‘II-3’ meaning that the new line should become the third line before the second horizontal separator line.

:kill-buffer

If the target file was not yet visited when capture was invoked, kill the buffer again after capture is completed.

:no-save

Do not save the target file after finishing the capture.

:refile-targets

Temporarily set org-refile-targets to the value of this property.

:hook

A nullary function or list of nullary functions run before org-capture-mode-hook when the template is selected.

:prepare-finalize

A nullary function or list of nullary functions run before org-capture-prepare-finalize-hook when the template is selected.

:before-finalize

A nullary function or list of nullary functions run before org-capture-before-finalize-hook when the template is selected.

:after-finalize

A nullary function or list of nullary functions run before org-capture-after-finalize-hook when the template is selected.


10.1.3.2 Template expansion

In the template itself, special “%-escapes”86 allow dynamic insertion of content. The templates are expanded in the order given here:

%[FILE]

Insert the contents of the file given by FILE.

%(EXP)

Evaluate Elisp expression EXP and replace it with the result. The EXP form must return a string. Only placeholders pre-existing within the template, or introduced with ‘%[file]’, are expanded this way. Since this happens after expanding non-interactive “%-escapes”, those can be used to fill the expression.

%<FORMAT>

The result of format-time-string on the FORMAT specification.

%t

Timestamp, date only.

%T

Timestamp, with date and time.

%u’, ‘%U

Like ‘%t’, ‘%T’ above, but inactive timestamps.

%i

Initial content, the region when capture is called while the region is active. If there is text before ‘%i’ on the same line, such as indentation, and ‘%i’ is not inside a ‘%(exp)’ form, that prefix is added before every line in the inserted text.

%a

Annotation, normally the link created with org-store-link.

%A

Like ‘%a’, but prompt for the description part.

%l

Like ‘%a’, but only insert the literal link.

%L

Like ‘%l’, but without brackets (the link content itself).

%c

Current kill ring head.

%x

Content of the X clipboard.

%k

Title of the currently clocked task.

%K

Link to the currently clocked task.

%n

User name (taken from user-full-name).

%f

File visited by current buffer when org-capture was called.

%F

Full path of the file or directory visited by current buffer.

%:keyword

Specific information for certain link types, see below.

%^g

Prompt for tags, with completion on tags in target file.

%^G

Prompt for tags, with completion all tags in all agenda files.

%^t

Like ‘%t’, but prompt for date. Similarly ‘%^T’, ‘%^u’, ‘%^U’. You may define a prompt like ‘%^{Birthday}t’.

%^C

Interactive selection of which kill or clip to use.

%^L

Like ‘%^C’, but insert as link.

%^{PROP}p

Prompt the user for a value for property PROP. You may specify a default value with ‘%^{PROP|default}’.

%^{PROMPT}

Prompt the user for a string and replace this sequence with it. You may specify a default value and a completion table with ‘%^{prompt|default|completion2|completion3...}’. The arrow keys access a prompt-specific history.

%\N

Insert the text entered at the Nth ‘%^{PROMPT}’, where N is a number, starting from 1.

%?

After completing the template, position point here.

For specific link types, the following keywords are defined87:

Link typeAvailable keywords
bbdb%:name’, ‘%:company
irc%:server’, ‘%:port’, ‘%:nick
mh, rmail%:type’, ‘%:subject’, ‘%:message-id
%:from’, ‘%:fromname’, ‘%:fromaddress
%:to’, ‘%:toname’, ‘%:toaddress
%:date’ (message date header field)
%:date-timestamp’ (date as active timestamp)
%:date-timestamp-inactive’ (date as inactive timestamp)
%:fromto’ (either “to NAME” or “from NAME”)88
gnus%:group’, for messages also all email fields
w3, w3m%:url
info%:file’, ‘%:node
calendar%:date
org-protocol%:link’, ‘%:description’, ‘%:annotation

10.1.3.3 Templates in contexts

To control whether a capture template should be accessible from a specific context, you can customize org-capture-templates-contexts. Let’s say, for example, that you have a capture template “p” for storing Gnus emails containing patches. Then you would configure this option like this:

(setq org-capture-templates-contexts
      '(("p" ((in-mode . "message-mode")))))

You can also tell that the command key p should refer to another template. In that case, add this command key like this:

(setq org-capture-templates-contexts
      '(("p" "q" ((in-mode . "message-mode")))))

See the docstring of the variable for more information.


10.2 Attachments

It is often useful to associate reference material with an outline node. Small chunks of plain text can simply be stored in the subtree of a project. Hyperlinks (see Hyperlinks) can establish associations with files that live elsewhere on a local, or even remote, computer, like emails or source code files belonging to a project.

Another method is attachments, which are files located in a directory belonging to an outline node. Org uses directories either named by a unique ID of each entry, or by a ‘DIR’ property.


10.2.1 Attachment defaults and dispatcher

By default, Org attach uses ID properties when adding attachments to outline nodes. This makes working with attachments fully automated. There is no decision needed for folder-name or location. ID-based directories are by default located in the ‘data/’ directory, which lives in the same directory where your Org file lives89.

When attachments are made using org-attach a default tag ‘ATTACH’ is added to the node that gets the attachments.

For more control over the setup, see Attachment options.

The following commands deal with attachments:

C-c C-a (org-attach)

The dispatcher for commands related to the attachment system. After these keys, a list of commands is displayed and you must press an additional key to select a command:

a (org-attach-attach)

Select a file and move it into the task’s attachment directory. The file is copied, moved, or linked, depending on org-attach-method. Note that hard links are not supported on all systems.

c/m/l

Attach a file using the copy/move/link method. Note that hard links are not supported on all systems.

b (org-attach-buffer)

Select a buffer and save it as a file in the task’s attachment directory.

n (org-attach-new)

Create a new attachment as an Emacs buffer.

z (org-attach-sync)

Synchronize the current task with its attachment directory, in case you added attachments yourself.

o (org-attach-open)

Open current task’s attachment. If there is more than one, prompt for a file name first. Opening follows the rules set by org-file-apps. For more details, see the information on following hyperlinks (see Handling Links).

O (org-attach-open-in-emacs)

Also open the attachment, but force opening the file in Emacs.

f (org-attach-reveal)

Open the current task’s attachment directory.

F (org-attach-reveal-in-emacs)

Also open the directory, but force using Dired in Emacs.

d (org-attach-delete-one)

Select and delete a single attachment.

D (org-attach-delete-all)

Delete all of a task’s attachments. A safer way is to open the directory in Dired and delete from there.

s (org-attach-set-directory)

Set a specific directory as the entry’s attachment directory. This works by putting the directory path into the ‘DIR’ property.

S (org-attach-unset-directory)

Remove the attachment directory. This command removes the ‘DIR’ property and asks the user to either move content inside that folder, if an ‘ID’ property is set, delete the content, or to leave the attachment directory as is but no longer attached to the outline node.


10.2.2 Attachment options

There are a couple of options for attachments that are worth mentioning.

org-attach-id-dir

The directory where attachments are stored when ‘ID’ is used as method.

org-attach-dir-relative

When setting the ‘DIR’ property on a node using C-c C-a s (org-attach-set-directory), absolute links are entered by default. This option changes that to relative links.

org-attach-use-inheritance

By default folders attached to an outline node are inherited from parents according to org-use-property-inheritance. If one instead want to set inheritance specifically for Org attach that can be done using org-attach-use-inheritance. Inheriting documents through the node hierarchy makes a lot of sense in most cases. Especially when using attachment links (see Attachment links). The following example shows one use case for attachment inheritance:

* Chapter A ...
  :PROPERTIES:
  :DIR: Chapter A/
  :END:
** Introduction
Some text

#+NAME: Image 1
[[attachment:image 1.jpg]]

Without inheritance one would not be able to resolve the link to ‘image 1.jpg’, since the link is inside a sub-heading to ‘Chapter A’.

Inheritance works the same way for both ‘ID’ and ‘DIR’ property. If both properties are defined on the same headline then ‘DIR’ takes precedence. This is also true if inheritance is enabled. If ‘DIR’ is inherited from a parent node in the outline, that property still takes precedence over an ‘ID’ property defined on the node itself.

org-attach-method

When attaching files using the dispatcher C-c C-a it defaults to copying files. The behavior can be changed by customizing org-attach-method. Options are Copy, Move/Rename, Hard link or Symbolic link.

org-attach-preferred-new-method

This customization lets you choose the default way to attach to nodes without existing ‘ID’ and ‘DIR’ property. It defaults to id but can also be set to dir, ask or nil.

org-attach-archive-delete

Configure this to determine if attachments should be deleted or not when a subtree that has attachments is archived.

org-attach-auto-tag

When attaching files to a heading it will be assigned a tag according to what is set here.

org-attach-id-to-path-function-list

When ‘ID’ is used for attachments, the ID is parsed into a part of a directory-path. See org-attach-id-uuid-folder-format for the default function. Define a new one and add it as first element in org-attach-id-to-path-function-list if you want the folder structure in any other way. All functions in this list will be tried when resolving existing ID’s into paths, to maintain backward compatibility with existing folders in your system.

org-attach-store-link-p

Stores a link to the file that is being attached. The link is stored in org-stored-links for later insertion with C-c C-l (see Handling Links). Depending on what option is set in org-attach-store-link-p, the link is stored to either the original location as a file link, the attachment location as an attachment link or to the attachment location as a file link.

org-attach-commands

List of all commands used in the attach dispatcher.

org-attach-expert

Do not show the splash buffer with the attach dispatcher when org-attach-expert is set to non-nil.

See customization group ‘Org Attach’ if you want to change the default settings.


10.2.4 Automatic version-control with Git

If the directory attached to an outline node is a Git repository, Org can be configured to automatically commit changes to that repository when it sees them.

To make Org mode take care of versioning of attachments for you, add the following to your Emacs config:

(require 'org-attach-git)

10.2.5 Attach from Dired

It is possible to attach files to a subtree from a Dired buffer. To use this feature, have one window in Dired mode containing the file(s) to be attached and another window with point in the subtree that shall get the attachments. In the Dired window, with point on a file, M-x org-attach-dired-to-subtree attaches the file to the subtree using the attachment method set by variable org-attach-method. When files are marked in the Dired window then all marked files get attached.

Add the following lines to the Emacs init file to have C-c C-x a attach files in Dired buffers.

(add-hook 'dired-mode-hook
          (lambda ()
            (define-key dired-mode-map
              (kbd "C-c C-x a")
              #'org-attach-dired-to-subtree)))

The following code shows how to bind the previous command with a specific attachment method.

(add-hook 'dired-mode-hook
          (lambda ()
            (define-key dired-mode-map (kbd "C-c C-x c")
              (lambda ()
                (interactive)
                (let ((org-attach-method 'cp))
                  (call-interactively #'org-attach-dired-to-subtree))))))

10.3 RSS Feeds

Org can add and change entries based on information found in RSS feeds and Atom feeds. You could use this to make a task out of each new podcast in a podcast feed. Or you could use a phone-based note-creating service on the web to import tasks into Org. To access feeds, configure the variable org-feed-alist. The docstring of this variable has detailed information. With the following

(setq org-feed-alist
      '(("Slashdot"
         "https://rss.slashdot.org/Slashdot/slashdot"
         "~/txt/org/feeds.org" "Slashdot Entries")))

new items from the feed provided by ‘rss.slashdot.org’ result in new entries in the file ‘~/org/feeds.org’ under the heading ‘Slashdot Entries’, whenever the following command is used:

C-c C-x g (org-feed-update-all)

Collect items from the feeds configured in org-feed-alist and act upon them.

C-c C-x G (org-feed-goto-inbox)

Prompt for a feed name and go to the inbox configured for this feed.

Under the same headline, Org creates a drawer ‘FEEDSTATUS’ in which it stores information about the status of items in the feed, to avoid adding the same item several times.

For more information, including how to read atom feeds, see ‘org-feed.el’ and the docstring of org-feed-alist.


11 Agenda Views

Due to the way Org works, TODO items, time-stamped items, and tagged headlines can be scattered throughout a file or even a number of files. To get an overview of open action items, or of events that are important for a particular date, this information must be collected, sorted and displayed in an organized way.

Org can select items based on various criteria and display them in a separate buffer. Six different view types are provided:

The extracted information is displayed in a special agenda buffer. This buffer is read-only, but provides commands to visit the corresponding locations in the original Org files, and even to edit these files remotely.

By default, the report ignores commented (see Comment Lines) and archived (see Internal archiving) entries. You can override this by setting org-agenda-skip-comment-trees and org-agenda-skip-archived-trees to nil.

Two variables control how the agenda buffer is displayed and whether the window configuration is restored when the agenda exits: org-agenda-window-setup and org-agenda-restore-windows-after-quit.


11.1 Agenda Files

The information to be shown is normally collected from all agenda files, the files listed in the variable org-agenda-files90. If a directory is part of this list, all files with the extension ‘.org’ in this directory are part of the list.

Thus, even if you only work with a single Org file, that file should be put into the list91. You can customize org-agenda-files, but the easiest way to maintain it is through the following commands

C-c [ (org-agenda-file-to-front)

Add current file to the list of agenda files. The file is added to the front of the list. If it was already in the list, it is moved to the front. With a prefix argument, file is added/moved to the end.

C-c ] (org-remove-file)

Remove current file from the list of agenda files.

C-'
C-, (org-cycle-agenda-files)

Cycle through agenda file list, visiting one file after the other.

M-x org-switchb

Command to use an Iswitchb-like interface to switch to and between Org buffers.

The Org menu contains the current list of files and can be used to visit any of them.

If you would like to focus the agenda temporarily on a file not in this list, or on just one file in the list, or even on only a subtree in a file, then this can be done in different ways. For a single agenda command, you may press < once or several times in the dispatcher (see The Agenda Dispatcher). To restrict the agenda scope for an extended period, use the following commands:

C-c C-x < (org-agenda-set-restriction-lock)

Restrict the agenda to the current subtree. If there already is a restriction at point, remove it. When called with a universal prefix argument or with point before the first headline in a file, set the agenda scope to the entire file. This restriction remains in effect until removed with C-c C-x >, or by typing either < or > in the agenda dispatcher. If there is a window displaying an agenda view, the new restriction takes effect immediately.

C-c C-x > (org-agenda-remove-restriction-lock)

Remove the restriction created by C-c C-x <.

When working with Speedbar, you can use the following commands in the Speedbar frame:

< (org-speedbar-set-agenda-restriction)

Restrict the agenda to the item—either an Org file or a subtree in such a file—at point in the Speedbar frame. If agenda is already restricted there, remove the restriction. If there is a window displaying an agenda view, the new restriction takes effect immediately.

> (org-agenda-remove-restriction-lock)

Remove the restriction.


11.2 The Agenda Dispatcher

The views are created through a dispatcher, accessible with M-x org-agenda, or, better, bound to a global key (see Activation). It displays a menu from which an additional letter is required to execute a command. The dispatcher offers the following default commands:

a

Create the calendar-like agenda (see Weekly/daily agenda).

t
T

Create a list of all TODO items (see The global TODO list).

m
M

Create a list of headlines matching a given expression (see Matching tags and properties).

s

Create a list of entries selected by a boolean expression of keywords and/or regular expressions that must or must not occur in the entry.

/

Search for a regular expression in all agenda files and additionally in the files listed in org-agenda-text-search-extra-files. This uses the Emacs command multi-occur. A prefix argument can be used to specify the number of context lines for each match, the default is 1.

#

Create a list of stuck projects (see Stuck projects).

!

Configure the list of stuck projects (see Stuck projects).

<

Restrict an agenda command to the current buffer92. If narrowing is in effect restrict to the narrowed part of the buffer. After pressing <, you still need to press the character selecting the command.

< <

If there is an active region, restrict the following agenda command to the region. Otherwise, restrict it to the current subtree93. After pressing < <, you still need to press the character selecting the command.

*

Toggle sticky agenda views. By default, Org maintains only a single agenda buffer and rebuilds it each time you change the view, to make sure everything is always up to date. If you switch between views often and the build time bothers you, you can turn on sticky agenda buffers (make this the default by customizing the variable org-agenda-sticky). With sticky agendas, the dispatcher only switches to the selected view, you need to update it by hand with r or g. You can toggle sticky agenda view any time with org-toggle-sticky-agenda.

You can also define custom commands that are accessible through the dispatcher, just like the default commands. This includes the possibility to create extended agenda buffers that contain several blocks together, for example the weekly agenda, the global TODO list and a number of special tags matches. See Custom Agenda Views.


11.3 The Built-in Agenda Views

In this section we describe the built-in views.


11.3.1 Weekly/daily agenda

The purpose of the weekly/daily agenda is to act like a page of a paper agenda, showing all the tasks for the current week or day.

M-x org-agenda a (org-agenda-list)

Compile an agenda for the current week from a list of Org files. The agenda shows the entries for each day. With a numeric prefix argument94—like C-u 2 1 M-x org-agenda a—you may set the number of days to be displayed.

The default number of days displayed in the agenda is set by the variable org-agenda-span. This variable can be set to any number of days you want to see by default in the agenda, or to a span name, such a day, week, month or year. For weekly agendas, the default is to start on the previous Monday (see org-agenda-start-on-weekday). You can also set the start date using a date shift: ‘(setq org-agenda-start-day "+10d")’ starts the agenda ten days from today in the future. org-agenda-start-on-weekday takes precedence over org-agenda-start-day in weekly and bi-weekly agendas.

Remote editing from the agenda buffer means, for example, that you can change the dates of deadlines and appointments from the agenda buffer. The commands available in the Agenda buffer are listed in Commands in the Agenda Buffer.

Calendar/Diary integration

Emacs contains the calendar and diary by Edward M. Reingold. The calendar displays a three-month calendar with holidays from different countries and cultures. The diary allows you to keep track of anniversaries, lunar phases, sunrise/set, recurrent appointments (weekly, monthly) and more. In this way, it is quite complementary to Org. It can be very useful to combine output from Org with the diary.

In order to include entries from the Emacs diary into Org mode’s agenda, you only need to customize the variable

(setq org-agenda-include-diary t)

After that, everything happens automatically. All diary entries including holidays, anniversaries, etc., are included in the agenda buffer created by Org mode. SPC, TAB, and RET can be used from the agenda buffer to jump to the diary file in order to edit existing diary entries. The i command to insert new entries for the current date works in the agenda buffer, as well as the commands S, M, and C to display Sunrise/Sunset times, show lunar phases and to convert to other calendars, respectively. c can be used to switch back and forth between calendar and agenda.

If you are using the diary only for expression entries and holidays, it is faster to not use the above setting, but instead to copy or even move the entries into an Org file. Org mode evaluates diary-style expression entries, and does it faster because there is no overhead for first creating the diary display. Note that the expression entries must start at the left margin, no whitespace is allowed before them, as seen in the following segment of an Org file:95

* Holidays
  :PROPERTIES:
  :CATEGORY: Holiday
  :END:
%%(org-calendar-holiday)   ; special function for holiday names

* Birthdays
  :PROPERTIES:
  :CATEGORY: Ann
  :END:
%%(org-anniversary 1956  5 14) Arthur Dent is %d years old
%%(org-anniversary 1869 10  2) Mahatma Gandhi would be %d years old

Anniversaries from BBDB

If you are using the Insidious Big Brother Database to store your contacts, you very likely prefer to store anniversaries in BBDB rather than in a separate Org or diary file. Org supports this and can show BBDB anniversaries as part of the agenda. All you need to do is to add the following to one of your agenda files:

* Anniversaries
  :PROPERTIES:
  :CATEGORY: Anniv
  :END:
%%(org-bbdb-anniversaries)

You can then go ahead and define anniversaries for a BBDB record. Basically, you need a field named ‘anniversary’ for the BBDB record which contains the date in the format ‘YYYY-MM-DD’ or ‘MM-DD’, followed by a space and the class of the anniversary (‘birthday’, ‘wedding’, or a format string). If you omit the class, it defaults to ‘birthday’. Here are a few examples, the header for the file ‘ol-bbdb.el’ contains more detailed information.

1973-06-22
06-22
1955-08-02 wedding
2008-04-14 %s released version 6.01 of Org mode, %d years ago

After a change to BBDB, or for the first agenda display during an Emacs session, the agenda display suffers a short delay as Org updates its hash with anniversaries. However, from then on things will be very fast, much faster in fact than a long list of ‘%%(diary-anniversary)’ entries in an Org or Diary file.

If you would like to see upcoming anniversaries with a bit of forewarning, you can use the following instead:

* Anniversaries
  :PROPERTIES:
  :CATEGORY: Anniv
  :END:
%%(org-bbdb-anniversaries-future 3)

That will give you three days’ warning: on the anniversary date itself and the two days prior. The argument is optional: if omitted, it defaults to 7.

Appointment reminders

Org can interact with Emacs appointments notification facility. To add the appointments of your agenda files, use the command org-agenda-to-appt. This command lets you filter through the list of your appointments and add only those belonging to a specific category or matching a regular expression. It also reads a ‘APPT_WARNTIME’ property which overrides the value of appt-message-warning-time for this appointment. See the docstring for details.


11.3.2 The global TODO list

The global TODO list contains all unfinished TODO items formatted and collected into a single place.

M-x org-agenda t (org-todo-list)

Show the global TODO list. This collects the TODO items from all agenda files (see Agenda Views) into a single buffer. By default, this lists items with a state that is not a DONE state. The buffer is in Agenda mode, so there are commands to examine and manipulate the TODO entries directly from that buffer (see Commands in the Agenda Buffer).

M-x org-agenda T (org-todo-list)

Like the above, but allows selection of a specific TODO keyword. You can also do this by specifying a prefix argument to t. You are prompted for a keyword, and you may also specify several keywords by separating them with ‘|’ as the boolean OR operator. With a numeric prefix, the Nth keyword in org-todo-keywords is selected.

The r key in the agenda buffer regenerates it, and you can give a prefix argument to this command to change the selected TODO keyword, for example 3 r. If you often need a search for a specific keyword, define a custom command for it (see The Agenda Dispatcher).

Matching specific TODO keywords can also be done as part of a tags search (see Tag Searches).

Remote editing of TODO items means that you can change the state of a TODO entry with a single key press. The commands available in the TODO list are described in Commands in the Agenda Buffer.

Normally the global TODO list simply shows all headlines with TODO keywords. This list can become very long. There are two ways to keep it more compact:

  • Some people view a TODO item that has been scheduled for execution or have a deadline (see Timestamps) as no longer open. Configure the variables org-agenda-todo-ignore-scheduled to exclude some or all scheduled items from the global TODO list, org-agenda-todo-ignore-deadlines to exclude some or all items with a deadline set, org-agenda-todo-ignore-timestamp to exclude some or all items with an active timestamp other than a DEADLINE or a SCHEDULED timestamp and/or org-agenda-todo-ignore-with-date to exclude items with at least one active timestamp.
  • TODO items may have sublevels to break up the task into subtasks. In such cases it may be enough to list only the highest level TODO headline and omit the sublevels from the global list. Configure the variable org-agenda-todo-list-sublevels to get this behavior.

11.3.3 Matching tags and properties

If headlines in the agenda files are marked with tags (see Tags), or have properties (see Properties and Columns), you can select headlines based on this metadata and collect them into an agenda buffer. The match syntax described here also applies when creating sparse trees with C-c / m.

M-x org-agenda m (org-tags-view)

Produce a list of all headlines that match a given set of tags. The command prompts for a selection criterion, which is a boolean logic expression with tags, like ‘+work+urgent-withboss’ or ‘work|home’ (see Tags). If you often need a specific search, define a custom command for it (see The Agenda Dispatcher).

M-x org-agenda M (org-tags-view)

Like m, but only select headlines that are also TODO items and force checking subitems (see the variable org-tags-match-list-sublevels). To exclude scheduled/deadline items, see the variable org-agenda-tags-todo-honor-ignore-options. Matching specific TODO keywords together with a tags match is also possible, see Tag Searches.

The commands available in the tags list are described in Commands in the Agenda Buffer.

A search string can use Boolean operators ‘&’ for AND and ‘|’ for OR. ‘&’ binds more strongly than ‘|’. Parentheses are currently not implemented. Each element in the search is either a tag, a regular expression matching tags, or an expression like ‘PROPERTY OPERATOR VALUE’ with a comparison operator, accessing a property value. Each element may be preceded by ‘-’ to select against it, and ‘+’ is syntactic sugar for positive selection. The AND operator ‘&’ is optional when ‘+’ or ‘-’ is present. Here are some examples, using only tags.

+work-boss

Select headlines tagged ‘work’, but discard those also tagged ‘boss’.

work|laptop

Selects lines tagged ‘work’ or ‘laptop’.

work|laptop+night

Like before, but require the ‘laptop’ lines to be tagged also ‘night’.

Instead of a tag, you may also specify a regular expression enclosed in curly braces (see Regular Expressions). For example, ‘work+{^boss.*}’ matches headlines that contain the tag ‘:work:’ and any tag starting with ‘boss’.

Group tags (see Tag Hierarchy) are expanded as regular expressions. E.g., if ‘work’ is a group tag for the group ‘:work:lab:conf:’, then searching for ‘work’ also searches for ‘{\(?:work\|lab\|conf\)}’ and searching for ‘-work’ searches for all headlines but those with one of the tags in the group (i.e., ‘-{\(?:work\|lab\|conf\)}’).

You may also test for properties (see Properties and Columns) at the same time as matching tags. The properties may be real properties, or special properties that represent other metadata (see Special Properties). For example, the property ‘TODO’ represents the TODO keyword of the entry. Or, the property ‘LEVEL’ represents the level of an entry. So searching ‘+LEVEL=3+boss-TODO​="DONE"’ lists all level three headlines that have the tag ‘boss’ and are not marked with the TODO keyword ‘DONE’. In buffers with org-odd-levels-only set, ‘LEVEL’ does not count the number of stars, but ‘LEVEL=2’ corresponds to 3 stars etc.

Here are more examples:

work+TODO​="WAITING"

Select ‘work’-tagged TODO lines with the specific TODO keyword ‘WAITING’.

work+TODO​="WAITING"|home+TODO​="WAITING"

Waiting tasks both at work and at home.

When matching properties, a number of different operators can be used to test the value of a property. Here is a complex example:

+work-boss+PRIORITY="A"+Coffee="unlimited"+Effort<2
         +With={Sarah\|Denny}+SCHEDULED>="<2008-10-11>"

The type of comparison depends on how the comparison value is written:

  • If the comparison value is a plain number, a numerical comparison is done, and the allowed operators are ‘<’, ‘=’, ‘>’, ‘<=’, ‘>=’, and ‘<>’.
  • If the comparison value is enclosed in double-quotes, a string comparison is done, and the same operators are allowed.
  • If the comparison value is enclosed in double-quotes and angular brackets (like ‘DEADLINE<​="<2008-12-24 18:30>"’), both values are assumed to be date/time specifications in the standard Org way, and the comparison is done accordingly. Valid values also include ‘"<now>"’ for now (including time), ‘"<today>"’, and ‘"<tomorrow>"’ for these days at 0:00 hours, i.e., without a time specification. You can also use strings like ‘"<+5d>"’ or ‘"<-2m>"’ with units ‘d’, ‘w’, ‘m’, and ‘y’ for day, week, month, and year, respectively.
  • If the comparison value is enclosed in curly braces, a regexp match is performed, with ‘=’ meaning that the regexp matches the property value, and ‘<>’ meaning that it does not match.

So the search string in the example finds entries tagged ‘work’ but not ‘boss’, which also have a priority value ‘A’, a ‘Coffee’ property with the value ‘unlimited’, an ‘EFFORT’ property that is numerically smaller than 2, a ‘With’ property that is matched by the regular expression ‘Sarah\|Denny’, and that are scheduled on or after October 11, 2008.

You can configure Org mode to use property inheritance during a search, but beware that this can slow down searches considerably. See Property Inheritance, for details.

For backward compatibility, and also for typing speed, there is also a different way to test TODO states in a search. For this, terminate the tags/property part of the search string (which may include several terms connected with ‘|’) with a ‘/’ and then specify a Boolean expression just for TODO keywords. The syntax is then similar to that for tags, but should be applied with care: for example, a positive selection on several TODO keywords cannot meaningfully be combined with boolean AND. However, negative selection combined with AND can be meaningful. To make sure that only lines are checked that actually have any TODO keyword (resulting in a speed-up), use M-x org-agenda M, or equivalently start the TODO part after the slash with ‘!’. Using M-x org-agenda M or ‘/!’ does not match TODO keywords in a DONE state. Examples:

work/WAITING

Same as ‘work+TODO​="WAITING"’.

work/!-WAITING-NEXT

Select ‘work’-tagged TODO lines that are neither ‘WAITING’ nor ‘NEXT’.

work/!+WAITING|+NEXT

Select ‘work’-tagged TODO lines that are either ‘WAITING’ or ‘NEXT’.


11.3.4 Search view

This agenda view is a general text search facility for Org mode entries. It is particularly useful to find notes.

M-x org-agenda s (org-search-view)

This is a special search that lets you select entries by matching a substring or specific words using a boolean logic.

For example, the search string ‘computer equipment’ matches entries that contain ‘computer equipment’ as a substring, even if the two words are separated by more space or a line break.

Search view can also search for specific keywords in the entry, using Boolean logic. The search string ‘+computer +wifi -ethernet -{8\.11[bg]}’ matches note entries that contain the keywords ‘computer’ and ‘wifi’, but not the keyword ‘ethernet’, and which are also not matched by the regular expression ‘8\.11[bg]’, meaning to exclude both ‘8.11b’ and ‘8.11g’. The first ‘+’ is necessary to turn on boolean search, other ‘+’ characters are optional. For more details, see the docstring of the command org-search-view.

You can incrementally and conveniently adjust a boolean search from the agenda search view with the following keys

[Add a positive search word
]Add a negative search word
{Add a positive regular expression
}Add a negative regular expression

Note that in addition to the agenda files, this command also searches the files listed in org-agenda-text-search-extra-files.


11.3.5 Stuck projects

If you are following a system like David Allen’s GTD to organize your work, one of the “duties” you have is a regular review to make sure that all projects move along. A stuck project is a project that has no defined next actions, so it never shows up in the TODO lists Org mode produces. During the review, you need to identify such projects and define next actions for them.

M-x org-agenda # (org-agenda-list-stuck-projects)

List projects that are stuck.

M-x org-agenda !

Customize the variable org-stuck-projects to define what a stuck project is and how to find it.

You almost certainly need to configure this view before it works for you. The built-in default assumes that all your projects are level-2 headlines, and that a project is not stuck if it has at least one entry marked with a TODO keyword ‘TODO’ or ‘NEXT’ or ‘NEXTACTION’.

Let’s assume that you, in your own way of using Org mode, identify projects with a tag ‘:PROJECT:’, and that you use a TODO keyword ‘MAYBE’ to indicate a project that should not be considered yet. Let’s further assume that the TODO keyword ‘DONE’ marks finished projects, and that ‘NEXT’ and ‘TODO’ indicate next actions. The tag ‘:@shop:’ indicates shopping and is a next action even without the NEXT tag. Finally, if the project contains the special word ‘IGNORE’ anywhere, it should not be listed either. In this case you would start by identifying eligible projects with a tags/TODO match (see Tag Searches) ‘+PROJECT/-MAYBE-DONE’, and then check for ‘TODO’, ‘NEXT’, ‘@shop’, and ‘IGNORE’ in the subtree to identify projects that are not stuck. The correct customization for this is:

(setq org-stuck-projects
      '("+PROJECT/-MAYBE-DONE" ("NEXT" "TODO") ("@shop")
        "\\<IGNORE\\>"))

Note that if a project is identified as non-stuck, the subtree of this entry is searched for stuck projects.


11.4 Presentation and Sorting

Before displaying items in an agenda view, Org mode visually prepares the items and sorts them. Each item occupies a single line. The line starts with a prefix that contains the category (see Categories) of the item and other important information. You can customize in which column tags are displayed through org-agenda-tags-column. You can also customize the prefix using the option org-agenda-prefix-format. This prefix is followed by a cleaned-up version of the outline headline associated with the item.


11.4.1 Categories

The category is a broad label assigned to each agenda item. By default, the category is simply derived from the file name, but you can also specify it with a special line in the buffer, like this:

#+CATEGORY: Thesis

If you would like to have a special category for a single entry or a (sub)tree, give the entry a ‘CATEGORY’ property with the special category you want to apply as the value.

The display in the agenda buffer looks best if the category is not longer than 10 characters. You can set up icons for category by customizing the org-agenda-category-icon-alist variable.


11.4.2 Time-of-day specifications

Org mode checks each agenda item for a time-of-day specification. The time can be part of the timestamp that triggered inclusion into the agenda, for example

<2005-05-10 Tue 19:00>

Time ranges can be specified with two timestamps:

<2005-05-10 Tue 20:30>--<2005-05-10 Tue 22:15>

In the headline of the entry itself, a time(range)—like ‘12:45’ or a ‘8:30-1pm’—may also appear as plain text96.

If the agenda integrates the Emacs diary (see Weekly/daily agenda), time specifications in diary entries are recognized as well.

For agenda display, Org mode extracts the time and displays it in a standard 24 hour format as part of the prefix. The example times in the previous paragraphs would end up in the agenda like this:

 8:30-13:00 Arthur Dent lies in front of the bulldozer
12:45...... Ford Prefect arrives and takes Arthur to the pub
19:00...... The Vogon reads his poem
20:30-22:15 Marvin escorts the Hitchhikers to the bridge

If the agenda is in single-day mode, or for the display of today, the timed entries are embedded in a time grid, like

 8:00...... ------------------
 8:30-13:00 Arthur Dent lies in front of the bulldozer
10:00...... ------------------
12:00...... ------------------
12:45...... Ford Prefect arrives and takes Arthur to the pub
14:00...... ------------------
16:00...... ------------------
18:00...... ------------------
19:00...... The Vogon reads his poem
20:00...... ------------------
20:30-22:15 Marvin escorts the Hitchhikers to the bridge

The time grid can be turned on and off with the variable org-agenda-use-time-grid, and can be configured with org-agenda-time-grid.


11.4.3 Sorting of agenda items

Before being inserted into a view, the items are sorted. How this is done depends on the type of view.

  • For the daily/weekly agenda, the items for each day are sorted. The default order is to first collect all items containing an explicit time-of-day specification. These entries are shown at the beginning of the list, as a schedule for the day. After that, items remain grouped in categories, in the sequence given by org-agenda-files. Within each category, items are sorted by priority (see Priorities), which is composed of the base priority (2000 for priority ‘A’, 1000 for ‘B’, and 0 for ‘C’), plus additional increments for overdue scheduled or deadline items.
  • For the TODO list, items remain in the order of categories, but within each category, sorting takes place according to priority (see Priorities). The priority used for sorting derives from the priority cookie, with additions depending on how close an item is to its due or scheduled date.
  • For tags matches, items are not sorted at all, but just appear in the sequence in which they are found in the agenda files.

Sorting can be customized using the variable org-agenda-sorting-strategy, and may also include criteria based on the estimated effort of an entry (see Effort Estimates).


11.4.4 Filtering/limiting agenda items

Agenda built-in or custom commands are statically defined. Agenda filters and limits allow to flexibly narrow down the list of agenda entries.

Filters only change the visibility of items, are very fast and are mostly used interactively97. You can switch quickly between different filters without having to recreate the agenda. Limits on the other hand take effect before the agenda buffer is populated, so they are mostly useful when defined as local variables within custom agenda commands.

Filtering in the agenda

The general filtering command is org-agenda-filter, bound to /. Before we introduce it, we describe commands for individual filter types. All filtering commands handle prefix arguments in the same way: A single C-u prefix negates the filter, so it removes lines selected by the filter. A double prefix adds the new filter condition to the one(s) already in place, so filter elements are accumulated.

\ (org-agenda-filter-by-tag)

Filter the agenda view with respect to a tag. You are prompted for a tag selection letter; SPC means any tag at all. Pressing TAB at that prompt offers completion to select a tag, including any tags that do not have a selection character. The command then hides all entries that do not contain or inherit this tag. Pressing + or - at the prompt switches between filtering for and against the next tag. To clear the filter, press \ twice (once to call the command again, and once at the prompt).

< (org-agenda-filter-by-category)

Filter by category of the line at point, and show only entries with this category. When called with a prefix argument, hide all entries with the category at point. To clear the filter, call this command again by pressing <.

= (org-agenda-filter-by-regexp)

Filter the agenda view by a regular expression: only show agenda entries matching the regular expression the user entered. To clear the filter, call the command again by pressing =.

_ (org-agenda-filter-by-effort)

Filter the agenda view with respect to effort estimates, so select tasks that take the right amount of time. You first need to set up a list of efforts globally, for example

(setq org-global-properties
      '(("Effort_ALL". "0 0:10 0:30 1:00 2:00 3:00 4:00")))

You can then filter for an effort by first typing an operator, one of <, > and =, and then the one-digit index of an effort estimate in your array of allowed values, where 0 means the 10th value. The filter then restricts to entries with effort smaller-or-equal, equal, or larger-or-equal than the selected value. For application of the operator, entries without a defined effort are treated according to the value of org-sort-agenda-noeffort-is-high. To clear the filter, press _ twice (once to call the command again, and once at the first prompt).

^ (org-agenda-filter-by-top-headline)

Filter the current agenda view and only display items that fall under the same top-level headline as the current entry. To clear the filter, call this command again by pressing ^.

/ (org-agenda-filter)

This is the unified interface to four of the five filter methods described above. At the prompt, specify different filter elements in a single string, with full completion support. For example,

+work-John+<0:10-/plot/

selects entries with category ‘work’ and effort estimates below 10 minutes, and deselects entries with tag ‘John’ or matching the regexp ‘plot’ (see Regular Expressions). You can leave ‘+’ out if that does not lead to ambiguities. The sequence of elements is arbitrary. The filter syntax assumes that there is no overlap between categories and tags. Otherwise, tags take priority. If you reply to the prompt with the empty string, all filtering is removed. If a filter is specified, it replaces all current filters. But if you call the command with a double prefix argument, or if you add an additional ‘+’ (e.g., ‘++work’) to the front of the string, the new filter elements are added to the active ones. A single prefix argument applies the entire filter in a negative sense.

| (org-agenda-filter-remove-all)

Remove all filters in the current agenda view.

Computed tag filtering

If the variable org-agenda-auto-exclude-function is set to a user-defined function, that function can select tags that should be used as a tag filter when requested. The function will be called with lower-case versions of all tags represented in the current view. The function should return ‘"-tag"’ if the filter should remove entries with that tag, ‘"+tag"’ if only entries with this tag should be kept, or ‘nil’ if that tag is irrelevant. For example, let’s say you use a ‘Net’ tag to identify tasks which need network access, an ‘Errand’ tag for errands in town, and a ‘Call’ tag for making phone calls. You could auto-exclude these tags based on the availability of the Internet, and outside of business hours, with something like this:

(defun my-auto-exclude-fn (tag)
  (when (cond ((string= tag "net")
               (/= 0 (call-process "/sbin/ping" nil nil nil
                                   "-c1" "-q" "-t1" "mail.gnu.org")))
              ((member tag '("errand" "call"))
               (let ((hr (nth 2 (decode-time))))
                 (or (< hr 8) (> hr 21)))))
    (concat "-" tag)))

(setq org-agenda-auto-exclude-function #'my-auto-exclude-fn)

You can apply this self-adapting filter by using a triple prefix argument to org-agenda-filter, i.e. press C-u C-u C-u /, or by pressing RET in org-agenda-filter-by-tag.

Setting limits for the agenda

Here is a list of options that you can set, either globally, or locally in your custom agenda views (see Custom Agenda Views).

org-agenda-max-entries

Limit the number of entries.

org-agenda-max-effort

Limit the duration of accumulated efforts (as minutes).

org-agenda-max-todos

Limit the number of entries with TODO keywords.

org-agenda-max-tags

Limit the number of tagged entries.

When set to a positive integer, each option excludes entries from other categories: for example, ‘(setq org-agenda-max-effort 100)’ limits the agenda to 100 minutes of effort and exclude any entry that has no effort property. If you want to include entries with no effort property, use a negative value for org-agenda-max-effort. One useful setup is to use org-agenda-max-entries locally in a custom command. For example, this custom command displays the next five entries with a ‘NEXT’ TODO keyword.

(setq org-agenda-custom-commands
      '(("n" todo "NEXT"
         ((org-agenda-max-entries 5)))))

Once you mark one of these five entry as DONE, rebuilding the agenda will again the next five entries again, including the first entry that was excluded so far.

You can also dynamically set temporary limits, which are lost when rebuilding the agenda:

~ (org-agenda-limit-interactively)

This prompts for the type of limit to apply and its value.


11.5 Commands in the Agenda Buffer

Entries in the agenda buffer are linked back to the Org file or diary file where they originate. You are not allowed to edit the agenda buffer itself, but commands are provided to show and jump to the original entry location, and to edit the Org files “remotely” from the agenda buffer. In this way, all information is stored only once, removing the risk that your agenda and note files may diverge.

Some commands can be executed with mouse clicks on agenda lines. For the other commands, point needs to be in the desired line.

Motion

n (org-agenda-next-line)

Next line (same as DOWN and C-n).

p (org-agenda-previous-line)

Previous line (same as UP and C-p).

View/Go to Org file

SPC or mouse-3 (org-agenda-show-and-scroll-up)

Display the original location of the item in another window. With a prefix argument, make sure that drawers stay folded.

L (org-agenda-recenter)

Display original location and recenter that window.

TAB or mouse-2 (org-agenda-goto)

Go to the original location of the item in another window.

RET (org-agenda-switch-to)

Go to the original location of the item and delete other windows.

F (org-agenda-follow-mode)

Toggle Follow mode. In Follow mode, as you move point through the agenda buffer, the other window always shows the corresponding location in the Org file. The initial setting for this mode in new agenda buffers can be set with the variable org-agenda-start-with-follow-mode.

C-c C-x b (org-agenda-tree-to-indirect-buffer)

Display the entire subtree of the current item in an indirect buffer. With a numeric prefix argument N, go up to level N and then take that tree. If N is negative, go up that many levels. With a C-u prefix, do not remove the previously used indirect buffer.

C-c C-o (org-agenda-open-link)

Follow a link in the entry. This offers a selection of any links in the text belonging to the referenced Org node. If there is only one link, follow it without a selection prompt.

Change display

A

Interactively select another agenda view and append it to the current view.

o

Delete other windows.

v d or short d (org-agenda-day-view)

Switch to day view. When switching to day view, this setting becomes the default for subsequent agenda refreshes. A numeric prefix argument may be used to jump directly to a specific day of the year. For example, 32 d jumps to February 1st. When setting day view, a year may be encoded in the prefix argument as well. For example, 200712 d jumps to January 12, 2007. If such a year specification has only one or two digits, it is expanded into one of the 30 next years or the last 69 years.

v w or short w (org-agenda-week-view)

Switch to week view. When switching week view, this setting becomes the default for subsequent agenda refreshes. A numeric prefix argument may be used to jump directly to a specific day of the ISO week. For example 9 w to ISO week number 9. When setting week view, a year may be encoded in the prefix argument as well. For example, 200712 w jumps to week 12 in 2007. If such a year specification has only one or two digits, it is expanded into one of the 30 next years or the last 69 years.

v m (org-agenda-month-view)

Switch to month view. Because month views are slow to create, they do not become the default for subsequent agenda refreshes. A numeric prefix argument may be used to jump directly to a specific day of the month. When setting month view, a year may be encoded in the prefix argument as well. For example, 200712 m jumps to December, 2007. If such a year specification has only one or two digits, it is expanded into one of the 30 next years or the last 69 years.

v y (org-agenda-year-view)

Switch to year view. Because year views are slow to create, they do not become the default for subsequent agenda refreshes. A numeric prefix argument may be used to jump directly to a specific day of the year.

v SPC (org-agenda-reset-view)

Reset the current view to org-agenda-span.

f (org-agenda-later)

Go forward in time to display the span following the current one. For example, if the display covers a week, switch to the following week. With a prefix argument, repeat that many times.

b (org-agenda-earlier)

Go backward in time to display earlier dates.

. (org-agenda-goto-today)

Go to today.

j (org-agenda-goto-date)

Prompt for a date and go there.

J (org-agenda-clock-goto)

Go to the currently clocked-in task in the agenda buffer.

D (org-agenda-toggle-diary)

Toggle the inclusion of diary entries. See Weekly/daily agenda.

v l or v L or short l (org-agenda-log-mode)

Toggle Logbook mode. In Logbook mode, entries that were marked as done while logging was on (see the variable org-log-done) are shown in the agenda, as are entries that have been clocked on that day. You can configure the entry types that should be included in log mode using the variable org-agenda-log-mode-items. When called with a C-u prefix argument, show all possible logbook entries, including state changes. When called with two prefix arguments C-u C-u, show only logging information, nothing else. v L is equivalent to C-u v l.

v [ or short [ (org-agenda-manipulate-query-add)

Include inactive timestamps into the current view. Only for weekly/daily agenda.

v a (org-agenda-archives-mode)

Toggle Archives mode. In Archives mode, trees that are archived (see Internal archiving) are also scanned when producing the agenda. To exit archives mode, press v a again.

v A

Toggle Archives mode. Include all archive files as well.

v R or short R (org-agenda-clockreport-mode)

Toggle Clockreport mode. In Clockreport mode, the daily/weekly agenda always shows a table with the clocked times for the time span and file scope covered by the current agenda view. The initial setting for this mode in new agenda buffers can be set with the variable org-agenda-start-with-clockreport-mode. By using a prefix argument when toggling this mode (i.e., C-u R), the clock table does not show contributions from entries that are hidden by agenda filtering98. See also the variables org-clock-report-include-clocking-task and org-agenda-clock-report-header.

v c

Show overlapping clock entries, clocking gaps, and other clocking problems in the current agenda range. You can then visit clocking lines and fix them manually. See the variable org-agenda-clock-consistency-checks for information on how to customize the definition of what constituted a clocking problem. To return to normal agenda display, press l to exit Logbook mode.

v E or short E (org-agenda-entry-text-mode)

Toggle entry text mode. In entry text mode, a number of lines from the Org outline node referenced by an agenda line are displayed below the line. The maximum number of lines is given by the variable org-agenda-entry-text-maxlines. Calling this command with a numeric prefix argument temporarily modifies that number to the prefix value.

G (org-agenda-toggle-time-grid)

Toggle the time grid on and off. See also the variables org-agenda-use-time-grid and org-agenda-time-grid.

r (org-agenda-redo)
g

Recreate the agenda buffer, for example to reflect the changes after modification of the timestamps of items with S-LEFT and S-RIGHT. When the buffer is the global TODO list, a prefix argument is interpreted to create a selective list for a specific TODO keyword.

C-x C-s or short s (org-save-all-org-buffers)

Save all Org buffers in the current Emacs session, and also the locations of IDs.

C-c C-x C-c (org-agenda-columns)

Invoke column view (see Column View) in the agenda buffer. The column view format is taken from the entry at point, or, if there is no entry at point, from the first entry in the agenda view. So whatever the format for that entry would be in the original buffer (taken from a property, from a ‘COLUMNS’ keyword, or from the default variable org-columns-default-format) is used in the agenda.

C-c C-x > (org-agenda-remove-restriction-lock)

Remove the restriction lock on the agenda, if it is currently restricted to a file or subtree (see Agenda Files).

M-UP (org-agenda-drag-line-backward)

Drag the line at point backward one line. With a numeric prefix argument, drag backward by that many lines.

Moving agenda lines does not persist after an agenda refresh and does not modify the contributing Org files.

M-DOWN (org-agenda-drag-line-forward)

Drag the line at point forward one line. With a numeric prefix argument, drag forward by that many lines.

Remote editing

0--9

Digit argument.

C-_ (org-agenda-undo)

Undo a change due to a remote editing command. The change is undone both in the agenda buffer and in the remote buffer.

t (org-agenda-todo)

Change the TODO state of the item, both in the agenda and in the original Org file. A prefix arg is passed through to the org-todo command, so for example a C-u prefix are will trigger taking a note to document the state change.

C-S-RIGHT (org-agenda-todo-nextset)

Switch to the next set of TODO keywords.

C-S-LEFT, org-agenda-todo-previousset

Switch to the previous set of TODO keywords.

C-k (org-agenda-kill)

Delete the current agenda item along with the entire subtree belonging to it in the original Org file. If the text to be deleted remotely is longer than one line, the kill needs to be confirmed by the user. See variable org-agenda-confirm-kill.

C-c C-w (org-agenda-refile)

Refile the entry at point.

C-c C-x C-a or short a (org-agenda-archive-default-with-confirmation)

Archive the subtree corresponding to the entry at point using the default archiving command set in org-archive-default-command. When using the a key, confirmation is required.

C-c C-x a (org-agenda-toggle-archive-tag)

Toggle the archive tag (see Internal archiving) for the current headline.

C-c C-x A (org-agenda-archive-to-archive-sibling)

Move the subtree corresponding to the current entry to its archive sibling.

C-c C-x C-s or short $ (org-agenda-archive)

Archive the subtree corresponding to the current headline. This means the entry is moved to the configured archive location, most likely a different file.

T (org-agenda-show-tags)

Show all tags associated with the current item. This is useful if you have turned off org-agenda-show-inherited-tags, but still want to see all tags of a headline occasionally.

: (org-agenda-set-tags)

Set tags for the current headline. If there is an active region in the agenda, change a tag for all headings in the region.

, (org-agenda-priority)

Set the priority for the current item. Org mode prompts for the priority character. If you reply with SPC, the priority cookie is removed from the entry.

+ or S-UP (org-agenda-priority-up)

Increase the priority of the current item. The priority is changed in the original buffer, but the agenda is not resorted. Use the r key for this.

- or S-DOWN (org-agenda-priority-down)

Decrease the priority of the current item.

C-c C-x e or short e (org-agenda-set-effort)

Set the effort property for the current item.

C-c C-z or short z (org-agenda-add-note)

Add a note to the entry. This note is recorded, and then filed to the same location where state change notes are put. Depending on org-log-into-drawer, this may be inside a drawer.

C-c C-a (org-attach)

Dispatcher for all command related to attachments.

C-c C-s (org-agenda-schedule)

Schedule this item. With a prefix argument, remove the scheduling timestamp

C-c C-d (org-agenda-deadline)

Set a deadline for this item. With a prefix argument, remove the deadline.

S-RIGHT (org-agenda-do-date-later)

Change the timestamp associated with the current line by one day into the future. If the date is in the past, the first call to this command moves it to today. With a numeric prefix argument, change it by that many days. For example, 3 6 5 S-RIGHT changes it by a year. With a C-u prefix, change the time by one hour. If you immediately repeat the command, it will continue to change hours even without the prefix argument. With a double C-u C-u prefix, do the same for changing minutes. The stamp is changed in the original Org file, but the change is not directly reflected in the agenda buffer. Use r or g to update the buffer.

S-LEFT (org-agenda-do-date-earlier)

Change the timestamp associated with the current line by one day into the past.

> (org-agenda-date-prompt)

Change the timestamp associated with the current line. The key > has been chosen, because it is the same as S-. on my keyboard.

I (org-agenda-clock-in)

Start the clock on the current item. If a clock is running already, it is stopped first.

O (org-agenda-clock-out)

Stop the previously started clock.

X (org-agenda-clock-cancel)

Cancel the currently running clock.

J (org-agenda-clock-goto)

Jump to the running clock in another window.

k (org-agenda-capture)

Like org-capture, but use the date at point as the default date for the capture template. See org-capture-use-agenda-date to make this the default behavior of org-capture.

Bulk remote editing selected entries

m (org-agenda-bulk-mark)

Mark the entry at point for bulk action. If there is an active region in the agenda, mark the entries in the region. With numeric prefix argument, mark that many successive entries.

* (org-agenda-bulk-mark-all)

Mark all visible agenda entries for bulk action.

u (org-agenda-bulk-unmark)

Unmark entry for bulk action.

U (org-agenda-bulk-unmark-all)

Unmark all marked entries for bulk action.

M-m (org-agenda-bulk-toggle)

Toggle mark of the entry at point for bulk action.

M-* (org-agenda-bulk-toggle-all)

Toggle mark of every entry for bulk action.

% (org-agenda-bulk-mark-regexp)

Mark entries matching a regular expression for bulk action.

B (org-agenda-bulk-action)

Bulk action: act on all marked entries in the agenda. This prompts for another key to select the action to be applied. The prefix argument to B is passed through to the s and d commands, to bulk-remove these special timestamps. By default, marks are removed after the bulk. If you want them to persist, set org-agenda-bulk-persistent-marks to t or hit p at the prompt.

p

Toggle persistent marks.

$

Archive all selected entries.

A

Archive entries by moving them to their respective archive siblings.

t

Change TODO state. This prompts for a single TODO keyword and changes the state of all selected entries, bypassing blocking and suppressing logging notes—but not timestamps.

+

Add a tag to all selected entries.

-

Remove a tag from all selected entries.

s

Schedule all items to a new date. To shift existing schedule dates by a fixed number of days, use something starting with double plus at the prompt, for example ‘++8d’ or ‘++2w’.

d

Set deadline to a specific date.

r

Prompt for a single refile target and move all entries. The entries are no longer in the agenda; refresh (g) to bring them back.

S

Reschedule randomly into the coming N days. N is prompted for. With a prefix argument (C-u B S), scatter only across weekdays.

f

Apply a function99 to marked entries. For example, the function below sets the ‘CATEGORY’ property of the entries to ‘web’.

(defun set-category ()
  (interactive "P")
  (let ((marker (or (org-get-at-bol 'org-hd-marker)
                    (org-agenda-error))))
    (org-with-point-at marker
      (org-back-to-heading t)
      (org-set-property "CATEGORY" "web"))))

Calendar commands

c (org-agenda-goto-calendar)

Open the Emacs calendar and go to the date at point in the agenda.

c (org-calendar-goto-agenda)

When in the calendar, compute and show the Org agenda for the date at point.

i (org-agenda-diary-entry)

Insert a new entry into the diary, using the date at point and (for block entries) the date at the mark. This adds to the Emacs diary file100, in a way similar to the i command in the calendar. The diary file pops up in another window, where you can add the entry.

If you configure org-agenda-diary-file to point to an Org file, Org creates entries in that file instead. Most entries are stored in a date-based outline tree that will later make it easy to archive appointments from previous months/years. The tree is built under an entry with a ‘DATE_TREE’ property, or else with years as top-level entries. Emacs prompts you for the entry text—if you specify it, the entry is created in org-agenda-diary-file without further interaction. If you directly press RET at the prompt without typing text, the target file is shown in another window for you to finish the entry there. See also the k r command.

M (org-agenda-phases-of-moon)

Show the phases of the moon for the three months around current date.

S (org-agenda-sunrise-sunset)

Show sunrise and sunset times. The geographical location must be set with calendar variables, see the documentation for the Emacs calendar.

C (org-agenda-convert-date)

Convert the date at point into many other cultural and historic calendars.

H (org-agenda-holidays)

Show holidays for three months around point date.

Quit and exit

q (org-agenda-quit)

Quit agenda, remove the agenda buffer.

x (org-agenda-exit)

Exit agenda, remove the agenda buffer and all buffers loaded by Emacs for the compilation of the agenda. Buffers created by the user to visit Org files are not removed.


11.6 Custom Agenda Views

Custom agenda commands serve two purposes: to store and quickly access frequently used TODO and tags searches, and to create special composite agenda buffers. Custom agenda commands are accessible through the dispatcher (see The Agenda Dispatcher), just like the default commands.


11.6.1 Storing searches

The first application of custom searches is the definition of keyboard shortcuts for frequently used searches, either creating an agenda buffer, or a sparse tree (the latter covering of course only the current buffer).

Custom commands are configured in the variable org-agenda-custom-commands. You can customize this variable, for example by pressing C from the agenda dispatcher (see The Agenda Dispatcher). You can also directly set it with Emacs Lisp in the Emacs init file. The following example contains all valid agenda views:

(setq org-agenda-custom-commands
      '(("x" agenda)
        ("y" agenda*)
        ("w" todo "WAITING")
        ("W" todo-tree "WAITING")
        ("u" tags "+boss-urgent")
        ("v" tags-todo "+boss-urgent")
        ("U" tags-tree "+boss-urgent")
        ("f" occur-tree "\\<FIXME\\>")
        ("h" . "HOME+Name tags searches") ;description for "h" prefix
        ("hl" tags "+home+Lisa")
        ("hp" tags "+home+Peter")
        ("hk" tags "+home+Kim")))

The initial string in each entry defines the keys you have to press after the dispatcher command in order to access the command. Usually this is just a single character, but if you have many similar commands, you can also define two-letter combinations where the first character is the same in several combinations and serves as a prefix key101. The second parameter is the search type, followed by the string or regular expression to be used for the matching. The example above will therefore define:

x

as a global search for agenda entries planned102 this week/day.

y

as the same search, but only for entries with an hour specification like ‘[h]h:mm’—think of them as appointments.

w

as a global search for TODO entries with ‘WAITING’ as the TODO keyword.

W

as the same search, but only in the current buffer and displaying the results as a sparse tree.

u

as a global tags search for headlines tagged ‘boss’ but not ‘urgent’.

v

The same search, but limiting it to headlines that are also TODO items.

U

as the same search, but only in the current buffer and displaying the result as a sparse tree.

f

to create a sparse tree (again, current buffer only) with all entries containing the word ‘FIXME’.

h

as a prefix command for a ‘HOME’ tags search where you have to press an additional key (l, p or k) to select a name (Lisa, Peter, or Kim) as additional tag to match.

Note that *-tree agenda views need to be called from an Org buffer as they operate on the current buffer only.


11.6.2 Block agenda

Another possibility is the construction of agenda views that comprise the results of several commands, each of which creates a block in the agenda buffer. The available commands include agenda for the daily or weekly agenda (as created with a) , alltodo for the global TODO list (as constructed with t), stuck for the list of stuck projects (as obtained with #) and the matching commands discussed above: todo, tags, and tags-todo.

Here are two examples:

(setq org-agenda-custom-commands
      '(("h" "Agenda and Home-related tasks"
         ((agenda "")
          (tags-todo "home")
          (tags "garden")))
        ("o" "Agenda and Office-related tasks"
         ((agenda "")
          (tags-todo "work")
          (tags "office")))))

This defines h to create a multi-block view for stuff you need to attend to at home. The resulting agenda buffer contains your agenda for the current week, all TODO items that carry the tag ‘home’, and also all lines tagged with ‘garden’. Finally the command o provides a similar view for office tasks.


11.6.3 Setting options for custom commands

Org mode contains a number of variables regulating agenda construction and display. The global variables define the behavior for all agenda commands, including the custom commands. However, if you want to change some settings just for a single custom view, you can do so. Setting options requires inserting a list of variable names and values at the right spot in org-agenda-custom-commands. For example:

(setq org-agenda-custom-commands
      '(("w" todo "WAITING"
         ((org-agenda-sorting-strategy '(priority-down))
          (org-agenda-prefix-format "  Mixed: ")))
        ("U" tags-tree "+boss-urgent"
         ((org-show-context-detail 'minimal)))
        ("N" search ""
         ((org-agenda-files '("~org/notes.org"))
          (org-agenda-text-search-extra-files nil)))))

Now the w command sorts the collected entries only by priority, and the prefix format is modified to just say ‘Mixed:’ instead of giving the category of the entry. The sparse tags tree of U now turns out ultra-compact, because neither the headline hierarchy above the match, nor the headline following the match are shown. The command N does a text search limited to only a single file.

For command sets creating a block agenda, org-agenda-custom-commands has two separate spots for setting options. You can add options that should be valid for just a single command in the set, and options that should be valid for all commands in the set. The former are just added to the command entry; the latter must come after the list of command entries. Going back to the block agenda example (see Block agenda), let’s change the sorting strategy for the h commands to priority-down, but let’s sort the results for ‘garden’ tags query in the opposite order, priority-up. This would look like this:

(setq org-agenda-custom-commands
      '(("h" "Agenda and Home-related tasks"
         ((agenda)
          (tags-todo "home")
          (tags "garden"
                ((org-agenda-sorting-strategy '(priority-up)))))
         ((org-agenda-sorting-strategy '(priority-down))))
        ("o" "Agenda and Office-related tasks"
         ((agenda)
          (tags-todo "work")
          (tags "office")))))

As you see, the values and parentheses setting is a little complex. When in doubt, use the customize interface to set this variable—it fully supports its structure. Just one caveat: when setting options in this interface, the values are just Lisp expressions. So if the value is a string, you need to add the double-quotes around the value yourself.

To control whether an agenda command should be accessible from a specific context, you can customize org-agenda-custom-commands-contexts. Let’s say for example that you have an agenda command o displaying a view that you only need when reading emails. Then you would configure this option like this:

(setq org-agenda-custom-commands-contexts
      '(("o" (in-mode . "message-mode"))))

You can also tell that the command key o should refer to another command key r. In that case, add this command key like this:

(setq org-agenda-custom-commands-contexts
      '(("o" "r" (in-mode . "message-mode"))))

See the docstring of the variable for more information.


11.7 Exporting Agenda Views

If you are away from your computer, it can be very useful to have a printed version of some agenda views to carry around. Org mode can export custom agenda views as plain text, HTML103, Postscript, PDF104, and iCalendar files. If you want to do this only occasionally, use the following command:

C-x C-w (org-agenda-write)

Write the agenda view to a file.

If you need to export certain agenda views frequently, you can associate any custom agenda command with a list of output file names105. Here is an example that first defines custom commands for the agenda and the global TODO list, together with a number of files to which to export them. Then we define two block agenda commands and specify file names for them as well. File names can be relative to the current working directory, or absolute.

(setq org-agenda-custom-commands
      '(("X" agenda "" nil ("agenda.html" "agenda.ps"))
        ("Y" alltodo "" nil ("todo.html" "todo.txt" "todo.ps"))
        ("h" "Agenda and Home-related tasks"
         ((agenda "")
          (tags-todo "home")
          (tags "garden"))
         nil
         ("~/views/home.html"))
        ("o" "Agenda and Office-related tasks"
         ((agenda)
          (tags-todo "work")
          (tags "office"))
         nil
         ("~/views/office.ps" "~/calendars/office.ics"))))

The extension of the file name determines the type of export. If it is ‘.html’, Org mode uses the htmlize package to convert the buffer to HTML and save it to this file name. If the extension is ‘.ps’, ps-print-buffer-with-faces is used to produce Postscript output. If the extension is ‘.ics’, iCalendar export is run export over all files that were used to construct the agenda, and limit the export to entries listed in the agenda. Any other extension produces a plain ASCII file.

The export files are not created when you use one of those commands interactively because this might use too much overhead. Instead, there is a special command to produce all specified files in one step:

e (org-store-agenda-views)

Export all agenda views that have export file names associated with them.

You can use the options section of the custom agenda commands to also set options for the export commands. For example:

(setq org-agenda-custom-commands
      '(("X" agenda ""
         ((ps-number-of-columns 2)
          (ps-landscape-mode t)
          (org-agenda-prefix-format " [ ] ")
          (org-agenda-with-colors nil)
          (org-agenda-remove-tags t))
         ("theagenda.ps"))))

This command sets two options for the Postscript exporter, to make it print in two columns in landscape format—the resulting page can be cut in two and then used in a paper agenda. The remaining settings modify the agenda prefix to omit category and scheduling information, and instead include a checkbox to check off items. We also remove the tags to make the lines compact, and we do not want to use colors for the black-and-white printer. Settings specified in org-agenda-exporter-settings also apply, e.g.,

(setq org-agenda-exporter-settings
      '((ps-number-of-columns 2)
        (ps-landscape-mode t)
        (org-agenda-add-entry-text-maxlines 5)
        (htmlize-output-type 'css)))

but the settings in org-agenda-custom-commands take precedence.

From the command line you may also use:

emacs -eval (org-batch-store-agenda-views) -kill

or, if you need to modify some parameters106

emacs -eval '(org-batch-store-agenda-views                      \
              org-agenda-span (quote month)                     \
              org-agenda-start-day "2007-11-01"                 \
              org-agenda-include-diary nil                      \
              org-agenda-files (quote ("~/org/project.org")))'  \
      -kill

which creates the agenda views restricted to the file ‘~/org/project.org’, without diary entries and with a 30-day extent.

You can also extract agenda information in a way that allows further processing by other programs. See Extracting Agenda Information, for more information.


11.8 Using Column View in the Agenda

Column view (see Column View) is normally used to view and edit properties embedded in the hierarchical structure of an Org file. It can be quite useful to use column view also from the agenda, where entries are collected by certain criteria.

C-c C-x C-c (org-agenda-columns)

Turn on column view in the agenda.

To understand how to use this properly, it is important to realize that the entries in the agenda are no longer in their proper outline environment. This causes the following issues:

  1. Org needs to make a decision which columns format to use. Since the entries in the agenda are collected from different files, and different files may have different columns formats, this is a non-trivial problem. Org first checks if org-overriding-columns-format is currently set, and if so, takes the format from there. You should set this variable only in the local settings section of a custom agenda command (see Custom Agenda Views) to make it valid for that specific agenda view. If no such binding exists, it checks, in sequence, org-columns-default-format-for-agenda, the format associated with the first item in the agenda (through a property or a ‘#+COLUMNS’ setting in that buffer) and finally org-columns-default-format.
  2. If any of the columns has a summary type defined (see Column attributes), turning on column view in the agenda visits all relevant agenda files and make sure that the computations of this property are up to date. This is also true for the special ‘CLOCKSUM’ property. Org then sums the values displayed in the agenda. In the daily/weekly agenda, the sums cover a single day; in all other views they cover the entire block.

    It is important to realize that the agenda may show the same entry twice—for example as scheduled and as a deadline—and it may show two entries from the same hierarchy (for example a parent and its child). In these cases, the summation in the agenda leads to incorrect results because some values count double.

  3. When the column view in the agenda shows the ‘CLOCKSUM’ property, that is always the entire clocked time for this item. So even in the daily/weekly agenda, the clocksum listed in column view may originate from times outside the current view. This has the advantage that you can compare these values with a column listing the planned total effort for a task—one of the major applications for column view in the agenda. If you want information about clocked time in the displayed period use clock table mode (press R in the agenda).
  4. When the column view in the agenda shows the ‘CLOCKSUM_T’ property, that is always today’s clocked time for this item. So even in the weekly agenda, the clocksum listed in column view only originates from today. This lets you compare the time you spent on a task for today, with the time already spent—via ‘CLOCKSUM’—and with the planned total effort for it.

12 Markup for Rich Contents

Org is primarily about organizing and searching through your plain-text notes. However, it also provides a lightweight yet robust markup language for rich text formatting and more. For instance, you may want to center or emphasize text. Or you may need to insert a formula or image in your writing. Org offers syntax for all of this and more. Used in conjunction with the export framework (see Exporting), you can author beautiful documents in Org—like the fine manual you are currently reading.


12.1 Paragraphs

Paragraphs are separated by at least one empty line. If you need to enforce a line break within a paragraph, use ‘\\’ at the end of a line.

To preserve the line breaks, indentation and blank lines in a region, but otherwise use normal formatting, you can use this construct, which can also be used to format poetry.

#+BEGIN_VERSE
 Great clouds overhead
 Tiny black birds rise and fall
 Snow covers Emacs

    ---AlexSchroeder
#+END_VERSE

When quoting a passage from another document, it is customary to format this as a paragraph that is indented on both the left and the right margin. You can include quotations in Org documents like this:

#+BEGIN_QUOTE
Everything should be made as simple as possible,
but not any simpler ---Albert Einstein
#+END_QUOTE

If you would like to center some text, do it like this:

#+BEGIN_CENTER
Everything should be made as simple as possible, \\
but not any simpler
#+END_CENTER

12.2 Emphasis and Monospace

You can make words ‘*bold*’, ‘/italic/’, ‘_underlined_’, ‘=verbatim=’ and ‘~code~’, and, if you must, ‘+strike-through+’. Text in the code and verbatim string is not processed for Org specific syntax; it is exported verbatim.

To turn off fontification for marked up text, you can set org-fontify-emphasized-text to nil. To narrow down the list of available markup syntax, you can customize org-emphasis-alist.

Sometimes, when marked text also contains the marker character itself, the result may be unsettling. For example,

/One may expect this whole sentence to be italicized, but the
following ~user/?variable~ contains =/= character, which effectively
stops emphasis there./

You can use zero width space to help Org sorting out the ambiguity. See Escape Character for more details.


12.3 Subscripts and Superscripts

^’ and ‘_’ are used to indicate super- and subscripts. To increase the readability of ASCII text, it is not necessary, but OK, to surround multi-character sub- and superscripts with curly braces. For example

The radius of the sun is R_sun = 6.96 x 10^8 m.  On the other hand,
the radius of Alpha Centauri is R_{Alpha Centauri} = 1.28 x R_{sun}.

If you write a text where the underscore is often used in a different context, Org’s convention to always interpret these as subscripts can get in your way. Configure the variable org-use-sub-superscripts to change this convention. For example, when setting this variable to {}, ‘a_b’ is not interpreted as a subscript, but ‘a_{b}’ is.

You can set org-use-sub-superscripts in a file using the export option ‘^:’ (see Export Settings). For example, ‘#+OPTIONS: ^:{}’ sets org-use-sub-superscripts to {} and limits super- and subscripts to the curly bracket notation.

You can also toggle the visual display of super- and subscripts:

C-c C-x \ (org-toggle-pretty-entities)

This command formats sub- and superscripts in a WYSIWYM way.

Set both org-pretty-entities and org-pretty-entities-include-sub-superscripts to t to start with super- and subscripts visually interpreted as specified by the option org-use-sub-superscripts.


12.4 Special Symbols

You can use LaTeX-like syntax to insert special symbols—named entities—like ‘\alpha’ to indicate the Greek letter, or ‘\to’ to indicate an arrow. Completion for these symbols is available, just type ‘\’ and maybe a few letters, and press M-TAB to see possible completions. If you need such a symbol inside a word, terminate it with a pair of curly brackets. For example

Pro tip: Given a circle \Gamma of diameter d, the length of its
circumference is \pi{}d.

A large number of entities is provided, with names taken from both HTML and LaTeX; you can comfortably browse the complete list from a dedicated buffer using the command org-entities-help. It is also possible to provide your own special symbols in the variable org-entities-user.

During export, these symbols are transformed into the native format of the exporter back-end. Strings like ‘\alpha’ are exported as ‘&alpha;’ in the HTML output, and as ‘\(\alpha\)’ in the LaTeX output. Similarly, ‘\nbsp’ becomes ‘&nbsp;’ in HTML and ‘~’ in LaTeX.

If you would like to see entities displayed as UTF-8 characters, use the following command107:

C-c C-x \ (org-toggle-pretty-entities)

Toggle display of entities as UTF-8 characters. This does not change the buffer content which remains plain ASCII, but it overlays the UTF-8 character for display purposes only.

In addition to regular entities defined above, Org exports in a special way108 the following commonly used character combinations: ‘\-’ is treated as a shy hyphen, ‘--’ and ‘---’ are converted into dashes, and ‘...’ becomes a compact set of dots.


12.5 Embedded LaTeX

Plain ASCII is normally sufficient for almost all note taking. Exceptions include scientific notes, which often require mathematical symbols and the occasional formula. LaTeX109 is widely used to typeset scientific documents. Org mode supports embedding LaTeX code into its files, because many academics are used to writing and reading LaTeX source code, and because it can be readily processed to produce pretty output for a number of export back-ends.


12.5.1 LaTeX fragments

Org mode can contain LaTeX math fragments, and it supports ways to process these for several export back-ends. When exporting to LaTeX, the code is left as it is. When exporting to HTML, Org can use either MathJax (see Math formatting in HTML export) or transcode the math into images (see Previewing LaTeX fragments).

LaTeX fragments do not need any special marking at all. The following snippets are identified as LaTeX source code:

  • Environments of any kind110. The only requirement is that the ‘\begin’ statement appears on a new line, preceded by only whitespace.
  • Text within the usual LaTeX math delimiters. To avoid conflicts with currency specifications, single ‘$’ characters are only recognized as math delimiters if the enclosed text contains at most two line breaks, is directly attached to the ‘$’ characters with no whitespace in between, and if the closing ‘$’ is followed by whitespace, punctuation or a dash. For the other delimiters, there is no such restriction, so when in doubt, use ‘\(...\)’ as inline math delimiters.

For example:

\begin{equation}                        % arbitrary environments,
x=\sqrt{b}                              % even tables, figures
\end{equation}                          % etc

If $a^2=b$ and \( b=2 \), then the solution must be
either $$ a=+\sqrt{2} $$ or \[ a=-\sqrt{2} \].

LaTeX processing can be configured with the variable org-export-with-latex. The default setting is t which means MathJax for HTML, and no processing for ASCII and LaTeX back-ends. You can also set this variable on a per-file basis using one of these lines:

#+OPTIONS: tex:tDo the right thing automatically (MathJax)
#+OPTIONS: tex:nilDo not process LaTeX fragments at all
#+OPTIONS: tex:verbatimVerbatim export, for jsMath or so

12.5.2 Previewing LaTeX fragments

If you have a working LaTeX installation and ‘dvipng’, ‘dvisvgm’ or ‘convert’ installed111, LaTeX fragments can be processed to produce images of the typeset expressions to be used for inclusion while exporting to HTML (see LaTeX fragments), or for inline previewing within Org mode.

You can customize the variables org-format-latex-options and org-format-latex-header to influence some aspects of the preview. In particular, the :scale (and for HTML export, :html-scale) property of the former can be used to adjust the size of the preview images.

C-c C-x C-l (org-latex-preview)

Produce a preview image of the LaTeX fragment at point and overlay it over the source code. If there is no fragment at point, process all fragments in the current entry—between two headlines.

When called with a single prefix argument, clear all images in the current entry. Two prefix arguments produce a preview image for all fragments in the buffer, while three of them clear all the images in that buffer.

You can turn on the previewing of all LaTeX fragments in a file with

#+STARTUP: latexpreview

To disable it, simply use

#+STARTUP: nolatexpreview

12.5.3 Using CDLaTeX to enter math

CDLaTeX mode is a minor mode that is normally used in combination with a major LaTeX mode like AUCTeX in order to speed-up insertion of environments and math templates. Inside Org mode, you can make use of some of the features of CDLaTeX mode. You need to install ‘cdlatex.el’ and ‘texmathp.el’ (the latter comes also with AUCTeX) from NonGNU ELPA with the Emacs packaging system or alternatively from https://staff.fnwi.uva.nl/c.dominik/Tools/cdlatex/. Do not use CDLaTeX mode itself under Org mode, but use the special version Org CDLaTeX minor mode that comes as part of Org. Turn it on for the current buffer with M-x org-cdlatex-mode, or for all Org files with

(add-hook 'org-mode-hook #'turn-on-org-cdlatex)

When this mode is enabled, the following features are present (for more details see the documentation of CDLaTeX mode):

C-c {

Insert an environment template.

TAB

The TAB key expands the template if point is inside a LaTeX fragment112. For example, TAB expands ‘fr’ to ‘\frac{}{}’ and position point correctly inside the first brace. Another TAB gets you into the second brace.

Even outside fragments, TAB expands environment abbreviations at the beginning of a line. For example, if you write ‘equ’ at the beginning of a line and press TAB, this abbreviation is expanded to an ‘equation’ environment. To get a list of all abbreviations, type M-x cdlatex-command-help.

^
_

Pressing _ and ^ inside a LaTeX fragment inserts these characters together with a pair of braces. If you use TAB to move out of the braces, and if the braces surround only a single character or macro, they are removed again (depending on the variable cdlatex-simplify-sub-super-scripts).

`

Pressing the backquote followed by a character inserts math macros, also outside LaTeX fragments. If you wait more than 1.5 seconds after the backquote, a help window pops up.

'

Pressing the single-quote followed by another character modifies the LaTeX symbol before point with an accent or a font. If you wait more than 1.5 seconds after the single-quote, a help window pops up. Character modification works only inside LaTeX fragments; outside the quote is normal.


12.6 Literal Examples

You can include literal examples that should not be subjected to markup. Such examples are typeset in monospace, so this is well suited for source code and similar examples.

#+BEGIN_EXAMPLE
  Some example from a text file.
#+END_EXAMPLE

There is one limitation, however. You must insert a comma right before lines starting with either ‘*’, ‘,*’, ‘#+’ or ‘,#+’, as those may be interpreted as outlines nodes or some other special syntax. Org transparently strips these additional commas whenever it accesses the contents of the block.

#+BEGIN_EXAMPLE
,* I am no real headline
#+END_EXAMPLE

For simplicity when using small examples, you can also start the example lines with a colon followed by a space. There may also be additional whitespace before the colon:

Here is an example
   : Some example from a text file.

If the example is source code from a programming language, or any other text that can be marked up by Font Lock in Emacs, you can ask for the example to look like the fontified Emacs buffer113. This is done with the code block, where you also need to specify the name of the major mode that should be used to fontify the example114, see Structure Templates for shortcuts to easily insert code blocks.

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
  (defun org-xor (a b)
    "Exclusive or."
    (if a (not b) b))
 #+END_SRC

Both in ‘example’ and in ‘src’ snippets, you can add a ‘-n’ switch to the end of the ‘#+BEGIN’ line, to get the lines of the example numbered. The ‘-n’ takes an optional numeric argument specifying the starting line number of the block. If you use a ‘+n’ switch, the numbering from the previous numbered snippet is continued in the current one. The ‘+n’ switch can also take a numeric argument. This adds the value of the argument to the last line of the previous block to determine the starting line number.

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp -n 20
  ;; This exports with line number 20.
  (message "This is line 21")
#+END_SRC

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp +n 10
  ;; This is listed as line 31.
  (message "This is line 32")
#+END_SRC

In literal examples, Org interprets strings like ‘(ref:name)’ as labels, and use them as targets for special hyperlinks like ‘[[(name)]]’—i.e., the reference name enclosed in single parenthesis. In HTML, hovering the mouse over such a link remote-highlights the corresponding code line, which is kind of cool.

You can also add a ‘-r’ switch which removes the labels from the source code115. With the ‘-n’ switch, links to these references are labeled by the line numbers from the code listing. Otherwise links use the labels with no parentheses. Here is an example:

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp -n -r
  (save-excursion                 (ref:sc)
     (goto-char (point-min))      (ref:jump)
#+END_SRC
In line [[(sc)]] we remember the current position. [[(jump)][Line (jump)]]
jumps to point-min.

Source code and examples may be indented in order to align nicely with the surrounding text, and in particular with plain list structure (see Plain Lists). By default, Org only retains the relative indentation between lines, e.g., when exporting the contents of the block. However, you can use the ‘-i’ switch to also preserve the global indentation, if it does matter. See Editing Source Code.

If the syntax for the label format conflicts with the language syntax, use a ‘-l’ switch to change the format, for example

#+BEGIN_SRC pascal -n -r -l "((%s))"

See also the variable org-coderef-label-format.

HTML export also allows examples to be published as text areas (see Text areas in HTML export).

Because the ‘#+BEGIN’ … ‘#+END’ patterns need to be added so often, a shortcut is provided (see Structure Templates).

C-c ' (org-edit-special)

Edit the source code example at point in its native mode. This works by switching to a temporary buffer with the source code. You need to exit by pressing C-c ' again. The edited version then replaces the old version in the Org buffer. Fixed-width regions—where each line starts with a colon followed by a space—are edited using Artist mode116 to allow creating ASCII drawings easily. Using this command in an empty line creates a new fixed-width region.

Calling org-store-link (see Handling Links) while editing a source code example in a temporary buffer created with C-c ' prompts for a label. Make sure that it is unique in the current buffer, and insert it with the proper formatting like ‘(ref:label)’ at the end of the current line. Then the label is stored as a link ‘(label)’, for retrieval with C-c C-l.


12.7 Images

An image is a link to an image file117 that does not have a description part, for example

./img/cat.jpg

If you wish to define a caption for the image (see Captions) and maybe a label for internal cross references (see Internal Links), make sure that the link is on a line by itself and precede it with ‘CAPTION’ and ‘NAME’ keywords as follows:

#+CAPTION: This is the caption for the next figure link (or table)
#+NAME:   fig:SED-HR4049
[[./img/a.jpg]]

Such images can be displayed within the buffer with the following command:

C-c C-x C-v (org-toggle-inline-images)

Toggle the inline display of linked images. When called with a prefix argument, also display images that do have a link description. You can ask for inline images to be displayed at startup by configuring the variable org-startup-with-inline-images118.

By default, Org mode displays inline images according to their actual width. You can customize the displayed image width using org-image-actual-width variable (globally) or ‘ORG-IMAGE-ACTUAL-WIDTH’ property (subtree-level)119. Their value can be the following:

  • (default) Non-nil, use the actual width of images when inlining them.
  • When set to a number, use imagemagick (when available) to set the image’s width to this value.
  • When set to a number in a list, try to get the width from any ‘#+ATTR.*’ keyword if it matches a width specification like:
    #+ATTR_HTML: :width 300px
    

    and fall back on that number if none is found.

  • When set to nil, try to get the width from an ‘#+ATTR.*’ keyword and fall back on the original width if none is found.

Inline images can also be displayed when cycling the folding state. When custom option org-cycle-inline-images-display is set, the visible inline images under subtree will be displayed automatically.


12.8 Captions

You can assign a caption to a specific part of a document by inserting a ‘CAPTION’ keyword immediately before it:

#+CAPTION: This is the caption for the next table (or link)
| ... | ... |
|-----+-----|

Optionally, the caption can take the form:

#+CAPTION[Short caption]: Longer caption.

Even though images and tables are prominent examples of captioned structures, the same caption mechanism can apply to many others—e.g., LaTeX equations, source code blocks. Depending on the export back-end, those may or may not be handled.


12.9 Horizontal Rules

A line consisting of only dashes, and at least 5 of them, is exported as a horizontal line.


12.10 Creating Footnotes

A footnote is started by a footnote marker in square brackets in column 0, no indentation allowed. It ends at the next footnote definition, headline, or after two consecutive empty lines. The footnote reference is simply the marker in square brackets, inside text. Markers always start with ‘fn:’. For example:

The Org website[fn:1] now looks a lot better than it used to.
...
[fn:55] The link is: https://orgmode.org

Org mode extends the number-based syntax to named footnotes and optional inline definition. Here are the valid references:

[fn:NAME]

A named footnote reference, where NAME is a unique label word, or, for simplicity of automatic creation, a number.

[fn:: This is the inline definition of this footnote]

An anonymous footnote where the definition is given directly at the reference point.

[fn:NAME: a definition]

An inline definition of a footnote, which also specifies a name for the note. Since Org allows multiple references to the same note, you can then use ‘[fn:NAME]’ to create additional references.

Footnote labels can be created automatically, or you can create names yourself. This is handled by the variable org-footnote-auto-label and its corresponding ‘STARTUP’ keywords. See the docstring of that variable for details.

The following command handles footnotes:

C-c C-x f

The footnote action command.

When point is on a footnote reference, jump to the definition. When it is at a definition, jump to the—first—reference.

Otherwise, create a new footnote. Depending on the variable org-footnote-define-inline120, the definition is placed right into the text as part of the reference, or separately into the location determined by the variable org-footnote-section.

When this command is called with a prefix argument, a menu of additional options is offered:

sSort the footnote definitions by reference sequence.
rRenumber the simple ‘fn:N’ footnotes.
SShort for first r, then s action.
nRename all footnotes into a ‘fn:1’ … ‘fn:n’ sequence.
dDelete the footnote at point, including definition and references.

Depending on the variable org-footnote-auto-adjust121, renumbering and sorting footnotes can be automatic after each insertion or deletion.

C-c C-c

If point is on a footnote reference, jump to the definition. If it is at the definition, jump back to the reference. When called at a footnote location with a prefix argument, offer the same menu as C-c C-x f.

C-c C-o or mouse-1/2

Footnote labels are also links to the corresponding definition or reference, and you can use the usual commands to follow these links.


13 Exporting

At some point you might want to print your notes, publish them on the web, or share them with people not using Org. Org can convert and export documents to a variety of other formats while retaining as much structure (see Document Structure) and markup (see Markup for Rich Contents) as possible.

The libraries responsible for translating Org files to other formats are called back-ends. Org ships with support for the following back-ends:

Users can install libraries for additional formats from the Emacs packaging system. For easy discovery, these packages have a common naming scheme: ox-NAME, where NAME is a format. For example, ox-koma-letter for koma-letter back-end. More libraries can be found in the ‘org-contrib’ repository (see Installation).

Org only loads back-ends for the following formats by default: ASCII, HTML, iCalendar, LaTeX, and ODT. Additional back-ends can be loaded in either of two ways: by configuring the org-export-backends variable, or by requiring libraries in the Emacs init file. For example, to load the Markdown back-end, add this to your Emacs config:

(require 'ox-md)

13.1 The Export Dispatcher

The export dispatcher is the main interface for Org’s exports. A hierarchical menu presents the currently configured export formats. Options are shown as easy toggle switches on the same screen.

Org also has a minimal prompt interface for the export dispatcher. When the variable org-export-dispatch-use-expert-ui is set to a non-nil value, Org prompts in the minibuffer. To switch back to the hierarchical menu, press ?.

C-c C-e (org-export-dispatch)

Invokes the export dispatcher interface. The options show default settings. The C-u prefix argument preserves options from the previous export, including any subtree selections.

Org exports the entire buffer by default. If the Org buffer has an active region, then Org exports just that region.

Within the dispatcher interface, the following key combinations can further alter what is exported, and how.

C-a

Toggle asynchronous export. Asynchronous export uses an external Emacs process with a specially configured initialization file to complete the exporting process in the background, without tying-up Emacs. This is particularly useful when exporting long documents.

Output from an asynchronous export is saved on the export stack. To view this stack, call the export dispatcher with a double C-u prefix argument. If already in the export dispatcher menu, & displays the stack.

You can make asynchronous export the default by setting org-export-in-background.

You can set the initialization file used by the background process by setting org-export-async-init-file.

C-b

Toggle body-only export. Useful for excluding headers and footers in the export. Affects only those back-end formats that have sections like ‘<head>...</head>’ in HTML.

C-s

Toggle subtree export. When turned on, Org exports only the subtree starting from point position at the time the export dispatcher was invoked. Org uses the top heading of this subtree as the document’s title. If point is not on a heading, Org uses the nearest enclosing header. If point is in the document preamble, Org signals an error and aborts export.

To make subtree export the default, customize the variable org-export-initial-scope.

C-v

Toggle visible-only export. This is useful for exporting only certain parts of an Org document by adjusting the visibility of particular headings. See also Sparse Trees.


13.2 Export Settings

Export options can be set: globally with variables; for an individual file by making variables buffer-local with in-buffer settings (see Summary of In-Buffer Settings); by setting individual keywords or specifying them in compact form with the ‘OPTIONS’ keyword; or for a tree by setting properties (see Properties and Columns). Options set at a specific level override options set at a more general level.

In-buffer settings may appear anywhere in the file, either directly or indirectly through a file included using ‘#+SETUPFILE: filename or URL’ syntax. Option keyword sets tailored to a particular back-end can be inserted from the export dispatcher (see The Export Dispatcher) using the ‘Insert template’ command by pressing #. To insert keywords individually, a good way to make sure the keyword is correct is to type ‘#+’ and then to use M-TAB122 for completion.

The export keywords available for every back-end, and their equivalent global variables, include:

AUTHOR

The document author (user-full-name).

CREATOR

Entity responsible for output generation (org-export-creator-string).

DATE

A date or a time-stamp123.

EMAIL

The email address (user-mail-address).

LANGUAGE

Language to use for translating certain strings (org-export-default-language). With ‘#+LANGUAGE: fr’, for example, Org translates ‘Table of contents’ to the French ‘Table des matières124.

SELECT_TAGS

The default value is ‘("export")’. When a tree is tagged with ‘export’ (org-export-select-tags), Org selects that tree and its subtrees for export. Org excludes trees with ‘noexport’ tags, see below. When selectively exporting files with ‘export’ tags set, Org does not export any text that appears before the first headline.

EXCLUDE_TAGS

The default value is ‘("noexport")’. When a tree is tagged with ‘noexport’ (org-export-exclude-tags), Org excludes that tree and its subtrees from export. Entries tagged with ‘noexport’ are unconditionally excluded from the export, even if they have an ‘export’ tag. Even if a subtree is not exported, Org executes any code blocks contained there.

TITLE

Org displays this title. For long titles, use multiple ‘#+TITLE’ lines.

EXPORT_FILE_NAME

The name of the output file to be generated. Otherwise, Org generates the file name based on the buffer name and the extension based on the back-end format.

The ‘OPTIONS’ keyword is a compact form. To configure multiple options, use several ‘OPTIONS’ lines. ‘OPTIONS’ recognizes the following arguments.

'

Toggle smart quotes (org-export-with-smart-quotes). Depending on the language used, when activated, Org treats pairs of double quotes as primary quotes, pairs of single quotes as secondary quotes, and single quote marks as apostrophes.

*

Toggle emphasized text (org-export-with-emphasize).

-

Toggle conversion of special strings (org-export-with-special-strings).

:

Toggle fixed-width sections (org-export-with-fixed-width).

<

Toggle inclusion of time/date active/inactive stamps (org-export-with-timestamps).

\n

Toggles whether to preserve line breaks (org-export-preserve-breaks).

^

Toggle TeX-like syntax for sub- and superscripts. If you write ‘^:{}’, ‘a_{b}’ is interpreted, but the simple ‘a_b’ is left as it is (org-export-with-sub-superscripts).

arch

Configure how archived trees are exported. When set to headline, the export process skips the contents and processes only the headlines (org-export-with-archived-trees).

author

Toggle inclusion of author name into exported file (org-export-with-author).

broken-links

Toggles if Org should continue exporting upon finding a broken internal link. When set to mark, Org clearly marks the problem link in the output (org-export-with-broken-links).

c

Toggle inclusion of ‘CLOCK’ keywords (org-export-with-clocks).

creator

Toggle inclusion of creator information in the exported file (org-export-with-creator).

d

Toggles inclusion of drawers, or list of drawers to include, or list of drawers to exclude (org-export-with-drawers).

date

Toggle inclusion of a date into exported file (org-export-with-date).

e

Toggle inclusion of entities (org-export-with-entities).

email

Toggle inclusion of the author’s e-mail into exported file (org-export-with-email).

f

Toggle the inclusion of footnotes (org-export-with-footnotes).

H

Set the number of headline levels for export (org-export-headline-levels). Below that level, headlines are treated differently. In most back-ends, they become list items.

inline

Toggle inclusion of inlinetasks (org-export-with-inlinetasks).

num

Toggle section-numbers (org-export-with-section-numbers). When set to number N, Org numbers only those headlines at level N or above. Set ‘UNNUMBERED’ property to non-nil to disable numbering of heading and subheadings entirely. Moreover, when the value is ‘notoc’ the headline, and all its children, do not appear in the table of contents either (see Table of Contents).

p

Toggle export of planning information (org-export-with-planning). “Planning information” comes from lines located right after the headline and contain any combination of these cookies: ‘SCHEDULED’, ‘DEADLINE’, or ‘CLOSED’.

pri

Toggle inclusion of priority cookies (org-export-with-priority).

prop

Toggle inclusion of property drawers, or list the properties to include (org-export-with-properties).

stat

Toggle inclusion of statistics cookies (org-export-with-statistics-cookies).

tags

Toggle inclusion of tags, may also be not-in-toc (org-export-with-tags).

tasks

Toggle inclusion of tasks (TODO items); or nil to remove all tasks; or todo to remove done tasks; or list the keywords to keep (org-export-with-tasks).

tex

nil does not export; t exports; verbatim keeps everything in verbatim (org-export-with-latex).

timestamp

Toggle inclusion of the creation time in the exported file (org-export-time-stamp-file).

title

Toggle inclusion of title (org-export-with-title).

toc

Toggle inclusion of the table of contents, or set the level limit (org-export-with-toc).

todo

Toggle inclusion of TODO keywords into exported text (org-export-with-todo-keywords).

|

Toggle inclusion of tables (org-export-with-tables).

When exporting subtrees, special node properties can override the above keywords. These properties have an ‘EXPORT_’ prefix. For example, ‘DATE’ becomes, ‘EXPORT_DATE’ when used for a specific subtree. Except for ‘SETUPFILE’, all other keywords listed above have an ‘EXPORT_’ equivalent.

If org-export-allow-bind-keywords is non-nil, Emacs variables can become buffer-local during export by using the ‘BIND’ keyword. Its syntax is ‘#+BIND: variable value’. This is particularly useful for in-buffer settings that cannot be changed using keywords.


13.3 Table of Contents

The table of contents includes all headlines in the document. Its depth is therefore the same as the headline levels in the file. If you need to use a different depth, or turn it off entirely, set the org-export-with-toc variable accordingly. You can achieve the same on a per file basis, using the following ‘toc’ item in ‘OPTIONS’ keyword:

#+OPTIONS: toc:2          (only include two levels in TOC)
#+OPTIONS: toc:nil        (no default TOC at all)

Org includes both numbered and unnumbered headlines in the table of contents125. If you need to exclude an unnumbered headline, along with all its children, set the ‘UNNUMBERED’ property to ‘notoc’ value.

* Subtree not numbered, not in table of contents either
  :PROPERTIES:
  :UNNUMBERED: notoc
  :END:

Org normally inserts the table of contents directly before the first headline of the file. To move the table of contents to a different location, first turn off the default with org-export-with-toc variable or with ‘#+OPTIONS: toc:nil’. Then insert ‘#+TOC: headlines N’ at the desired location(s).

#+OPTIONS: toc:nil
...
#+TOC: headlines 2

To adjust the table of contents depth for a specific section of the Org document, append an additional ‘local’ parameter. This parameter becomes a relative depth for the current level. The following example inserts a local table of contents, with direct children only.

* Section
#+TOC: headlines 1 local

Note that for this feature to work properly in LaTeX export, the Org file requires the inclusion of the titletoc package. Because of compatibility issues, titletoc has to be loaded before hyperref. Customize the org-latex-default-packages-alist variable.

The following example inserts a table of contents that links to the children of the specified target.

* Target
  :PROPERTIES:
  :CUSTOM_ID: TargetSection
  :END:
** Heading A
** Heading B
* Another section
#+TOC: headlines 1 :target #TargetSection

The ‘:target’ attribute is supported in HTML, Markdown, ODT, and ASCII export.

Use the ‘TOC’ keyword to generate list of tables—respectively, all listings—with captions.

#+TOC: listings
#+TOC: tables

Normally Org uses the headline for its entry in the table of contents. But with ‘ALT_TITLE’ property, a different entry can be specified for the table of contents.


13.4 Include Files

During export, you can include the content of another file. For example, to include your ‘.emacs’ file, you could use:

#+INCLUDE: "~/.emacs" src emacs-lisp

The first parameter is the file name to include. The optional second parameter specifies the block type: ‘example’, ‘export’ or ‘src’. The optional third parameter specifies the source code language to use for formatting the contents. This is relevant to both ‘export’ and ‘src’ block types.

If an included file is specified as having a markup language, Org neither checks for valid syntax nor changes the contents in any way. For example and source blocks, Org code-escapes the contents before inclusion.

If an included file is not specified as having any markup language, Org assumes it be in Org format and proceeds as usual with a few exceptions. Org makes the footnote labels (see Creating Footnotes) in the included file local to that file. The contents of the included file belong to the same structure—headline, item—containing the ‘INCLUDE’ keyword. In particular, headlines within the file become children of the current section. That behavior can be changed by providing an additional keyword parameter, ‘:minlevel’. It shifts the headlines in the included file to become the lowest level. For example, this syntax makes the included file a sibling of the current top-level headline:

#+INCLUDE: "~/my-book/chapter2.org" :minlevel 1

Inclusion of only portions of files are specified using ranges parameter with ‘:lines’ keyword. The line at the upper end of the range will not be included. The start and/or the end of the range may be omitted to use the obvious defaults.

#+INCLUDE: "~/.emacs" :lines "5-10"Include lines 5 to 10, 10 excluded
#+INCLUDE: "~/.emacs" :lines "-10"Include lines 1 to 10, 10 excluded
#+INCLUDE: "~/.emacs" :lines "10-"Include lines from 10 to EOF

Inclusions may specify a file-link to extract an object matched by org-link-search126 (see Search Options in File Links). The ranges for ‘:lines’ keyword are relative to the requested element. Therefore,

#+INCLUDE: "./paper.org::*conclusion" :lines "1-20"

includes the first 20 lines of the headline named ‘conclusion’.

To extract only the contents of the matched object, set ‘:only-contents’ property to non-nil. This omits any planning lines or property drawers. For example, to include the body of the heading with the custom ID ‘theory’, you can use

#+INCLUDE: "./paper.org::#theory" :only-contents t

The following command allows navigating to the included document:

C-c ' (org-edit-special)

Visit the included file at point.


13.5 Macro Replacement

Macros replace text snippets during export. Macros are defined globally in org-export-global-macros, or document-wise with the following syntax:

#+MACRO: name   replacement text; $1, $2 are arguments

which can be referenced using ‘{{{name(arg1, arg2)}}}127. For example

#+MACRO: poem Rose is $1, violet's $2. Life's ordered: Org assists you.
{{{poem(red,blue)}}}

becomes

Rose is red, violet's blue.  Life's ordered: Org assists you.

As a special case, Org parses any replacement text starting with ‘(eval’ as an Emacs Lisp expression and evaluates it accordingly. Within such templates, arguments become strings. Thus, the following macro

#+MACRO: gnustamp (eval (concat "GNU/" (capitalize $1)))

turns ‘{{{gnustamp(linux)}}}’ into ‘GNU/Linux’ during export.

Org recognizes macro references in following Org markup areas: paragraphs, headlines, verse blocks, tables cells and lists. Org also recognizes macro references in keywords, such as ‘CAPTION’, ‘TITLE’, ‘AUTHOR’, ‘DATE’, and for some back-end specific export options.

Org comes with following pre-defined macros:

{{{keyword(NAME)}}}
{{{title}}}
{{{author}}}
{{{email}}}

The ‘keyword’ macro collects all values from NAME keywords throughout the buffer, separated with white space. ‘title’, ‘author’ and ‘email’ macros are shortcuts for, respectively, ‘{{{keyword(TITLE)}}}’, ‘{{{keyword(AUTHOR)}}}’ and ‘{{{keyword(EMAIL)}}}’.

{{{date}}}
{{{date(FORMAT)}}}

This macro refers to the ‘DATE’ keyword. FORMAT is an optional argument to the ‘date’ macro that is used only if ‘DATE’ is a single timestamp. FORMAT should be a format string understood by format-time-string.

{{{time(FORMAT)}}}
{{{modification-time(FORMAT, VC)}}}

These macros refer to the document’s date and time of export and date and time of modification. FORMAT is a string understood by format-time-string. If the second argument to the modification-time macro is non-nil, Org uses ‘vc.el’ to retrieve the document’s modification time from the version control system. Otherwise Org reads the file attributes.

{{{input-file}}}

This macro refers to the filename of the exported file.

{{{property(PROPERTY-NAME)}}}
{{{property(PROPERTY-NAME, SEARCH OPTION)}}}

This macro returns the value of property PROPERTY-NAME in the current entry. If SEARCH-OPTION (see Search Options in File Links) refers to a remote entry, use it instead.

{{{n}}}
{{{n(NAME)}}}
{{{n(NAME, ACTION)}}}

This macro implements custom counters by returning the number of times the macro has been expanded so far while exporting the buffer. You can create more than one counter using different NAME values. If ACTION is ‘-’, previous value of the counter is held, i.e., the specified counter is not incremented. If the value is a number, the specified counter is set to that value. If it is any other non-empty string, the specified counter is reset to 1. You may leave NAME empty to reset the default counter.

Moreover, inline source blocks (see Structure of Code Blocks) use the special ‘results’ macro to mark their output. As such, you are advised against re-defining it, unless you know what you are doing.

The surrounding brackets can be made invisible by setting org-hide-macro-markers to a non-nil value.

Org expands macros at the very beginning of the export process.


13.6 Comment Lines

Lines starting with zero or more whitespace characters followed by one ‘#’ and a whitespace are treated as comments and, as such, are not exported.

Likewise, regions surrounded by ‘#+BEGIN_COMMENT’ … ‘#+END_COMMENT’ are not exported.

Finally, a ‘COMMENT’ keyword at the beginning of an entry, but after any other keyword or priority cookie, comments out the entire subtree. In this case, the subtree is not exported and no code block within it is executed either128. The command below helps changing the comment status of a headline.

C-c ; (org-toggle-comment)

Toggle the ‘COMMENT’ keyword at the beginning of an entry.


13.7 ASCII/Latin-1/UTF-8 export

ASCII export produces an output file containing only plain ASCII characters. This is the simplest and most direct text output. It does not contain any Org markup. Latin-1 and UTF-8 export use additional characters and symbols available in these encoding standards. All three of these export formats offer the most basic of text output for maximum portability.

On export, Org fills and justifies text according to the text width set in org-ascii-text-width.

Org exports links using a footnote-like style where the descriptive part is in the text and the link is in a note before the next heading. See the variable org-ascii-links-to-notes for details.

ASCII export commands

C-c C-e t a (org-ascii-export-to-ascii)
C-c C-e t l
C-c C-e t u

Export as an ASCII file with a ‘.txt’ extension. For ‘myfile.org’, Org exports to ‘myfile.txt’, overwriting without warning. For ‘myfile.txt’, Org exports to ‘myfile.txt.txt’ in order to prevent data loss.

C-c C-e t A (org-ascii-export-to-ascii)
C-c C-e t L
C-c C-e t U

Export to a temporary buffer. Does not create a file.

ASCII specific export settings

The ASCII export back-end has one extra keyword for customizing ASCII output. Setting this keyword works similar to the general options (see Export Settings).

SUBTITLE

The document subtitle. For long subtitles, use multiple ‘#+SUBTITLE’ lines in the Org file. Org prints them on one continuous line, wrapping into multiple lines if necessary.

Header and sectioning structure

Org converts the first three outline levels into headlines for ASCII export. The remaining levels are turned into lists. To change this cut-off point where levels become lists, see Export Settings.

Quoting ASCII text

To insert text within the Org file by the ASCII back-end, use one the following constructs, inline, keyword, or export block:

Inline text @@ascii:and additional text@@ within a paragraph.

#+ASCII: Some text

#+BEGIN_EXPORT ascii
Org exports text in this block only when using ASCII back-end.
#+END_EXPORT

ASCII specific attributes

ASCII back-end recognizes only one attribute, ‘:width’, which specifies the width of a horizontal rule in number of characters. The keyword and syntax for specifying widths is:

#+ATTR_ASCII: :width 10
-----

ASCII special blocks

Besides ‘#+BEGIN_CENTER’ blocks (see Paragraphs), ASCII back-end has these two left and right justification blocks:

#+BEGIN_JUSTIFYLEFT
It's just a jump to the left...
#+END_JUSTIFYLEFT

#+BEGIN_JUSTIFYRIGHT
...and then a step to the right.
#+END_JUSTIFYRIGHT

13.8 Beamer Export

Org uses Beamer export to convert an Org file tree structure into high-quality interactive slides for presentations. Beamer is a LaTeX document class for creating presentations in PDF, HTML, and other popular display formats.


13.8.1 Beamer export commands

C-c C-e l b (org-beamer-export-to-latex)

Export as LaTeX file with a ‘.tex’ extension. For ‘myfile.org’, Org exports to ‘myfile.tex’, overwriting without warning.

C-c C-e l B (org-beamer-export-as-latex)

Export to a temporary buffer. Does not create a file.

C-c C-e l P (org-beamer-export-to-pdf)

Export as LaTeX file and then convert it to PDF format.

C-c C-e l O

Export as LaTeX file, convert it to PDF format, and then open the PDF file.


13.8.2 Beamer specific export settings

Beamer export back-end has several additional keywords for customizing Beamer output. These keywords work similar to the general options settings (see Export Settings).

BEAMER_THEME

The Beamer layout theme (org-beamer-theme). Use square brackets for options. For example:

#+BEAMER_THEME: Rochester [height=20pt]
BEAMER_FONT_THEME

The Beamer font theme.

BEAMER_INNER_THEME

The Beamer inner theme.

BEAMER_OUTER_THEME

The Beamer outer theme.

BEAMER_HEADER

Arbitrary lines inserted in the preamble, just before the ‘hyperref’ settings.

DESCRIPTION

The document description. For long descriptions, use multiple ‘DESCRIPTION’ keywords. By default, ‘hyperref’ inserts ‘DESCRIPTION’ as metadata. Use org-latex-hyperref-template to configure document metadata. Use org-latex-title-command to configure typesetting of description as part of front matter.

KEYWORDS

The keywords for defining the contents of the document. Use multiple ‘KEYWORDS’ lines if necessary. By default, ‘hyperref’ inserts ‘KEYWORDS’ as metadata. Use org-latex-hyperref-template to configure document metadata. Use org-latex-title-command to configure typesetting of keywords as part of front matter.

SUBTITLE

Document’s subtitle. For typesetting, use org-beamer-subtitle-format string. Use org-latex-hyperref-template to configure document metadata. Use org-latex-title-command to configure typesetting of subtitle as part of front matter.


13.8.3 Frames and Blocks in Beamer

Org transforms heading levels into Beamer’s sectioning elements, frames and blocks. Any Org tree with a not-too-deep-level nesting should in principle be exportable as a Beamer presentation.

  • Org headlines become Beamer frames when the heading level in Org is equal to org-beamer-frame-level or ‘H’ value in a ‘OPTIONS’ line (see Export Settings).

    Org overrides headlines to frames conversion for the current tree of an Org file if it encounters the ‘BEAMER_ENV’ property set to ‘frame’ or ‘fullframe’. Org ignores whatever org-beamer-frame-level happens to be for that headline level in the Org tree. In Beamer terminology, a full frame is a frame without its title.

  • Org exports a Beamer frame’s objects as block environments. Org can enforce wrapping in special block types when ‘BEAMER_ENV’ property is set129. For valid values see org-beamer-environments-default. To add more values, see org-beamer-environments-extra.
  • If ‘BEAMER_ENV’ is set to ‘appendix’, Org exports the entry as an appendix. When set to ‘note’, Org exports the entry as a note within the frame or between frames, depending on the entry’s heading level. When set to ‘noteNH’, Org exports the entry as a note without its title. When set to ‘againframe’, Org exports the entry with ‘\againframe’ command, which makes setting the ‘BEAMER_REF’ property mandatory because ‘\againframe’ needs frame to resume.

    When ‘ignoreheading’ is set, Org export ignores the entry’s headline but not its content. This is useful for inserting content between frames. It is also useful for properly closing a ‘column’ environment.

    When ‘BEAMER_ACT’ is set for a headline, Org export translates that headline as an overlay or action specification. When enclosed in square brackets, Org export makes the overlay specification a default. Use ‘BEAMER_OPT’ to set any options applicable to the current Beamer frame or block. The Beamer export back-end wraps with appropriate angular or square brackets. It also adds the ‘fragile’ option for any code that may require a verbatim block.

    To create a column on the Beamer slide, use the ‘BEAMER_COL’ property for its headline in the Org file. Set the value of ‘BEAMER_COL’ to a decimal number representing the fraction of the total text width. Beamer export uses this value to set the column’s width and fills the column with the contents of the Org entry. If the Org entry has no specific environment defined, Beamer export ignores the heading. If the Org entry has a defined environment, Beamer export uses the heading as title. Behind the scenes, Beamer export automatically handles LaTeX column separations for contiguous headlines. To manually adjust them for any unique configurations needs, use the ‘BEAMER_ENV’ property.


13.8.4 Beamer specific syntax

Since Org’s Beamer export back-end is an extension of the LaTeX back-end, it recognizes other LaTeX specific syntax—for example, ‘#+LATEX:’ or ‘#+ATTR_LATEX:’. See LaTeX Export, for details.

Beamer export wraps the table of contents generated with ‘toc:t’ ‘OPTION’ keyword in a ‘frame’ environment. Beamer export does not wrap the table of contents generated with ‘TOC’ keyword (see Table of Contents). Use square brackets for specifying options.

#+TOC: headlines [currentsection]

Insert Beamer-specific code using the following constructs:

#+BEAMER: \pause

#+BEGIN_EXPORT beamer
  Only Beamer export back-end exports this.
#+END_EXPORT

Text @@beamer:some code@@ within a paragraph.

Inline constructs, such as the last one above, are useful for adding overlay specifications to objects with bold, item, link, radio-target and target types. Enclose the value in angular brackets and place the specification at the beginning of the object as shown in this example:

A *@@beamer:<2->@@useful* feature

Beamer export recognizes the ‘ATTR_BEAMER’ keyword with the following attributes from Beamer configurations: ‘:environment’ for changing local Beamer environment, ‘:overlay’ for specifying Beamer overlays in angular or square brackets, and ‘:options’ for inserting optional arguments.

#+ATTR_BEAMER: :environment nonindentlist
- item 1, not indented
- item 2, not indented
- item 3, not indented
#+ATTR_BEAMER: :overlay <+->
- item 1
- item 2
#+ATTR_BEAMER: :options [Lagrange]
Let $G$ be a finite group, and let $H$ be
a subgroup of $G$.  Then the order of $H$ divides the order of $G$.

13.8.5 Editing support

Org Beamer mode is a special minor mode for faster editing of Beamer documents.

#+STARTUP: beamer
C-c C-b (org-beamer-select-environment)

Org Beamer mode provides this key for quicker selections in Beamer normal environments, and for selecting the ‘BEAMER_COL’ property.


13.8.6 A Beamer example

Here is an example of an Org document ready for Beamer export.

#+TITLE: Example Presentation
#+AUTHOR: Carsten Dominik
#+OPTIONS: H:2 toc:t num:t
#+LATEX_CLASS: beamer
#+LATEX_CLASS_OPTIONS: [presentation]
#+BEAMER_THEME: Madrid
#+COLUMNS: %45ITEM %10BEAMER_ENV(Env) %10BEAMER_ACT(Act) %4BEAMER_COL(Col)

* This is the first structural section

** Frame 1
*** Thanks to Eric Fraga                                           :B_block:
    :PROPERTIES:
    :BEAMER_COL: 0.48
    :BEAMER_ENV: block
    :END:
    for the first viable Beamer setup in Org
*** Thanks to everyone else                                        :B_block:
    :PROPERTIES:
    :BEAMER_COL: 0.48
    :BEAMER_ACT: <2->
    :BEAMER_ENV: block
    :END:
    for contributing to the discussion
**** This will be formatted as a beamer note                       :B_note:
     :PROPERTIES:
     :BEAMER_env: note
     :END:
** Frame 2 (where we will not use columns)
*** Request
    Please test this stuff!

13.9 HTML Export

Org mode contains an HTML exporter with extensive HTML formatting compatible with XHTML 1.0 strict standard.


13.9.1 HTML export commands

C-c C-e h h (org-html-export-to-html)

Export as HTML file with a ‘.html’ extension. For ‘myfile.org’, Org exports to ‘myfile.html’, overwriting without warning. C-c C-e h o exports to HTML and opens it in a web browser.

C-c C-e h H (org-html-export-as-html)

Exports to a temporary buffer. Does not create a file.


13.9.2 HTML specific export settings

HTML export has a number of keywords, similar to the general options settings described in Export Settings.

DESCRIPTION

This is the document’s description, which the HTML exporter inserts it as a HTML meta tag in the HTML file. For long descriptions, use multiple ‘DESCRIPTION’ lines. The exporter takes care of wrapping the lines properly.

The exporter includes a number of other meta tags, which can be customized by modifying org-html-meta-tags.

HTML_DOCTYPE

Specify the document type, for example: HTML5 (org-html-doctype).

HTML_CONTAINER

Specify the HTML container, such as ‘div’, for wrapping sections and elements (org-html-container-element).

HTML_LINK_HOME

The URL for home link (org-html-link-home).

HTML_LINK_UP

The URL for the up link of exported HTML pages (org-html-link-up).

HTML_MATHJAX

Options for MathJax (org-html-mathjax-options). MathJax is used to typeset LaTeX math in HTML documents. See Math formatting in HTML export, for an example.

HTML_HEAD

Arbitrary lines for appending to the HTML document’s head (org-html-head).

HTML_HEAD_EXTRA

More arbitrary lines for appending to the HTML document’s head (org-html-head-extra).

KEYWORDS

Keywords to describe the document’s content. HTML exporter inserts these keywords as HTML meta tags. For long keywords, use multiple ‘KEYWORDS’ lines.

LATEX_HEADER

Arbitrary lines for appending to the preamble; HTML exporter appends when transcoding LaTeX fragments to images (see Math formatting in HTML export).

SUBTITLE

The document’s subtitle. HTML exporter formats subtitle if document type is ‘HTML5’ and the CSS has a ‘subtitle’ class.

Some of these keywords are explained in more detail in the following sections of the manual.


13.9.3 HTML doctypes

Org can export to various (X)HTML flavors.

Set the org-html-doctype variable for different (X)HTML variants. Depending on the variant, the HTML exporter adjusts the syntax of HTML conversion accordingly. Org includes the following ready-made variants:

  • "html4-strict"
  • "html4-transitional"
  • "html4-frameset"
  • "xhtml-strict"
  • "xhtml-transitional"
  • "xhtml-frameset"
  • "xhtml-11"
  • "html5"
  • "xhtml5"

See the variable org-html-doctype-alist for details. The default is "xhtml-strict".

Org’s HTML exporter does not by default enable new block elements introduced with the HTML5 standard. To enable them, set org-html-html5-fancy to non-nil. Or use an ‘OPTIONS’ line in the file to set ‘html5-fancy’.

HTML5 documents can now have arbitrary ‘#+BEGIN’ … ‘#+END’ blocks. For example:

#+BEGIN_aside
  Lorem ipsum
#+END_aside

exports to:

<aside>
  <p>Lorem ipsum</p>
</aside>

while this:

#+ATTR_HTML: :controls controls :width 350
#+BEGIN_video
#+HTML: <source src="movie.mp4" type="video/mp4">
#+HTML: <source src="movie.ogg" type="video/ogg">
Your browser does not support the video tag.
#+END_video

exports to:

<video controls="controls" width="350">
  <source src="movie.mp4" type="video/mp4">
  <source src="movie.ogg" type="video/ogg">
  <p>Your browser does not support the video tag.</p>
</video>

When special blocks do not have a corresponding HTML5 element, the HTML exporter reverts to standard translation (see org-html-html5-elements). For example, ‘#+BEGIN_lederhosen’ exports to <div class="lederhosen">.

Special blocks cannot have headlines. For the HTML exporter to wrap the headline and its contents in <section> or <article> tags, set the ‘HTML_CONTAINER’ property for the headline.


13.9.4 HTML preamble and postamble

The HTML exporter has delineations for preamble and postamble. The default value for org-html-preamble is t, which makes the HTML exporter insert the preamble. See the variable org-html-preamble-format for the format string.

Set org-html-preamble to a string to override the default format string. If set to a function, the HTML exporter expects the function to return a string upon execution. The HTML exporter inserts this string in the preamble. The HTML exporter does not insert a preamble if org-html-preamble is set nil.

The above also applies to org-html-postamble and org-html-postamble-format. In addition, org-html-postamble can be set to auto (its default value), which makes the HTML exporter build a postamble from looking up author’s name, email address, creator’s name, and date.


13.9.5 Quoting HTML tags

The HTML export back-end transforms ‘<’ and ‘>’ to ‘&lt;’ and ‘&gt;’. To include raw HTML code in the Org file so the HTML export back-end can insert that HTML code in the output, use this inline syntax: ‘@@html:...@@’. For example:

@@html:<b>@@bold text@@html:</b>@@

For larger raw HTML code blocks, use these HTML export code blocks:

#+HTML: Literal HTML code for export

#+BEGIN_EXPORT html
  All lines between these markers are exported literally
#+END_EXPORT

13.9.6 Headlines in HTML export

Headlines are exported to ‘<h1>’, ‘<h2>’, etc. Each headline gets the ‘id’ attribute from ‘CUSTOM_ID’ property, or a unique generated value, see Internal Links.

When org-html-self-link-headlines is set to a non-nil value, the text of the headlines is also wrapped in ‘<a>’ tags. These tags have a ‘href’ attribute making the headlines link to themselves.


13.9.8 Tables in HTML export

The HTML export back-end uses org-html-table-default-attributes when exporting Org tables to HTML. By default, the exporter does not draw frames and cell borders. To change for this for a table, use the following lines before the table in the Org file:

#+CAPTION: This is a table with lines around and between cells
#+ATTR_HTML: :border 2 :rules all :frame border

The HTML export back-end preserves column groupings in Org tables (see Column Groups) when exporting to HTML.

Additional options for customizing tables for HTML export.

org-html-table-align-individual-fields

Non-nil attaches style attributes for alignment to each table field.

org-html-table-caption-above

Non-nil places caption string at the beginning of the table.

org-html-table-data-tags

Opening and ending tags for table data fields.

org-html-table-default-attributes

Default attributes and values for table tags.

org-html-table-header-tags

Opening and ending tags for table’s header fields.

org-html-table-row-tags

Opening and ending tags for table rows.

org-html-table-use-header-tags-for-first-column

Non-nil formats column one in tables with header tags.


13.9.9 Images in HTML export

The HTML export back-end has features to convert Org image links to HTML inline images and HTML clickable image links.

When the link in the Org file has no description, the HTML export back-end by default in-lines that image. For example: ‘[[file:myimg.jpg]]’ is in-lined, while ‘[[file:myimg.jpg][the image]]’ links to the text, ‘the image’. For more details, see the variable org-html-inline-images.

On the other hand, if the description part of the Org link is itself another link, such as ‘file:’ or ‘http:’ URL pointing to an image, the HTML export back-end in-lines this image and links to the main image. This Org syntax enables the back-end to link low-resolution thumbnail to the high-resolution version of the image, as shown in this example:

[[file:highres.jpg][file:thumb.jpg]]

To change attributes of in-lined images, use ‘#+ATTR_HTML’ lines in the Org file. This example shows realignment to right, and adds alt and title attributes in support of text viewers and modern web accessibility standards.

#+CAPTION: A black cat stalking a spider
#+ATTR_HTML: :alt cat/spider image :title Action! :align right
[[./img/a.jpg]]

The HTML export back-end copies the ‘http’ links from the Org file as-is.


13.9.10 Math formatting in HTML export

LaTeX math snippets (see LaTeX fragments) can be displayed in two different ways on HTML pages. The default is to use the MathJax, which should work out of the box with Org130131. Some MathJax display options can be configured via org-html-mathjax-options, or in the buffer. For example, with the following settings,

#+HTML_MATHJAX: align: left indent: 5em tagside: left

equation labels are displayed on the left margin and equations are five em from the left margin.

See the docstring of org-html-mathjax-options for all supported variables. The MathJax template can be configure via org-html-mathjax-template.

If you prefer, you can also request that LaTeX fragments are processed into small images that will be inserted into the browser page. Before the availability of MathJax, this was the default method for Org files. This method requires that the dvipng program, dvisvgm or ImageMagick suite is available on your system. You can still get this processing with

#+OPTIONS: tex:dvipng
#+OPTIONS: tex:dvisvgm

or

#+OPTIONS: tex:imagemagick

13.9.11 Text areas in HTML export

Before Org mode’s Babel, one popular approach to publishing code in HTML was by using ‘:textarea’. The advantage of this approach was that copying and pasting was built into browsers with simple JavaScript commands. Even editing before pasting was made simple.

The HTML export back-end can create such text areas. It requires an ‘#+ATTR_HTML’ line as shown in the example below with the ‘:textarea’ option. This must be followed by either an example or a source code block. Other Org block types do not honor the ‘:textarea’ option.

By default, the HTML export back-end creates a text area 80 characters wide and height just enough to fit the content. Override these defaults with ‘:width’ and ‘:height’ options on the ‘#+ATTR_HTML’ line.

#+ATTR_HTML: :textarea t :width 40
#+BEGIN_EXAMPLE
  (defun org-xor (a b)
     "Exclusive or."
     (if a (not b) b))
#+END_EXAMPLE

13.9.12 CSS support

You can modify the CSS style definitions for the exported file. The HTML exporter assigns the following special CSS classes132 to appropriate parts of the document—your style specifications may change these, in addition to any of the standard classes like for headlines, tables, etc.

p.authorauthor information, including email
p.datepublishing date
p.creatorcreator info, about org mode version
.titledocument title
.subtitledocument subtitle
.todoTODO keywords, all not-done states
.donethe DONE keywords, all states that count as done
.WAITINGeach TODO keyword also uses a class named after itself
.timestamptimestamp
.timestamp-kwdkeyword associated with a timestamp, like ‘SCHEDULED
.timestamp-wrapperspan around keyword plus timestamp
.tagtag in a headline
._HOMEeach tag uses itself as a class, “@” replaced by “_”
.targettarget for links
.linenrthe line number in a code example
.code-highlightedfor highlighting referenced code lines
div.outline-Ndiv for outline level N (headline plus text)
div.outline-text-Nextra div for text at outline level N
.section-number-Nsection number in headlines, different for each level
.figure-numberlabel like “Figure 1:”
.table-numberlabel like “Table 1:”
.listing-numberlabel like “Listing 1:”
div.figurehow to format an in-lined image
pre.srcformatted source code
pre.examplenormal example
p.verseverse paragraph
div.footnotesfootnote section headline
p.footnotefootnote definition paragraph, containing a footnote
.footrefa footnote reference number (always a <sup>)
.footnumfootnote number in footnote definition (always <sup>)
.org-svgdefault class for a linked ‘.svg’ image

The HTML export back-end includes a compact default style in each exported HTML file. To override the default style with another style, use these keywords in the Org file. They will replace the global defaults the HTML exporter uses.

#+HTML_HEAD: <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="style1.css" />
#+HTML_HEAD_EXTRA: <link rel="alternate stylesheet" type="text/css" href="style2.css" />

To just turn off the default style, customize org-html-head-include-default-style variable, or use this option line in the Org file.

#+OPTIONS: html-style:nil

For longer style definitions, either use several ‘HTML_HEAD’ and ‘HTML_HEAD_EXTRA’ keywords, or use <style> ... </style> blocks around them. Both of these approaches can avoid referring to an external file.

In order to add styles to a subtree, use the ‘HTML_CONTAINER_CLASS’ property to assign a class to the tree. In order to specify CSS styles for a particular headline, you can use the ID specified in a ‘CUSTOM_ID’ property. You can also assign a specific class to a headline with the ‘HTML_HEADLINE_CLASS’ property.

Never change the org-html-style-default constant. Instead use other simpler ways of customizing as described above.


13.9.13 JavaScript supported display of web pages

Sebastian Rose has written a JavaScript program especially designed to allow two different ways of viewing HTML files created with Org. One is an Info-like mode where each section is displayed separately and navigation can be done with the n and p keys, and some other keys as well, press ? for an overview of the available keys. The second one has a folding view, much like Org provides inside Emacs. The script is available at https://orgmode.org/org-info.js and the documentation at https://orgmode.org/worg/code/org-info-js/. The script is hosted on https://orgmode.org, but for reliability, prefer installing it on your own web server.

To use this program, just add this line to the Org file:

#+INFOJS_OPT: view:info toc:nil

The HTML header now has the code needed to automatically invoke the script. For setting options, use the syntax from the above line for options described below:

path:

The path to the script. The default is to grab the script from https://orgmode.org/org-info.js, but you might want to have a local copy and use a path like ‘../scripts/org-info.js’.

view:

Initial view when the website is first shown. Possible values are:

infoInfo-like interface with one section per page
overviewFolding interface, initially showing only top-level
contentFolding interface, starting with all headlines visible
showallFolding interface, all headlines and text visible
sdepth:

Maximum headline level still considered as an independent section for info and folding modes. The default is taken from org-export-headline-levels, i.e., the ‘H’ switch in ‘OPTIONS’. If this is smaller than in org-export-headline-levels, each info/folding section can still contain child headlines.

toc:

Should the table of contents initially be visible? Even when ‘nil’, you can always get to the “toc” with i.

tdepth:

The depth of the table of contents. The defaults are taken from the variables org-export-headline-levels and org-export-with-toc.

ftoc:

Does the CSS of the page specify a fixed position for the “toc”? If yes, the toc is displayed as a section.

ltoc:

Should there be short contents (children) in each section? Make this ‘above’ if the section should be above initial text.

mouse:

Headings are highlighted when the mouse is over them. Should be ‘underline’ (default) or a background color like ‘#cccccc’.

buttons:

Should view-toggle buttons be everywhere? When ‘nil’ (the default), only one such button is present.

You can choose default values for these options by customizing the variable org-infojs-options. If you always want to apply the script to your pages, configure the variable org-export-html-use-infojs.


13.10 LaTeX Export

The LaTeX export back-end can handle complex documents, incorporate standard or custom LaTeX document classes, generate documents using alternate LaTeX engines, and produce fully linked PDF files with indexes, bibliographies, and tables of contents, destined for interactive online viewing or high-quality print publication.

While the details are covered in-depth in this section, here are some quick references to variables for the impatient: for engines, see org-latex-compiler; for build sequences, see org-latex-pdf-process; for packages, see org-latex-default-packages-alist and org-latex-packages-alist.

An important note about the LaTeX export back-end: it is sensitive to blank lines in the Org document. That’s because LaTeX itself depends on blank lines to tell apart syntactical elements, such as paragraphs.


13.10.1 LaTeX/PDF export commands

C-c C-e l l (org-latex-export-to-latex)

Export to a LaTeX file with a ‘.tex’ extension. For ‘myfile.org’, Org exports to ‘myfile.tex’, overwriting without warning.

C-c C-e l L (org-latex-export-as-latex)

Export to a temporary buffer. Do not create a file.

C-c C-e l p (org-latex-export-to-pdf)

Export as LaTeX file and convert it to PDF file.

C-c C-e l o

Export as LaTeX file and convert it to PDF, then open the PDF using the default viewer.

M-x org-export-region-as-latex

Convert the region to LaTeX under the assumption that it was in Org mode syntax before. This is a global command that can be invoked in any buffer.

The LaTeX export back-end can use any of these LaTeX engines: ‘pdflatex’, ‘xelatex’, and ‘lualatex’. These engines compile LaTeX files with different compilers, packages, and output options. The LaTeX export back-end finds the compiler version to use from org-latex-compiler variable or the ‘#+LATEX_COMPILER’ keyword in the Org file. See the docstring for the org-latex-default-packages-alist for loading packages with certain compilers. Also see org-latex-bibtex-compiler to set the bibliography compiler133.


13.10.2 LaTeX specific export settings

The LaTeX export back-end has several additional keywords for customizing LaTeX output. Setting these keywords works similar to the general options (see Export Settings).

DESCRIPTION

The document’s description. The description along with author name, keywords, and related file metadata are inserted in the output file by the hyperref package. See org-latex-hyperref-template for customizing metadata items. See org-latex-title-command for typesetting description into the document’s front matter. Use multiple ‘DESCRIPTION’ keywords for long descriptions.

LANGUAGE

Language code of the primary document language.

The list of language codes supported by Org is stored in the variable org-latex-language-alist.

In order to be effective, the ‘babel’ or ‘polyglossia’ packages—according to the LaTeX compiler used—must be loaded with the appropriate language as argument. This can be accomplished by modifying the org-latex-packages-alist variable, e.g., with the following snippet (note that ‘polyglossia’ does not work with pdfLaTeX):

(add-to-list 'org-latex-packages-alist
             '("AUTO" "babel" t ("pdflatex" "xelatex" "lualatex")))
(add-to-list 'org-latex-packages-alist
             '("AUTO" "polyglossia" t ("xelatex" "lualatex")))
LATEX_CLASS

This is LaTeX document class, such as article, report, book, and so on, which contain predefined preamble and headline level mapping that the LaTeX export back-end needs. The back-end reads the default class name from the org-latex-default-class variable. Org has article as the default class. A valid default class must be an element of org-latex-classes.

LATEX_CLASS_OPTIONS

Options the LaTeX export back-end uses when calling the LaTeX document class.

LATEX_COMPILER

The compiler, such as ‘pdflatex’, ‘xelatex’, ‘lualatex’, for producing the PDF. See org-latex-compiler.

LATEX_HEADER
LATEX_HEADER_EXTRA

Arbitrary lines to add to the document’s preamble, before the hyperref settings. See org-latex-classes for adjusting the structure and order of the LaTeX headers.

KEYWORDS

The keywords for the document. The description along with author name, keywords, and related file metadata are inserted in the output file by the hyperref package. See org-latex-hyperref-template for customizing metadata items. See org-latex-title-command for typesetting description into the document’s front matter. Use multiple ‘KEYWORDS’ lines if necessary.

SUBTITLE

The document’s subtitle. It is typeset as per org-latex-subtitle-format. If org-latex-subtitle-separate is non-nil, it is typed outside of the \title macro. See org-latex-hyperref-template for customizing metadata items. See org-latex-title-command for typesetting description into the document’s front matter.

The following sections have further details.


13.10.3 LaTeX header and sectioning structure

The LaTeX export back-end converts the first three of Org’s outline levels into LaTeX headlines. The remaining Org levels are exported as lists. To change this globally for the cut-off point between levels and lists, (see Export Settings).

By default, the LaTeX export back-end uses the article class.

To change the default class globally, edit org-latex-default-class. To change the default class locally in an Org file, add option lines ‘#+LATEX_CLASS: myclass’. To change the default class for just a part of the Org file, set a subtree property, ‘EXPORT_LATEX_CLASS’. The class name entered here must be valid member of org-latex-classes. This variable defines a header template for each class into which the exporter splices the values of org-latex-default-packages-alist and org-latex-packages-alist. Use the same three variables to define custom sectioning or custom classes.

The LaTeX export back-end sends the ‘LATEX_CLASS_OPTIONS’ keyword and ‘EXPORT_LATEX_CLASS_OPTIONS’ property as options to the LaTeX \documentclass macro. The options and the syntax for specifying them, including enclosing them in square brackets, follow LaTeX conventions.

#+LATEX_CLASS_OPTIONS: [a4paper,11pt,twoside,twocolumn]

The LaTeX export back-end appends values from ‘LATEX_HEADER’ and ‘LATEX_HEADER_EXTRA’ keywords to the LaTeX header. The docstring for org-latex-classes explains in more detail. Also note that LaTeX export back-end does not append ‘LATEX_HEADER_EXTRA’ to the header when previewing LaTeX snippets (see Previewing LaTeX fragments).

A sample Org file with the above headers:

#+LATEX_CLASS: article
#+LATEX_CLASS_OPTIONS: [a4paper]
#+LATEX_HEADER: \usepackage{xyz}

* Headline 1
  some text
* Headline 2
  some more text

LaTeX packages ‘babel’ or ‘polyglossia’ can also be loaded in a document. The “AUTO” string will be replaced in both cases by the appropriate value for the ‘LANGUAGE’ keyword, if present in the document, or by the value of org-export-default-language. Let’s see some examples in one or another case.

Babel’ accepts the classic syntax and (in addition) the new syntax with the ‘\babelprovide’ command to load the languages using the new ‘INI’ files procedure. Keep in mind that there are a number of languages that are only served in babel using ‘INI’ files, so they cannot be declared using the classic syntax, but only using the ‘\babelprovide’ command (see https://mirrors.ctan.org/macros/latex/required/babel/base/babel.pdf). Valid usage examples could be:

#+LATEX_HEADER: \usepackage[french,italian,AUTO]{babel}

where “AUTO” is the main language. But it can also be loaded using the ‘\babelprovide’ command:

#+LATEX_HEADER: \usepackage[french,italian]{babel}
#+LATEX_HEADER: \babelprovide[import, main]{AUTO}

Polyglossia’, for this procedure to be effective, must be loaded using the same ‘babel’ classic syntax (but note that this is not the actual polyglossia syntax). For example, suppose a document declares Polytonic Greek as the primary language, and French as the secondary language. In this case, it would be expressed as:

#+LANGUAGE: el-polyton
#+LATEX_HEADER: \usepackage[french,AUTO]{polyglossia}

This would produce in LaTeX (with the actual ‘polyglossia’ syntax):

\usepackage{polyglossia}
\setmainlanguage[variant=polytonic]{greek}
\setotherlanguage{french}

13.10.4 Quoting LaTeX code

The LaTeX export back-end can insert any arbitrary LaTeX code, see Embedded LaTeX. There are three ways to embed such code in the Org file and they all use different quoting syntax.

Inserting in-line quoted with @ symbols:

Code embedded in-line @@latex:any arbitrary LaTeX code@@ in a paragraph.

Inserting as one or more keyword lines in the Org file:

#+LATEX: any arbitrary LaTeX code

Inserting as an export block in the Org file, where the back-end exports any code between begin and end markers:

#+BEGIN_EXPORT latex
  any arbitrary LaTeX code
#+END_EXPORT

13.10.5 Tables in LaTeX export

The LaTeX export back-end can pass several LaTeX attributes for table contents and layout. Besides specifying a label (see Internal Links) and a caption (see Captions), the other valid LaTeX attributes include:

:mode

The LaTeX export back-end wraps the table differently depending on the mode for accurate rendering of math symbols. Mode is either ‘table’, ‘math’, ‘inline-math’, ‘verbatim’ or ‘tabbing’.

For ‘math’ or ‘inline-math’ mode, LaTeX export back-end wraps the table in a math environment, but every cell in it is exported as-is. For ‘tabbing’ the LaTeX tabbing environment is used and the correct tabbing delimiters ‘\>’ are used. The LaTeX export back-end determines the default mode from org-latex-default-table-mode. The LaTeX export back-end merges contiguous tables in the same mode into a single environment.

:environment

Set the default LaTeX table environment for the LaTeX export back-end to use when exporting Org tables. Common LaTeX table environments are provided by these packages: tabularx, longtable, array, tabu, and bmatrix. For packages, such as tabularx and tabu, or any newer replacements, include them in the org-latex-packages-alist variable so the LaTeX export back-end can insert the appropriate load package headers in the converted LaTeX file. Look in the docstring for the org-latex-packages-alist variable for configuring these packages for LaTeX snippet previews, if any.

:caption

Use ‘CAPTION’ keyword to set a simple caption for a table (see Captions). For custom captions, use ‘:caption’ attribute, which accepts raw LaTeX code. ‘:caption’ value overrides ‘CAPTION’ value.

:float
:placement

The table environments by default are not floats in LaTeX. To make them floating objects use ‘:float’ with one of the following options: ‘t’ (for a default ‘table’ environment), ‘sideways’ (for a ‘sidewaystable’ environment), ‘multicolumn’ (to span the table across multiple columns of a page in a ‘table*’ environment) and ‘nil’. In addition to these three values, ‘:float’ can pass through any arbitrary value, for example a user-defined float type with the ‘float’ LaTeX package.

LaTeX floats can also have additional layout ‘:placement’ attributes. These are the usual ‘[h t b p ! H]’ permissions specified in square brackets. Note that for ‘:float sideways’ tables, the LaTeX export back-end ignores ‘:placement’ attributes.

:align
:font
:width

The LaTeX export back-end uses these attributes for regular tables to set their alignments, fonts, and widths.

:options

The ‘:options’ attribute allows adding an optional argument with a list of various table options (between brackets in LaTeX export), since certain tabular environments, such as longtblr of the tabularray LaTeX package, provides this structure. For example: ‘:options remark{Note}={note},remark{Source}={source}’.

:spread

When ‘:spread’ is non-nil, the LaTeX export back-end spreads or shrinks the table by the ‘:width’ for tabu and longtabu environments. ‘:spread’ has no effect if ‘:width’ is not set.

:booktabs
:center
:rmlines

All three commands are toggles. ‘:booktabs’ brings in modern typesetting enhancements to regular tables. The booktabs package has to be loaded through org-latex-packages-alist. ‘:center’ is for centering the table. ‘:rmlines’ removes all but the very first horizontal line made of ASCII characters from “table.el” tables only.

:math-prefix
:math-suffix
:math-arguments

The LaTeX export back-end inserts ‘:math-prefix’ string value in a math environment before the table. The LaTeX export back-end inserts ‘:math-suffix’ string value in a math environment after the table. The LaTeX export back-end inserts ‘:math-arguments’ string value between the macro name and the table’s contents. ‘:math-arguments’ comes in use for matrix macros that require more than one argument, such as ‘qbordermatrix’.

LaTeX table attributes help formatting tables for a wide range of situations, such as matrix product or spanning multiple pages:

#+ATTR_LATEX: :environment longtable :align l|lp{3cm}r|l
| ... | ... |
| ... | ... |

#+ATTR_LATEX: :mode math :environment bmatrix :math-suffix \times
| a | b |
| c | d |
#+ATTR_LATEX: :mode math :environment bmatrix
| 1 | 2 |
| 3 | 4 |

Set the caption with the LaTeX command ‘\bicaption{HeadingA}{HeadingB}’:

#+ATTR_LATEX: :caption \bicaption{HeadingA}{HeadingB}
| ... | ... |
| ... | ... |

13.10.6 Images in LaTeX export

The LaTeX export back-end processes image links in Org files that do not have descriptions, such as these links ‘[[file:img.jpg]]’ or ‘[[./img.jpg]]’, as direct image insertions in the final PDF output. In the PDF, they are no longer links but actual images embedded on the page. The LaTeX export back-end uses ‘\includegraphics’ macro to insert the image. But for TikZ (https://sourceforge.net/projects/pgf/) images, the back-end uses an \input macro wrapped within a tikzpicture environment.

For specifying image ‘:width’, ‘:height’, ‘:scale’ and other ‘:options’, use this syntax:

#+ATTR_LATEX: :width 5cm :options angle=90
[[./img/sed-hr4049.pdf]]

A ‘:scale’ attribute overrides both ‘:width’ and ‘:height’ attributes.

For custom commands for captions, use the ‘:caption’ attribute. It overrides the default ‘#+CAPTION’ value:

#+ATTR_LATEX: :caption \bicaption{HeadingA}{HeadingB}
[[./img/sed-hr4049.pdf]]

When captions follow the method as described in Captions, the LaTeX export back-end wraps the picture in a floating ‘figure’ environment. To float an image without specifying a caption, set the ‘:float’ attribute to one of the following:

t

For a default ‘figure’ environment.

multicolumn

To span the image across multiple columns of a page; the back-end wraps the image in a ‘figure*’ environment.

wrap

For text to flow around the image on the right; the figure occupies the left half of the page.

sideways

For a new page with the image sideways, rotated ninety degrees, in a ‘sidewaysfigure’ environment; overrides ‘:placement’ setting.

nil

To avoid a ‘:float’ even if using a caption.

Any arbitrary value

For example, a user-defined float type with the ‘float’ LaTeX package.

Use the ‘placement’ attribute to modify a floating environment’s placement.

#+ATTR_LATEX: :float wrap :width 0.38\textwidth :placement {r}{0.4\textwidth}
[[./img/hst.png]]

The LaTeX export back-end centers all images by default. Setting ‘:center’ to ‘nil’ disables centering. To disable centering globally, set org-latex-images-centered to ‘nil’.

Set the ‘:comment-include’ attribute to non-nil value for the LaTeX export back-end to comment out the ‘\includegraphics’ macro.


13.10.7 Plain lists in LaTeX export

The LaTeX export back-end accepts the ‘environment’ and ‘options’ attributes for plain lists. Both attributes work together for customizing lists, as shown in the examples:

#+LATEX_HEADER: \usepackage[inline]{enumitem}
Some ways to say "Hello":
#+ATTR_LATEX: :environment itemize*
#+ATTR_LATEX: :options [label={}, itemjoin={,}, itemjoin*={, and}]
- Hola
- Bonjour
- Guten Tag.

Since LaTeX supports only four levels of nesting for lists, use an external package, such as ‘enumitem’ in LaTeX, for levels deeper than four:

#+LATEX_HEADER: \usepackage{enumitem}
#+LATEX_HEADER: \renewlist{itemize}{itemize}{9}
#+LATEX_HEADER: \setlist[itemize]{label=$\circ$}
- One
  - Two
    - Three
      - Four
        - Five

13.10.8 Source blocks in LaTeX export

The LaTeX export back-end can make source code blocks into floating objects through the attributes ‘:float’ and ‘:options’. For ‘:float’:

t

Makes a source block float; by default floats any source block with a caption.

multicolumn

Spans the source block across multiple columns of a page.

nil

Avoids a ‘:float’ even if using a caption; useful for source code blocks that may not fit on a page.

#+ATTR_LATEX: :float nil
#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
  Lisp code that may not fit in a single page.
#+END_SRC

The LaTeX export back-end passes string values in ‘:options’ to LaTeX packages for customization of that specific source block. In the example below, the ‘:options’ are set for Engraved or Minted. Minted is a source code highlighting LaTeX package with many configurable options134. Both Minted and Engraved are built on fvextra, and so support many of the same options.

#+ATTR_LATEX: :options mathescape
#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
  (defun Fib (n) ; $n_i = n_{i-2} + n_{i-1}$
    (if (< n 2) n (+ (Fib (- n 1)) (Fib (- n 2)))))
#+END_SRC

To apply similar configuration options for all source blocks in a file, use the org-latex-listings-options, org-latex-engraved-options, and org-latex-minted-options variables.


13.10.9 Example blocks in LaTeX export

The LaTeX export back-end wraps the contents of example blocks in a ‘verbatim’ environment. To change this behavior to use another environment globally, specify an appropriate export filter (see Advanced Export Configuration). To change this behavior to use another environment for each block, use the ‘:environment’ parameter to specify a custom environment.

#+ATTR_LATEX: :environment myverbatim
#+BEGIN_EXAMPLE
  This sentence is false.
#+END_EXAMPLE

13.10.10 Special blocks in LaTeX export

For other special blocks in the Org file, the LaTeX export back-end makes a special environment of the same name. The back-end also takes ‘:options’, if any, and appends as-is to that environment’s opening string. For example:

#+BEGIN_abstract
  We demonstrate how to solve the Syracuse problem.
#+END_abstract

#+ATTR_LATEX: :options [Proof of important theorem]
#+BEGIN_proof
  ...
  Therefore, any even number greater than 2 is the sum of two primes.
#+END_proof

exports to

\begin{abstract}
  We demonstrate how to solve the Syracuse problem.
\end{abstract}

\begin{proof}[Proof of important theorem]
  ...
  Therefore, any even number greater than 2 is the sum of two primes.
\end{proof}

If you need to insert a specific caption command, use ‘:caption’ attribute. It overrides standard ‘CAPTION’ value, if any. For example:

#+ATTR_LATEX: :caption \MyCaption{HeadingA}
#+BEGIN_proof
  ...
#+END_proof

13.10.11 Horizontal rules in LaTeX export

The LaTeX export back-end converts horizontal rules by the specified ‘:width’ and ‘:thickness’ attributes. For example:

#+ATTR_LATEX: :width .6\textwidth :thickness 0.8pt
-----

13.10.12 Verse blocks in LaTeX export

The LaTeX export back-end accepts four attributes for verse blocks: ‘:lines’, ‘:center’, ‘:versewidth’ and ‘:latexcode’. The three first require the external LaTeX package ‘verse.sty’, which is an extension of the standard LaTeX environment.

:lines

To add marginal verse numbering. Its value is an integer, the sequence in which the verses should be numbered.

:center

With value ‘t’ all the verses on the page are optically centered (a typographic convention for poetry), taking as a reference the longest verse, which must be indicated by the attribute ‘:versewidth’.

:versewidth

Its value is a literal text string with the longest verse.

:latexcode

It accepts any arbitrary LaTeX code that can be included within a LaTeX ‘verse’ environment.

A complete example with Shakespeare’s first sonnet:

#+ATTR_LATEX: :center t :latexcode \color{red} :lines 5
#+ATTR_LATEX: :versewidth Feed’st thy light’s flame with self-substantial fuel,
#+BEGIN_VERSE
From fairest creatures we desire increase,
That thereby beauty’s rose might never die,
But as the riper should by time decease
His tender heir might bear his memory
But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes,
Feed’st thy light’s flame with self-substantial fuel,
Making a famine where abundance lies,
Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel.
Thou that art now the world’s fresh ornament,
And only herald to the gaudy spring,
Within thine own bud buriest thy content,
And, tender churl, mak’st waste in niggardly.
Pity the world, or else this glutton be,
To eat the world’s due, by the grave and thee.
#+END_VERSE

13.10.13 Quote blocks in LaTeX export

The LaTeX export back-end accepts two attributes for quote blocks: ‘:environment’, for an arbitrary quoting environment (the default value is that of org-latex-default-quote-environment: "quote") and ‘:options’. For example, to choose the environment ‘quotation’, included as an alternative to ‘quote’ in standard LaTeX classes:

#+ATTR_LATEX: :environment quotation
#+BEGIN_QUOTE
some text...
#+END_QUOTE

To choose the ‘foreigndisplayquote’ environment, included in the LaTeX package ‘csquotes’, with the ‘german’ option, use this syntax:

#+LATEX_HEADER:\usepackage[autostyle=true]{csquotes}
#+ATTR_LATEX: :environment foreigndisplayquote :options {german}
#+BEGIN_QUOTE
some text in German...
#+END_QUOTE

which is exported to LaTeX as

\begin{foreigndisplayquote}{german}
some text in German...
\end{foreigndisplayquote}

13.11 Markdown Export

The Markdown export back-end, “md”, converts an Org file to Markdown format, as defined at https://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/.

Since it is built on top of the HTML back-end (see HTML Export), it converts every Org construct not defined in Markdown syntax, such as tables, to HTML.

Markdown export commands

C-c C-e m m (org-md-export-to-markdown)

Export to a text file with Markdown syntax. For ‘myfile.org’, Org exports to ‘myfile.md’, overwritten without warning.

C-c C-e m M (org-md-export-as-markdown)

Export to a temporary buffer. Does not create a file.

C-c C-e m o

Export as a text file with Markdown syntax, then open it.

Header and sectioning structure

Based on org-md-headline-style, Markdown export can generate headlines of both atx and setext types. atx limits headline levels to two whereas setext limits headline levels to six. Beyond these limits, the export back-end converts headlines to lists. To set a limit to a level before the absolute limit (see Export Settings).


13.12 OpenDocument Text Export

The ODT export back-end handles creating of OpenDocument Text (ODT) format. Documents created by this exporter use the OpenDocument-v1.2 specification135 and are compatible with LibreOffice 3.4.


13.12.1 Pre-requisites for ODT export

The ODT export back-end relies on the zip program to create the final compressed ODT output. Check if ‘zip’ is locally available and executable. Without it, export cannot finish.


13.12.2 ODT export commands

C-c C-e o o (org-odt-export-to-odt)

Export as OpenDocument Text file.

If org-odt-preferred-output-format is specified, the ODT export back-end automatically converts the exported file to that format.

For ‘myfile.org’, Org exports to ‘myfile.odt’, overwriting without warning. The ODT export back-end exports a region only if a region was active.

If the selected region is a single tree, the ODT export back-end makes the tree head the document title. Incidentally, C-c @ selects the current subtree. If the tree head entry has, or inherits, an ‘EXPORT_FILE_NAME’ property, the ODT export back-end uses that for file name.

C-c C-e o O

Export as an OpenDocument Text file and open the resulting file.

If org-export-odt-preferred-output-format is specified, open the converted file instead. See Automatically exporting to other formats.


13.12.3 ODT specific export settings

The ODT export back-end has several additional keywords for customizing ODT output. Setting these keywords works similar to the general options (see Export Settings).

DESCRIPTION

This is the document’s description, which the ODT export back-end inserts as document metadata. For long descriptions, use multiple lines, prefixed with ‘DESCRIPTION’.

KEYWORDS

The keywords for the document. The ODT export back-end inserts the description along with author name, keywords, and related file metadata as metadata in the output file. Use multiple ‘KEYWORDS’ if necessary.

ODT_STYLES_FILE

The ODT export back-end uses the org-odt-styles-file by default. See Applying custom styles for details.

SUBTITLE

The document subtitle.


13.12.4 Extending ODT export

The ODT export back-end can produce documents in other formats besides ODT using a specialized ODT converter process. Its common interface works with popular converters to produce formats such as ‘doc’, or convert a document from one format, say ‘csv’, to another format, say ‘xls’.

Customize org-odt-convert-process variable to point to ‘unoconv’, which is the ODT’s preferred converter. Working installations of LibreOffice would already have ‘unoconv’ installed. Alternatively, other converters may be substituted here. See Configuring a document converter.

Automatically exporting to other formats

If ODT format is just an intermediate step to get to other formats, such as ‘doc’, ‘docx’, ‘rtf’, or ‘pdf’, etc., then extend the ODT export back-end to directly produce that format. Specify the final format in the org-odt-preferred-output-format variable. This is one way to extend (see ODT export commands).

Converting between document formats

The Org export back-end is made to be inter-operable with a wide range of text document format converters. Newer generation converters, such as LibreOffice and Pandoc, can handle hundreds of formats at once. Org provides a consistent interaction with whatever converter is installed. Here are some generic commands:

M-x org-odt-convert

Convert an existing document from one format to another. With a prefix argument, opens the newly produced file.


13.12.5 Applying custom styles

The ODT export back-end comes with many OpenDocument styles (see Working with OpenDocument style files). To expand or further customize these built-in style sheets, either edit the style sheets directly or generate them using an application such as LibreOffice. The example here shows creating a style using LibreOffice.

Applying custom styles: the easy way

  1. Create a sample ‘example.org’ file with settings as shown below, and export it to ODT format.
    #+OPTIONS: H:10 num:t
    
  2. Open the above ‘example.odt’ using LibreOffice. Use the Stylist to locate the target styles, which typically have the “Org” prefix. Open one, modify, and save as either OpenDocument Text (ODT) or OpenDocument Template (OTT) file.
  3. Customize the variable org-odt-styles-file and point it to the newly created file. For additional configuration options, see Overriding factory styles.

    To apply an ODT style to a particular file, use the ‘ODT_STYLES_FILE’ keyword as shown in the example below:

    #+ODT_STYLES_FILE: "/path/to/example.ott"
    

    or

    #+ODT_STYLES_FILE: ("/path/to/file.ott" ("styles.xml" "image/hdr.png"))
    

Using third-party styles and templates

The ODT export back-end relies on many templates and style names. Using third-party styles and templates can lead to mismatches. Templates derived from built-in ODT templates and styles seem to have fewer problems.


13.12.7 Tables in ODT export

The ODT export back-end handles native Org mode tables (see Tables) and simple ‘table.el’ tables. Complex ‘table.el’ tables having column or row spans are not supported. Such tables are stripped from the exported document.

By default, the ODT export back-end exports a table with top and bottom frames and with ruled lines separating row and column groups (see Column Groups). All tables are typeset to occupy the same width. The ODT export back-end honors any table alignments and relative widths for columns (see Column Width and Alignment).

Note that the ODT export back-end interprets column widths as weighted ratios, the default weight being 1.

Specifying ‘:rel-width’ property on an ‘ATTR_ODT’ line controls the width of the table. For example:

#+ATTR_ODT: :rel-width 50
| Area/Month    |   Jan |   Feb |   Mar |   Sum |
|---------------+-------+-------+-------+-------|
| /             |     < |       |       |     < |
| <l13>         |  <r5> |  <r5> |  <r5> |  <r6> |
| North America |     1 |    21 |   926 |   948 |
| Middle East   |     6 |    75 |   844 |   925 |
| Asia Pacific  |     9 |    27 |   790 |   826 |
|---------------+-------+-------+-------+-------|
| Sum           |    16 |   123 |  2560 |  2699 |

On export, the above table takes 50% of text width area. The exporter sizes the columns in the ratio: 13:5:5:5:6. The first column is left-aligned and rest of the columns, right-aligned. Vertical rules separate the header and the last column. Horizontal rules separate the header and the last row.

For even more customization, create custom table styles and associate them with a table using the ‘ATTR_ODT’ keyword. See Customizing tables in ODT export.


13.12.8 Images in ODT export

Embedding images

The ODT export back-end processes image links in Org files that do not have descriptions, such as these links ‘[[file:img.jpg]]’ or ‘[[./img.jpg]]’, as direct image insertions in the final output. Either of these examples works:

[[file:img.png]]
[[./img.png]]

Embedding clickable images

For clickable images, provide a link whose description is another link to an image file. For example, to embed an image ‘org-mode-unicorn.png’ which when clicked jumps to https://orgmode.org website, do the following

[[https://orgmode.org][./org-mode-unicorn.png]]

Sizing and scaling of embedded images

Control the size and scale of the embedded images with the ‘ATTR_ODT’ attribute.

The ODT export back-end starts with establishing the size of the image in the final document. The dimensions of this size are measured in centimeters. The back-end then queries the image file for its dimensions measured in pixels. For this measurement, the back-end relies on ImageMagick’s identify program or Emacs create-image and image-size API. ImageMagick is the preferred choice for large file sizes or frequent batch operations. The back-end then converts the pixel dimensions using org-odt-pixels-per-inch into the familiar 72 dpi or 96 dpi. The default value for this is in display-pixels-per-inch, which can be tweaked for better results based on the capabilities of the output device. Here are some common image scaling operations:

Explicitly size the image

To embed ‘img.png’ as a 10 cm x 10 cm image, do the following:

#+ATTR_ODT: :width 10 :height 10
[[./img.png]]
Scale the image

To embed ‘img.png’ at half its size, do the following:

#+ATTR_ODT: :scale 0.5
[[./img.png]]
Scale the image to a specific width

To embed ‘img.png’ with a width of 10 cm while retaining the original height:width ratio, do the following:

#+ATTR_ODT: :width 10
[[./img.png]]
Scale the image to a specific height

To embed ‘img.png’ with a height of 10 cm while retaining the original height:width ratio, do the following:

#+ATTR_ODT: :height 10
[[./img.png]]

Anchoring of images

The ODT export back-end can anchor images to ‘as-char’, ‘paragraph’, or ‘page’. Set the preferred anchor using the ‘:anchor’ property of the ‘ATTR_ODT’ line.

To create an image that is anchored to a page:

#+ATTR_ODT: :anchor page
[[./img.png]]

13.12.9 Math formatting in ODT export

The ODT exporter has special support for handling math.


13.12.9.1 LaTeX math snippets

LaTeX math snippets (see LaTeX fragments) can be embedded in the ODT document in one of the following ways:

MathML

Add this line to the Org file. This option is activated on a per-file basis.

#+OPTIONS: tex:t

With this option, LaTeX fragments are first converted into MathML fragments using an external LaTeX-to-MathML converter program. The resulting MathML fragments are then embedded as an OpenDocument Formula in the exported document.

You can specify the LaTeX-to-MathML converter by customizing the variables org-latex-to-mathml-convert-command and org-latex-to-mathml-jar-file.

If you prefer to use MathToWeb136 as your converter, you can configure the above variables as shown below.

(setq org-latex-to-mathml-convert-command
      "java -jar %j -unicode -force -df %o %I"
      org-latex-to-mathml-jar-file
      "/path/to/mathtoweb.jar")

or, to use LaTeX​ML137 instead,

(setq org-latex-to-mathml-convert-command
      "latexmlmath \"%i\" --presentationmathml=%o")

To quickly verify the reliability of the LaTeX-to-MathML converter, use the following commands:

M-x org-export-as-odf

Convert a LaTeX math snippet to an OpenDocument formula (‘.odf’) file.

M-x org-export-as-odf-and-open

Convert a LaTeX math snippet to an OpenDocument formula (‘.odf’) file and open the formula file with the system-registered application.

PNG images

Add this line to the Org file. This option is activated on a per-file basis.

#+OPTIONS: tex:dvipng
#+OPTIONS: tex:dvisvgm

or

#+OPTIONS: tex:imagemagick

Under this option, LaTeX fragments are processed into PNG or SVG images and the resulting images are embedded in the exported document. This method requires dvipng program, dvisvgm or ImageMagick programs.


13.12.9.2 MathML and OpenDocument formula files

When embedding LaTeX math snippets in ODT documents is not reliable, there is one more option to try. Embed an equation by linking to its MathML (‘.mml’) source or its OpenDocument formula (‘.odf’) file as shown below:

[[./equation.mml]]

or

[[./equation.odf]]

13.12.10 Labels and captions in ODT export

ODT format handles labeling and captioning of objects based on their types. Inline images, tables, LaTeX fragments, and Math formulas are numbered and captioned separately. Each object also gets a unique sequence number based on its order of first appearance in the Org file. Each category has its own sequence. A caption is just a label applied to these objects.

#+CAPTION: Bell curve
#+NAME:   fig:SED-HR4049
[[./img/a.png]]

When rendered, it may show as follows in the exported document:

Figure 2: Bell curve

To modify the category component of the caption, customize the option org-odt-category-map-alist. For example, to tag embedded images with the string “Illustration” instead of the default string “Figure”, use the following setting:

(setq org-odt-category-map-alist
      '(("__Figure__" "Illustration" "value" "Figure" org-odt--enumerable-image-p)))

With the above modification, the previous example changes to:

Illustration 2: Bell curve

13.12.11 Literal examples in ODT export

The ODT export back-end supports literal examples (see Literal Examples) with full fontification. Internally, the ODT export back-end relies on ‘htmlfontify.el’ to generate the style definitions needed for fancy listings. The auto-generated styles get ‘OrgSrc’ prefix and inherit colors from the faces used by Emacs Font Lock library for that source language.

For custom fontification styles, customize the org-odt-create-custom-styles-for-srcblocks option.

To turn off fontification of literal examples, customize the org-odt-fontify-srcblocks option.


13.12.12 Advanced topics in ODT export

The ODT export back-end has extensive features useful for power users and frequent uses of ODT formats.

Configuring a document converter

The ODT export back-end works with popular converters with little or no extra configuration. See Extending ODT export. The following is for unsupported converters or tweaking existing defaults.

Register the converter

Add the name of the converter to the org-odt-convert-processes variable. Note that it also requires how the converter is invoked on the command line. See the variable’s docstring for details.

Configure its capabilities

Specify which formats the converter can handle by customizing the variable org-odt-convert-capabilities. Use the entry for the default values in this variable for configuring the new converter. Also see its docstring for details.

Choose the converter

Select the newly added converter as the preferred one by customizing the option org-odt-convert-process.

Working with OpenDocument style files

This section explores the internals of the ODT exporter; the means by which it produces styled documents; the use of automatic and custom OpenDocument styles.

The ODT exporter relies on two files for generating its output. These files are bundled with the distribution under the directory pointed to by the variable org-odt-styles-dir. The two files are:

OrgOdtStyles.xml

This file contributes to the ‘styles.xml’ file of the final ODT document. This file gets modified for the following purposes:

  1. To control outline numbering based on user settings;
  2. To add styles generated by ‘htmlfontify.el’ for fontification of code blocks.
OrgOdtContentTemplate.xml

This file contributes to the ‘content.xml’ file of the final ODT document. The contents of the Org outline are inserted between the ‘<office:text>’ … ‘</office:text>’ elements of this file.

Apart from serving as a template file for the final ‘content.xml’, the file serves the following purposes:

  1. It contains automatic styles for formatting of tables which are referenced by the exporter;
  2. It contains ‘<text:sequence-decl>’ … ‘</text:sequence-decl>’ elements that control numbering of tables, images, equations, and similar entities.

The following two variables control the location from where the ODT exporter picks up the custom styles and content template files. Customize these variables to override the factory styles used by the exporter.

org-odt-styles-file

The ODT export back-end uses the file pointed to by this variable, such as ‘styles.xml’, for the final output. It can take one of the following values:

FILE.xml

Use this file instead of the default ‘styles.xml

FILE.odt’ or ‘FILE.ott

Use the ‘styles.xml’ contained in the specified OpenDocument Text or Template file

FILE.odt’ or ‘FILE.ott’ and a subset of included files

Use the ‘styles.xml’ contained in the specified OpenDocument Text or Template file. Additionally extract the specified member files and embed those within the final ODT document.

Use this option if the ‘styles.xml’ file references additional files like header and footer images.

nil

Use the default ‘styles.xml’.

org-odt-content-template-file

Use this variable to specify the blank ‘content.xml’ used in the final output.

Creating one-off styles

The ODT export back-end can read embedded raw OpenDocument XML from the Org file. Such direct formatting is useful for one-off instances.

Embedding ODT tags as part of regular text

Enclose OpenDocument syntax in ‘@@odt:...@@’ for inline markup. For example, to highlight a region of text do the following:

@@odt:<text:span text:style-name="Highlight">This is highlighted
text</text:span>@@.  But this is regular text.

Hint: To see the above example in action, edit the ‘styles.xml’ (see Factory styles) and add a custom Highlight style as shown below:

<style:style style:name="Highlight" style:family="text">
  <style:text-properties fo:background-color="#ff0000"/>
</style:style>
Embedding a one-line OpenDocument XML

The ODT export back-end can read one-liner options with ‘#+ODT:’ in the Org file. For example, to force a page break:

#+ODT: <text:p text:style-name="PageBreak"/>

Hint: To see the above example in action, edit your ‘styles.xml’ (see Factory styles) and add a custom ‘PageBreak’ style as shown below.

<style:style style:name="PageBreak" style:family="paragraph"
             style:parent-style-name="Text_20_body">
  <style:paragraph-properties fo:break-before="page"/>
</style:style>
Embedding a block of OpenDocument XML

The ODT export back-end can also read ODT export blocks for OpenDocument XML. Such blocks use the ‘#+BEGIN_EXPORT odt’ … ‘#+END_EXPORT’ constructs.

For example, to create a one-off paragraph that uses bold text, do the following:

#+BEGIN_EXPORT odt
  <text:p text:style-name="Text_20_body_20_bold">
  This paragraph is specially formatted and uses bold text.
  </text:p>
#+END_EXPORT

Customizing tables in ODT export

Override the default table format by specifying a custom table style with the ‘#+ATTR_ODT’ line. For a discussion on default formatting of tables, see Tables in ODT export.

This feature closely mimics the way table templates are defined in the OpenDocument-v1.2 specification138.

For quick preview of this feature, install the settings below and export the table that follows:

(setq org-export-odt-table-styles
      (append org-export-odt-table-styles
              '(("TableWithHeaderRowAndColumn" "Custom"
                 ((use-first-row-styles . t)
                  (use-first-column-styles . t)))
                ("TableWithFirstRowandLastRow" "Custom"
                 ((use-first-row-styles . t)
                  (use-last-row-styles . t))))))
#+ATTR_ODT: :style TableWithHeaderRowAndColumn
| Name  | Phone | Age |
| Peter |  1234 |  17 |
| Anna  |  4321 |  25 |

The example above used ‘Custom’ template and installed two table styles ‘TableWithHeaderRowAndColumn’ and ‘TableWithFirstRowandLastRow’. Important: The OpenDocument styles needed for producing the above template were pre-defined. They are available in the section marked ‘Custom Table Template’ in ‘OrgOdtContentTemplate.xml’ (see Factory styles). For adding new templates, define new styles there.

To use this feature proceed as follows:

  1. Create a table template139.

    A table template is set of ‘table-cell’ and ‘paragraph’ styles for each of the following table cell categories:

    • Body
    • First column
    • Last column
    • First row
    • Last row
    • Even row
    • Odd row
    • Even column
    • Odd Column

    The names for the above styles must be chosen based on the name of the table template using a well-defined convention.

    The naming convention is better illustrated with an example. For a table template with the name ‘Custom’, the needed style names are listed in the following table.

    Cell typeCell styleParagraph style
    BodyCustomTableCellCustomTableParagraph
    First columnCustomFirstColumnTableCellCustomFirstColumnTableParagraph
    Last columnCustomLastColumnTableCellCustomLastColumnTableParagraph
    First rowCustomFirstRowTableCellCustomFirstRowTableParagraph
    Last rowCustomLastRowTableCellCustomLastRowTableParagraph
    Even rowCustomEvenRowTableCellCustomEvenRowTableParagraph
    Odd rowCustomOddRowTableCellCustomOddRowTableParagraph
    Even columnCustomEvenColumnTableCellCustomEvenColumnTableParagraph
    Odd columnCustomOddColumnTableCellCustomOddColumnTableParagraph

    To create a table template with the name ‘Custom’, define the above styles in the ‘<office:automatic-styles>’ … ‘</office:automatic-styles>’ element of the content template file (see Factory styles).

  2. Define a table style140.

    To define a table style, create an entry for the style in the variable org-odt-table-styles and specify the following:

    • the name of the table template created in step (1),
    • the set of cell styles in that template that are to be activated.

    For example, the entry below defines two different table styles ‘TableWithHeaderRowAndColumn’ and ‘TableWithFirstRowandLastRow’ based on the same template ‘Custom’. The styles achieve their intended effect by selectively activating the individual cell styles in that template.

    (setq org-export-odt-table-styles
          (append org-export-odt-table-styles
                  '(("TableWithHeaderRowAndColumn" "Custom"
                     ((use-first-row-styles . t)
                      (use-first-column-styles . t)))
                    ("TableWithFirstRowandLastRow" "Custom"
                     ((use-first-row-styles . t)
                      (use-last-row-styles . t))))))
    
  3. Associate a table with the table style.

    To do this, specify the table style created in step (2) as part of the ‘ATTR_ODT’ line as shown below.

    #+ATTR_ODT: :style TableWithHeaderRowAndColumn
    | Name  | Phone | Age |
    | Peter |  1234 |  17 |
    | Anna  |  4321 |  25 |
    

Validating OpenDocument XML

Sometimes ODT format files may not open due to ‘.odt’ file corruption. To verify if such a file is corrupt, validate it against the OpenDocument Relax NG Compact (RNC) syntax schema. But first the ‘.odt’ files have to be decompressed using ‘zip’. Note that ‘.odt’ files are ZIP archives: (emacs)File Archives. The contents of ODT files are in XML. For general help with validation—and schema-sensitive editing—of XML files: (nxml-mode)Introduction.

Customize org-odt-schema-dir to point to a directory with OpenDocument RNC files and the needed schema-locating rules. The ODT export back-end takes care of updating the rng-schema-locating-files.


13.13 Org Export

org export back-end creates a normalized version of the Org document in current buffer. The exporter evaluates Babel code (see Evaluating Code Blocks) and removes content specific to other back-ends.

Org export commands

C-c C-e O o (org-org-export-to-org)

Export as an Org file with a ‘.org’ extension. For ‘myfile.org’, Org exports to ‘myfile.org.org’, overwriting without warning.

C-c C-e O v (~~)

Export to an Org file, then open it.


13.14 Texinfo Export


13.14.1 Texinfo export commands

C-c C-e i t (org-texinfo-export-to-texinfo)

Export as a Texinfo file with ‘.texi’ extension. For ‘myfile.org’, Org exports to ‘myfile.texi’, overwriting without warning.

C-c C-e i i (org-texinfo-export-to-info)

Export to Texinfo format first and then process it to make an Info file. To generate other formats, such as DocBook, customize the org-texinfo-info-process variable.


13.14.2 Texinfo specific export settings

The Texinfo export back-end has several additional keywords for customizing Texinfo output. Setting these keywords works similar to the general options (see Export Settings).

SUBTITLE

The document subtitle.

SUBAUTHOR

Additional authors for the document.

TEXINFO_FILENAME

The Texinfo filename.

TEXINFO_CLASS

The default document class (org-texinfo-default-class), which must be a member of org-texinfo-classes.

TEXINFO_HEADER

Arbitrary lines inserted at the end of the header.

TEXINFO_POST_HEADER

Arbitrary lines inserted after the end of the header.

TEXINFO_DIR_CATEGORY

The directory category of the document.

TEXINFO_DIR_TITLE

The directory title of the document.

TEXINFO_DIR_DESC

The directory description of the document.

TEXINFO_PRINTED_TITLE

The printed title of the document.


13.14.3 Texinfo file header

After creating the header for a Texinfo file, the Texinfo back-end automatically generates a name and destination path for the Info file. To override this default with a more sensible path and name, specify the ‘TEXINFO_FILENAME’ keyword.

Along with the output’s file name, the Texinfo header also contains language details (see Export Settings) and encoding system as set in the org-texinfo-coding-system variable. Insert ‘TEXINFO_HEADER’ keywords for each additional command in the header, for example:

#+TEXINFO_HEADER: @synindex

Instead of repeatedly installing the same set of commands, define a class in org-texinfo-classes once, and then activate it in the document by setting the ‘TEXINFO_CLASS’ keyword to that class.


13.14.5 Info directory file

The end result of the Texinfo export process is the creation of an Info file. This Info file’s metadata has variables for category, title, and description: ‘TEXINFO_DIR_CATEGORY’, ‘TEXINFO_DIR_TITLE’, and ‘TEXINFO_DIR_DESC’ keywords that establish where in the Info hierarchy the file fits.

Here is an example that writes to the Info directory file:

#+TEXINFO_DIR_CATEGORY: Emacs
#+TEXINFO_DIR_TITLE: Org Mode: (org)
#+TEXINFO_DIR_DESC: Outline-based notes management and organizer

13.14.6 Headings and sectioning structure

The Texinfo export back-end uses a pre-defined scheme to convert Org headlines to equivalent Texinfo structuring commands. A scheme like this maps top-level headlines to numbered chapters tagged as @chapter and lower-level headlines to unnumbered chapters tagged as @unnumbered. To override such mappings to introduce @part or other Texinfo structuring commands, define a new class in org-texinfo-classes. Activate the new class with the ‘TEXINFO_CLASS’ keyword. When no new class is defined and activated, the Texinfo export back-end defaults to the org-texinfo-default-class.

If an Org headline’s level has no associated Texinfo structuring command, or is below a certain threshold (see Export Settings), then the Texinfo export back-end makes it into a list item.

The Texinfo export back-end makes any headline with a non-nilAPPENDIX’ property into an appendix. This happens independent of the Org headline level or the ‘TEXINFO_CLASS’ keyword.

The Texinfo export back-end creates a menu entry after the Org headline for each regular sectioning structure. To override this with a shorter menu entry, use the ‘ALT_TITLE’ property (see Table of Contents). Texinfo menu entries also have an option for a longer ‘DESCRIPTION’ property. Here’s an example that uses both to override the default menu entry:

* Controlling Screen Display
  :PROPERTIES:
  :ALT_TITLE: Display
  :DESCRIPTION: Controlling Screen Display
  :END:

The text before the first headline belongs to the Top node, i.e., the node in which a reader enters an Info manual. As such, it is expected not to appear in printed output generated from the ‘.texi’ file. See (texinfo)The Top Node, for more information.


13.14.7 Indices

The Texinfo export back-end recognizes these indexing keywords if used in the Org file: ‘CINDEX’, ‘FINDEX’, ‘KINDEX’, ‘PINDEX’, ‘TINDEX’ and ‘VINDEX’. Write their value as verbatim Texinfo code; in particular, ‘{’, ‘}’ and ‘@’ characters need to be escaped with ‘@’ if they do not belong to a Texinfo command.

#+CINDEX: Defining indexing entries

For the back-end to generate an index entry for a headline, set the ‘INDEX’ property to ‘cp’ or ‘vr’. These abbreviations come from Texinfo that stand for concept index and variable index. The Texinfo manual has abbreviations for all other kinds of indexes. The back-end exports the headline as an unnumbered chapter or section command, and then inserts the index after its contents.

* Concept Index
  :PROPERTIES:
  :INDEX: cp
  :END:

13.14.8 Quoting Texinfo code

Use any of the following three methods to insert or escape raw Texinfo code:

Richard @@texinfo:@sc{@@Stallman@@texinfo:}@@ commence' GNU.

#+TEXINFO: @need800
This paragraph is preceded by...

#+BEGIN_EXPORT texinfo
  @auindex Johnson, Mark
  @auindex Lakoff, George
#+END_EXPORT

13.14.9 Plain lists in Texinfo export

The Texinfo export back-end converts unordered and ordered lists in the Org file using the default command ‘@itemize’.

Ordered lists are numbered when exported to Texinfo format. Such numbering obeys any counter (see Plain Lists) in the first item of the list. The ‘:enum’ attribute also let you start the list at a specific number, or switch to a lettered list, as illustrated here:

#+ATTR_TEXINFO: :enum A
1. Alpha
2. Bravo
3. Charlie

The Texinfo export back-end by default converts description lists in the Org file using the default command ‘@table’, which results in a table with two columns. To change this behavior, set ‘:table-type’ attribute to either ‘ftable’ or ‘vtable’ value. For more information, see (texinfo)Two-column Tables.

The Texinfo export back-end by default also applies a text highlight based on the defaults stored in org-texinfo-table-default-markup. To override the default highlight command, specify another one with the ‘:indic’ attribute.

Org syntax is limited to one entry per list item. Nevertheless, the Texinfo export back-end can split that entry according to any text provided through the ‘:sep’ attribute. Each part then becomes a new entry in the first column of the table.

The following example illustrates all the attributes above:

#+ATTR_TEXINFO: :table-type vtable :sep , :indic asis
- foo, bar :: This is the common text for variables foo and bar.

becomes

@vtable @asis
@item foo
@itemx bar
This is the common text for variables foo and bar.
@end table

The ‘:compact’ attribute is an alternative to the ‘:sep’ attribute, which allows writing each entry on its own line. If this attribute is non-nil and an item in a description list has no body but is followed by another item, then the second item is transcoded to ‘@itemx’. This example is transcoded to the same output as above.

#+ATTR_TEXINFO: :table-type vtable :indic asis :compact t
- foo ::
- bar ::
  This is the common text for variables foo and bar.

Support for this compact syntax can also be enabled for all lists in a file using the ‘compact-itemx’ export option, or globally using the variable org-texinfo-compact-itemx.

The Texinfo export back-end also supports two approaches to writing Texinfo definition commands (see (texinfo)Definition Commands). One of them uses description lists and is described below, the other relies on special blocks (see Special blocks in Texinfo export).

Items in a description list in a Org file that begin with ‘Function:’ or certain other prefixes are converted using Texinfo definition commands. This works even if other items in the same list do not have such a prefix; if necessary a single description list is converted using multiple tables (such as ‘@vtable’) and definition commands (such as ‘@defun’).

- Function: org-texinfo-drawer drawer contents info ::
  Transcode a DRAWER element from Org to Texinfo.

becomes

@defun org-texinfo-drawer drawer contents info ::
  Transcode a DRAWER element from Org to Texinfo.
@end defun

The recognized prefixes are ‘Command:’, ‘Function:’, ‘Macro:’, ‘Special Form:’, ‘Variable:’ and ‘User Option:’. These are the same prefixes that appear in the Info file for the respective definition commands. For example a ‘Function:’ item in the Org file is converted to a ‘@defun’ command in the Texinfo file, which in turn is converted to a definition prefixed with ‘-- Function:’ in the Info file.

As a special case the prefix ‘Key:’ is also recognized. No Texinfo definition command exists for key bindings and the output in Info files also lacks the ‘Key:’ prefix. Even so this special case is supported because it provides a convenient shorthand, as illustrated here:

- Key: C-c C-c (do-something) ::
  This command does something.

- User Option: do-something-somehow ::
  This option controls how exactly ~do-something~ does its thing.

becomes

@table @asis
@item @kbd{C-c C-c} (@code{do-something})
@kindex C-c C-c
@findex do-something
This command does something.
@end table

@defopt do-something-somehow
This option controls how exactly @code{do-something} does its thing.
@end defopt

Command in parenthesis, as done above, is optional.


13.14.10 Tables in Texinfo export

When exporting tables, the Texinfo export back-end uses the widest cell width in each column. To override this and instead specify as fractions of line length, use the ‘:columns’ attribute. See example below.

#+ATTR_TEXINFO: :columns .5 .5
| a cell | another cell |

13.14.11 Images in Texinfo export

Insert a file link to the image in the Org file, and the Texinfo export back-end inserts the image. These links must have the usual supported image extensions and no descriptions. To scale the image, use ‘:width’ and ‘:height’ attributes. For alternate text, use ‘:alt’ and specify the text using Texinfo code, as shown in the example:

#+ATTR_TEXINFO: :width 1in :alt Alternate @i{text}
[[ridt.pdf]]

13.14.12 Quotations in Texinfo export

You can write the text of a quotation within a quote block (see Paragraphs). You may also emphasize some text at the beginning of the quotation with the ‘:tag’ attribute.

#+ATTR_TEXINFO: :tag Warning
#+BEGIN_QUOTE
Striking your thumb with a hammer may cause severe pain and discomfort.
#+END_QUOTE

To specify the author of the quotation, use the ‘:author’ attribute.

#+ATTR_TEXINFO: :author King Arthur
#+BEGIN_QUOTE
The Lady of the Lake, her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite,
held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the water, signifying by divine
providence that I, Arthur, was to carry Excalibur.  That is why I am
your king.
#+END_QUOTE

13.14.13 Key bindings in Texinfo export

Org does not provide any markup for key bindings that corresponds to Texinfo’s @kbd and @key commands. One way to deal with this is to fall back to code syntax. ‘~C-x SPC~’, for example, is transcoded to @code{C-x SPC}.

A better approach is to define and use an Org macro named kbd. To make that easier the function org-texinfo-kbd-macro is provided, which is intended to be used like this:

#+macro: kbd (eval (org-texinfo-kbd-macro $1))

Type {{{kbd(C-c SPC)}}}.

which becomes

Type @kbd{C-c @key{SPC}}.

13.14.14 Special blocks in Texinfo export

The Texinfo export back-end supports two approaches to writing Texinfo definition commands. One of them is described here, the other in Plain lists in Texinfo export.

The Texinfo export back-end converts special blocks to commands with the same name. It also adds any ‘:options’ attributes to the end of the command, as shown in this example:

#+ATTR_TEXINFO: :options org-org-export-to-org ...
#+BEGIN_defun
  A somewhat obsessive function name.
#+END_defun

becomes

@defun org-org-export-to-org ...
  A somewhat obsessive function name.
@end defun

13.14.15 A Texinfo example

Here is a more detailed example Org file. See (texinfo)GNU Sample Texts for an equivalent example using Texinfo code.

#+TITLE: GNU Sample {{{version}}}
#+SUBTITLE: for version {{{version}}}, {{{updated}}}
#+AUTHOR: A.U. Thor
#+EMAIL: bug-sample@gnu.org

#+OPTIONS: ':t toc:t author:t email:t
#+LANGUAGE: en

#+MACRO: version 2.0
#+MACRO: updated last updated 4 March 2014

#+TEXINFO_FILENAME: sample.info
#+TEXINFO_HEADER: @syncodeindex pg cp

#+TEXINFO_DIR_CATEGORY: Texinfo documentation system
#+TEXINFO_DIR_TITLE: sample: (sample)
#+TEXINFO_DIR_DESC: Invoking sample

#+TEXINFO_PRINTED_TITLE: GNU Sample

This manual is for GNU Sample (version {{{version}}},
{{{updated}}}).

* Copying
  :PROPERTIES:
  :COPYING:  t
  :END:

  This manual is for GNU Sample (version {{{version}}},
  {{{updated}}}), which is an example in the Texinfo documentation.

  Copyright \copy 2016 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

  #+BEGIN_QUOTE
  Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
  document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License,
  Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software
  Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts,
  and with no Back-Cover Texts.  A copy of the license is included in
  the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".
  #+END_QUOTE

* Invoking sample

  #+PINDEX: sample
  #+CINDEX: invoking @command{sample}

  This is a sample manual.  There is no sample program to invoke, but
  if there were, you could see its basic usage and command line
  options here.

* GNU Free Documentation License
  :PROPERTIES:
  :APPENDIX: t
  :END:

  #+INCLUDE: fdl.org

* Index
  :PROPERTIES:
  :INDEX:    cp
  :END:

13.15 iCalendar Export

A large part of Org mode’s interoperability success is its ability to easily export to or import from external applications. The iCalendar export back-end takes calendar data from Org files and exports to the standard iCalendar format.

The iCalendar export back-end can also incorporate TODO entries based on the configuration of the org-icalendar-include-todo variable. The back-end exports plain timestamps as ‘VEVENT’, TODO items as ‘VTODO’, and also create events from deadlines that are in non-TODO items. The back-end uses the deadlines and scheduling dates in Org TODO items for setting the start and due dates for the iCalendar TODO entry. Consult the org-icalendar-use-deadline and org-icalendar-use-scheduled variables for more details.

For tags on the headline, the iCalendar export back-end makes them into iCalendar categories. To tweak the inheritance of tags and TODO states, configure the variable org-icalendar-categories. To assign clock alarms based on time, configure the org-icalendar-alarm-time variable.

The iCalendar format standard requires globally unique identifier—or UID—for each entry. The iCalendar export back-end creates UIDs during export. To save a copy of the UID in the Org file set the variable org-icalendar-store-UID. The back-end looks for the ‘ID’ property of the entry for re-using the same UID for subsequent exports.

Since a single Org entry can result in multiple iCalendar entries—timestamp, deadline, scheduled item, or TODO item—Org adds prefixes to the UID, depending on which part of the Org entry triggered the creation of the iCalendar entry. Prefixing ensures UIDs remains unique, yet enable synchronization programs trace the connections.

C-c C-e c f (org-icalendar-export-to-ics)

Create iCalendar entries from the current Org buffer and store them in the same directory, using a file extension ‘.ics’.

C-c C-e c a (org-icalendar-export-agenda-files)

Create iCalendar entries from Org files in org-agenda-files and store in a separate iCalendar file for each Org file.

C-c C-e c c (org-icalendar-combine-agenda-files)

Create a combined iCalendar file from Org files in org-agenda-files and write it to org-icalendar-combined-agenda-file file name.

The iCalendar export back-end includes ‘SUMMARY’, ‘DESCRIPTION’, ‘LOCATION’, ‘TIMEZONE’ and ‘CLASS’ properties from the Org entries when exporting. To force the back-end to inherit the ‘LOCATION’, ‘TIMEZONE’ and ‘CLASS’ properties, configure the org-use-property-inheritance variable.

When Org entries do not have ‘SUMMARY’, ‘DESCRIPTION’, ‘LOCATION’ and ‘CLASS’ properties, the iCalendar export back-end derives the summary from the headline, and derives the description from the body of the Org item. The org-icalendar-include-body variable limits the maximum number of characters of the content are turned into its description.

The ‘TIMEZONE’ property can be used to specify a per-entry time zone, and is applied to any entry with timestamp information. Time zones should be specified as per the IANA time zone database format, e.g., ‘Asia/Almaty’. Alternately, the property value can be ‘UTC’, to force UTC time for this entry only.

The ‘CLASS’ property can be used to specify a per-entry visibility class or access restrictions, and is applied to any entry with class information. The iCalendar standard defines three visibility classes:

PUBLIC

The entry is publicly visible (this is the default).

CONFIDENTIAL

Only a limited group of clients get access to the event.

PRIVATE

The entry can be retrieved only by its owner.

The server should treat unknown class properties the same as ‘PRIVATE’.

Exporting to iCalendar format depends in large part on the capabilities of the destination application. Some are more lenient than others. Consult the Org mode FAQ for advice on specific applications.


13.16 Other Built-in Back-ends

Other export back-ends included with Org are:

  • ox-man.el’: Export to a man page.

To activate such back-ends, either customize org-export-backends or load directly with ‘(require 'ox-man)’. On successful load, the back-end adds new keys in the export dispatcher (see The Export Dispatcher).

Follow the comment section of such files, for example, ‘ox-man.el’, for usage and configuration details.


13.17 Advanced Export Configuration

Export hooks

The export process executes two hooks before the actual exporting begins. The first hook, org-export-before-processing-hook, runs before any expansions of macros, Babel code, and include keywords in the buffer. The second hook, org-export-before-parsing-hook, runs before the buffer is parsed.

Functions added to these hooks are called with a single argument: the export back-end actually used, as a symbol. You may use them for heavy duty structural modifications of the document. For example, you can remove every headline in the buffer during export like this:

(defun my-headline-removal (backend)
  "Remove all headlines in the current buffer.
BACKEND is the export back-end being used, as a symbol."
  (org-map-entries
   (lambda ()
     (delete-region (point) (line-beginning-position 2))
     ;; We need to tell `org-map-entries' to not skip over heading at
     ;; point. Otherwise, it would continue from _next_ heading. See
     ;; the docstring of `org-map-entries' for details.
     (setq org-map-continue-from (point)))))

(add-hook 'org-export-before-parsing-hook #'my-headline-removal)

Filters

Filters are lists of functions to be applied to certain parts for a given back-end. The output from the first function in the filter is passed on to the next function in the filter. The final output is the output from the final function in the filter.

The Org export process has many filter sets applicable to different types of objects, plain text, parse trees, export options, and final output formats. The filters are named after the element type or object type: org-export-filter-TYPE-functions, where TYPE is the type targeted by the filter. Valid types are:

bodyboldbabel-call
center-blockclockcode
diary-sexpdrawerdynamic-block
entityexample-blockexport-block
export-snippetfinal-outputfixed-width
footnote-definitionfootnote-referenceheadline
horizontal-ruleinline-babel-callinline-src-block
inlinetaskitalicitem
keywordlatex-environmentlatex-fragment
line-breaklinknode-property
optionsparagraphparse-tree
plain-listplain-textplanning
property-drawerquote-blockradio-target
sectionspecial-blocksrc-block
statistics-cookiestrike-throughsubscript
superscripttabletable-cell
table-rowtargettimestamp
underlineverbatimverse-block

Here is an example filter that replaces non-breaking spaces ~ ~ in the Org buffer with ‘~’ for the LaTeX back-end.

(defun my-latex-filter-nobreaks (text backend info)
  "Ensure \" \" are properly handled in LaTeX export."
  (when (org-export-derived-backend-p backend 'latex)
    (replace-regexp-in-string " " "~" text)))

(add-to-list 'org-export-filter-plain-text-functions
             'my-latex-filter-nobreaks)

A filter requires three arguments: the code to be transformed, the name of the back-end, and some optional information about the export process. The third argument can be safely ignored. Note the use of org-export-derived-backend-p predicate that tests for latex back-end or any other back-end, such as beamer, derived from latex.

Defining filters for individual files

The Org export can filter not just for back-ends, but also for specific files through the ‘BIND’ keyword. Here is an example with two filters; one removes brackets from time stamps, and the other removes strike-through text. The filter functions are defined in a code block in the same Org file, which is a handy location for debugging.

#+BIND: org-export-filter-timestamp-functions (tmp-f-timestamp)
#+BIND: org-export-filter-strike-through-functions (tmp-f-strike-through)
#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp :exports results :results none
  (defun tmp-f-timestamp (s backend info)
    (replace-regexp-in-string "&[lg]t;\\|[][]" "" s))
  (defun tmp-f-strike-through (s backend info) "")
#+END_SRC

Extending an existing back-end

Some parts of the conversion process can be extended for certain elements so as to introduce a new or revised translation. That is how the HTML export back-end was extended to handle Markdown format. The extensions work seamlessly so any aspect of filtering not done by the extended back-end is handled by the original back-end. Of all the export customization in Org, extending is very powerful as it operates at the parser level.

For this example, make the ascii back-end display the language used in a source code block. Also make it display only when some attribute is non-nil, like the following:

#+ATTR_ASCII: :language t

Then extend ASCII back-end with a custom “my-ascii” back-end.

(defun my-ascii-src-block (src-block contents info)
  "Transcode a SRC-BLOCK element from Org to ASCII.
CONTENTS is nil.  INFO is a plist used as a communication
channel."
  (if (not (org-export-read-attribute :attr_ascii src-block :language))
      (org-export-with-backend 'ascii src-block contents info)
    (concat
     (format ",--[ %s ]--\n%s`----"
             (org-element-property :language src-block)
             (replace-regexp-in-string
              "^" "| "
              (org-element-normalize-string
               (org-export-format-code-default src-block info)))))))

(org-export-define-derived-backend 'my-ascii 'ascii
  :translate-alist '((src-block . my-ascii-src-block)))

The my-ascii-src-block function looks at the attribute above the current element. If not true, hands over to ascii back-end. If true, which it is in this example, it creates a box around the code and leaves room for the inserting a string for language. The last form creates the new back-end that springs to action only when translating src-block type elements.

To use the newly defined back-end, evaluate the following from an Org buffer:

(org-export-to-buffer 'my-ascii "*Org MY-ASCII Export*")

Further steps to consider would be an interactive function, self-installing an item in the export dispatcher menu, and other user-friendly improvements.


13.18 Export in Foreign Buffers

The export back-ends in Org often include commands to convert selected regions. A convenient feature of this in-place conversion is that the exported output replaces the original source. Here are such functions:

org-ascii-convert-region-to-ascii

Convert the selected region into ASCII.

org-ascii-convert-region-to-utf8

Convert the selected region into UTF-8.

org-html-convert-region-to-html

Convert the selected region into HTML.

org-latex-convert-region-to-latex

Convert the selected region into LaTeX.

org-texinfo-convert-region-to-texinfo

Convert the selected region into Texinfo.

org-md-convert-region-to-md

Convert the selected region into Markdown.

In-place conversions are particularly handy for quick conversion of tables and lists in foreign buffers. For example, in an HTML buffer, write a list in Org syntax, select it, and convert it to HTML with M-x org-html-convert-region-to-html.


13.18.1 Exporting to minimal HTML

If you want to output a minimal HTML file, with no CSS, no Javascript, no preamble or postamble, here are the variable you would need to set:

(setq org-html-head ""
      org-html-head-extra ""
      org-html-head-include-default-style nil
      org-html-head-include-scripts nil
      org-html-preamble nil
      org-html-postamble nil
      org-html-use-infojs nil)

14 Publishing

Org includes a publishing management system that allows you to configure automatic HTML conversion of projects composed of interlinked Org files. You can also configure Org to automatically upload your exported HTML pages and related attachments, such as images and source code files, to a web server.

You can also use Org to convert files into PDF, or even combine HTML and PDF conversion so that files are available in both formats on the server.

Publishing has been contributed to Org by David O’Toole.


14.1 Configuration

Publishing needs significant configuration to specify files, destination and many other properties of a project.


14.1.1 The variable org-publish-project-alist

Publishing is configured almost entirely through setting the value of one variable, called org-publish-project-alist. Each element of the list configures one project, and may be in one of the two following forms:

("project-name" :property value :property value ...)

i.e., a well-formed property list with alternating keys and values, or:

("project-name" :components ("project-name" "project-name" ...))

In both cases, projects are configured by specifying property values. A project defines the set of files that are to be published, as well as the publishing configuration to use when publishing those files. When a project takes the second form listed above, the individual members of the :components property are taken to be sub-projects, which group together files requiring different publishing options. When you publish such a “meta-project”, all the components are also published, in the sequence given.


14.1.2 Sources and destinations for files

Most properties are optional, but some should always be set. In particular, Org needs to know where to look for source files, and where to put published files.

:base-directory

Directory containing publishing source files.

:publishing-directory

Directory where output files are published. You can directly publish to a webserver using a file name syntax appropriate for the Emacs tramp package. Or you can publish to a local directory and use external tools to upload your website (see Uploading Files).

:preparation-function

Function or list of functions to be called before starting the publishing process, for example, to run ‘make’ for updating files to be published. Each preparation function is called with a single argument, the project property list.

:completion-function

Function or list of functions called after finishing the publishing process, for example, to change permissions of the resulting files. Each completion function is called with a single argument, the project property list.


14.1.3 Selecting files

By default, all files with extension ‘.org’ in the base directory are considered part of the project. This can be modified by setting the following properties

:base-extension

Extension—without the dot—of source files. This actually is a regular expression. Set this to the symbol any if you want to get all files in :base-directory, even without extension.

:exclude

Regular expression to match file names that should not be published, even though they have been selected on the basis of their extension.

:include

List of files to be included regardless of :base-extension and :exclude.

:recursive

Non-nil means, check base-directory recursively for files to publish.


14.1.4 Publishing action

Publishing means that a file is copied to the destination directory and possibly transformed in the process. The default transformation is to export Org files as HTML files, and this is done by the function org-html-publish-to-html which calls the HTML exporter (see HTML Export). But you can also publish your content as PDF files using org-latex-publish-to-pdf, or as ASCII, Texinfo, etc., using the corresponding functions.

If you want to publish the Org file as an ‘.org’ file but with archived, commented, and tag-excluded trees removed, use org-org-publish-to-org. This produces ‘file.org’ and puts it in the publishing directory. If you want a htmlized version of this file, set the parameter :htmlized-source to t. It produces ‘file.org.html’ in the publishing directory141.

Other files like images only need to be copied to the publishing destination; for this you can use org-publish-attachment. For non-Org files, you always need to specify the publishing function:

:publishing-function

Function executing the publication of a file. This may also be a list of functions, which are all called in turn.

:htmlized-source

Non-nil means, publish htmlized source.

The function must accept three arguments: a property list containing at least a :publishing-directory property, the name of the file to be published, and the path to the publishing directory of the output file. It should take the specified file, make the necessary transformation, if any, and place the result into the destination folder.


14.1.5 Options for the exporters

The property list can be used to set many export options for the HTML and LaTeX exporters. In most cases, these properties correspond to user variables in Org. The table below lists these properties along with the variable they belong to. See the documentation string for the respective variable for details.

When a property is given a value in org-publish-project-alist, its setting overrides the value of the corresponding user variable, if any, during publishing. Options set within a file (see Export Settings), however, override everything.

Generic properties

:archived-treesorg-export-with-archived-trees
:exclude-tagsorg-export-exclude-tags
:headline-levelsorg-export-headline-levels
:languageorg-export-default-language
:preserve-breaksorg-export-preserve-breaks
:section-numbersorg-export-with-section-numbers
:select-tagsorg-export-select-tags
:with-authororg-export-with-author
:with-broken-linksorg-export-with-broken-links
:with-clocksorg-export-with-clocks
:with-creatororg-export-with-creator
:with-dateorg-export-with-date
:with-drawersorg-export-with-drawers
:with-emailorg-export-with-email
:with-emphasizeorg-export-with-emphasize
:with-fixed-widthorg-export-with-fixed-width
:with-footnotesorg-export-with-footnotes
:with-latexorg-export-with-latex
:with-planningorg-export-with-planning
:with-priorityorg-export-with-priority
:with-propertiesorg-export-with-properties
:with-special-stringsorg-export-with-special-strings
:with-sub-superscriptorg-export-with-sub-superscripts
:with-tablesorg-export-with-tables
:with-tagsorg-export-with-tags
:with-tasksorg-export-with-tasks
:with-timestampsorg-export-with-timestamps
:with-titleorg-export-with-title
:with-tocorg-export-with-toc
:with-todo-keywordsorg-export-with-todo-keywords

ASCII specific properties

:ascii-bulletsorg-ascii-bullets
:ascii-caption-aboveorg-ascii-caption-above
:ascii-charsetorg-ascii-charset
:ascii-global-marginorg-ascii-global-margin
:ascii-format-drawer-functionorg-ascii-format-drawer-function
:ascii-format-inlinetask-functionorg-ascii-format-inlinetask-function
:ascii-headline-spacingorg-ascii-headline-spacing
:ascii-indented-line-widthorg-ascii-indented-line-width
:ascii-inlinetask-widthorg-ascii-inlinetask-width
:ascii-inner-marginorg-ascii-inner-margin
:ascii-links-to-notesorg-ascii-links-to-notes
:ascii-list-marginorg-ascii-list-margin
:ascii-paragraph-spacingorg-ascii-paragraph-spacing
:ascii-quote-marginorg-ascii-quote-margin
:ascii-table-keep-all-vertical-linesorg-ascii-table-keep-all-vertical-lines
:ascii-table-use-ascii-artorg-ascii-table-use-ascii-art
:ascii-table-widen-columnsorg-ascii-table-widen-columns
:ascii-text-widthorg-ascii-text-width
:ascii-underlineorg-ascii-underline
:ascii-verbatim-formatorg-ascii-verbatim-format

Beamer specific properties

:beamer-themeorg-beamer-theme
:beamer-column-view-formatorg-beamer-column-view-format
:beamer-environments-extraorg-beamer-environments-extra
:beamer-frame-default-optionsorg-beamer-frame-default-options
:beamer-outline-frame-optionsorg-beamer-outline-frame-options
:beamer-outline-frame-titleorg-beamer-outline-frame-title
:beamer-subtitle-formatorg-beamer-subtitle-format

HTML specific properties

:html-allow-name-attribute-in-anchorsorg-html-allow-name-attribute-in-anchors
:html-checkbox-typeorg-html-checkbox-type
:html-containerorg-html-container-element
:html-divsorg-html-divs
:html-doctypeorg-html-doctype
:html-extensionorg-html-extension
:html-footnote-formatorg-html-footnote-format
:html-footnote-separatororg-html-footnote-separator
:html-footnotes-sectionorg-html-footnotes-section
:html-format-drawer-functionorg-html-format-drawer-function
:html-format-headline-functionorg-html-format-headline-function
:html-format-inlinetask-functionorg-html-format-inlinetask-function
:html-head-extraorg-html-head-extra
:html-head-include-default-styleorg-html-head-include-default-style
:html-head-include-scriptsorg-html-head-include-scripts
:html-headorg-html-head
:html-home/up-formatorg-html-home/up-format
:html-html5-fancyorg-html-html5-fancy
:html-indentorg-html-indent
:html-infojs-optionsorg-html-infojs-options
:html-infojs-templateorg-html-infojs-template
:html-inline-image-rulesorg-html-inline-image-rules
:html-inline-imagesorg-html-inline-images
:html-link-homeorg-html-link-home
:html-link-org-files-as-htmlorg-html-link-org-files-as-html
:html-link-uporg-html-link-up
:html-link-use-abs-urlorg-html-link-use-abs-url
:html-mathjax-optionsorg-html-mathjax-options
:html-mathjax-templateorg-html-mathjax-template
:html-equation-reference-formatorg-html-equation-reference-format
:html-metadata-timestamp-formatorg-html-metadata-timestamp-format
:html-postamble-formatorg-html-postamble-format
:html-postambleorg-html-postamble
:html-preamble-formatorg-html-preamble-format
:html-preambleorg-html-preamble
:html-self-link-headlinesorg-html-self-link-headlines
:html-table-align-individual-fieldorg-html-table-align-individual-fields
:html-table-attributesorg-html-table-default-attributes
:html-table-caption-aboveorg-html-table-caption-above
:html-table-data-tagsorg-html-table-data-tags
:html-table-header-tagsorg-html-table-header-tags
:html-table-row-tagsorg-html-table-row-tags
:html-table-use-header-tags-for-first-columnorg-html-table-use-header-tags-for-first-column
:html-tag-class-prefixorg-html-tag-class-prefix
:html-text-markup-alistorg-html-text-markup-alist
:html-todo-kwd-class-prefixorg-html-todo-kwd-class-prefix
:html-toplevel-hlevelorg-html-toplevel-hlevel
:html-use-infojsorg-html-use-infojs
:html-validation-linkorg-html-validation-link
:html-viewportorg-html-viewport
:html-wrap-src-linesorg-html-wrap-src-lines
:html-xml-declarationorg-html-xml-declaration

LaTeX specific properties

:latex-active-timestamp-formatorg-latex-active-timestamp-format
:latex-caption-aboveorg-latex-caption-above
:latex-classesorg-latex-classes
:latex-classorg-latex-default-class
:latex-compilerorg-latex-compiler
:latex-default-figure-positionorg-latex-default-figure-position
:latex-default-table-environmentorg-latex-default-table-environment
:latex-default-table-modeorg-latex-default-table-mode
:latex-diary-timestamp-formatorg-latex-diary-timestamp-format
:latex-engraved-optionsorg-latex-engraved-options
:latex-engraved-preambleorg-latex-engraved-preamble
:latex-engraved-themeorg-latex-engraved-theme
:latex-footnote-defined-formatorg-latex-footnote-defined-format
:latex-footnote-separatororg-latex-footnote-separator
:latex-format-drawer-functionorg-latex-format-drawer-function
:latex-format-headline-functionorg-latex-format-headline-function
:latex-format-inlinetask-functionorg-latex-format-inlinetask-function
:latex-hyperref-templateorg-latex-hyperref-template
:latex-image-default-heightorg-latex-image-default-height
:latex-image-default-optionorg-latex-image-default-option
:latex-image-default-widthorg-latex-image-default-width
:latex-images-centeredorg-latex-images-centered
:latex-inactive-timestamp-formatorg-latex-inactive-timestamp-format
:latex-inline-image-rulesorg-latex-inline-image-rules
:latex-link-with-unknown-path-formatorg-latex-link-with-unknown-path-format
:latex-listings-langsorg-latex-listings-langs
:latex-listings-optionsorg-latex-listings-options
:latex-minted-langsorg-latex-minted-langs
:latex-minted-optionsorg-latex-minted-options
:latex-prefer-user-labelsorg-latex-prefer-user-labels
:latex-subtitle-formatorg-latex-subtitle-format
:latex-subtitle-separateorg-latex-subtitle-separate
:latex-src-block-backendorg-latex-src-block-backend
:latex-table-scientific-notationorg-latex-table-scientific-notation
:latex-tables-booktabsorg-latex-tables-booktabs
:latex-tables-centeredorg-latex-tables-centered
:latex-text-markup-alistorg-latex-text-markup-alist
:latex-title-commandorg-latex-title-command
:latex-toc-commandorg-latex-toc-command

Markdown specific properties

:md-footnote-formatorg-md-footnote-format
:md-footnotes-sectionorg-md-footnotes-section
:md-headline-styleorg-md-headline-style
:md-toplevel-hlevelorg-md-toplevel-hlevel

ODT specific properties

:odt-content-template-fileorg-odt-content-template-file
:odt-display-outline-levelorg-odt-display-outline-level
:odt-fontify-srcblocksorg-odt-fontify-srcblocks
:odt-format-drawer-functionorg-odt-format-drawer-function
:odt-format-headline-functionorg-odt-format-headline-function
:odt-format-inlinetask-functionorg-odt-format-inlinetask-function
:odt-inline-formula-rulesorg-odt-inline-formula-rules
:odt-inline-image-rulesorg-odt-inline-image-rules
:odt-pixels-per-inchorg-odt-pixels-per-inch
:odt-styles-fileorg-odt-styles-file
:odt-table-stylesorg-odt-table-styles
:odt-use-date-fieldsorg-odt-use-date-fields

Texinfo specific properties

:texinfo-active-timestamp-formatorg-texinfo-active-timestamp-format
:texinfo-classesorg-texinfo-classes
:texinfo-classorg-texinfo-default-class
~:texinfo-compact-itemxorg-texinfo-compact-itemx
:texinfo-table-default-markuporg-texinfo-table-default-markup
:texinfo-diary-timestamp-formatorg-texinfo-diary-timestamp-format
:texinfo-filenameorg-texinfo-filename
:texinfo-format-drawer-functionorg-texinfo-format-drawer-function
:texinfo-format-headline-functionorg-texinfo-format-headline-function
:texinfo-format-inlinetask-functionorg-texinfo-format-inlinetask-function
:texinfo-inactive-timestamp-formatorg-texinfo-inactive-timestamp-format
:texinfo-link-with-unknown-path-formatorg-texinfo-link-with-unknown-path-format
:texinfo-node-description-columnorg-texinfo-node-description-column
:texinfo-table-scientific-notationorg-texinfo-table-scientific-notation
:texinfo-tables-verbatimorg-texinfo-tables-verbatim
:texinfo-text-markup-alistorg-texinfo-text-markup-alist

14.1.7 Generating a sitemap

The following properties may be used to control publishing of a map of files for a given project.

:auto-sitemap

When non-nil, publish a sitemap during org-publish-current-project or org-publish-all.

:sitemap-filename

Filename for output of sitemap. Defaults to ‘sitemap.org’, which becomes ‘sitemap.html’.

:sitemap-title

Title of sitemap page. Defaults to name of file.

:sitemap-style

Can be list (site-map is just an itemized list of the titles of the files involved) or tree (the directory structure of the source files is reflected in the site-map). Defaults to tree.

:sitemap-format-entry

With this option one can tell how a site-map entry is formatted in the site-map. It is a function called with three arguments: the file or directory name relative to base directory of the project, the site-map style and the current project. It is expected to return a string. Default value turns file names into links and use document titles as descriptions. For specific formatting needs, one can use org-publish-find-date, org-publish-find-title and org-publish-find-property, to retrieve additional information about published documents.

:sitemap-function

Plug-in function to use for generation of the sitemap. It is called with two arguments: the title of the site-map and a representation of the files and directories involved in the project as a nested list, which can further be transformed using org-list-to-generic, org-list-to-subtree and alike. Default value generates a plain list of links to all files in the project.

:sitemap-sort-folders

Where folders should appear in the sitemap. Set this to first (default) or last to display folders first or last, respectively. When set to ignore, folders are ignored altogether. Any other value mixes files and folders. This variable has no effect when site-map style is tree.

:sitemap-sort-files

How the files are sorted in the site map. Set this to alphabetically (default), chronologically or anti-chronologically. chronologically sorts the files with older date first while anti-chronologically sorts the files with newer date first. alphabetically sorts the files alphabetically. The date of a file is retrieved with org-publish-find-date.

:sitemap-ignore-case

Should sorting be case-sensitive? Default nil.


14.1.8 Generating an index

Org mode can generate an index across the files of a publishing project.

:makeindex

When non-nil, generate in index in the file ‘theindex.org’ and publish it as ‘theindex.html’.

The file is created when first publishing a project with the :makeindex set. The file only contains a statement ‘#+INCLUDE: "theindex.inc"’. You can then build around this include statement by adding a title, style information, etc.

Index entries are specified with ‘INDEX’ keyword. An entry that contains an exclamation mark creates a sub item.

*** Curriculum Vitae
#+INDEX: CV
#+INDEX: Application!CV

14.2 Uploading Files

For those people already utilizing third party sync tools such as Rsync or Unison, it might be preferable not to use the built-in remote publishing facilities of Org mode which rely heavily on Tramp. Tramp, while very useful and powerful, tends not to be so efficient for multiple file transfer and has been known to cause problems under heavy usage.

Specialized synchronization utilities offer several advantages. In addition to timestamp comparison, they also do content and permissions/attribute checks. For this reason you might prefer to publish your web to a local directory—possibly even in place with your Org files—and then use Unison or Rsync to do the synchronization with the remote host.

Since Unison, for example, can be configured as to which files to transfer to a certain remote destination, it can greatly simplify the project publishing definition. Simply keep all files in the correct location, process your Org files with org-publish and let the synchronization tool do the rest. You do not need, in this scenario, to include attachments such as JPG, CSS or PNG files in the project definition since the third-party tool syncs them.

Publishing to a local directory is also much faster than to a remote one, so that you can afford more easily to republish entire projects. If you set org-publish-use-timestamps-flag to nil, you gain the main benefit of re-including any changed external files such as source example files you might include with ‘INCLUDE’ keyword. The timestamp mechanism in Org is not smart enough to detect if included files have been modified.


14.3 Sample Configuration

Below we provide two example configurations. The first one is a simple project publishing only a set of Org files. The second example is more complex, with a multi-component project.


14.3.1 Example: simple publishing configuration

This example publishes a set of Org files to the ‘public_html’ directory on the local machine.

(setq org-publish-project-alist
      '(("org"
         :base-directory "~/org/"
         :publishing-function org-html-publish-to-html
         :publishing-directory "~/public_html"
         :section-numbers nil
         :with-toc nil
         :html-head "<link rel=\"stylesheet\"
                    href=\"../other/mystyle.css\"
                    type=\"text/css\"/>")))

14.3.2 Example: complex publishing configuration

This more complicated example publishes an entire website, including Org files converted to HTML, image files, Emacs Lisp source code, and style sheets. The publishing directory is remote and private files are excluded.

To ensure that links are preserved, care should be taken to replicate your directory structure on the web server, and to use relative file paths. For example, if your Org files are kept in ‘~/org/’ and your publishable images in ‘~/images/’, you would link to an image with

file:../images/myimage.png

On the web server, the relative path to the image should be the same. You can accomplish this by setting up an ‘images/’ folder in the right place on the web server, and publishing images to it.

(setq org-publish-project-alist
      '(("orgfiles"
         :base-directory "~/org/"
         :base-extension "org"
         :publishing-directory "/ssh:user@host:~/html/notebook/"
         :publishing-function org-html-publish-to-html
         :exclude "PrivatePage.org" ;; regexp
         :headline-levels 3
         :section-numbers nil
         :with-toc nil
         :html-head "<link rel=\"stylesheet\"
                  href=\"../other/mystyle.css\" type=\"text/css\"/>"
         :html-preamble t)

        ("images"
         :base-directory "~/images/"
         :base-extension "jpg\\|gif\\|png"
         :publishing-directory "/ssh:user@host:~/html/images/"
         :publishing-function org-publish-attachment)

        ("other"
         :base-directory "~/other/"
         :base-extension "css\\|el"
         :publishing-directory "/ssh:user@host:~/html/other/"
         :publishing-function org-publish-attachment)
        ("website" :components ("orgfiles" "images" "other"))))

14.4 Triggering Publication

Once properly configured, Org can publish with the following commands:

C-c C-e P x (org-publish)

Prompt for a specific project and publish all files that belong to it.

C-c C-e P p (org-publish-current-project)

Publish the project containing the current file.

C-c C-e P f (org-publish-current-file)

Publish only the current file.

C-c C-e P a (org-publish-all)

Publish every project.

Org uses timestamps to track when a file has changed. The above functions normally only publish changed files. You can override this and force publishing of all files by giving a prefix argument to any of the commands above, or by customizing the variable org-publish-use-timestamps-flag. This may be necessary in particular if files include other files via ‘SETUPFILE’ or ‘INCLUDE’ keywords.


15 Citation handling

The ‘oc.el’ library provides tooling to handle citations in Org via “citation processors” that offer some or all of the following capabilities:

activate

Fontification, tooltip preview, etc.

follow

At-point actions on citations via org-open-at-point.

insert

Add and edit citations via org-cite-insert.

export

Via different libraries for different target formats.

To use a “citation processor”, the user must load them; for example;

(require 'oc-bibtex)

They can then configure them with org-cite-activate-processor, org-cite-follow-processor, org-cite-insert-processor, and org-cite-export-processors respectively.

The included “basic” processor provides all four capabilities.


15.1 Citations

Before adding citations, first set one-or-more bibliographies, either globally with org-cite-global-bibliography, or locally using one or more “bibliography” keywords.

#+bibliography: SomeFile.bib
#+bibliography: /some/other/file.json
#+bibliography: "/some/file/with spaces/in its name.bib"

One can then insert and edit citations using org-cite-insert, called with C-c C-x @.

A citation requires one or more citation key(s), elements identifying a reference in the bibliography.

  • Each citation is surrounded by brackets and uses the ‘cite’ type.
  • Each key starts with the character ‘@’.
  • Each key can be qualified by a prefix (e.g. “see ”) and/or a suffix (e.g. “p. 123”), giving information useful or necessary for the comprehension of the citation but not included in the reference.
  • A single citation can cite more than one reference ; the keys are separated by semicolons ; the formatting of such citation groups is specified by the style.
  • One can also specify a stylistic variation for the citations by inserting a ‘/’ and a style name between the ‘cite’ keyword and the colon; this usually makes sense only for the author-year styles.
[cite/style:common prefix ;prefix @key suffix; ... ; common suffix]

The only mandatory elements are:

  • The ‘cite’ keyword and the colon.
  • The ‘@’ character immediately preceding each key.
  • The brackets surrounding the citation(s) (group).

15.2 Citation export processors

Org currently includes the following export processors:

  • Two processors can export to a variety of formats, including ‘latex’ (and therefore ‘pdf’), ‘html’, ‘odt’ and plain (UTF8) text:
    basic

    a basic export processor, well adapted to situations where backward compatibility is not a requirement and formatting needs are minimal;

    csl

    this export processor uses format files written in Citation Style Language via citeproc-el;

  • In contrast, three other processors target LaTeX and LaTeX-derived formats exclusively:
    bibtex

    this export processor uses BibTeX, the historical bibliographic processor used with LaTeX, thus allowing the use of data and style files compatible with this processor (including a large number of publishers’ styles). It only supports LaTeX’s ‘\cite’ and ‘\nocite’ commands.

    natbib

    as with the bibtex processor, but using the LaTeX package ‘natbib’, allowing more stylistic variants that LaTeX’s ‘\cite’ command.

    biblatex

    this backend allows the use of data and formats prepared for BibLaTeX, an alternate bibliographic processor used with LaTeX, which overcomes some serious BibTeX limitations, but has not (yet?) been widely adopted by publishers.

The ‘CITE_EXPORT’ keyword specifies the export processor and the citation (and possibly reference) style(s); for example (all arguments are optional)

#+cite_export: basic author author-year

specifies the “basic” export processor with citations inserted as author’s name and references indexed by author’s names and year;

#+cite_export: csl /some/path/to/vancouver-brackets.csl

specifies the “csl” processor and CSL style, which in this case defines numeric citations and numeric references according to the ‘Vancouver’ specification (as style used in many medical journals), following a typesetting variation putting citations between brackets;

#+cite_export: natbib kluwer

specifies the ‘natbib’ export processor with a label citation style conformant to the Harvard style and the specification of the Wolkers-Kluwer publisher; since it relies on the bibtex processor of your LaTeX installation, it won’t export to anything but PDF.


15.3 Bibliography printing

The ‘PRINT_BIBLIOGRAPHY’ keyword specifies where the bibliography should be printed (note the colon):

#+print_bibliography:

The bibliography printed by the LaTeX-based export processors “bibtex”, “natbib” and “biblatex” has a chapter or section heading by default, while the “basic” and “csl” processors print the list of bibliography entries without a heading.

A document may contain more than one ‘PRINT_BIBLIOGRAPHY’ keywords. Each of the keywords will trigger printing the bibliography.

The keywords can be used with or without additional options. Options can be used, for example, to print only entries that belong to a certain category or to control formatting. The set of supported ‘PRINT_BIBLIOGRAPHY’ options and their interpretation varies between the different citation export processors. Some export processors do not support passing options.


15.3.1 Bibliography options in the “biblatex” and “csl” export processors

The “biblatex” and “csl” export processors support bibliography options through a property list attached to the ‘PRINT_BIBLIOGRAPHY’ keyword. For example,

#print_bibliography: :keyword algebra :type book

Values including spaces must be surrounded with double quotes. If you need to use a key multiple times, you can separate its values with commas, but without any space in-between:

#print_bibliography: :keyword "algebraic logic" :nottype article,book

The “biblatex” export processor accepts all options supported by BibLaTeX’s \printbibliography command, while the “csl” processor accepts the following ones:

:keyword <keyword(,keyword2...)>

Print only entries whose keyword field contains all given keywords.

:notkeyword <keyword(,keyword2...)>

Print only entries whose keyword field does not contain any of the given keywords.

:type <entrytype>

Print only entries whose type is ‘<entrytype>’. Entry type is the BibTeX/BibLaTeX entry type if this information is available (the entry was read from a BibTeX/BibLaTeX bibliography) and the CSL entry type otherwise.

:nottype <entrytype(,entrytype2...)>

Print only entries whose type is not among the given entry types. Entry type is determined as in the case of ‘:type’.

:csltype <entrytype>

Print only entries whose CSL entry type (possibly based on a conversion from BibTeX/BibLaTeX to CSL) is ‘<entrytype>’.

:notcsltype <entrytype(,entrytype2...)>

Print only entries whose CSL entry type (possibly based on a conversion from BibTeX/BibLaTeX to CSL) is not among the listed entry types.

:filter <predicate>

Print only entries for which the given Emacs Lisp predicate returns a non-nil value.


16 Working with Source Code

Source code here refers to any plain text collection of computer instructions, possibly with comments, written using a human-readable programming language. Org can manage source code in an Org document when the source code is identified with begin and end markers. Working with source code begins with identifying source code blocks. A source code block can be placed almost anywhere in an Org document; it is not restricted to the preamble or the end of the document. However, Org cannot manage a source code block if it is placed inside an Org comment or within a fixed width section.

Here is an example source code block in the Emacs Lisp language:

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
  (defun org-xor (a b)
     "Exclusive or."
     (if a (not b) b))
#+END_SRC

Source code blocks are one of many Org block types, which also include “center”, “comment”, “dynamic”, “example”, “export”, “quote”, “special”, and “verse”. This section pertains to blocks between ‘#+BEGIN_SRC’ and ‘#+END_SRC’.

Details of Org’s facilities for working with source code are described in the following sections.


16.1 Features Overview

Org can manage the source code in the block delimited by ‘#+BEGIN_SRC’ … ‘#+END_SRC’ in several ways that can simplify housekeeping tasks essential to modern source code maintenance. Org can edit, format, extract, export, and publish source code blocks. Org can also compile and execute a source code block, then capture the results. The Org mode literature sometimes refers to source code blocks as live code blocks because they can alter the content of the Org document or the material that it exports. Users can control the “liveliness” of each source code block by tweaking the header arguments (see Using Header Arguments) for compiling, execution, extraction, and exporting.

For editing and formatting a source code block, Org uses an appropriate Emacs major mode that includes features specifically designed for source code in that language.

Org can extract one or more source code blocks and write them to one or more source files—a process known as tangling in literate programming terminology.

For exporting and publishing, Org’s back-ends can format a source code block appropriately, often with native syntax highlighting.

For executing and compiling a source code block, the user can configure Org to select the appropriate compiler. Org provides facilities to collect the result of the execution or compiler output, insert it into the Org document, and/or export it. In addition to text results, Org can insert links to other data types, including audio, video, and graphics. Org can also link a compiler error message to the appropriate line in the source code block.

An important feature of Org’s management of source code blocks is the ability to pass variables, functions, and results to one another using a common syntax for source code blocks in any language. Although most literate programming facilities are restricted to one language or another, Org’s language-agnostic approach lets the literate programmer match each programming task with the appropriate computer language and to mix them all together in a single Org document. This interoperability among languages explains why Org’s source code management facility was named Org Babel by its originators, Eric Schulte and Dan Davison.

Org mode fulfills the promise of easy verification and maintenance of publishing reproducible research by keeping text, data, code, configuration settings of the execution environment, the results of the execution, and associated narratives, claims, references, and internal and external links in a single Org document.


16.2 Structure of Code Blocks

Org offers two ways to structure source code in Org documents: in a source code block, and directly inline. Both specifications are shown below.

A source code block conforms to this structure:

#+NAME: <name>
#+BEGIN_SRC <language> <switches> <header arguments>
  <body>
#+END_SRC

Do not be put-off by having to remember the source block syntax. Org mode offers a command for wrapping existing text in a block (see Structure Templates). Org also works with other completion systems in Emacs, some of which predate Org and have custom domain-specific languages for defining templates. Regular use of templates reduces errors, increases accuracy, and maintains consistency.

An inline code block conforms to this structure:

src_<language>{<body>}

or

src_<language>[<header arguments>]{<body>}
#+NAME: <name>

Optional. Names the source block so it can be called, like a function, from other source blocks or inline code to evaluate or to capture the results. Code from other blocks, other files, and from table formulas (see The Spreadsheet) can use the name to reference a source block. This naming serves the same purpose as naming Org tables. Org mode requires unique names. For duplicate names, Org mode’s behavior is undefined.

#+BEGIN_SRC’ … ‘#+END_SRC

Mandatory. They mark the start and end of a block that Org requires. The ‘#+BEGIN_SRC’ line takes additional arguments, as described next.

<language>

Mandatory. It is the identifier of the source code language in the block. See Languages, for identifiers of supported languages.

<switches>

Optional. Switches provide finer control of the code execution, export, and format (see the discussion of switches in Literal Examples).

<header arguments>

Optional. Heading arguments control many aspects of evaluation, export and tangling of code blocks (see Using Header Arguments). Using Org’s properties feature, header arguments can be selectively applied to the entire buffer or specific subtrees of the Org document.

<body>

Source code in the dialect of the specified language identifier.


16.3 Using Header Arguments

Org comes with many header arguments common to all languages. New header arguments are added for specific languages as they become available for use in source code blocks. A header argument is specified with an initial colon followed by the argument’s name in lowercase.

Since header arguments can be set in several ways, Org prioritizes them in case of overlaps or conflicts by giving local settings a higher priority. Header values in function calls, for example, override header values from global defaults.

System-wide header arguments

System-wide values of header arguments can be specified by customizing the org-babel-default-header-args variable, which defaults to the following values:

:session    => "none"
:results    => "replace"
:exports    => "code"
:cache      => "no"
:noweb      => "no"
:hlines     => "no"
:tangle     => "no"

Inline source blocks (see Structure of Code Blocks) use slightly different default header arguments defined in org-babel-default-inline-header-args:

:session    => "none"
:results    => "replace"
:exports    => "results"
:hlines     => "yes"

The most notable difference between default header arguments for inline and normal source blocks is ‘:exports’ argument. For inline source blocks, results of evaluation are exported by default; not the code.

Unlike the default values, header arguments set using Org mode properties (see Header arguments in Org mode properties) do apply to both the normal source blocks and inline source blocks.

The example below sets ‘:noweb’ header arguments to ‘yes’, which makes Org expand ‘:noweb’ references by default.

(setq org-babel-default-header-args
      (cons '(:noweb . "yes")
            (assq-delete-all :noweb org-babel-default-header-args)))

Each language can have separate default header arguments by customizing the variable org-babel-default-header-args:<LANG>, where <LANG> is the name of the language. For details, see the language-specific online documentation at https://orgmode.org/worg/org-contrib/babel/.

Header arguments in Org mode properties

For header arguments applicable to the buffer, use ‘PROPERTY’ keyword anywhere in the Org file (see Property Syntax).

The following example makes all the R code blocks execute in the same session. Setting ‘:results’ to ‘silent’ ignores the results of executions for all blocks, not just R code blocks; no results inserted for any block.

#+PROPERTY: header-args:R  :session *R*
#+PROPERTY: header-args    :results silent

Header arguments set through Org’s property drawers (see Property Syntax) apply at the subtree level on down. Since these property drawers can appear anywhere in the file hierarchy, Org uses outermost call or source block to resolve the values. Org ignores org-use-property-inheritance setting.

In this example, ‘:cache’ defaults to ‘yes’ for all code blocks in the subtree.

* sample header
  :PROPERTIES:
  :header-args:    :cache yes
  :END:

Properties defined through org-set-property function, bound to C-c C-x p, apply to all active languages. They override properties set in org-babel-default-header-args.

Language-specific header arguments are also read from properties ‘header-args:<LANG>’ where <LANG> is the language identifier. For example,

* Heading
  :PROPERTIES:
  :header-args:clojure:    :session *clojure-1*
  :header-args:R:          :session *R*
  :END:
** Subheading
  :PROPERTIES:
  :header-args:clojure:    :session *clojure-2*
  :END:

would force separate sessions for Clojure blocks in ‘Heading’ and ‘Subheading’, but use the same session for all R blocks. Blocks in ‘Subheading’ inherit settings from ‘Heading’.

Code block specific header arguments

Header arguments are most commonly set at the source code block level, on the ‘#+BEGIN_SRC’ line. Arguments set at this level take precedence over those set in the org-babel-default-header-args variable, and also those set as header properties.

In the following example, setting ‘:results’ to ‘silent’ makes it ignore results of the code execution. Setting ‘:exports’ to ‘code’ exports only the body of the code block to HTML or LaTeX.

#+NAME: factorial
#+BEGIN_SRC haskell :results silent :exports code :var n=0
  fac 0 = 1
  fac n = n * fac (n-1)
#+END_SRC

The same header arguments in an inline code block:

src_haskell[:exports both]{fac 5}

Code block header arguments can span multiple lines using ‘#+HEADER:’ on each line. Note that Org currently accepts the plural spelling of ‘#+HEADER:’ only as a convenience for backward-compatibility. It may be removed at some point.

Multi-line header arguments on an unnamed code block:

#+HEADER: :var data1=1
#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp :var data2=2
   (message "data1:%S, data2:%S" data1 data2)
#+END_SRC

#+RESULTS:
: data1:1, data2:2

Multi-line header arguments on a named code block:

#+NAME: named-block
#+HEADER: :var data=2
#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
  (message "data:%S" data)
#+END_SRC

#+RESULTS: named-block
  : data:2

Header arguments in function calls

Header arguments in function calls are the most specific and override all other settings in case of an overlap. They get the highest priority. Two ‘#+CALL:’ examples are shown below. For the complete syntax of ‘CALL’ keyword, see Evaluating Code Blocks.

In this example, ‘:exports results’ header argument is applied to the evaluation of the ‘#+CALL:’ line.

#+CALL: factorial(n=5) :exports results

In this example, ‘:session special’ header argument is applied to the evaluation of ‘factorial’ code block.

#+CALL: factorial[:session special](n=5)

16.4 Environment of a Code Block

Passing arguments

Use ‘var’ for passing arguments to source code blocks. The specifics of variables in code blocks vary by the source language and are covered in the language-specific documentation. The syntax for ‘var’, however, is the same for all languages. This includes declaring a variable, and assigning a default value.

The following syntax is used to pass arguments to code blocks using the ‘var’ header argument.

:var NAME=ASSIGN

NAME is the name of the variable bound in the code block body. ASSIGN is a literal value, such as a string, a number, a reference to a table, a list, a literal example, another code block—with or without arguments—or the results of evaluating a code block. ASSIGN may specify a filename for references to elements in a different file, using a ‘:’ to separate the filename from the reference.

:var NAME=FILE:REFERENCE

Here are examples of passing values by reference:

table

A table named with a ‘NAME’ keyword.

#+NAME: example-table
| 1 |
| 2 |
| 3 |
| 4 |

#+NAME: table-length
#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp :var table=example-table
  (length table)
#+END_SRC

#+RESULTS: table-length
: 4

When passing a table, you can treat specially the row, or the column, containing labels for the columns, or the rows, in the table.

The ‘colnames’ header argument accepts ‘yes’, ‘no’, or ‘nil’ values. The default value is ‘nil’: if an input table has column names—because the second row is a horizontal rule—then Org removes the column names, processes the table, puts back the column names, and then writes the table to the results block. Using ‘yes’, Org does the same to the first row, even if the initial table does not contain any horizontal rule. When set to ‘no’, Org does not pre-process column names at all.

#+NAME: less-cols
| a |
|---|
| b |
| c |

#+BEGIN_SRC python :var tab=less-cols :colnames nil
  return [[val + '*' for val in row] for row in tab]
#+END_SRC

#+RESULTS:
| a  |
|----|
| b* |
| c* |

Similarly, the ‘rownames’ header argument can take two values: ‘yes’ or ‘no’. When set to ‘yes’, Org removes the first column, processes the table, puts back the first column, and then writes the table to the results block. The default is ‘no’, which means Org does not pre-process the first column. Note that Emacs Lisp code blocks ignore ‘rownames’ header argument because of the ease of table-handling in Emacs.

#+NAME: with-rownames
| one | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |  5 |
| two | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |

#+BEGIN_SRC python :var tab=with-rownames :rownames yes
  return [[val + 10 for val in row] for row in tab]
#+END_SRC

#+RESULTS:
| one | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
| two | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |

To refer to a table in another file, join the filename and table name with a colon, for example: ‘:var table=other-file.org:example-table’.

list

A simple named list.

#+NAME: example-list
- simple
  - not
  - nested
- list

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp :var x=example-list
  (print x)
#+END_SRC

#+RESULTS:
| simple | list |

Note that only the top level list items are passed along. Nested list items are ignored.

code block without arguments

A code block name, as assigned by ‘NAME’ keyword from the example above, optionally followed by parentheses.

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp :var length=table-length()
  (* 2 length)
#+END_SRC

#+RESULTS:
: 8
code block with arguments

A code block name, as assigned by ‘NAME’ keyword, followed by parentheses and optional arguments passed within the parentheses.

#+NAME: double
#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp :var input=8
  (* 2 input)
#+END_SRC

#+RESULTS: double
: 16

#+NAME: squared
#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp :var input=double(input=1)
  (* input input)
#+END_SRC

#+RESULTS: squared
: 4
literal example, or code block contents

A code block or literal example block named with a ‘NAME’ keyword, followed by brackets (optional for example blocks).

#+NAME: literal-example
#+BEGIN_EXAMPLE
  A literal example
  on two lines
#+END_EXAMPLE

#+NAME: read-literal-example
#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp :var x=literal-example[]
  (concatenate #'string x " for you.")
#+END_SRC

#+RESULTS: read-literal-example
: A literal example
: on two lines for you.

Indexing variable values enables referencing portions of a variable. Indexes are 0 based with negative values counting backwards from the end. If an index is separated by commas then each subsequent section indexes as the next dimension. Note that this indexing occurs before other table-related header arguments are applied, such as ‘hlines’, ‘colnames’ and ‘rownames’. The following example assigns the last cell of the first row the table ‘example-table’ to the variable ‘data’:

#+NAME: example-table
| 1 | a |
| 2 | b |
| 3 | c |
| 4 | d |

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp :var data=example-table[0,-1]
  data
#+END_SRC

#+RESULTS:
: a

Two integers separated by a colon reference a range of variable values. In that case the entire inclusive range is referenced. For example the following assigns the middle three rows of ‘example-table’ to ‘data’.

#+NAME: example-table
| 1 | a |
| 2 | b |
| 3 | c |
| 4 | d |
| 5 | 3 |

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp :var data=example-table[1:3]
  data
#+END_SRC

#+RESULTS:
| 2 | b |
| 3 | c |
| 4 | d |

To pick the entire range, use an empty index, or the single character ‘*’. ‘0:-1’ does the same thing. Example below shows how to reference the first column only.

#+NAME: example-table
| 1 | a |
| 2 | b |
| 3 | c |
| 4 | d |

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp :var data=example-table[,0]
  data
#+END_SRC

#+RESULTS:
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

Index referencing can be used for tables and code blocks. Index referencing can handle any number of dimensions. Commas delimit multiple dimensions, as shown below.

#+NAME: 3D
#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
  '(((1  2  3)  (4  5  6)  (7  8  9))
    ((10 11 12) (13 14 15) (16 17 18))
    ((19 20 21) (22 23 24) (25 26 27)))
#+END_SRC

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp :var data=3D[1,,1]
  data
#+END_SRC

#+RESULTS:
| 11 | 14 | 17 |

Note that row names and column names are not removed prior to variable indexing. You need to take them into account, even when ‘colnames’ or ‘rownames’ header arguments remove them.

Emacs lisp code can also set the values for variables. To differentiate a value from Lisp code, Org interprets any value starting with ‘(’, ‘[’, ‘'’ or ‘`’ as Emacs Lisp code. The result of evaluating that code is then assigned to the value of that variable. The following example shows how to reliably query and pass the file name of the Org mode buffer to a code block using headers. We need reliability here because the file’s name could change once the code in the block starts executing.

#+BEGIN_SRC sh :var filename=(buffer-file-name) :exports both
  wc -w $filename
#+END_SRC

Note that values read from tables and lists are not mistakenly evaluated as Emacs Lisp code, as illustrated in the following example.

#+NAME: table
| (a b c) |

#+HEADER: :var data=table[0,0]
#+BEGIN_SRC perl
  $data
#+END_SRC

#+RESULTS:
: (a b c)

Using sessions

Two code blocks can share the same environment. The ‘session’ header argument is for running multiple source code blocks under one session. Org runs code blocks with the same session name in the same interpreter process.

none

Default. Each code block gets a new interpreter process to execute. The process terminates once the block is evaluated.

STRING

Any string besides ‘none’ turns that string into the name of that session. For example, ‘:session STRING’ names it ‘STRING’. If ‘session’ has no value, then the session name is derived from the source language identifier. Subsequent blocks with the same source code language use the same session. Depending on the language, state variables, code from other blocks, and the overall interpreted environment may be shared. Some interpreted languages support concurrent sessions when subsequent source code language blocks change session names.

Only languages that provide interactive evaluation can have session support. Not all languages provide this support, such as C and ditaa. Even languages, such as Python and Haskell, that do support interactive evaluation impose limitations on allowable language constructs that can run interactively. Org inherits those limitations for those code blocks running in a session.

Choosing a working directory

The ‘dir’ header argument specifies the default directory during code block execution. If it is absent, then the directory associated with the current buffer is used. In other words, supplying ‘:dir DIRECTORY’ temporarily has the same effect as changing the current directory with M-x cd RET DIRECTORY, and then not setting ‘dir’. Under the surface, ‘dir’ simply sets the value of the Emacs variable default-directory. Setting ‘mkdirp’ header argument to a non-nil value creates the directory, if necessary.

Setting ‘dir’ to the symbol attach or the string "'attach" will set ‘dir’ to the directory returned by (org-attach-dir), set ‘:mkdir yes’, and insert any file paths, as when using ‘:results file’, which are under the node’s attachment directory using ‘attachment:’ links instead of the usual ‘file:’ links. Any returned path outside of the attachment directory will use ‘file:’ links as per usual.

For example, to save the plot file in the ‘Work/’ folder of the home directory—notice tilde is expanded:

#+BEGIN_SRC R :file myplot.png :dir ~/Work
  matplot(matrix(rnorm(100), 10), type="l")
#+END_SRC

To evaluate the code block on a remote machine, supply a remote directory name using Tramp syntax. For example:

#+BEGIN_SRC R :file plot.png :dir /scp:dand@yakuba.princeton.edu:
  plot(1:10, main=system("hostname", intern=TRUE))
#+END_SRC

Org first captures the text results as usual for insertion in the Org file. Then Org also inserts a link to the remote file, thanks to Emacs Tramp. Org constructs the remote path to the file name from ‘dir’ and default-directory, as illustrated here:

[[file:/scp:dand@yakuba.princeton.edu:/home/dand/plot.png][plot.png]]

When ‘dir’ is used with ‘session’, Org sets the starting directory for a new session. But Org does not alter the directory of an already existing session.

Do not use ‘dir’ with ‘:exports results’ or with ‘:exports both’ to avoid Org inserting incorrect links to remote files. That is because Org does not expand default directory to avoid some underlying portability issues.

Inserting headers and footers

The ‘prologue’ header argument is for appending to the top of the code block for execution, like a reset instruction. For example, you may use ‘:prologue "reset"’ in a Gnuplot code block or, for every such block:

(add-to-list 'org-babel-default-header-args:gnuplot
             '((:prologue . "reset")))

Likewise, the value of the ‘epilogue’ header argument is for appending to the end of the code block for execution.


16.5 Evaluating Code Blocks

A note about security: With code evaluation comes the risk of harm. Org safeguards by prompting for user’s permission before executing any code in the source block. To customize this safeguard, or disable it, see Code Evaluation and Security Issues.

How to evaluate source code

Org captures the results of the code block evaluation and inserts them in the Org file, right after the code block. The insertion point is after a newline and the ‘RESULTS’ keyword. Org creates the ‘RESULTS’ keyword if one is not already there. More details in Results of Evaluation.

By default, Org enables only Emacs Lisp code blocks for execution. See Languages to enable other languages.

Org provides many ways to execute code blocks. C-c C-c or C-c C-v e with the point on a code block142 calls the org-babel-execute-src-block function, which executes the code in the block, collects the results, and inserts them in the buffer.

By calling a named code block143 from an Org mode buffer or a table. Org can call the named code blocks from the current Org mode buffer or from the “Library of Babel” (see Library of Babel).

The syntax for ‘CALL’ keyword is:

#+CALL: <name>(<arguments>)
#+CALL: <name>[<inside header arguments>](<arguments>) <end header arguments>

The syntax for inline named code blocks is:

... call_<name>(<arguments>) ...
... call_<name>[<inside header arguments>](<arguments>)[<end header arguments>] ...

When inline syntax is used, the result is wrapped based on the variable org-babel-inline-result-wrap, which by default is set to "=%s=" to produce verbatim text suitable for markup.

<name>

This is the name of the code block (see Structure of Code Blocks) to be evaluated in the current document. If the block is located in another file, start ‘<name>’ with the file name followed by a colon. For example, in order to execute a block named ‘clear-data’ in ‘file.org’, you can write the following:

#+CALL: file.org:clear-data()
<arguments>

Org passes arguments to the code block using standard function call syntax. For example, a ‘#+CALL:’ line that passes ‘4’ to a code block named ‘double’, which declares the header argument ‘:var n=2’, would be written as:

#+CALL: double(n=4)

Note how this function call syntax is different from the header argument syntax.

<inside header arguments>

Org passes inside header arguments to the named code block using the header argument syntax. Inside header arguments apply to code block evaluation. For example, ‘[:results output]’ collects results printed to stdout during code execution of that block. Note how this header argument syntax is different from the function call syntax.

<end header arguments>

End header arguments affect the results returned by the code block. For example, ‘:results html’ wraps the results in a ‘#+BEGIN_EXPORT html’ block before inserting the results in the Org buffer.

Limit code block evaluation

The ‘eval’ header argument can limit evaluation of specific code blocks and ‘CALL’ keyword. It is useful for protection against evaluating untrusted code blocks by prompting for a confirmation.

yes

Org evaluates the source code, possibly asking permission according to org-confirm-babel-evaluate.

never’ or ‘no

Org never evaluates the source code.

query

Org prompts the user for permission to evaluate the source code.

never-export’ or ‘no-export

Org does not evaluate the source code when exporting, yet the user can evaluate it interactively.

query-export

Org prompts the user for permission to evaluate the source code during export.

If ‘eval’ header argument is not set, then Org determines whether to evaluate the source code from the org-confirm-babel-evaluate variable (see Code Evaluation and Security Issues).

Cache results of evaluation

The ‘cache’ header argument is for caching results of evaluating code blocks. Caching results can avoid re-evaluating a code block that have not changed since the previous run. To benefit from the cache and avoid redundant evaluations, the source block must have a result already present in the buffer, and neither the header arguments—including the value of ‘var’ references—nor the text of the block itself has changed since the result was last computed. This feature greatly helps avoid long-running calculations. For some edge cases, however, the cached results may not be reliable.

The caching feature is best for when code blocks are pure functions, that is functions that return the same value for the same input arguments (see Environment of a Code Block), and that do not have side effects, and do not rely on external variables other than the input arguments. Functions that depend on a timer, file system objects, and random number generators are clearly unsuitable for caching.

A note of warning: when ‘cache’ is used in a session, caching may cause unexpected results.

When the caching mechanism tests for any source code changes, it does not expand noweb style references (see Noweb Reference Syntax).

The ‘cache’ header argument can have one of two values: ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

no

Default. No caching of results; code block evaluated every time.

yes

Whether to run the code or return the cached results is determined by comparing the SHA1 hash value of the combined code block and arguments passed to it. This hash value is packed on the ‘#+RESULTS:’ line from previous evaluation. When hash values match, Org does not evaluate the code block. When hash values mismatch, Org evaluates the code block, inserts the results, recalculates the hash value, and updates ‘#+RESULTS:’ line.

In this example, both functions are cached. But ‘caller’ runs only if the result from ‘random’ has changed since the last run.

#+NAME: random
#+BEGIN_SRC R :cache yes
  runif(+1)
#+END_SRC

#+RESULTS[a2a72cd647ad44515fab62e144796432793d68e1]: random
0.4659510825295

#+NAME: caller
#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp :var x=random :cache yes
  x
#+END_SRC

#+RESULTS[bec9c8724e397d5df3b696502df3ed7892fc4f5f]: caller
0.254227238707244

16.6 Results of Evaluation

How Org handles results of a code block execution depends on many header arguments working together. The primary determinant, however, is the ‘results’ header argument. It accepts four classes of options. Each code block can take only one option per class:

Collection

For how the results should be collected from the code block;

Type

For which type of result the code block will return; affects how Org processes and inserts results in the Org buffer;

Format

For the result; affects how Org processes results;

Handling

For inserting results once they are properly formatted.

Collection

Collection options specify the results. Choose one of the options; they are mutually exclusive.

value

Default for most Babel libraries144. Functional mode. Org gets the value by wrapping the code in a function definition in the language of the source block. That is why when using ‘:results value’, code should execute like a function and return a value. For languages like Python, an explicit return statement is mandatory when using ‘:results value’. Result is the value returned by the last statement in the code block.

When evaluating the code block in a session (see Environment of a Code Block), Org passes the code to an interpreter running as an interactive Emacs inferior process. Org gets the value from the source code interpreter’s last statement output. Org has to use language-specific methods to obtain the value. For example, from the variable _ in Ruby, and the value of .Last.value in R.

output

Scripting mode. Org passes the code to an external process running the interpreter. Org returns the contents of the standard output stream as text results.

When using a session, Org passes the code to the interpreter running as an interactive Emacs inferior process. Org concatenates any text output from the interpreter and returns the collection as a result.

Type

Type tells what result types to expect from the execution of the code block. Choose one of the options; they are mutually exclusive.

The default behavior is to automatically determine the result type. The result type detection depends on the code block language, as described in the documentation for individual languages. See Languages.

table
vector

Interpret the results as an Org table. If the result is a single value, create a table with one row and one column. Usage example: ‘:results value table’.

In-between each table row or below the table headings, sometimes results have horizontal lines, which are also known as “hlines”. The ‘hlines’ argument with the default ‘no’ value strips such lines from the input table. For most code, this is desirable, or else those ‘hline’ symbols raise unbound variable errors. A ‘yes’ accepts such lines, as demonstrated in the following example.

#+NAME: many-cols
| a | b | c |
|---+---+---|
| d | e | f |
|---+---+---|
| g | h | i |

#+NAME: no-hline
#+BEGIN_SRC python :var tab=many-cols :hlines no
  return tab
#+END_SRC

#+RESULTS: no-hline
| a | b | c |
| d | e | f |
| g | h | i |

#+NAME: hlines
#+BEGIN_SRC python :var tab=many-cols :hlines yes
  return tab
#+END_SRC

#+RESULTS: hlines
| a | b | c |
|---+---+---|
| d | e | f |
|---+---+---|
| g | h | i |
list

Interpret the results as an Org list. If the result is a single value, create a list of one element.

scalar
verbatim

Interpret literally and insert as quoted text. Do not create a table. Usage example: ‘:results value verbatim’.

file

Interpret as a filename. Save the results of execution of the code block to that file, then insert a link to it. You can control both the filename and the description associated to the link.

Org first tries to generate the filename from the value of the ‘file’ header argument and the directory specified using the ‘output-dir’ header arguments. If ‘output-dir’ is not specified, Org assumes it is the current directory.

#+BEGIN_SRC asymptote :results value file :file circle.pdf :output-dir img/
  size(2cm);
  draw(unitcircle);
#+END_SRC

If ‘file’ header argument is missing, Org generates the base name of the output file from the name of the code block, and its extension from the ‘file-ext’ header argument. In that case, both the name and the extension are mandatory.

#+name: circle
#+BEGIN_SRC asymptote :results value file :file-ext pdf
  size(2cm);
  draw(unitcircle);
#+END_SRC

The ‘file-desc’ header argument defines the description (see Link Format) for the link. If ‘file-desc’ is present but has no value, the ‘file’ value is used as the link description. When this argument is not present, the description is omitted. If you want to provide the ‘file-desc’ argument but omit the description, you can provide it with an empty vector (i.e., :file-desc []).

By default, Org assumes that a table written to a file has TAB-delimited output. You can choose a different separator with the ‘sep’ header argument.

The ‘file-mode’ header argument defines the file permissions. To make it executable, use ‘:file-mode (identity #o755)’.

#+BEGIN_SRC shell :results file :file script.sh :file-mode (identity #o755)
  echo "#!/bin/bash"
  echo "echo Hello World"
#+END_SRC

Format

Format pertains to the type of the result returned by the code block. Choose one of the options; they are mutually exclusive. The default follows from the type specified above.

code

Result enclosed in a code block. Useful for parsing. Usage example: ‘:results value code’.

drawer

Result wrapped in a ‘RESULTS’ drawer. Useful for containing ‘raw’ or ‘org’ results for later scripting and automated processing. Usage example: ‘:results value drawer’.

html

Results enclosed in a ‘BEGIN_EXPORT html’ block. Usage example: ‘:results value html’.

latex

Results enclosed in a ‘BEGIN_EXPORT latex’ block. Usage example: ‘:results value latex’.

link
graphics

When used along with ‘file’ type, the result is a link to the file specified in ‘:file’ header argument. However, unlike plain ‘file’ type, code block output is not written to the disk. The block is expected to generate the file by its side-effects only, as in the following example:

#+begin_src shell :results file link :file "org-mode-unicorn.svg"
  wget -c "https://orgmode.org/resources/img/org-mode-unicorn.svg"
#+end_src

#+RESULTS:
[[file:org-mode-unicorn.svg]]
org

Results enclosed in a ‘BEGIN_SRC org’ block. For comma-escape, either TAB in the block, or export the file. Usage example: ‘:results value org’.

pp

Result converted to pretty-print source code. Enclosed in a code block. Languages supported: Emacs Lisp, Python, and Ruby. Usage example: ‘:results value pp’.

raw

Interpreted as raw Org mode. Inserted directly into the buffer. Aligned if it is a table. Usage example: ‘:results value raw’.

The ‘wrap’ header argument unconditionally marks the results block by appending strings to ‘#+BEGIN_’ and ‘#+END_’. If no string is specified, Org wraps the results in a ‘#+BEGIN_results’ … ‘#+END_results’ block. It takes precedent over the ‘results’ value listed above. E.g.,

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp :results html :wrap EXPORT markdown
"<blink>Welcome back to the 90's</blink>"
#+END_SRC

#+RESULTS:
#+BEGIN_EXPORT markdown
<blink>Welcome back to the 90's</blink>
#+END_EXPORT

Handling

Handling options after collecting the results. Choose one of the options; they are mutually exclusive.

replace

Default. Insert results in the Org buffer. Remove previous results. Usage example: ‘:results output replace’.

silent

Do not insert results in the Org mode buffer, but echo them in the minibuffer. Usage example: ‘:results output silent’.

none

Compute results, but do not do anything with them. No inserting in the Org mode buffer nor echo them in the minibuffer. The results can still be used when referenced from another code block. Usage example: ‘:results none’.

discard

Ignore the results completely. This option is similar to ‘none’, but no processing is performed on the return value. Calling the code block programmatically (see How to evaluate source code) or by reference (see Passing arguments and Noweb Reference Syntax) will always yield nil.

append

Append results to the Org buffer. Latest results are at the bottom. Does not remove previous results. Usage example: ‘:results output append’.

prepend

Prepend results to the Org buffer. Latest results are at the top. Does not remove previous results. Usage example: ‘:results output prepend’.

Post-processing

The ‘post’ header argument is for post-processing results from block evaluation. When ‘post’ has any value, Org binds the results to *this* variable for easy passing to ‘var’ header argument specifications (see Environment of a Code Block). That makes results available to other code blocks, or even for direct Emacs Lisp code execution.

The following two examples illustrate ‘post’ header argument in action. The first one shows how to attach an ‘ATTR_LATEX’ keyword using ‘post’.

#+NAME: attr_wrap
#+BEGIN_SRC sh :var data="" :var width="\\textwidth" :results output
  echo "#+ATTR_LATEX: :width $width"
  echo "$data"
#+END_SRC

#+HEADER: :file /tmp/it.png
#+BEGIN_SRC dot :post attr_wrap(width="5cm", data=*this*) :results drawer
  digraph{
          a -> b;
          b -> c;
          c -> a;
  }
#+end_src

#+RESULTS:
:RESULTS:
#+ATTR_LATEX :width 5cm
[[file:/tmp/it.png]]
:END:

The second example shows use of ‘colnames’ header argument in ‘post’ to pass data between code blocks.

#+NAME: round-tbl
#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp :var tbl="" fmt="%.3f"
  (mapcar (lambda (row)
            (mapcar (lambda (cell)
                      (if (numberp cell)
                          (format fmt cell)
                        cell))
                    row))
          tbl)
#+end_src

#+BEGIN_SRC R :colnames yes :post round-tbl[:colnames yes](*this*)
  set.seed(42)
  data.frame(foo=rnorm(1))
#+END_SRC

#+RESULTS:
|   foo |
|-------|
| 1.371 |

16.7 Exporting Code Blocks

It is possible to export the code of code blocks, the results of code block evaluation, both the code and the results of code block evaluation, or none. Org defaults to exporting code for most languages and results for inline code blocks. For some languages, such as ditaa, Org defaults to results both in ordinary source blocks and in inline source blocks. To export just the body of code blocks, see Literal Examples. To selectively export subtrees of an Org document, see Exporting.

The ‘exports’ header argument is to specify if that part of the Org file is exported to, say, HTML or LaTeX formats.

code

The default. The body of code is included into the exported file. Example: ‘:exports code’.

results

The results of evaluation of the code is included in the exported file. Example: ‘:exports results’.

both

Both the code and results of evaluation are included in the exported file. Example: ‘:exports both’.

none

Neither the code nor the results of evaluation is included in the exported file. Whether the code is evaluated at all depends on other options. Example: ‘:exports none’.

If a source block is named using ‘NAME’ keyword, the same name will be assigned to the results of evaluation. This way, fuzzy links pointing to the named source blocks exported using ‘:exports results’ will remain valid and point to the results of evaluation.

Results of evaluation of a named block can also be explicitly named using a separate ‘NAME’ keyword. The name value set via ‘NAME’ keyword will be preferred over the parent source block.

#+NAME: code name
#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp :exports both value
(+ 1 2)
#+END_SRC

#+NAME: results name
#+RESULTS: code name
3

This [[code name][link]] will point to the code block.
Another [[results name][link]] will point to the results.

Explicit setting of the result name may be necessary when a named code block is exported using ‘:exports both’. Links to such block may arbitrarily point either to the code block or to its results when results do not have a distinct name.

Note that all the links pointing to a source block exported using ‘:exports none’ will be broken. This will make export process fail, unless broken links are allowed during export (see Export Settings).

To stop Org from evaluating code blocks to speed exports, use the header argument ‘:eval never-export’ (see Evaluating Code Blocks). To stop Org from evaluating code blocks for greater security, set the org-export-use-babel variable to nil, but understand that header arguments will have no effect.

Turning off evaluation comes in handy when batch processing. For example, markup languages for wikis, which have a high risk of untrusted code. Stopping code block evaluation also stops evaluation of all header arguments of the code block. This may not be desirable in some circumstances. So during export, to allow evaluation of just the header arguments but not any code evaluation in the source block, set ‘:eval never-export’ (see Evaluating Code Blocks).

Org never evaluates code blocks in commented subtrees when exporting (see Comment Lines). On the other hand, Org does evaluate code blocks in subtrees excluded from export (see Export Settings).


16.8 Extracting Source Code

Extracting source code from code blocks is a basic task in literate programming. Org has features to make this easy. In literate programming parlance, documents on creation are woven with code and documentation, and on export, the code is tangled for execution by a computer. Org facilitates weaving and tangling for producing, maintaining, sharing, and exporting literate programming documents. Org provides extensive customization options for extracting source code.

When Org tangles code blocks, it expands, merges, and transforms them. Then Org recomposes them into one or more separate files, as configured through the options. During this tangling process, Org expands variables in the source code, and resolves any noweb style references (see Noweb Reference Syntax).

Header arguments

The ‘tangle’ header argument specifies if the code block is exported to source file(s).

yes

Export the code block to source file. The file name for the source file is derived from the name of the Org file, and the file extension is derived from the source code language identifier. Example: ‘:tangle yes’.

no

The default. Do not extract the code in a source code file. Example: ‘:tangle no’.

FILENAME

Export the code block to source file whose file name is derived from any string passed to the ‘tangle’ header argument. Org derives the file name as being relative to the directory of the Org file’s location. Example: ‘:tangle FILENAME’.

The ‘mkdirp’ header argument creates parent directories for tangled files if the directory does not exist. A ‘yes’ value enables directory creation whereas ‘no’ inhibits it.

The ‘comments’ header argument controls inserting comments into tangled files. These are above and beyond whatever comments may already exist in the code block.

no

The default. Do not insert any extra comments during tangling.

link

Wrap the code block in comments. Include links pointing back to the place in the Org file from where the code was tangled.

yes

Kept for backward compatibility; same as ‘link’.

org

Nearest headline text from Org file is inserted as comment. The exact text that is inserted is picked from the leading context of the source block.

both

Includes both ‘link’ and ‘org’ options.

noweb

Includes ‘link’ option, expands noweb references (see Noweb Reference Syntax), and wraps them in link comments inside the body of the code block.

The ‘padline’ header argument controls insertion of newlines to pad source code in the tangled file.

yes

Default. Insert a newline before and after each code block in the tangled file.

no

Do not insert newlines to pad the tangled code blocks.

The ‘shebang’ header argument can turn results into executable script files. By setting it to a string value—for example, ‘:shebang "#!/bin/bash"’—Org inserts that string as the first line of the tangled file that the code block is extracted to. Org then turns on the tangled file’s executable permission.

The ‘tangle-mode’ header argument specifies what permissions to set for tangled files by set-file-modes. Permissions are given by an octal value, which can be provided calling the identity function on an elisp octal value. For instance, to create a read-only file one may use ‘:tangle-mode (identity #o444)’. To reduce the verbosity required, a octal shorthand is defined, ‘oXXX’ (‘o’ for octal). Using this, our read-only example is ‘:tangle-mode o444’. Omitting the ‘o’ prefix will cause the argument to be interpreted as an integer, which can lead to unexpected results (‘444’ is the same as ‘o674’). Two other shorthands are recognized, ls-style strings like ‘rw-r--r--’, and chmod-style permissions like ‘g+w’. Note that chmod-style permissions are based on org-babel-tangle-default-file-mode, which is ‘#o544’ by default.

When ‘:tangle-mode’ and ‘:shebang’ are both specified, the give ‘:tangle-mode’ will override the permissions from ‘:shebang’. When multiple source code blocks tangle to a single file with conflicting ‘:tangle-mode’ header arguments, Org’s behavior is undefined.

By default Org expands code blocks during tangling. The ‘no-expand’ header argument turns off such expansions. Note that one side-effect of expansion by org-babel-expand-src-block also assigns values (see Environment of a Code Block) to variables. Expansions also replace noweb references with their targets (see Noweb Reference Syntax). Some of these expansions may cause premature assignment, hence this option. This option makes a difference only for tangling. It has no effect when exporting since code blocks for execution have to be expanded anyway.

Functions

org-babel-tangle

Tangle the current file. Bound to C-c C-v t.

With prefix argument only tangle the current code block.

org-babel-tangle-file

Choose a file to tangle. Bound to C-c C-v f.

Tangle hooks

org-babel-pre-tangle-hook

This hook is run before the tangle process begins. The active buffer is buffer to be tangled.

org-babel-tangle-body-hook

This hook is run from a temporary buffer containing expanded code of every tangled code block. The hook can modify the expanded code as needed. The contents of the current buffer will be used as actual code block expansion.

org-babel-post-tangle-hook

This hook is run from within code files tangled by org-babel-tangle, making it suitable for post-processing, compilation, and evaluation of code in the tangled files.

org-babel-tangle-finished-hook

This hook is run after post-tangle hooks, in the original buffer.

Jumping between code and Org

Debuggers normally link errors and messages back to the source code. But for tangled files, we want to link back to the Org file, not to the tangled source file. To make this extra jump, Org uses org-babel-tangle-jump-to-org function with two additional source code block header arguments:

  1. Set ‘padline’ to true—this is the default setting.
  2. Set ‘comments’ to ‘link’, which makes Org insert links to the Org file.

16.9 Languages

Code blocks in dozens of languages are supported. See Worg website for language specific documentation.

By default, only Emacs Lisp is enabled for evaluation. To enable or disable other languages, customize the org-babel-load-languages variable either through the Emacs customization interface, or by adding code to the init file as shown next.

In this example, evaluation is disabled for Emacs Lisp, and enabled for R.

(org-babel-do-load-languages
 'org-babel-load-languages
 '((emacs-lisp . nil)
   (R . t)))

Note that this is not the only way to enable a language. Org also enables languages when loaded with require statement. For example, the following enables execution of Clojure code blocks:

(require 'ob-clojure)

16.10 Editing Source Code

Use C-c ' to edit the current code block. It opens a new major mode edit buffer containing the body of the source code block, ready for any edits. Use C-c ' again to close the buffer and return to the Org buffer.

C-x C-s saves the buffer and updates the contents of the Org buffer. Set org-edit-src-auto-save-idle-delay to save the base buffer after a certain idle delay time. Set org-edit-src-turn-on-auto-save to auto-save this buffer into a separate file using Auto-save mode.

While editing the source code in the major mode, the Org Src minor mode remains active. It provides these customization variables as described below. For even more variables, look in the customization group org-edit-structure.

org-src-lang-modes

If an Emacs major-mode named <LANG>-mode exists, where <LANG> is the language identifier from code block’s header line, then the edit buffer uses that major mode. Use this variable to arbitrarily map language identifiers to major modes.

org-src-window-setup

For specifying Emacs window arrangement when the new edit buffer is created.

org-src-preserve-indentation

Default is nil. Source code is indented. This indentation applies during export or tangling, and depending on the context, may alter leading spaces and tabs. When non-nil, source code is aligned with the leftmost column. No lines are modified during export or tangling, which is very useful for white-space sensitive languages, such as Python.

org-src-ask-before-returning-to-edit-buffer

When nil, Org returns to the edit buffer without further prompts. The default prompts for a confirmation.

Set org-src-fontify-natively to non-nil to turn on native code fontification in the Org buffer. Fontification of code blocks can give visual separation of text and code on the display page. To further customize the appearance of org-block for specific languages, customize org-src-block-faces. The following example shades the background of regular blocks, and colors source blocks only for Python and Emacs Lisp languages.

(require 'color)
(set-face-attribute 'org-block nil :background
                    (color-darken-name
                     (face-attribute 'default :background) 3))

(setq org-src-block-faces '(("emacs-lisp" (:background "#EEE2FF"))
                            ("python" (:background "#E5FFB8"))))

16.11 Noweb Reference Syntax

Source code blocks can include references to other source code blocks, using a noweb145 style syntax:

<<CODE-BLOCK-ID>>

where CODE-BLOCK-ID refers to either the ‘NAME’ of a single source code block, or a collection of one or more source code blocks sharing the same ‘noweb-ref’ header argument (see Using Header Arguments). Org can replace such references with the source code of the block or blocks being referenced, or, in the case of a single source code block named with ‘NAME’, with the results of an evaluation of that block.

The ‘noweb’ header argument controls expansion of noweb syntax references. Expansions occur when source code blocks are evaluated, tangled, or exported.

no

Default. No expansion of noweb syntax references in the body of the code when evaluating, tangling, or exporting.

yes

Expansion of noweb syntax references in the body of the code block when evaluating, tangling, or exporting.

tangle

Expansion of noweb syntax references in the body of the code block when tangling. No expansion when evaluating or exporting.

strip-tangle

Expansion of noweb syntax references in the body of the code block when evaluating or exporting. Removes noweb syntax references when exporting.

no-export

Expansion of noweb syntax references in the body of the code block when evaluating or tangling. No expansion when exporting.

strip-export

Expansion of noweb syntax references in the body of the code block when expanding prior to evaluating or tangling. Removes noweb syntax references when exporting.

eval

Expansion of noweb syntax references in the body of the code block only before evaluating.

In the most simple case, the contents of a single source block is inserted within other blocks. Thus, in following example,

#+NAME: initialization
#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
  (setq sentence "Never a foot too far, even.")
#+END_SRC

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp :noweb yes
  <<initialization>>
  (reverse sentence)
#+END_SRC

the second code block is expanded as

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp :noweb yes
  (setq sentence "Never a foot too far, even.")
  (reverse sentence)
#+END_SRC

You may also include the contents of multiple blocks sharing a common ‘noweb-ref’ header argument, which can be set at the file, subtree, or code block level. In the example Org file shown next, the body of the source code in each block is extracted for concatenation to a pure code file when tangled.

#+BEGIN_SRC sh :tangle yes :noweb yes :shebang #!/bin/sh
  <<fullest-disk>>
#+END_SRC
* the mount point of the fullest disk
  :PROPERTIES:
  :header-args: :noweb-ref fullest-disk
  :END:

** query all mounted disks
#+BEGIN_SRC sh
  df \
#+END_SRC

** strip the header row
#+BEGIN_SRC sh
  |sed '1d' \
#+END_SRC

** output mount point of fullest disk
#+BEGIN_SRC sh
  |awk '{if (u < +$5) {u = +$5; m = $6}} END {print m}'
#+END_SRC

By default a newline separates each noweb reference concatenation. To use a different separator, edit the ‘noweb-sep’ header argument.

Alternatively, Org can include the results of evaluation of a single code block rather than its body. Evaluation occurs when parentheses, possibly including arguments, are appended to the code block name, as shown below.

<<NAME(optional arguments)>>

Note that in this case, a code block name set by ‘NAME’ keyword is required; the reference set by ‘noweb-ref’ will not work when evaluation is desired.

Here is an example that demonstrates how the exported content changes when noweb style references are used with parentheses versus without. Given:

#+NAME: some-code
#+BEGIN_SRC python :var num=0 :results output :exports none
  print(num*10)
#+END_SRC

this code block:

#+BEGIN_SRC text :noweb yes
  <<some-code>>
#+END_SRC

expands to:

print(num*10)

Below, a similar noweb style reference is used, but with parentheses, while setting a variable ‘num’ to 10:

#+BEGIN_SRC text :noweb yes
  <<some-code(num=10)>>
#+END_SRC

Note that the expansion now contains the results of the code block ‘some-code’, not the code block itself:

100

Noweb insertions honor prefix characters that appear before the noweb syntax reference. This behavior is illustrated in the following example. Because the ‘<<example>>’ noweb reference appears behind the SQL comment syntax, each line of the expanded noweb reference is commented. With:

#+NAME: example
#+BEGIN_SRC text
  this is the
  multi-line body of example
#+END_SRC

this code block:

#+BEGIN_SRC sql :noweb yes
 ---<<example>>
#+END_SRC

expands to:

#+BEGIN_SRC sql :noweb yes
 ---this is the
 ---multi-line body of example
#+END_SRC

Since this change does not affect noweb replacement text without newlines in them, inline noweb references are acceptable.

This feature can also be used for management of indentation in exported code snippets. With:

#+NAME: if-true
#+BEGIN_SRC python :exports none
  print('do things when true')
#+end_src

#+name: if-false
#+begin_src python :exports none
  print('do things when false')
#+end_src

this code block:

#+begin_src python :noweb yes :results output
  if true:
      <<if-true>>
  else:
      <<if-false>>
#+end_src

expands to:

if true:
    print('do things when true')
else:
    print('do things when false')

This prefix behavior can be turned off in a block by setting the ‘noweb-prefix’ header argument to ‘no’, as in:

#+BEGIN_SRC elisp :noweb-prefix no
  (setq example-data "<<example>>")
#+END_SRC

which expands to:

(setq example-data "this is the
multi-line body of example")

When in doubt about the outcome of a source code block expansion, you can preview the results with the following command:

C-c C-v v or C-c C-v C-v (org-babel-expand-src-block)

Expand the current source code block according to its header arguments and pop open the results in a preview buffer.


16.12 Library of Babel

The “Library of Babel” is a collection of code blocks. Like a function library, these code blocks can be called from other Org files. A collection of useful code blocks is available on Worg. For remote code block evaluation syntax, see Evaluating Code Blocks.

For any user to add code to the library, first save the code in regular code blocks of an Org file, and then load the Org file with org-babel-lob-ingest, which is bound to C-c C-v i.


16.13 Key bindings and Useful Functions

Many common Org mode key sequences are re-bound depending on the context.

Active key bindings in code blocks:

Key bindingFunction
C-c C-corg-babel-execute-src-block
C-c C-oorg-babel-open-src-block-result
M-UPorg-babel-load-in-session
M-DOWNorg-babel-pop-to-session

Active key bindings in Org mode buffer:

Key bindingFunction
C-c C-v p or C-c C-v C-porg-babel-previous-src-block
C-c C-v n or C-c C-v C-norg-babel-next-src-block
C-c C-v e or C-c C-v C-eorg-babel-execute-maybe
C-c C-v o or C-c C-v C-oorg-babel-open-src-block-result
C-c C-v v or C-c C-v C-vorg-babel-expand-src-block
C-c C-v u or C-c C-v C-uorg-babel-goto-src-block-head
C-c C-v g or C-c C-v C-gorg-babel-goto-named-src-block
C-c C-v r or C-c C-v C-rorg-babel-goto-named-result
C-c C-v b or C-c C-v C-borg-babel-execute-buffer
C-c C-v s or C-c C-v C-sorg-babel-execute-subtree
C-c C-v d or C-c C-v C-dorg-babel-demarcate-block
C-c C-v t or C-c C-v C-torg-babel-tangle
C-c C-v f or C-c C-v C-forg-babel-tangle-file
C-c C-v c or C-c C-v C-corg-babel-check-src-block
C-c C-v j or C-c C-v C-jorg-babel-insert-header-arg
C-c C-v l or C-c C-v C-lorg-babel-load-in-session
C-c C-v i or C-c C-v C-iorg-babel-lob-ingest
C-c C-v I or C-c C-v C-Iorg-babel-view-src-block-info
C-c C-v z or C-c C-v C-zorg-babel-switch-to-session-with-code
C-c C-v a or C-c C-v C-aorg-babel-sha1-hash
C-c C-v h or C-c C-v C-horg-babel-describe-bindings
C-c C-v x or C-c C-v C-xorg-babel-do-key-sequence-in-edit-buffer

16.14 Batch Execution

Org mode features, including working with source code facilities can be invoked from the command line. This enables building shell scripts for batch processing, running automated system tasks, and expanding Org mode’s usefulness.

The sample script shows batch processing of multiple files using org-babel-tangle.

#!/bin/sh
# Tangle files with Org mode
#
emacs -Q --batch --eval "
    (progn
      (require 'ob-tangle)
      (dolist (file command-line-args-left)
        (with-current-buffer (find-file-noselect file)
          (org-babel-tangle))))
  " "$@"

17 Miscellaneous


17.1 Completion

Org has in-buffer completions. Unlike minibuffer completions, which are useful for quick command interactions, Org’s in-buffer completions are more suitable for content creation in Org documents. Type one or more letters and invoke the hot key to complete the text in-place. Depending on the context and the keys, Org offers different types of completions. No minibuffer is involved. Such mode-specific hot keys have become an integral part of Emacs and Org provides several shortcuts.

M-TAB

Complete word at point.

  • At the beginning of an empty headline, complete TODO keywords.
  • After ‘\’, complete TeX symbols supported by the exporter.
  • After ‘:’ in a headline, complete tags. Org deduces the list of tags from the ‘TAGS’ in-buffer option (see Setting Tags), the variable org-tag-alist, or from all tags used in the current buffer.
  • After ‘:’ and not in a headline, complete property keys. The list of keys is constructed dynamically from all keys used in the current buffer.
  • After ‘[[’, complete link abbreviations (see Link Abbreviations).
  • After ‘[[*’, complete headlines in the current buffer so that they can be used in search links like: ‘[[*find this headline]]
  • After ‘#+’, complete the special keywords like ‘TYP_TODO’ or file-specific ‘OPTIONS’. After option keyword is complete, pressing M-TAB again inserts example settings for this keyword.
  • After ‘STARTUP’ keyword, complete startup items.
  • When point is anywhere else, complete dictionary words using Ispell.

17.2 Structure Templates

With just a few keystrokes, it is possible to insert empty structural blocks, such as ‘#+BEGIN_SRC’ … ‘#+END_SRC’, or to wrap existing text in such a block.

C-c C-, (org-insert-structure-template)

Prompt for a type of block structure, and insert the block at point. If the region is active, it is wrapped in the block. First prompts the user for keys, which are used to look up a structure type from the variable below. If the key is TAB, RET, or SPC, the user is prompted to enter a block type.

Available structure types are defined in org-structure-template-alist, see the docstring for adding or changing values.

Org Tempo expands snippets to structures defined in org-structure-template-alist and org-tempo-keywords-alist. For example, < s TAB creates a code block. Enable it by customizing org-modules or add ‘(require 'org-tempo)’ to your Emacs init file146.

a#+BEGIN_EXPORT ascii’ … ‘#+END_EXPORT
c#+BEGIN_CENTER’ … ‘#+END_CENTER
C#+BEGIN_COMMENT’ … ‘#+END_COMMENT
e#+BEGIN_EXAMPLE’ … ‘#+END_EXAMPLE
E#+BEGIN_EXPORT’ … ‘#+END_EXPORT
h#+BEGIN_EXPORT html’ … ‘#+END_EXPORT
l#+BEGIN_EXPORT latex’ … ‘#+END_EXPORT
q#+BEGIN_QUOTE’ … ‘#+END_QUOTE
s#+BEGIN_SRC’ … ‘#+END_SRC
v#+BEGIN_VERSE’ … ‘#+END_VERSE

17.3 Speed Keys

Single keystrokes can execute custom commands in an Org file when point is on a headline. Without the extra burden of a meta or modifier key, Speed Keys can speed navigation or execute custom commands. Besides faster navigation, Speed Keys may come in handy on small mobile devices that do not have full keyboards. Speed Keys may also work on TTY devices known for their problems when entering Emacs key chords.

By default, Org has Speed Keys disabled. To activate Speed Keys, set the variable org-use-speed-commands to a non-nil value. To trigger a Speed Key, point must be at the beginning of an Org headline, before any of the stars.

Org comes with a pre-defined list of Speed Keys. To add or modify Speed Keys, customize the option org-speed-commands. For more details, see the variable’s docstring. With Speed Keys activated, M-x org-speed-command-help, or ? when point is at the beginning of an Org headline, shows currently active Speed Keys, including the user-defined ones.


17.4 A Cleaner Outline View

Org’s outline with stars and no indents can look cluttered for short documents. For book-like long documents, the effect is not as noticeable. Org provides an alternate stars and indentation scheme, as shown on the right in the following table. It displays only one star and indents text to line up with the heading:

* Top level headline             |    * Top level headline
** Second level                  |      * Second level
*** Third level                  |        * Third level
some text                        |          some text
*** Third level                  |        * Third level
more text                        |          more text
* Another top level headline     |    * Another top level headline

Org can achieve this in two ways, (1) by just displaying the buffer in this way without changing it, or (2) by actually indenting every line in the desired amount with hard spaces and hiding leading stars.


17.4.1 Org Indent Mode

To display the buffer in the indented view, activate Org Indent minor mode, using M-x org-indent-mode. Text lines that are not headlines are prefixed with virtual spaces to vertically align with the headline text147.

To make more horizontal space, the headlines are shifted by two characters. Configure org-indent-indentation-per-level variable for a different number.

By default, Org Indent mode turns off org-adapt-indentation and does hide leading stars by locally setting org-hide-leading-stars to t: only one star on each headline is visible, the rest are masked with the same font color as the background. If you want to customize this default behavior, see org-indent-mode-turns-on-hiding-stars and org-indent-mode-turns-off-org-adapt-indentation.

To globally turn on Org Indent mode for all files, customize the variable org-startup-indented. To control it for individual files, use ‘STARTUP’ keyword as follows:

#+STARTUP: indent
#+STARTUP: noindent

17.4.2 Hard indentation

It is possible to use hard spaces to achieve the indentation instead, if the bare ASCII file should have the indented look also outside Emacs148. With Org’s support, you have to indent all lines to line up with the outline headers. You would use these settings149:

(setq org-adapt-indentation t
      org-hide-leading-stars t
      org-odd-levels-only t)
Indentation of text below headlines (org-adapt-indentation)

The first setting modifies paragraph filling, line wrapping, and structure editing commands to preserving or adapting the indentation as appropriate.

Hiding leading stars (org-hide-leading-stars)

The second setting makes leading stars invisible by applying the face org-hide to them. For per-file preference, use these file ‘STARTUP’ options:

#+STARTUP: hidestars
#+STARTUP: showstars
Odd levels (org-odd-levels-only)

The third setting makes Org use only odd levels, 1, 3, 5, …, in the outline to create more indentation. On a per-file level, control this with:

#+STARTUP: odd
#+STARTUP: oddeven

To convert a file between single and double stars layouts, use M-x org-convert-to-odd-levels and M-x org-convert-to-oddeven-levels.


17.5 Execute commands in the active region

When in an Org buffer and the region is active, some commands will apply to all the subtrees in the active region. For example, hitting C-c C-s when multiple headlines are within the active region will successively prompt you for a new schedule date and time. To disable this, set the option org-loop-over-headlines-in-active-region to non-t, activate the region and run the command normally.

org-agenda-loop-over-headlines-in-active-region is the equivalent option of the agenda buffer, where you can also use bulk editing of selected entries.

Not all commands can loop in the active region and what subtrees or headlines are considered can be refined: see the docstrings of these options for more details.


17.6 Dynamic Headline Numbering

The Org Num minor mode, toggled with M-x org-num-mode, displays outline numbering on top of headlines. It also updates it automatically upon changes to the structure of the document.

By default, all headlines are numbered. You can limit numbering to specific headlines according to their level, tags, ‘COMMENT’ keyword, or ‘UNNUMBERED’ property. Set org-num-max-level, org-num-skip-tags, org-num-skip-commented, org-num-skip-unnumbered, or org-num-skip-footnotes accordingly.

If org-num-skip-footnotes is non-nil, footnotes sections (see Creating Footnotes) are not numbered either.

You can control how the numbering is displayed by setting org-num-face and org-num-format-function.

You can also turn this mode globally for all Org files by setting the option org-startup-numerated to ‘t’, or locally on a file by using ‘#+startup: num’.


17.7 The Very Busy C-c C-c Key

The C-c C-c key in Org serves many purposes depending on the context. It is probably the most over-worked, multi-purpose key combination in Org. Its uses are well documented throughout this manual, but here is a consolidated list for easy reference.

  • If column view (see Column View) is on, exit column view.
  • If any highlights shown in the buffer from the creation of a sparse tree, or from clock display, remove such highlights.
  • If point is in one of the special ‘KEYWORD’ lines, scan the buffer for these lines and update the information. Also reset the Org file cache used to temporary store the contents of URLs used as values for keywords like ‘SETUPFILE’.
  • If point is inside a table, realign the table.
  • If point is on a ‘TBLFM’ keyword, re-apply the formulas to the entire table.
  • If the current buffer is a capture buffer, close the note and file it. With a prefix argument, also jump to the target location after saving the note.
  • If point is on a ‘<<<target>>>’, update radio targets and corresponding links in this buffer.
  • If point is on a property line or at the start or end of a property drawer, offer property commands.
  • If point is at a footnote reference, go to the corresponding definition, and vice versa.
  • If point is on a statistics cookie, update it.
  • If point is in a plain list item with a checkbox, toggle the status of the checkbox.
  • If point is on a numbered item in a plain list, renumber the ordered list.
  • If point is on the ‘#+BEGIN’ line of a dynamic block, the block is updated.
  • If point is at a timestamp, fix the day name in the timestamp.

17.8 Summary of In-Buffer Settings

In-buffer settings start with ‘#+’, followed by a keyword, a colon, one or more spaces, and then a word for each setting. Org accepts multiple settings on the same line. Org also accepts multiple lines for a keyword. This manual describes these settings throughout. A summary follows here.

C-c C-c activates any changes to the in-buffer settings. Closing and reopening the Org file in Emacs also activates the changes.

#+ARCHIVE: %s_done::

Sets the archive location of the agenda file. The corresponding variable is org-archive-location.

#+CATEGORY

Sets the category of the agenda file, which applies to the entire document.

#+COLUMNS: %25ITEM ...

Set the default format for columns view. This format applies when columns view is invoked in locations where no ‘COLUMNS’ property applies.

#+CONSTANTS: name1=value1 ...

Set file-local values for constants that table formulas can use. This line sets the local variable org-table-formula-constants-local. The global version of this variable is org-table-formula-constants.

#+FILETAGS: :tag1:tag2:tag3:

Set tags that all entries in the file inherit from, including the top-level entries.

#+LINK: linkword replace

Each line specifies one abbreviation for one link. Use multiple ‘LINK’ keywords for more, see Link Abbreviations. The corresponding variable is org-link-abbrev-alist.

#+PRIORITIES: highest lowest default

This line sets the limits and the default for the priorities. All three must be either letters A–Z or numbers 0–9. The highest priority must have a lower ASCII number than the lowest priority.

#+PROPERTY: Property_Name Value

This line sets a default inheritance value for entries in the current buffer, most useful for specifying the allowed values of a property.

#+SETUPFILE: file

The setup file or a URL pointing to such file is for additional in-buffer settings. Org loads this file and parses it for any settings in it only when Org opens the main file. If URL is specified, the contents are downloaded and stored in a temporary file cache. C-c C-c on the settings line parses and loads the file, and also resets the temporary file cache. Org also parses and loads the document during normal exporting process. Org parses the contents of this document as if it was included in the buffer. It can be another Org file. To visit the file—not a URL—use C-c ' while point is on the line with the file name.

#+STARTUP:

Startup options Org uses when first visiting a file.

The first set of options deals with the initial visibility of the outline tree. The corresponding variable for global default settings is org-startup-folded with a default value of showeverything.

overviewTop-level headlines only.
contentAll headlines.
showallNo folding on any entry.
show2levelsHeadline levels 1-2.
show3levelsHeadline levels 1-3.
show4levelsHeadline levels 1-4.
show5levelsHeadline levels 1-5.
showeverythingShow even drawer contents.

Dynamic virtual indentation is controlled by the variable org-startup-indented150.

indentStart with Org Indent mode turned on.
noindentStart with Org Indent mode turned off.

Dynamic virtual numeration of headlines is controlled by the variable org-startup-numerated.

numStart with Org num mode turned on.
nonumStart with Org num mode turned off.

Aligns tables consistently upon visiting a file. The corresponding variable is org-startup-align-all-tables with nil as default value.

alignAlign all tables.
noalignDo not align tables on startup.

Shrink table columns with a width cookie. The corresponding variable is org-startup-shrink-all-tables with nil as default value.

When visiting a file, inline images can be automatically displayed. The corresponding variable is org-startup-with-inline-images, with a default value nil to avoid delays when visiting a file.

inlineimagesShow inline images.
noinlineimagesDo not show inline images on startup.

Logging the closing and reopening of TODO items and clock intervals can be configured using these options (see variables org-log-done, org-log-note-clock-out, and org-log-repeat).

logdoneRecord a timestamp when an item is marked as done.
lognotedoneRecord timestamp and a note when DONE.
nologdoneDo not record when items are marked as done.
logrepeatRecord a time when reinstating a repeating item.
lognoterepeatRecord a note when reinstating a repeating item.
nologrepeatDo not record when reinstating repeating item.
lognoteclock-outRecord a note when clocking out.
nolognoteclock-outDo not record a note when clocking out.
logrescheduleRecord a timestamp when scheduling time changes.
lognoterescheduleRecord a note when scheduling time changes.
nologrescheduleDo not record when a scheduling date changes.
logredeadlineRecord a timestamp when deadline changes.
lognoteredeadlineRecord a note when deadline changes.
nologredeadlineDo not record when a deadline date changes.
logrefileRecord a timestamp when refiling.
lognoterefileRecord a note when refiling.
nologrefileDo not record when refiling.

Here are the options for hiding leading stars in outline headings, and for indenting outlines. The corresponding variables are org-hide-leading-stars and org-odd-levels-only, both with a default setting nil (meaning ‘showstars’ and ‘oddeven’).

hidestarsMake all but one of the stars starting a headline invisible.
showstarsShow all stars starting a headline.
indentVirtual indentation according to outline level.
noindentNo virtual indentation according to outline level.
oddAllow only odd outline levels (1, 3, …).
oddevenAllow all outline levels.

To turn on custom format overlays over timestamps (variables org-put-time-stamp-overlays and org-time-stamp-overlay-formats), use:

customtimeOverlay custom time format.

The following options influence the table spreadsheet (variable constants-unit-system).

constcgsconstants.el’ should use the c-g-s unit system.
constSIconstants.el’ should use the SI unit system.

To influence footnote settings, use the following keywords. The corresponding variables are org-footnote-define-inline, org-footnote-auto-label, and org-footnote-auto-adjust.

fninlineDefine footnotes inline.
fnnoinlineDefine footnotes in separate section.
fnlocalDefine footnotes near first reference, but not inline.
fnpromptPrompt for footnote labels.
fnautoCreate ‘[fn:1]’-like labels automatically (default).
fnconfirmOffer automatic label for editing or confirmation.
fnadjustAutomatically renumber and sort footnotes.
nofnadjustDo not renumber and sort automatically.

To hide blocks or drawers on startup, use these keywords. The corresponding variables are org-hide-block-startup and org-hide-drawer-startup.

hideblocksHide all begin/end blocks on startup.
nohideblocksDo not hide blocks on startup.
hidedrawersHide all begin/end blocks on startup.
nohidedrawersDo not hide blocks on startup.

The display of entities as UTF-8 characters is governed by the variable org-pretty-entities and the keywords

entitiesprettyShow entities as UTF-8 characters where possible.
entitiesplainLeave entities plain.
#+TAGS: TAG1(c1) TAG2(c2)

These lines (several such lines are allowed) specify the valid tags in this file, and (potentially) the corresponding fast tag selection keys. The corresponding variable is org-tag-alist.

#+TODO:’, ‘#+SEQ_TODO:’, ‘#+TYP_TODO:

These lines set the TODO keywords and their interpretation in the current file. The corresponding variable is org-todo-keywords.


17.9 Regular Expressions

Org, as an Emacs mode, makes use of Elisp regular expressions for searching, matching and filtering. Elisp regular expressions have a somewhat different syntax then some common standards. Most notably, alternation is indicated using ‘\|’ and matching groups are denoted by ‘\(...\)’. For example the string ‘home\|work’ matches either ‘home’ or ‘work’.

For more information, see Regular Expressions in Emacs.


17.10 Org Syntax

A reference document providing a formal description of Org’s syntax is available as a draft on Worg, written and maintained by Nicolas Goaziou. It defines Org’s core internal concepts such as “headlines”, “sections”, “affiliated keywords”, “(greater) elements” and “objects”. Each part of an Org document belongs to one of the previous categories.

To explore the abstract structure of an Org buffer, run this in a buffer:

M-: (org-element-parse-buffer) <RET>

It outputs a list containing the buffer’s content represented as an abstract structure. The export engine relies on the information stored in this list. Most interactive commands—e.g., for structure editing—also rely on the syntactic meaning of the surrounding context.

You can probe the syntax of your documents with the command

M-x org-lint <RET>

It runs a number of checks to find common mistakes. It then displays their location in a dedicated buffer, along with a description and a “trust level”, since false-positive are possible. From there, you can operate on the reports with the following keys:

C-j, TABDisplay the offending line
RETMove point to the offending line
gCheck the document again
hHide all reports from the same checker
iAlso remove them from all subsequent checks
SSort reports by the column at point

17.11 Context Dependent Documentation

C-c C-x I in an Org file tries to open a suitable section of the Org manual depending on the syntax at point. For example, using it on a headline displays “Document Structure” section.

q closes the Info window.


17.12 Escape Character

You may sometimes want to write text that looks like Org syntax, but should really read as plain text. Org may use a specific escape character in some situations, i.e., a backslash in macros (see Macro Replacement) and links (see Link Format), or a comma in source and example blocks (see Literal Examples). In the general case, however, we suggest to use the zero width space. You can insert one with any of the following:

C-x 8 <RET> zero width space <RET>
C-x 8 <RET> 200B <RET>

For example, in order to write ‘[[1,2]]’ as-is in your document, you may write instead

[X[1,2]]

where ‘X’ denotes the zero width space character.


17.13 Code Evaluation and Security Issues

Unlike plain text, running code comes with risk. Each source code block, in terms of risk, is equivalent to an executable file. Org therefore puts a few confirmation prompts by default. This is to alert the casual user from accidentally running untrusted code.

For users who do not run code blocks or write code regularly, Org’s default settings should suffice. However, some users may want to tweak the prompts for fewer interruptions. To weigh the risks of automatic execution of code blocks, here are some details about code evaluation.

Org evaluates code in the following circumstances:

Source code blocks

Org evaluates source code blocks in an Org file during export. Org also evaluates a source code block with the C-c C-c key chord. Users exporting or running code blocks must load files only from trusted sources. Be wary of customizing variables that remove or alter default security measures.

User Option: org-confirm-babel-evaluate

When t, Org prompts the user for confirmation before executing each code block. When nil, Org executes code blocks without prompting the user for confirmation. When this option is set to a custom function, Org invokes the function with these two arguments: the source code language and the body of the code block. The custom function must return either a t or nil, which determines if the user is prompted. Each source code language can be handled separately through this function argument.

For example, here is how to execute ditaa code blocks without prompting:

(defun my-org-confirm-babel-evaluate (lang body)
  (not (string= lang "ditaa")))  ;don't ask for ditaa
(setq org-confirm-babel-evaluate #'my-org-confirm-babel-evaluate)
Following ‘shell’ and ‘elisp’ links

Org has two link types that can directly evaluate code (see External Links). Because such code is not visible, these links have a potential risk. Org therefore prompts the user when it encounters such links. The customization variables are:

Function that prompts the user before executing a shell link.

Function that prompts the user before executing an Emacs Lisp link.

Formulas in tables

Formulas in tables (see The Spreadsheet) are code that is evaluated either by the Calc interpreter, or by the Emacs Lisp interpreter.


17.14 Interaction with Other Packages

Org’s compatibility and the level of interaction with other Emacs packages are documented here.


17.14.1 Packages that Org cooperates with

calc.el’ by Dave Gillespie

Org uses the Calc package for implementing spreadsheet functionality in its tables (see The Spreadsheet). Org also uses Calc for embedded calculations. See GNU Emacs Calc Manual.

constants.el’ by Carsten Dominik

Org can use names for constants in formulas in tables. Org can also use calculation suffixes for units, such as ‘M’ for ‘Mega’. For a standard collection of such constants, install the ‘constants’ package. Install version 2.0 of this package, available at https://github.com/cdominik/constants-for-Emacs. Org checks if the function constants-get has been autoloaded. Installation instructions are in the file ‘constants.el’.

cdlatex.el’ by Carsten Dominik

Org mode can make use of the CDLaTeX package to efficiently enter LaTeX fragments into Org files. See Using CDLaTeX to enter math.

imenu.el’ by Ake Stenhoff and Lars Lindberg

Imenu creates dynamic menus based on an index of items in a file. Org mode supports Imenu menus. Enable it with a mode hook as follows:

(add-hook 'org-mode-hook
          (lambda () (imenu-add-to-menubar "Imenu")))

By default the index is two levels deep—you can modify the depth using the option org-imenu-depth.

speedbar.el’ by Eric M. Ludlam

Speedbar package creates a special Emacs frame for displaying files and index items in files. Org mode supports Speedbar; users can drill into Org files directly from the Speedbar. The < in the Speedbar frame tweaks the agenda commands to that file or to a subtree.

table.el’ by Takaaki Ota

Complex ASCII tables with automatic line wrapping, column- and row-spanning, and alignment can be created using the Emacs table package by Takaaki Ota. Org mode recognizes such tables and exports them properly. C-c ' to edit these tables in a special buffer, much like Org’s code blocks. Because of interference with other Org mode functionality, Takaaki Ota tables cannot be edited directly in the Org buffer.

C-c ' (org-edit-special)

Edit a ‘table.el’ table. Works when point is in a ‘table.el’ table.

C-c ~​ (org-table-create-with-table.el)

Insert a ‘table.el’ table. If there is already a table at point, this command converts it between the ‘table.el’ format and the Org mode format. See the documentation string of the command org-convert-table for the restrictions under which this is possible.


17.14.2 Packages that conflict with Org mode

In Emacs, shift-selection combines motions of point with shift key to enlarge regions. Emacs sets this mode by default. This conflicts with Org’s use of S-<cursor> commands to change timestamps, TODO keywords, priorities, and item bullet types, etc. Since S-<cursor> commands outside of specific contexts do not do anything, Org offers the variable org-support-shift-select for customization. Org mode accommodates shift selection by (i) making it available outside of the special contexts where special commands apply, and (ii) extending an existing active region even if point moves across a special context.

cua.el’ by Kim F. Storm

Org key bindings conflict with S-<cursor> keys used by CUA mode. For Org to relinquish these bindings to CUA mode, configure the variable org-replace-disputed-keys. When set, Org moves the following key bindings in Org files, and in the agenda buffer—but not during date selection.

S-UPM-pS-DOWNM-n
S-LEFTM--S-RIGHTM-+
C-S-LEFTM-S--C-S-RIGHTM-S-+

Yes, these are unfortunately more difficult to remember. If you want to have other replacement keys, look at the variable org-disputed-keys.

ecomplete.el’ by Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen

Ecomplete provides “electric” address completion in address header lines in message buffers. Sadly Orgtbl mode cuts Ecomplete’s power supply: no completion happens when Orgtbl mode is enabled in message buffers while entering text in address header lines. If one wants to use ecomplete one should not follow the advice to automagically turn on Orgtbl mode in message buffers (see The Orgtbl Minor Mode), but instead—after filling in the message headers—turn on Orgtbl mode manually when needed in the messages body.

filladapt.el’ by Kyle Jones

Org mode tries to do the right thing when filling paragraphs, list items and other elements. Many users reported problems using both ‘filladapt.el’ and Org mode, so a safe thing to do is to disable filladapt like this:

(add-hook 'org-mode-hook 'turn-off-filladapt-mode)
viper.el’ by Michael Kifer

Viper uses C-c / and therefore makes this key not access the corresponding Org mode command org-sparse-tree. You need to find another key for this command, or override the key in viper-vi-global-user-map with

(define-key viper-vi-global-user-map "C-c /" 'org-sparse-tree)
windmove.el’ by Hovav Shacham

This package also uses the S-<cursor> keys, so everything written in the paragraph above about CUA mode also applies here. If you want to make the windmove function active in locations where Org mode does not have special functionality on S-<cursor>, add this to your configuration:

;; Make windmove work in Org mode:
(add-hook 'org-shiftup-final-hook 'windmove-up)
(add-hook 'org-shiftleft-final-hook 'windmove-left)
(add-hook 'org-shiftdown-final-hook 'windmove-down)
(add-hook 'org-shiftright-final-hook 'windmove-right)
yasnippet.el

The way Org mode binds the TAB key (binding to [tab] instead of "\t") overrules YASnippet’s access to this key. The following code fixed this problem:

(add-hook 'org-mode-hook
          (lambda ()
            (setq-local yas/trigger-key [tab])
            (define-key yas/keymap [tab] 'yas/next-field-or-maybe-expand)))

The latest version of YASnippet does not play well with Org mode. If the above code does not fix the conflict, start by defining the following function:

(defun yas/org-very-safe-expand ()
  (let ((yas/fallback-behavior 'return-nil)) (yas/expand)))

Then, tell Org mode to use that function:

(add-hook 'org-mode-hook
          (lambda ()
            (make-variable-buffer-local 'yas/trigger-key)
            (setq yas/trigger-key [tab])
            (add-to-list 'org-tab-first-hook 'yas/org-very-safe-expand)
            (define-key yas/keymap [tab] 'yas/next-field)))

17.15 Using Org on a TTY

Org provides alternative key bindings for TTY and modern mobile devices that cannot perform movement commands on point and key bindings with modifier keys. Some of these workarounds may be more cumbersome than necessary. Users should look into customizing these further based on their usage needs. For example, the normal S-<cursor> for editing timestamp might be better with C-c . chord.

DefaultAlternative 1Speed keyAlternative 2
S-TABC-u TABC
M-LEFTC-c C-x llEsc LEFT
M-S-LEFTC-c C-x LL
M-RIGHTC-c C-x rrEsc RIGHT
M-S-RIGHTC-c C-x RR
M-UPC-c C-x uEsc UP
M-S-UPC-c C-x UU
M-DOWNC-c C-x dEsc DOWN
M-S-DOWNC-c C-x DD
S-RETC-c C-x c
M-RETC-c C-x mEsc RET
M-S-RETC-c C-x M
S-LEFTC-c LEFT
S-RIGHTC-c RIGHT
S-UPC-c UP
S-DOWNC-c DOWN
C-S-LEFTC-c C-x LEFT
C-S-RIGHTC-c C-x RIGHT

17.16 Protocols for External Access

Org protocol is a tool to trigger custom actions in Emacs from external applications. Any application that supports calling external programs with an URL as argument may be used with this functionality. For example, you can configure bookmarks in your web browser to send a link to the current page to Org and create a note from it using capture (see Capture). You can also create a bookmark that tells Emacs to open the local source file of a remote website you are browsing.

In order to use Org protocol from an application, you need to register ‘org-protocol://’ as a valid scheme-handler. External calls are passed to Emacs through the ‘emacsclient’ command, so you also need to ensure an Emacs server is running. More precisely, when the application calls

emacsclient "org-protocol://PROTOCOL?key1=val1&key2=val2"

Emacs calls the handler associated to PROTOCOL with argument ‘(:key1 val1 :key2 val2)’.

Org protocol comes with three predefined protocols, detailed in the following sections. Configure org-protocol-protocol-alist to define your own.


17.16.2 The capture protocol

Activating the “capture” handler pops up a ‘Capture’ buffer in Emacs, using acapture template.

emacsclient "org-protocol://capture?template=X&url=URL&title=TITLE&body=BODY"

To use this feature, add a bookmark with an arbitrary name, e.g., ‘Org: capture’, and enter this as ‘Location’:

javascript:location.href='org-protocol://capture?' +
      new URLSearchParams({
            template: 'x', url: window.location.href,
            title: document.title, body: window.getSelection()});

You might have seen another expression:

javascript:location.href='org-protocol://capture?template=x'+
      '&url='+encodeURIComponent(window.location.href)+
      '&title='+encodeURIComponent(document.title)+
      '&body='+encodeURIComponent(window.getSelection());

It is a bit more cluttered than the former one, but it is compatible with previous Org versions 9.0-9.4. In these versions encoding of space as “+” character was not supported by URI decoder.

The capture template to be used can be specified in the bookmark (like ‘X’ above). If unspecified, the template key is set in the variable org-protocol-default-template-key. The following template placeholders are available:

%:link          The URL
%:description   The webpage title
%:annotation    Equivalent to [[%:link][%:description]]
%i              The selected text

17.16.3 The open-source protocol

The open-source handler is designed to help with editing local sources when reading a document. To that effect, you can use a bookmark with the following location:

javascript:location.href='org-protocol://open-source?&url='+
      encodeURIComponent(location.href)

The variable org-protocol-project-alist maps URLs to local file names, by stripping URL parameters from the end and replacing the :base-url with :working-directory and :online-suffix with :working-suffix. For example, assuming you own a local copy of ‘https://orgmode.org/worg/’ contents at ‘/home/user/worg’, you can set org-protocol-project-alist to the following

(setq org-protocol-project-alist
      '(("Worg"
         :base-url "https://orgmode.org/worg/"
         :working-directory "/home/user/worg/"
         :online-suffix ".html"
         :working-suffix ".org")))

If you are now browsing ‘https://orgmode.org/worg/org-contrib/org-protocol.html’ and find a typo or have an idea about how to enhance the documentation, simply click the bookmark and start editing.

However, such mapping may not always yield the desired results. Suppose you maintain an online store located at ‘https://example.com/’. The local sources reside in ‘/home/user/example/’. It is common practice to serve all products in such a store through one file and rewrite URLs that do not match an existing file on the server. That way, a request to ‘https://example.com/print/posters.html’ might be rewritten on the server to something like ‘https://example.com/shop/products.php/posters.html.php’. The open-source handler probably cannot find a file named ‘/home/user/example/print/posters.html.php’ and fails.

Such an entry in org-protocol-project-alist may hold an additional property :rewrites. This property is a list of cons cells, each of which maps a regular expression to a path relative to the :working-directory.

Now map the URL to the path ‘/home/user/example/products.php’ by adding :rewrites rules like this:

(setq org-protocol-project-alist
      '(("example.com"
         :base-url "https://example.com/"
         :working-directory "/home/user/example/"
         :online-suffix ".php"
         :working-suffix ".php"
         :rewrites (("example.com/print/" . "products.php")
                    ("example.com/$" . "index.php")))))

Since ‘example.com/$’ is used as a regular expression, it maps ‘http://example.com/’, ‘https://example.com’, ‘http://www.example.com/’ and similar to ‘/home/user/example/index.php’.

The :rewrites rules are searched as a last resort if and only if no existing file name is matched.

Two functions can help you filling org-protocol-project-alist with valid contents: org-protocol-create and org-protocol-create-for-org. The latter is of use if you’re editing an Org file that is part of a publishing project.


17.17 Org Crypt

Org Crypt encrypts the text of an entry, but not the headline, or properties. Behind the scene, it uses the Emacs EasyPG Library to encrypt and decrypt files, and EasyPG needs a correct GnuPG setup.

Any text below a headline that has a ‘crypt’ tag is automatically encrypted when the file is saved. To use a different tag, customize the org-crypt-tag-matcher setting.

Here is a suggestion for Org Crypt settings in Emacs init file:

(require 'org-crypt)
(org-crypt-use-before-save-magic)
(setq org-tags-exclude-from-inheritance '("crypt"))

(setq org-crypt-key nil)
;; GPG key to use for encryption.
;; nil means  use symmetric encryption unconditionally.
;; "" means use symmetric encryption unless heading sets CRYPTKEY property.

(setq auto-save-default nil)
;; Auto-saving does not cooperate with org-crypt.el: so you need to
;; turn it off if you plan to use org-crypt.el quite often.  Otherwise,
;; you'll get an (annoying) message each time you start Org.

;; To turn it off only locally, you can insert this:
;;
;; # -*- buffer-auto-save-file-name: nil; -*-

It’s possible to use different keys for different headings by specifying the respective key as property ‘CRYPTKEY’, e.g.:

* Totally secret :crypt:
  :PROPERTIES:
  :CRYPTKEY: 0x0123456789012345678901234567890123456789
  :END:

Note that ‘CRYPTKEY’ property is only effective when org-crypt-key is set to non-nil. nil value of org-crypt-key makes Org use symmetric encryption unconditionally.

Excluding the ‘crypt’ tag from inheritance prevents already encrypted text from being encrypted again.


17.18 Org Mobile

Org Mobile is a protocol for synchronizing Org files between Emacs and other applications, e.g., on mobile devices. It enables offline-views and capture support for an Org mode system that is rooted on a “real” computer. The external application can also record changes to existing entries.

This appendix describes Org’s support for agenda view formats compatible with Org Mobile. It also describes synchronizing changes, such as to notes, between the mobile application and the computer.

To change tags and TODO states in the mobile application, first customize the variables org-todo-keywords, org-tag-alist and org-tag-persistent-alist. These should cover all the important tags and TODO keywords, even if Org files use only some of them. Though the mobile application is expected to support in-buffer settings, it is required to understand TODO states sets (see Setting up keywords for individual files) and mutually exclusive tags (see Setting Tags) only for those set in these variables.


17.18.1 Setting up the staging area

The mobile application needs access to a file directory on a server151 to interact with Emacs. Pass its location through the org-mobile-directory variable. If you can mount that directory locally just set the variable to point to that directory:

(setq org-mobile-directory "~/orgmobile/")

Alternatively, by using TRAMP (see TRAMP User Manual), org-mobile-directory may point to a remote directory accessible through, for example, SSH, SCP, or DAVS:

(setq org-mobile-directory "/davs:user@remote.host:/org/webdav/")

With a public server, consider encrypting the files. Org also requires OpenSSL installed on the local computer. To turn on encryption, set the same password in the mobile application and in Emacs. Set the password in the variable org-mobile-use-encryption152. Note that even after the mobile application encrypts the file contents, the file name remains visible on the file systems of the local computer, the server, and the mobile device.


17.18.2 Pushing to the mobile application

The command org-mobile-push copies files listed in org-mobile-files into the staging area. Files include agenda files (as listed in org-agenda-files). Customize org-mobile-files to add other files. File names are staged with paths relative to org-directory, so all files should be inside this directory153.

Push creates a special Org file ‘agendas.org’ with custom agenda views defined by the user154.

Finally, Org writes the file ‘index.org’, containing links to other files. The mobile application reads this file first from the server to determine what other files to download for agendas. For faster downloads, it is expected to only read files whose checksums155 have changed.


17.18.3 Pulling from the mobile application

The command org-mobile-pull synchronizes changes with the server. More specifically, it first pulls the Org files for viewing. It then appends captured entries and pointers to flagged or changed entries to the file ‘mobileorg.org’ on the server. Org ultimately integrates its data in an inbox file format, through the following steps:

  1. Org moves all entries found in ‘mobileorg.org156 and appends them to the file pointed to by the variable org-mobile-inbox-for-pull. It should reside neither in the staging area nor on the server. Each captured entry and each editing event is a top-level entry in the inbox file.
  2. After moving the entries, Org processes changes to the shared files. Some of them are applied directly and without user interaction. Examples include changes to tags, TODO state, headline and body text. Entries requiring further action are tagged as ‘FLAGGED’. Org marks entries with problems with an error message in the inbox. They have to be resolved manually.
  3. Org generates an agenda view for flagged entries for user intervention to clean up. For notes stored in flagged entries, Org displays them in the echo area when point is on the corresponding agenda item.
    ?

    Pressing ? displays the entire flagged note in another window. Org also pushes it to the kill ring. To store flagged note as a normal note, use ? z C-y C-c C-c. Pressing ? twice does these things: first it removes the ‘FLAGGED’ tag; second, it removes the flagged note from the property drawer; third, it signals that manual editing of the flagged entry is now finished.

From the agenda dispatcher, ? returns to the view to finish processing flagged entries. Note that these entries may not be the most recent since the mobile application searches files that were last pulled. To get an updated agenda view with changes since the last pull, pull again.


Appendix A Hacking

This appendix describes some ways a user can extend the functionality of Org.


A.1 Hooks

Org has a large number of hook variables for adding functionality. This appendix illustrates using a few. A complete list of hooks with documentation is maintained by the Worg project at https://orgmode.org/worg/doc.html#hooks.


A.2 Add-on Packages

Various authors wrote a large number of add-on packages for Org. Some of these packages used to be part of the ‘org-mode’ repository but are now hosted in a separate ‘org-contrib’ repository here. A Worg page with more information is at: https://orgmode.org/worg/org-contrib/.


A.4 Adding Export Back-ends

Org’s export engine makes it easy for writing new back-ends. The framework on which the engine was built makes it easy to derive new back-ends from existing ones.

The two main entry points to the export engine are: org-export-define-backend and org-export-define-derived-backend. To grok these functions, see ‘ox-latex.el’ for an example of defining a new back-end from scratch, and ‘ox-beamer.el’ for an example of deriving from an existing engine.

For creating a new back-end from scratch, first set its name as a symbol in an alist consisting of elements and export functions. To make the back-end visible to the export dispatcher, set :menu-entry keyword. For export options specific to this back-end, set the :options-alist.

For creating a new back-end from an existing one, set :translate-alist to an alist of export functions. This alist replaces the parent back-end functions.

For complete documentation, see the Org Export Reference on Worg.


A.5 Tables in Arbitrary Syntax

Due to Org’s success in handling tables with Orgtbl, a frequently requested feature is the use of Org’s table functions in other modes, e.g., LaTeX. This would be hard to do in a general way without complicated customization nightmares. Moreover, that would take Org away from its simplicity roots that Orgtbl has proven. There is, however, an alternate approach to accomplishing the same.

This approach involves implementing a custom translate function that operates on a native Org source table to produce a table in another format. This strategy would keep the excellently working Orgtbl simple and isolate complications, if any, confined to the translate function. To add more alien table formats, we just add more translate functions. Also the burden of developing custom translate functions for new table formats is in the hands of those who know those formats best.


A.5.1 Radio tables

Radio tables are target locations for translated tables that are not near their source. Org finds the target location and inserts the translated table.

The key to finding the target location is the magic words ‘BEGIN/END RECEIVE ORGTBL’. They have to appear as comments in the current mode. If the mode is C, then:

/* BEGIN RECEIVE ORGTBL table_name */
/* END RECEIVE ORGTBL table_name */

At the location of source, Org needs a special line to direct Orgtbl to translate and to find the target for inserting the translated table. For example:

#+ORGTBL: SEND table_name translation_function arguments ...

table_name’ is the table’s reference name, which is also used in the receiver lines, and the ‘translation_function’ is the Lisp function that translates. This line, in addition, may also contain alternating key and value arguments at the end. The translation function gets these values as a property list. A few standard parameters are already recognized and acted upon before the translation function is called:

:skip N

Skip the first N lines of the table. Hlines do count; include them if they are to be skipped.

:skipcols (n1 n2 ...)

List of columns to be skipped. First Org automatically discards columns with calculation marks and then sends the table to the translator function, which then skips columns as specified in ‘skipcols’.

To keep the source table intact in the buffer without being disturbed when the source file is compiled or otherwise being worked on, use one of these strategies:

  • Place the table in a block comment. For example, in C mode you could wrap the table between ‘/*’ and ‘*/’ lines.
  • Put the table after an “end” statement. For example \bye in TeX and \end{document} in LaTeX.
  • Comment and un-comment each line of the table during edits. The M-x orgtbl-toggle-comment command makes toggling easy.

A.5.2 A LaTeX example of radio tables

To wrap a source table in LaTeX, use the ‘comment’ environment provided by ‘comment.sty157. To activate it, put \usepackage{comment} in the document header. Orgtbl mode inserts a radio table skeleton158 with the command M-x orgtbl-insert-radio-table, which prompts for a table name. For example, if ‘salesfigures’ is the name, the template inserts:

% BEGIN RECEIVE ORGTBL salesfigures
% END RECEIVE ORGTBL salesfigures
\begin{comment}
#+ORGTBL: SEND salesfigures orgtbl-to-latex
| | |
\end{comment}

The line ‘#+ORGTBL: SEND’ tells Orgtbl mode to use the function orgtbl-to-latex to convert the table to LaTeX format, then insert the table at the target (receive) location named ‘salesfigures’. Now the table is ready for data entry. It can even use spreadsheet features159:

% BEGIN RECEIVE ORGTBL salesfigures
% END RECEIVE ORGTBL salesfigures
\begin{comment}
#+ORGTBL: SEND salesfigures orgtbl-to-latex
| Month | Days | Nr sold | per day |
|-------+------+---------+---------|
| Jan   |   23 |      55 |     2.4 |
| Feb   |   21 |      16 |     0.8 |
| March |   22 |     278 |    12.6 |
#+TBLFM: $4=$3/$2;%.1f
% $ (optional extra dollar to keep Font Lock happy, see footnote)
\end{comment}

After editing, C-c C-c inserts the translated table at the target location, between the two marker lines.

For hand-made custom tables, note that the translator needs to skip the first two lines of the source table. Also the command has to splice out the target table without the header and footer.

\begin{tabular}{lrrr}
Month & \multicolumn{1}{c}{Days} & Nr.\ sold & per day\\
% BEGIN RECEIVE ORGTBL salesfigures
% END RECEIVE ORGTBL salesfigures
\end{tabular}
%
\begin{comment}
#+ORGTBL: SEND salesfigures orgtbl-to-latex :splice t :skip 2
| Month | Days | Nr sold | per day |
|-------+------+---------+---------|
| Jan   |   23 |      55 |     2.4 |
| Feb   |   21 |      16 |     0.8 |
| March |   22 |     278 |    12.6 |
#+TBLFM: $4=$3/$2;%.1f
\end{comment}

The LaTeX translator function orgtbl-to-latex is already part of Orgtbl mode and uses a ‘tabular’ environment to typeset the table and marks horizontal lines with \hline. For additional parameters to control output, see Translator functions:

:splice BOOLEAN

When {{{var(BOOLEAN}}} is non-nil, return only table body lines; i.e., not wrapped in ‘tabular’ environment. Default is nil.

:fmt FMT

Format string to warp each field. It should contain ‘%s’ for the original field value. For example, to wrap each field value in dollar symbol, you could use ‘:fmt "$%s$"’. Format can also wrap a property list with column numbers and formats, for example ‘:fmt (2 "$%s$" 4 "%s\\%%")’. In place of a string, a function of one argument can be used; the function must return a formatted string.

:efmt EFMT

Format numbers as exponentials. The spec should have ‘%s’ twice for inserting mantissa and exponent, for example ‘"%s\\times10^{%s}"’. This may also be a property list with column numbers and formats, for example ‘:efmt (2 "$%s\\times10^{%s}$" 4 "$%s\\cdot10^{%s}$")’. After EFMT has been applied to a value, FMT—see above—is also applied. Functions with two arguments can be supplied instead of strings. By default, no special formatting is applied.


A.5.3 Translator functions

Orgtbl mode has built-in translator functions: orgtbl-to-csv (comma-separated values), orgtbl-to-tsv (TAB-separated values), orgtbl-to-latex, orgtbl-to-html, orgtbl-to-texinfo, orgtbl-to-unicode and orgtbl-to-orgtbl. They use the generic translator, orgtbl-to-generic, which delegates translations to various export back-ends.

Properties passed to the function through the ‘ORGTBL SEND’ line take precedence over properties defined inside the function. For example, this overrides the default LaTeX line endings, \\, with \\[2mm]:

#+ORGTBL: SEND test orgtbl-to-latex :lend " \\\\[2mm]"

For a new language translator, define a converter function. It can be a generic function, such as shown in this example. It marks a beginning and ending of a table with ‘!BTBL!’ and ‘!ETBL!’; a beginning and ending of lines with ‘!BL!’ and ‘!EL!’; and uses a TAB for a field separator:

(defun orgtbl-to-language (table params)
  "Convert the orgtbl-mode TABLE to language."
  (orgtbl-to-generic
   table
   (org-combine-plists
    '(:tstart "!BTBL!" :tend "!ETBL!" :lstart "!BL!" :lend "!EL!" :sep "\t")
    params)))

The documentation for the orgtbl-to-generic function shows a complete list of parameters, each of which can be passed through to orgtbl-to-latex, orgtbl-to-texinfo, and any other function using that generic function.

For complicated translations the generic translator function could be replaced by a custom translator function. Such a custom function must take two arguments and return a single string containing the formatted table. The first argument is the table whose lines are a list of fields or the symbol hline. The second argument is the property list consisting of parameters specified in the ‘#+ORGTBL: SEND’ line. Please share your translator functions by posting them to the Org users mailing list, at .


A.6 Dynamic Blocks

Org supports dynamic blocks in Org documents. They are inserted with begin and end markers like any other code block, but the contents are updated automatically by a user function.

You can insert a dynamic block with org-dynamic-block-insert-dblock, which is bound to C-c C-x x by default. For example, C-c C-x x c l o c k t a b l e RET inserts a table that updates the work time (see Clocking Work Time).

Dynamic blocks can have names and function parameters. The syntax is similar to source code block specifications:

#+BEGIN: myblock :parameter1 value1 :parameter2 value2 ...
  ...
#+END:

These commands update dynamic blocks:

C-c C-x C-u (org-dblock-update)

Update dynamic block at point.

C-u C-c C-x C-u

Update all dynamic blocks in the current file.

Before updating a dynamic block, Org removes content between the ‘BEGIN’ and ‘END’ markers. Org then reads the parameters on the ‘BEGIN’ line for passing to the writer function as a plist. The previous content of the dynamic block becomes erased from the buffer and appended to the plist under :content.

The syntax for naming a writer function with a dynamic block labeled ‘myblock’ is: org-dblock-write:myblock.

The following is an example of a dynamic block and a block writer function that updates the time when the function was last run:

#+BEGIN: block-update-time :format "on %m/%d/%Y at %H:%M"
  ...
#+END:

The dynamic block’s writer function:

(defun org-dblock-write:block-update-time (params)
  (let ((fmt (or (plist-get params :format) "%d. %m. %Y")))
    (insert "Last block update at: "
            (format-time-string fmt))))

To keep dynamic blocks up-to-date in an Org file, use the function, org-update-all-dblocks in hook, such as before-save-hook. The org-update-all-dblocks function does not run if the file is not in Org mode.

Dynamic blocks, like any other block, can be narrowed with org-narrow-to-block.


A.7 Special Agenda Views

Org provides a special hook to further limit items in agenda views: agenda, agenda*160, todo, alltodo, tags, tags-todo, tags-tree. Specify a custom function that tests inclusion of every matched item in the view. This function can also skip as much as is needed.

For a global condition applicable to agenda views, use the org-agenda-skip-function-global variable. Org uses a global condition with org-agenda-skip-function for custom searching.

This example defines a function for a custom view showing TODO items with ‘waiting’ status. Manually this is a multi-step search process, but with a custom view, this can be automated as follows:

The custom function searches the subtree for the ‘waiting’ tag and returns nil on match. Otherwise it gives the location from where the search continues.

(defun my-skip-unless-waiting ()
  "Skip trees that are not waiting"
  (let ((subtree-end (save-excursion (org-end-of-subtree t))))
    (if (re-search-forward ":waiting:" subtree-end t)
        nil          ; tag found, do not skip
      subtree-end))) ; tag not found, continue after end of subtree

To use this custom function in a custom agenda command:

(org-add-agenda-custom-command
 '("b" todo "PROJECT"
   ((org-agenda-skip-function 'my-skip-unless-waiting)
    (org-agenda-overriding-header "Projects waiting for something: "))))

Note that this also binds org-agenda-overriding-header to a more meaningful string suitable for the agenda view.

Search for entries with a limit set on levels for the custom search. This is a general approach to creating custom searches in Org. To include all levels, use ‘LEVEL>0161. Then to selectively pick the matched entries, use org-agenda-skip-function, which also accepts Lisp forms, such as org-agenda-skip-entry-if and org-agenda-skip-subtree-if. For example:

(org-agenda-skip-entry-if 'scheduled)

Skip current entry if it has been scheduled.

(org-agenda-skip-entry-if 'notscheduled)

Skip current entry if it has not been scheduled.

(org-agenda-skip-entry-if 'deadline)

Skip current entry if it has a deadline.

(org-agenda-skip-entry-if 'scheduled 'deadline)

Skip current entry if it has a deadline, or if it is scheduled.

(org-agenda-skip-entry-if 'todo '("TODO" "WAITING"))

Skip current entry if the TODO keyword is TODO or WAITING.

(org-agenda-skip-entry-if 'todo 'done)

Skip current entry if the TODO keyword marks a DONE state.

(org-agenda-skip-entry-if 'timestamp)

Skip current entry if it has any timestamp, may also be deadline or scheduled.

(org-agenda-skip-entry-if 'regexp "regular expression")

Skip current entry if the regular expression matches in the entry.

(org-agenda-skip-entry-if 'notregexp "regular expression")

Skip current entry unless the regular expression matches.

(org-agenda-skip-subtree-if 'regexp "regular expression")

Same as above, but check and skip the entire subtree.

The following is an example of a search for ‘waiting’ without the special function:

(org-add-agenda-custom-command
 '("b" todo "PROJECT"
   ((org-agenda-skip-function '(org-agenda-skip-subtree-if
                                'regexp ":waiting:"))
    (org-agenda-overriding-header "Projects waiting for something: "))))

A.8 Speeding Up Your Agendas

Some agenda commands slow down when the Org files grow in size or number. Here are tips to speed up:

  • Reduce the number of Org agenda files to avoid slowdowns due to hard drive accesses.
  • Reduce the number of DONE and archived headlines so agenda operations that skip over these can finish faster.
  • Do not dim blocked tasks:
    (setq org-agenda-dim-blocked-tasks nil)
    
  • Stop preparing agenda buffers on startup:
    (setq org-agenda-inhibit-startup t)
    
  • Disable tag inheritance for agendas:
    (setq org-agenda-use-tag-inheritance nil)
    
  • Disable parsing of some drawer properties:
    (setq org-agenda-ignore-properties '(effort appt stats category))
    

    The drawer properties you can disable in the agenda are effort estimates (effort), appointments (appt), statistics (stats) and subtree-local categories (category).

These options can be applied to selected agenda views. For more details about generation of agenda views, see the docstrings for the relevant variables, and this dedicated Worg page for agenda optimization.


A.9 Extracting Agenda Information

Org provides commands to access agendas through Emacs batch mode. Through this command-line interface, agendas are automated for further processing or printing.

org-batch-agenda creates an agenda view in ASCII and outputs to standard output. This command takes one string parameter. When string consists of a single character, Org uses it as a key to org-agenda-custom-commands. These are the same ones available through the agenda dispatcher (see The Agenda Dispatcher).

This example command line directly prints the TODO list to the printer:

emacs -batch -l ~/.emacs -eval '(org-batch-agenda "t")' | lpr

When the string parameter length is two or more characters, Org matches it with tags/TODO strings. For example, this example command line prints items tagged with ‘shop’, but excludes items tagged with ‘NewYork’:

emacs -batch -l ~/.emacs                                      \
      -eval '(org-batch-agenda "+shop-NewYork")' | lpr

An example showing on-the-fly parameter modifications:

emacs -batch -l ~/.emacs                                      \
   -eval '(org-batch-agenda "a"                               \
           org-agenda-span (quote month)                      \
           org-agenda-include-diary nil                       \
           org-agenda-files (quote ("~/org/project.org")))'   \
   | lpr

which produces an agenda for the next 30 days from just the ‘~/org/projects.org’ file.

For structured processing of agenda output, use org-batch-agenda-csv with the following fields:

category

The category of the item

head

The headline, without TODO keyword, TAGS and PRIORITY

type

The type of the agenda entry, can be

todoselected in TODO match
tagsmatchselected in tags match
diaryimported from diary
deadlinea deadline
scheduledscheduled
timestampappointment, selected by timestamp
closedentry was closed on date
upcoming-deadlinewarning about nearing deadline
past-scheduledforwarded scheduled item
blockentry has date block including date
todo

The TODO keyword, if any

tags

All tags including inherited ones, separated by colons

date

The relevant date, like ‘2007-2-14

time

The time, like ‘15:00-16:50

extra

String with extra planning info

priority-l

The priority letter if any was given

priority-n

The computed numerical priority

If the selection of the agenda item was based on a timestamp, including those items with ‘DEADLINE’ and ‘SCHEDULED’ keywords, then Org includes date and time in the output.

If the selection of the agenda item was based on a timestamp (or deadline/scheduled), then Org includes date and time in the output.

Here is an example of a post-processing script in Perl. It takes the CSV output from Emacs and prints with a checkbox:

#!/usr/bin/perl

# define the Emacs command to run
$cmd = "emacs -batch -l ~/.emacs -eval '(org-batch-agenda-csv \"t\")'";

# run it and capture the output
$agenda = qx{$cmd 2>/dev/null};

# loop over all lines
foreach $line (split(/\n/,$agenda)) {
    # get the individual values
    ($category,$head,$type,$todo,$tags,$date,$time,$extra,
     $priority_l,$priority_n) = split(/,/,$line);
    # process and print
    print "[ ] $head\n";
}

A.10 Using the Property API

Here is a description of the functions that can be used to work with properties.

Function: org-entry-properties &optional pom which

Get all properties of the entry at point-or-marker POM. This includes the TODO keyword, the tags, time strings for deadline, scheduled, and clocking, and any additional properties defined in the entry. The return value is an alist. Keys may occur multiple times if the property key was used several times. POM may also be nil, in which case the current entry is used. If WHICH is nil or all, get all properties. If WHICH is special or standard, only get that subclass.

Function: org-entry-get pom property &optional inherit

Get value of PROPERTY for entry at point-or-marker POM. By default, this only looks at properties defined locally in the entry. If INHERIT is non-nil and the entry does not have the property, then also check higher levels of the hierarchy. If INHERIT is the symbol selective, use inheritance if and only if the setting of org-use-property-inheritance selects PROPERTY for inheritance.

Function: org-entry-delete pom property

Delete the property PROPERTY from entry at point-or-marker POM.

Function: org-entry-put pom property value

Set PROPERTY to VALUES for entry at point-or-marker POM.

Function: org-buffer-property-keys &optional include-specials

Get all property keys in the current buffer.

Function: org-insert-property-drawer

Insert a property drawer for the current entry. Also

Function: org-entry-put-multivalued-property pom property &rest values

Set PROPERTY at point-or-marker POM to VALUES. VALUES should be a list of strings. They are concatenated, with spaces as separators.

Function: org-entry-get-multivalued-property pom property

Treat the value of the property PROPERTY as a whitespace-separated list of values and return the values as a list of strings.

Function: org-entry-add-to-multivalued-property pom property value

Treat the value of the property PROPERTY as a whitespace-separated list of values and make sure that VALUE is in this list.

Function: org-entry-remove-from-multivalued-property pom property value

Treat the value of the property PROPERTY as a whitespace-separated list of values and make sure that VALUE is not in this list.

Function: org-entry-member-in-multivalued-property pom property value

Treat the value of the property PROPERTY as a whitespace-separated list of values and check if VALUE is in this list.

User Option: org-property-allowed-value-functions

Hook for functions supplying allowed values for a specific property. The functions must take a single argument, the name of the property, and return a flat list of allowed values. If ‘:ETC’ is one of the values, use the values as completion help, but allow also other values to be entered. The functions must return nil if they are not responsible for this property.


A.11 Using the Mapping API

Org has sophisticated mapping capabilities to find all entries satisfying certain criteria. Internally, this functionality is used to produce agenda views, but there is also an API that can be used to execute arbitrary functions for each or selected entries. The main entry point for this API is:

Function: org-map-entries func &optional match scope &rest skip

Call FUNC at each headline selected by MATCH in SCOPE.

FUNC is a function or a Lisp form. With point positioned at the beginning of the headline, call the function without arguments. Org returns a list of return values of calls to the function.

To avoid preserving point, Org wraps the call to FUNC in save-excursion form. After evaluation, Org moves point to the end of the line that was just processed. Search continues from that point forward. This may not always work as expected under some conditions, such as if the current subtree was removed by a previous archiving operation. In such rare circumstances, Org skips the next entry entirely when it should not. To stop Org from such skips, make FUNC set the variable org-map-continue-from to a specific buffer position.

MATCH is a tags/property/TODO match. Org iterates only matched headlines. Org iterates over all headlines when MATCH is nil or t.

SCOPE determines the scope of this command. It can be any of:

nil

The current buffer, respecting the restriction, if any.

tree

The subtree started with the entry at point.

region

The entries within the active region, if any.

file

The current buffer, without restriction.

file-with-archives

The current buffer, and any archives associated with it.

agenda

All agenda files.

agenda-with-archives

All agenda files with any archive files associated with them.

list of filenames

If this is a list, all files in the list are scanned.

The remaining arguments are treated as settings for the scanner’s skipping facilities. Valid arguments are:

archive

Skip trees with the ‘ARCHIVE’ tag.

comment

Skip trees with the COMMENT keyword.

function or Lisp form

Used as value for org-agenda-skip-function, so whenever the function returns t, FUNC is called for that entry and search continues from the point where the function leaves it.

The mapping routine can call any arbitrary function, even functions that change meta data or query the property API (see Using the Property API). Here are some handy functions:

Function: org-todo &optional arg

Change the TODO state of the entry. See the docstring of the functions for the many possible values for the argument ARG.

Function: org-priority &optional action

Change the priority of the entry. See the docstring of this function for the possible values for ACTION.

Function: org-toggle-tag tag &optional onoff

Toggle the tag TAG in the current entry. Setting ONOFF to either on or off does not toggle tag, but ensure that it is either on or off.

Function: org-promote

Promote the current entry.

Function: org-demote

Demote the current entry.

This example turns all entries tagged with ‘TOMORROW’ into TODO entries with keyword ‘UPCOMING’. Org ignores entries in comment trees and archive trees.

(org-map-entries '(org-todo "UPCOMING")
                 "+TOMORROW" 'file 'archive 'comment)

The following example counts the number of entries with TODO keyword ‘WAITING’, in all agenda files.

(length (org-map-entries t "/+WAITING" 'agenda))

Appendix B History and Acknowledgments

B.1 From Carsten

Org was born in 2003, out of frustration over the user interface of the Emacs Outline mode. I was trying to organize my notes and projects, and using Emacs seemed to be the natural way to go. However, having to remember eleven different commands with two or three keys per command, only to hide and show parts of the outline tree, that seemed entirely unacceptable to me. Also, when using outlines to take notes, I constantly wanted to restructure the tree, organizing it parallel to my thoughts and plans. Visibility cycling and structure editing were originally implemented in the package ‘outline-magic.el’, but quickly moved to the more general ‘org.el’. As this environment became comfortable for project planning, the next step was adding TODO entries, basic timestamps, and table support. These areas highlighted the two main goals that Org still has today: to be a new, outline-based, plain text mode with innovative and intuitive editing features, and to incorporate project planning functionality directly into a notes file.

Since the first release, literally thousands of emails to me or to the have provided a constant stream of bug reports, feedback, new ideas, and sometimes patches and add-on code. Many thanks to everyone who has helped to improve this package. I am trying to keep here a list of the people who had significant influence in shaping one or more aspects of Org. The list may not be complete, if I have forgotten someone, please accept my apologies and let me know.

Before I get to this list, a few special mentions are in order:

Bastien Guerry

Bastien has written a large number of extensions to Org (most of them integrated into the core by now), including the LaTeX exporter and the plain list parser. His support during the early days was central to the success of this project. Bastien also invented Worg, helped establishing the Web presence of Org, and sponsored hosting costs for the orgmode.org website. Bastien stepped in as maintainer of Org between 2011 and 2013, at a time when I desperately needed a break.

Eric Schulte and Dan Davison

Eric and Dan are jointly responsible for the Org Babel system, which turns Org into a multi-language environment for evaluating code and doing literate programming and reproducible research. This has become one of Org’s killer features that define what Org is today.

John Wiegley

John has contributed a number of great ideas and patches directly to Org, including the attachment system (‘org-attach.el’), integration with Apple Mail (‘org-mac-message.el’), hierarchical dependencies of TODO items, habit tracking (‘org-habits.el’), and encryption (‘org-crypt.el’). Also, the capture system is really an extended copy of his great ‘remember.el’.

Sebastian Rose

Without Sebastian, the HTML/XHTML publishing of Org would be the pitiful work of an ignorant amateur. Sebastian has pushed this part of Org onto a much higher level. He also wrote ‘org-info.js’, a JavaScript program for displaying webpages derived from Org using an Info-like or a folding interface with single-key navigation.

See below for the full list of contributions! Again, please let me know what I am missing here!

B.2 From Bastien

I (Bastien) have been maintaining Org between 2011 and 2013. This appendix would not be complete without adding a few more acknowledgments and thanks.

I am first grateful to Carsten for his trust while handing me over the maintainership of Org. His unremitting support is what really helped me getting more confident over time, with both the community and the code.

When I took over maintainership, I knew I would have to make Org more collaborative than ever, as I would have to rely on people that are more knowledgeable than I am on many parts of the code. Here is a list of the persons I could rely on, they should really be considered co-maintainers, either of the code or the community:

Eric Schulte

Eric is maintaining the Babel parts of Org. His reactivity here kept me away from worrying about possible bugs here and let me focus on other parts.

Nicolas Goaziou

Nicolas is maintaining the consistency of the deepest parts of Org. His work on ‘org-element.el’ and ‘ox.el’ has been outstanding, and it opened the doors for many new ideas and features. He rewrote many of the old exporters to use the new export engine, and helped with documenting this major change. More importantly (if that’s possible), he has been more than reliable during all the work done for Org 8.0, and always very reactive on the mailing list.

Achim Gratz

Achim rewrote the building process of Org, turning some ad hoc tools into a flexible and conceptually clean process. He patiently coped with the many hiccups that such a change can create for users.

Nick Dokos

The Org mode mailing list would not be such a nice place without Nick, who patiently helped users so many times. It is impossible to overestimate such a great help, and the list would not be so active without him.

I received support from so many users that it is clearly impossible to be fair when shortlisting a few of them, but Org’s history would not be complete if the ones above were not mentioned in this manual.

B.3 List of Contributions

  • Russell Adams came up with the idea for drawers.
  • Thomas Baumann wrote ‘ol-bbdb.el’ and ‘ol-mhe.el’.
  • Christophe Bataillon created the great unicorn logo that we use on the Org mode website.
  • Alex Bochannek provided a patch for rounding timestamps.
  • Jan Böcker wrote ‘ol-docview.el’.
  • Brad Bozarth showed how to pull RSS feed data into Org files.
  • Tom Breton wrote ‘org-choose.el’.
  • Charles Cave’s suggestion sparked the implementation of templates for Remember, which are now templates for capture.
  • Timothy E Chapman worked on a complete overhaul of the orgmode.org website in 2020 and helped fixing various bugs.
  • Pavel Chalmoviansky influenced the agenda treatment of items with specified time.
  • Gregory Chernov patched support for Lisp forms into table calculations and improved XEmacs compatibility, in particular by porting ‘nouline.el’ to XEmacs.
  • Sacha Chua suggested copying some linking code from Planner.
  • Baoqiu Cui contributed the DocBook exporter.
  • Eddward DeVilla proposed and tested checkbox statistics. He also came up with the idea of properties, and that there should be an API for them.
  • Nick Dokos tracked down several nasty bugs.
  • Kees Dullemond used to edit projects lists directly in HTML and so inspired some of the early development, including HTML export. He also asked for a way to narrow wide table columns.
  • Thomas S. Dye contributed documentation on Worg and helped integrating the Org Babel documentation into the manual.
  • Christian Egli converted the documentation into Texinfo format, inspired the agenda, patched CSS formatting into the HTML exporter, and wrote ‘org-taskjuggler.el’.
  • David Emery provided a patch for custom CSS support in exported HTML agendas.
  • Nic Ferrier contributed mailcap and XOXO support.
  • Miguel A. Figueroa-Villanueva implemented hierarchical checkboxes.
  • John Foerch figured out how to make incremental search show context around a match in a hidden outline tree.
  • Raimar Finken wrote ‘org-git-line.el’.
  • Mikael Fornius works as a mailing list moderator.
  • Austin Frank works as a mailing list moderator.
  • Eric Fraga drove the development of Beamer export with ideas and testing.
  • Barry Gidden did proofreading the manual in preparation for the book publication through Network Theory Ltd.
  • Niels Giesen had the idea to automatically archive DONE trees.
  • Nicolas Goaziou rewrote much of the plain list code.
  • Kai Grossjohann pointed out key-binding conflicts with other packages.
  • Brian Gough of Network Theory Ltd publishes the Org mode manual as a book.
  • Bernt Hansen has driven much of the support for auto-repeating tasks, task state change logging, and the clocktable. His clear explanations have been critical when we started to adopt the Git version control system.
  • Manuel Hermenegildo has contributed various ideas, small fixes and patches.
  • Phil Jackson wrote ‘ol-irc.el’.
  • Scott Jaderholm proposed footnotes, control over whitespace between folded entries, and column view for properties.
  • Matt Jones wrote MobileOrg Android.
  • Tokuya Kameshima wrote ‘org-wl.el’ and ‘org-mew.el’.
  • Shidai Liu (“Leo”) asked for embedded LaTeX and tested it. He also provided frequent feedback and some patches.
  • Matt Lundin has proposed last-row references for table formulas and named invisible anchors. He has also worked a lot on the FAQ.
  • David Maus wrote ‘org-atom.el’, maintains the issues file for Org, and is a prolific contributor on the mailing list with competent replies, small fixes and patches.
  • Jason F. McBrayer suggested agenda export to CSV format.
  • Kyle Meyer helped setting up the public-inbox archive of the Org mailing list and has been fixing many bugs.
  • Max Mikhanosha came up with the idea of refiling.
  • Dmitri Minaev sent a patch to set priority limits on a per-file basis.
  • Stefan Monnier provided a patch to keep the Emacs Lisp compiler happy.
  • Richard Moreland wrote MobileOrg for the iPhone.
  • Rick Moynihan proposed allowing multiple TODO sequences in a file and being able to quickly restrict the agenda to a subtree.
  • Todd Neal provided patches for links to Info files and Elisp forms.
  • Greg Newman refreshed the unicorn logo into its current form.
  • Tim O’Callaghan suggested in-file links, search options for general file links, and tags.
  • Osamu Okano wrote ‘orgcard2ref.pl’, a Perl program to create a text version of the reference card.
  • Takeshi Okano translated the manual and David O’Toole’s tutorial into Japanese.
  • Oliver Oppitz suggested multi-state TODO items.
  • Scott Otterson sparked the introduction of descriptive text for links, among other things.
  • Pete Phillips helped during the development of the TAGS feature, and provided frequent feedback.
  • Martin Pohlack provided the code snippet to bundle character insertion into bundles of 20 for undo.
  • Ihor Radchenko helped with fixing bugs and improving the user experience regarding Org’s speed.
  • T. V. Raman reported bugs and suggested improvements.
  • Matthias Rempe (Oelde) provided ideas, Windows support, and quality control.
  • Paul Rivier provided the basic implementation of named footnotes. He also acted as mailing list moderator for some time.
  • Kevin Rogers contributed code to access VM files on remote hosts.
  • Frank Ruell solved the mystery of the ‘keymapp nil’ bug, a conflict with ‘allout.el’.
  • Jason Riedy generalized the send-receive mechanism for Orgtbl tables with extensive patches.
  • Philip Rooke created the Org reference card, provided lots of feedback, developed and applied standards to the Org documentation.
  • Christian Schlauer proposed angular brackets around links, among other things.
  • Paul Sexton wrote ‘org-ctags.el’.
  • Tom Shannon’s ‘organizer-mode.el’ inspired linking to VM/BBDB/Gnus.
  • Ilya Shlyakhter proposed the Archive Sibling, line numbering in literal examples, and remote highlighting for referenced code lines.
  • Stathis Sideris wrote the ‘ditaa.jar’ ASCII to PNG converter that is now packaged into the org-contrib repository.
  • Daniel Sinder came up with the idea of internal archiving by locking subtrees.
  • Dale Smith proposed link abbreviations.
  • James TD Smith has contributed a large number of patches for useful tweaks and features.
  • Adam Spiers asked for global linking commands, inspired the link extension system, added support for Mairix, and proposed the mapping API.
  • Ulf Stegemann created the table to translate special symbols to HTML, LaTeX, UTF-8, Latin-1 and ASCII.
  • Andy Stewart contributed code to ‘ol-w3m.el’, to copy HTML content with links transformation to Org syntax.
  • David O’Toole wrote ‘org-publish.el’ and drafted the manual chapter about publishing.
  • Jambunathan K. contributed the ODT exporter.
  • Sebastien Vauban reported many issues with LaTeX and Beamer export and enabled source code highlighting in Gnus.
  • Stefan Vollmar organized a video-recorded talk at the Max-Planck-Institute for Neurology. He also inspired the creation of a concept index for HTML export.
  • Jürgen Vollmer contributed code generating the table of contents in HTML output.
  • Samuel Wales has provided important feedback and bug reports.
  • Chris Wallace provided a patch implementing the ‘QUOTE’ block.
  • David Wainberg suggested archiving, and improvements to the linking system.
  • Carsten Wimmer suggested some changes and helped fix a bug in linking to Gnus.
  • Roland Winkler requested additional key bindings to make Org work on a TTY.
  • Piotr Zielinski wrote ‘org-mouse.el’, proposed agenda blocks and contributed various ideas and code snippets.
  • Marco Wahl wrote ‘ol-eww.el’.

Appendix C GNU Free Documentation License

Version 1.3, 3 November 2008
Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2002, 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
https://fsf.org/

Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
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    This License is a kind of “copyleft”, which means that derivative works of the document must themselves be free in the same sense. It complements the GNU General Public License, which is a copyleft license designed for free software.

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    The Free Software Foundation may publish new, revised versions of the GNU Free Documentation License from time to time. Such new versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to address new problems or concerns. See https://www.gnu.org/copyleft/.

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  12. RELICENSING

    “Massive Multiauthor Collaboration Site” (or “MMC Site”) means any World Wide Web server that publishes copyrightable works and also provides prominent facilities for anybody to edit those works. A public wiki that anybody can edit is an example of such a server. A “Massive Multiauthor Collaboration” (or “MMC”) contained in the site means any set of copyrightable works thus published on the MMC site.

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C.1 ADDENDUM: How to use this License for your documents

To use this License in a document you have written, include a copy of the License in the document and put the following copyright and license notices just after the title page:

Copyright (C)  YEAR  YOUR NAME.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3
or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover
Texts.  A copy of the license is included in the section entitled ``GNU
Free Documentation License''.

If you have Invariant Sections, Front-Cover Texts and Back-Cover Texts, replace the “with…Texts.” line with this:

with the Invariant Sections being LIST THEIR TITLES, with
the Front-Cover Texts being LIST, and with the Back-Cover Texts
being LIST.

If you have Invariant Sections without Cover Texts, or some other combination of the three, merge those two alternatives to suit the situation.

If your document contains nontrivial examples of program code, we recommend releasing these examples in parallel under your choice of free software license, such as the GNU General Public License, to permit their use in free software.


D Main Index

Jump to:   _   *   +  
A   B   C   D   E   F   G   H   I   J   K   L   M   N   O   P   Q   R   S   T   U   V   W   X   Y   Z  
Index EntrySection

_
_ALL’ suffix, in propertiesProperty Syntax

*
*this*’, in ‘post’ header argumentResults of Evaluation

+
+’ suffix, in propertiesProperty Syntax

A
abbreviation, linksLink Abbreviations
abstract, in LaTeX exportSpecial blocks in LaTeX export
action, for publishingPublishing action
activationActivation
active regionStructure Editing
add-on packagesAdd-on Packages
agendaWeekly/daily agenda
agenda dispatcherAgenda Dispatcher
agenda filesAgenda Files
agenda files, removing buffersAgenda Commands
agenda filteringFiltering/limiting agenda items
agenda viewsAgenda Views
agenda views, customCustom Agenda Views
agenda views, exportingExporting Agenda Views
agenda views, exportingExporting Agenda Views
agenda views, main exampleStoring searches
agenda views, optimizationSpeeding Up Your Agendas
agenda views, user-definedSpecial Agenda Views
agenda, as an agenda viewsStoring searches
agenda, column viewAgenda Column View
agenda, pipeExtracting Agenda Information
agenda, with block viewsBlock agenda
agenda*, as an agenda viewsStoring searches
alignment in tablesColumn Width and Alignment
ALLTAGS’, special propertySpecial Properties
ALT_TITLE’, propertyTable of Contents
ALT_TITLE’, propertyHeadings and sectioning structure
angle bracket linksLink Format
angular brackets, around linksExternal Links
anniversaries, from BBDBWeekly/daily agenda
API, for mappingUsing the Mapping API
API, for propertiesUsing the Property API
APPENDIX’, propertyHeadings and sectioning structure
appointmentTimestamps
appointmentWeekly/daily agenda
appointment remindersWeekly/daily agenda
APPT_WARNTIME, keywordWeekly/daily agenda
appt.elWeekly/daily agenda
archive locationsMoving subtrees
ARCHIVE’, keywordMoving subtrees
ARCHIVE’, keywordIn-buffer Settings
ARCHIVE’, propertyProperty Inheritance
ARCHIVE, propertyMoving subtrees
ARCHIVE’, tagInternal archiving
archived entries, in agenda viewsAgenda Views
archivingRefiling and Archiving
archivingArchiving
arguments, in code blocksEnvironment of a Code Block
ASCII exportASCII/Latin-1/UTF-8 export
ASCII’, keywordASCII/Latin-1/UTF-8 export
Atom feedsCapture and Attachments
Atom feedsRSS Feeds
attach from DiredAttach from Dired
attachment linksExternal Links
attachment links, searchingSearch Options
attachmentsCapture and Attachments
attachmentsAttachments
ATTR_ASCII’, keywordASCII/Latin-1/UTF-8 export
ATTR_BEAMER’, keywordBeamer specific syntax
ATTR_HTML’, keywordLinks in HTML export
ATTR_HTML’, keywordTables in HTML export
ATTR_HTML’, keywordImages in HTML export
ATTR_LATEX’, keywordImages in LaTeX export
ATTR_LATEX’, keywordPlain lists in LaTeX export
ATTR_LATEX’, keywordSource blocks in LaTeX export
ATTR_LATEX’, keywordExample blocks in LaTeX export
ATTR_LATEX’, keywordSpecial blocks in LaTeX export
ATTR_LATEX’, keywordHorizontal rules in LaTeX export
ATTR_LATEX’, keywordVerse blocks in LaTeX export
ATTR_LATEX’, keywordQuote blocks in LaTeX export
ATTR_ODT’, keywordTables in ODT export
ATTR_ODT’, keywordImages in ODT export
ATTR_ODT’, keywordImages in ODT export
ATTR_ODT’, keywordAdvanced topics in ODT export
ATTR_TEXINFO’, keywordPlain lists in Texinfo export
ATTR_TEXINFO’, keywordTables in Texinfo export
ATTR_TEXINFO’, keywordImages in Texinfo export
ATTR_TEXINFO’, keywordQuotations in Texinfo export
ATTR_TEXINFO’, keywordSpecial blocks in Texinfo export
authorFeedback
AUTHOR’, keywordExport Settings
author’, macroMacro Replacement
auto clocking out after idle timeResolving idle time
auto-save, in code block editingEditing Source Code
autoloadActivation

B
babel, languagesLanguages
babel, library ofLibrary of Babel
backslashes, in linksLink Format
backtrace of an errorFeedback
BBDB linksExternal Links
BBDB, anniversariesWeekly/daily agenda
Beamer exportBeamer Export
BEAMER_ACT’, propertyFrames and Blocks in Beamer
BEAMER_COL’, propertyFrames and Blocks in Beamer
BEAMER_ENV’, propertyFrames and Blocks in Beamer
BEAMER_FONT_THEME’, keywordBeamer specific export settings
BEAMER_HEADER’, keywordBeamer specific export settings
BEAMER_INNER_THEME’, keywordBeamer specific export settings
BEAMER_OPT’, propertyFrames and Blocks in Beamer
BEAMER_OUTER_THEME’, keywordBeamer specific export settings
BEAMER_REF’, propertyFrames and Blocks in Beamer
BEAMER_THEME’, keywordBeamer specific export settings
BEAMER’, keywordBeamer specific syntax
BEGIN clocktableThe clock table
BEGIN columnviewCapturing column view
BEGIN_CENTERParagraphs
BEGIN_COMMENTComment Lines
BEGIN_EXAMPLELiteral Examples
BEGIN_EXPORT asciiASCII/Latin-1/UTF-8 export
BEGIN_EXPORT beamerBeamer specific syntax
BEGIN_EXPORT htmlQuoting HTML tags
BEGIN_EXPORT latexQuoting LaTeX code
BEGIN_EXPORT texinfoQuoting Texinfo code
BEGIN_JUSTIFYLEFTASCII/Latin-1/UTF-8 export
BEGIN_JUSTIFYRIGHTASCII/Latin-1/UTF-8 export
BEGIN_QUOTEParagraphs
BEGIN_SRCLiteral Examples
BEGIN_SRCStructure of Code Blocks
BEGIN_VERSEParagraphs
BIND’, keywordExport Settings
block agendaBlock agenda
BLOCKED’, special propertySpecial Properties
blocking, of checkboxesCheckboxes
blocks, foldingBlocks
bold text, markup rulesEmphasis and Monospace
boolean logic, for agenda searchesMatching tags and properties
bracket linksLink Format
bug reportsFeedback

C
C-c C-c, overviewThe Very Busy C-c C-c Key
cache results of code evaluationEvaluating Code Blocks
cache’, header argumentEvaluating Code Blocks
Calc packageThe Spreadsheet
calc.elCooperation
calculations, in tablesBuilt-in Table Editor
calculations, in tablesThe Spreadsheet
calendar commands, from agendaAgenda Commands
calendar integrationWeekly/daily agenda
calendar, for selecting dateThe date/time prompt
CALL’, keywordEvaluating Code Blocks
CAPTION’, keywordCaptions
CAPTION’, keywordTables in HTML export
CAPTION’, keywordImages in HTML export
captions, markup rulesCaptions
captureCapture and Attachments
captureCapture
capture protocolThe capture protocol
capturing, from agendaAgenda Commands
categoryCategories
category filtering, in agendaFiltering/limiting agenda items
category, for tags/property matchMatching tags and properties
CATEGORY’, keywordCategories
CATEGORY’, keywordIn-buffer Settings
CATEGORY’, propertyProperty Inheritance
CATEGORY’, propertyCategories
CDLaTeXCDLaTeX mode
cdlatex.elCooperation
center blocksParagraphs
center image in LaTeX exportImages in LaTeX export
change agenda displayAgenda Commands
checkbox blockingCheckboxes
checkbox statisticsCheckboxes
checkboxesCheckboxes
checkboxes and TODO dependenciesTODO dependencies
children, subtree visibility stateGlobal and local cycling
CINDEX’, keywordIndices
citationCitation handling
CLASS’, propertyiCalendar Export
clean outline viewClean View
CLOCK_MODELINE_TOTAL’, propertyClocking commands
clocking timeClocking Work Time
CLOCKSUM_T’, special propertySpecial Properties
CLOCKSUM_T’, special propertyAgenda Column View
CLOCKSUM’, special propertySpecial Properties
CLOCKSUM’, special propertyAgenda Column View
clocktable, dynamic blockThe clock table
CLOSED’, special propertySpecial Properties
code block, batch executionBatch Execution
code block, editingEditing Source Code
code block, evaluatingEvaluating Code Blocks
code block, exportingExporting Code Blocks
code block, extracting source codeExtracting Source Code
code block, key bindingsKey bindings and Useful Functions
code block, languagesLanguages
code block, libraryLibrary of Babel
code block, noweb referenceNoweb Reference Syntax
code block, results of evaluationResults of Evaluation
code block, structureStructure of Code Blocks
code line references, markup rulesLiteral Examples
code text, markup rulesEmphasis and Monospace
colnames’, header argumentEnvironment of a Code Block
column formulaColumn formulas
column view, for propertiesDefining columns
column view, in agendaAgenda Column View
column, of field coordinatesReferences
COLUMNS’, keywordScope of column definitions
COLUMNS’, propertyProperty Inheritance
COLUMNS’, propertyIn-buffer Settings
comma escape, in literal examplesLiteral Examples
commands, in agenda bufferAgenda Commands
comment blockComment Lines
comment linesComment Lines
comment treesComment Lines
commented entries, in agenda viewsAgenda Views
comments’, header argumentExtracting Source Code
completion, of dictionary wordsCompletion
completion, of file namesHandling Links
completion, of link abbreviationsCompletion
completion, of linksHandling Links
completion, of option keywordsPer-file keywords
completion, of option keywordsCompletion
completion, of property keysCompletion
completion, of tagsSetting Tags
completion, of tagsCompletion
completion, of TeX symbolsCompletion
completion, of TODO keywordsWorkflow states
completion, of TODO keywordsCompletion
concept index, in Texinfo exportIndices
constants, in calculationsReferences
CONSTANTS’, keywordReferences
CONSTANTS’, keywordIn-buffer Settings
constants.elCooperation
contents, global visibility stateGlobal and local cycling
continuous clockingResolving idle time
control code block evaluationEvaluating Code Blocks
convertAdvanced topics in ODT export
converterAdvanced topics in ODT export
COOKIE_DATA’, propertyBreaking Down Tasks
COOKIE_DATA’, propertyCheckboxes
coordinates, of fieldReferences
copying notesRefiling and Archiving
copying notesRefile and Copy
copying, of subtreesStructure Editing
COPYING’, propertyTexinfo title and copyright page
countdown timerTimers
counter, macroMacro Replacement
CREATOR’, keywordExport Settings
CSS, for HTML exportCSS support
cua.elConflicts
custom agenda viewsCustom Agenda Views
custom date/time formatCustom time format
custom search stringsCustom Searches
CUSTOM_ID’, propertyInternal Links
CUSTOM_ID’, propertyHandling Links
cutting, of subtreesStructure Editing
cycling, in plain listsPlain Lists
cycling, of agenda filesAgenda Files
cycling, of TODO statesTODO Basics
cycling, visibilityVisibility Cycling

D
daily agendaWeekly/daily agenda
dash, special symbolSpecial Symbols
data type index, in Texinfo exportIndices
date format, customCustom time format
date rangeTimestamps
date stampDates and Times
date stampsTimestamps
date treeTemplate elements
DATE’, keywordExport Settings
date’, macroMacro Replacement
date, reading in minibufferThe date/time prompt
datesDates and Times
DEADLINE’ markerDeadlines and Scheduling
DEADLINE’, special propertySpecial Properties
deadlinesTimestamps
debugging, of table formulasEditing and debugging formulas
default header arguments per languageUsing Header Arguments
defining new protocolsProtocols
demotion, of subtreesStructure Editing
dependencies, of TODO statesTODO dependencies
DESCRIPTION’, keywordBeamer specific export settings
DESCRIPTION’, keywordHTML specific export settings
DESCRIPTION’, keywordLaTeX specific export settings
DESCRIPTION’, keywordODT specific export settings
DESCRIPTION’, propertyHeadings and sectioning structure
DESCRIPTION’, propertyiCalendar Export
diary entries, creating from agendaAgenda Commands
diary integrationWeekly/daily agenda
diary style timestampsTimestamps
dictionary word completionCompletion
dir’ file, in Texinfo exportInfo directory file
dir’, header argumentEnvironment of a Code Block
DIR’, propertyAttachment defaults and dispatcher
DIR’, propertyAttachment defaults and dispatcher
directories, for publishingSources and destinations
dispatcher, for export commandsThe Export Dispatcher
dispatching agenda commandsAgenda Dispatcher
display changing, in agendaAgenda Commands
doc, docx, rtfAdvanced topics in ODT export
document structureDocument Structure
document titleExport Settings
documentationDocumentation Access
DONE, final TODO keywordPer-file keywords
drawer, for propertiesProperty Syntax
drawer, for state change recordingTracking TODO state changes
drawersDrawers
duration, computingDurations and time values
dvipngMath formatting in HTML export
dvipngLaTeX math snippets
dvisvgmMath formatting in HTML export
dvisvgmLaTeX math snippets
dynamic blocksDynamic Blocks
dynamic indentationClean View

E
ecomplete.elConflicts
editing tablesTables
editing, of table formulasEditing and debugging formulas
edits, catching invisibleCatching invisible edits
effort estimatesEffort Estimates
effort filtering, in agendaFiltering/limiting agenda items
EFFORT’, propertyEffort Estimates
Elisp linksExternal Links
ellipsis, special symbolSpecial Symbols
ELPAActivation
EMAIL’, keywordExport Settings
email’, macroMacro Replacement
embedding images in ODTImages in ODT export
entitiesSpecial Symbols
enum, Texinfo attributePlain lists in Texinfo export
epilogue’, header argumentEnvironment of a Code Block
escape characterEscape Character
escape syntax, for linksLink Format
eval’, header argumentEvaluating Code Blocks
evaluate time rangeCreating Timestamps
example blockLiteral Examples
example blocks, in LaTeX exportExample blocks in LaTeX export
EXCLUDE_TAGS’, keywordExport Settings
excluding entries from table of contentsTable of Contents
export back-endExporting
EXPORT_FILE_NAME’, keywordExport Settings
EXPORT_FILE_NAME’, propertyODT export commands
EXPORT_LATEX_CLASS_OPTIONS’, propertyLaTeX header and sectioning
EXPORT_LATEX_CLASS’, propertyLaTeX header and sectioning
export, dispatcherThe Export Dispatcher
export, include filesInclude Files
export, OpenDocumentOpenDocument Text Export
Export, settingsExport Settings
Export, writing back-endsAdding Export Back-ends
exportingExporting
exporting agenda viewsExporting Agenda Views
exporting, notComment Lines
exports’, header argumentExporting Code Blocks
extended TODO keywordsTODO Extensions
external archivingMoving subtrees
external linksExternal Links
external links, in HTML exportLinks in HTML export

F
faces, for TODO keywordsFaces for TODO keywords
FAQSummary
feedbackFeedback
field coordinatesReferences
field formulaField and range formulas
field referencesReferences
file linksExternal Links
file links, searchingSearch Options
file name completionHandling Links
file-desc’, header argumentResults of Evaluation
file-ext’, header argumentResults of Evaluation
file-mode’, header argumentResults of Evaluation
file’, header argumentResults of Evaluation
FILE’, special propertySpecial Properties
files for agendaAgenda Files
files, adding to agenda listAgenda Files
files, selecting for publishingSelecting files
FILETAGS’, keywordTag Inheritance
FILETAGS’, keywordIn-buffer Settings
filladapt.elConflicts
filtering entries, in agendaFiltering/limiting agenda items
Filters, exportingAdvanced Export Configuration
FINDEX’, keywordIndices
FLAGGED’, tagPulling from the mobile application
folded, subtree visibility stateGlobal and local cycling
folding, sparse treesSparse Trees
following linksHandling Links
footers, in code blocksEnvironment of a Code Block
footnotesCreating Footnotes
format specifier, in spreadsheetFormula syntax for Calc
format, of linksLink Format
formatting source code, markup rulesLiteral Examples
formula debuggingEditing and debugging formulas
formula editingEditing and debugging formulas
formula syntax, CalcFormula syntax for Calc
formula, for individual table fieldField and range formulas
formula, for range of fieldsField and range formulas
formula, for table columnColumn formulas
formula, in tablesBuilt-in Table Editor
function index, in Texinfo exportIndices

G
global cyclingGlobal and local cycling
global key bindingsActivation
global TODO listGlobal TODO list
global visibility statesGlobal and local cycling
Gnus linksExternal Links
graph, in tablesOrg Plot
group tagsTag Hierarchy
group tags, as regular expressionsMatching tags and properties
grouping columns in tablesColumn Groups

H
habitsTracking your habits
hackingHacking
header arguments per languageUsing Header Arguments
header arguments, in code blocksStructure of Code Blocks
header lines, in tablesBuilt-in Table Editor
header, for LaTeX filesLaTeX header and sectioning
HEADER’, keywordUsing Header Arguments
headers, in code blocksEnvironment of a Code Block
headline navigationMotion
headline taggingTags
headline, promotion and demotionStructure Editing
headlinesHeadlines
headlines, in HTML exportHeadlines in HTML export
Help linksExternal Links
hide textVisibility Cycling
hiding leading starsClean View
hlines’, header argumentResults of Evaluation
hooksHooks
horizontal rule, in tablesBuilt-in Table Editor
horizontal rules, in ASCII exportASCII/Latin-1/UTF-8 export
horizontal rules, in LaTeX exportHorizontal rules in LaTeX export
horizontal rules, markup rulesHorizontal Rules
HTML exportHTML Export
HTML export, CSSCSS support
HTML_CONTAINER_CLASS’, propertyCSS support
HTML_CONTAINER’, keywordHTML specific export settings
HTML_DOCTYPE’, keywordHTML specific export settings
HTML_HEAD_EXTRA’, keywordHTML specific export settings
HTML_HEAD_EXTRA’, keywordCSS support
HTML_HEAD’, keywordHTML specific export settings
HTML_HEAD’, keywordCSS support
HTML_HEADLINE_CLASS’, propertyCSS support
HTML_INCLUDE_STYLE’, keywordCSS support
HTML_LINK_HOME’, keywordHTML specific export settings
HTML_LINK_UP’, keywordHTML specific export settings
HTML_MATHJAX’, keywordHTML specific export settings
html-style’, ‘OPTIONS’ itemCSS support
HTML, and Orgtbl modeTranslator functions
HTML’, keywordQuoting HTML tags
HTML5’, export new elementsHTML doctypes
hyperlinksHyperlinks
hyperlinks, adding new typesAdding Hyperlink Types

I
iCalendar exportiCalendar Export
ID’, propertyHandling Links
ID’, propertyCapturing column view
ID’, propertyiCalendar Export
identify, ImageMagickImages in ODT export
idle, resolve, danglingResolving idle time
image, centering in LaTeX exportImages in LaTeX export
ImageMagickMath formatting in HTML export
ImageMagickLaTeX math snippets
images, embedding in ODTImages in ODT export
images, inline in HTMLImages in HTML export
images, inline in LaTeXImages in LaTeX export
images, markup rulesImages
imenu.elCooperation
in-buffer settingsIn-buffer Settings
inactive timestampTimestamps
include files, during exportInclude Files
INCLUDE’, keywordInclude Files
Indent modeOrg Indent Mode
indentation, in code blocksEditing Source Code
indentation, in source blocksLiteral Examples
index, in a publishing projectGenerating an index
INDEX’, keywordGenerating an index
INDEX’, propertyIndices
indic, Texinfo attributePlain lists in Texinfo export
InfoDocumentation Access
Info directory file, in Texinfo exportInfo directory file
Info linksExternal Links
INFOJS_OPT’, keywordJavaScript support
inheritance, of propertiesProperty Inheritance
inheritance, of tagsTag Inheritance
inline, in LaTeX exportQuoting LaTeX code
inlining imagesImages
inlining images in HTMLImages in HTML export
inlining images in LaTeXImages in LaTeX export
input-file’, macroMacro Replacement
inserting linksHandling Links
insertion, of templatesStructure Templates
insertion, of templatesStructure Templates
install-info, in Texinfo exportInfo directory file
installationInstallation
Installing Org protocolProtocols
internal linksInternal Links
internal links, in HTML exportLinks in HTML export
introductionIntroduction
IRC linksExternal Links
italic text, markup rulesEmphasis and Monospace
ITEM’, special propertySpecial Properties

J
jumping, to headlinesMotion

K
key bindings, globalActivation
keystroke index, in Texinfo exportIndices
keyword optionsPer-file keywords
keyword’, macroMacro Replacement
KEYWORDS’, keywordBeamer specific export settings
KEYWORDS’, keywordHTML specific export settings
KEYWORDS’, keywordLaTeX specific export settings
KEYWORDS’, keywordODT specific export settings
KINDEX’, keywordIndices

L
language specific default header argumentsUsing Header Arguments
language specific header arguments propertiesUsing Header Arguments
language, in code blocksStructure of Code Blocks
LANGUAGE’, keywordExport Settings
LANGUAGE’, keywordLaTeX specific export settings
LANGUAGE’, keywordLaTeX header and sectioning
LAST_REPEAT’, propertyClocking commands
LaTeX classLaTeX header and sectioning
LaTeX exportLaTeX Export
LaTeX fragmentsLaTeX fragments
LaTeX fragments, previewPreviewing LaTeX fragments
LaTeX headerLaTeX header and sectioning
LaTeX interpretationEmbedded LaTeX
LaTeX sectioning structureLaTeX header and sectioning
LATEX_CLASS_OPTIONS’, keywordLaTeX specific export settings
LATEX_CLASS_OPTIONS’, keywordLaTeX header and sectioning
LATEX_CLASS’, keywordLaTeX specific export settings
LATEX_CLASS’, keywordLaTeX header and sectioning
LATEX_COMPILER’, keywordLaTeX/PDF export commands
LATEX_COMPILER’, keywordLaTeX specific export settings
LATEX_HEADER_EXTRA’, keywordLaTeX specific export settings
LATEX_HEADER_EXTRA’, keywordLaTeX header and sectioning
LATEX_HEADER’, keywordHTML specific export settings
LATEX_HEADER’, keywordLaTeX specific export settings
LATEX_HEADER’, keywordLaTeX header and sectioning
LaTeX, and Orgtbl modeA LaTeX example
LATEX’, keywordQuoting LaTeX code
Latin-1 exportASCII/Latin-1/UTF-8 export
lettered lists, in Texinfo exportPlain lists in Texinfo export
level, for tags/property matchMatching tags and properties
LibreOfficeOpenDocument Text Export
limits, in agendaFiltering/limiting agenda items
line breaks, markup rulesParagraphs
lines’, includeInclude Files
link abbreviationsLink Abbreviations
link abbreviations, completion ofCompletion
link completionHandling Links
link formatLink Format
LINK’, keywordLink Abbreviations
LINK’, keywordIn-buffer Settings
links, externalExternal Links
links, finding next/previousHandling Links
links, handlingHandling Links
links, in HTML exportLinks in HTML export
links, in ODT exportLinks in ODT export
links, internalInternal Links
links, publishingPublishing links
links, radio targetsRadio Targets
links, returning toHandling Links
linterOrg Syntax
Lisp forms, as table formulasFormula syntax for Lisp
list of listingsTable of Contents
list of tablesTable of Contents
lists, in other modesTables in Arbitrary Syntax
lists, orderedPlain Lists
lists, plainPlain Lists
literal examples, markup rulesLiteral Examples
LOCATION’, propertyiCalendar Export
LOG_INTO_DRAWER’, propertyTracking TODO state changes
LOG_INTO_DRAWER’, propertyClocking commands
logging, of progressProgress Logging
LOGGING’, propertyTracking TODO state changes
LOGGING’, propertyProperty Inheritance
lookup functions in tablesLookup functions
lualatexLaTeX/PDF export commands

M
macro replacement, during exportMacro Replacement
MACRO’, keywordMacro Replacement
maintainerFeedback
mapping entries, APIUsing the Mapping API
mappings in open-source protocolThe open-source protocol
mark ringHandling Links
Markdown exportMarkdown Export
marking characters, tablesAdvanced features
match viewMatching tags and properties
matching, of propertiesMatching tags and properties
matching, of tagsMatching tags and properties
matching, tagsTags
math symbolsSpecial Symbols
MathJaxMath formatting in HTML export
MathMLLaTeX math snippets
MH-E linksExternal Links
minlevel’, includeInclude Files
minor mode for tablesOrgtbl Mode
mkdirp’, header argumentEnvironment of a Code Block
mkdirp’, header argumentExtracting Source Code
mode, for CalcFormula syntax for Calc
modification-time’, macroMacro Replacement
motion commands in agendaAgenda Commands
motion, between headlinesMotion
multiple formula linesEditing and debugging formulas
multiple items in Texinfo listsPlain lists in Texinfo export

N
n’, macroMacro Replacement
NAME’ keyword, in source blocksStructure of Code Blocks
NAME’, keywordReferences
NAME’, keywordInternal Links
name, of column or fieldReferences
name, of column or fieldReferences
named referencesReferences
names as TODO keywordsTODO types
narrow columns in tablesColumn Width and Alignment
no-expand’, header argumentExtracting Source Code
NOBLOCKING’, propertyTODO dependencies
noweb-ref’, header argumentNoweb Reference Syntax
noweb-sep’, header argumentNoweb Reference Syntax
noweb’, header argumentNoweb Reference Syntax
number headlinesDynamic Headline Numbering

O
occur-treeStoring searches
occur, commandSparse Trees
odd-levels-only outlinesClean View
ODTOpenDocument Text Export
ODT_STYLES_FILE’, keywordODT specific export settings
ODT_STYLES_FILE’, keywordApplying custom styles
ODT’, keywordAdvanced topics in ODT export
only-contents’, includeInclude Files
open-source protocolThe open-source protocol
OpenDocumentOpenDocument Text Export
option keyword completionCompletion
options, for custom agenda viewsSetting options
options, for exportExport Settings
options, for publishingPublishing options
OPTIONS’, keywordExport Settings
ordered listsPlain Lists
ORDERED’, propertyTODO dependencies
ORDERED’, propertyCheckboxes
Org exportOrg Export
Org mode, turning onActivation
Org Num modeDynamic Headline Numbering
Org protocol, set-upProtocols
org-agenda, commandWeekly/daily agenda
ORG-IMAGE-ACTUAL-WIDTH’, propertyImages
org-latex-default-quote-environmentQuote blocks in LaTeX export
Orgtbl modeOrgtbl Mode
Orgtbl modeTables in Arbitrary Syntax
ORGTBL’, keywordRadio tables
outline treeHeadlines
output-dir’, header argumentResults of Evaluation
overview, global visibility stateGlobal and local cycling

P
packages, interaction with otherInteraction
padline’, header argumentExtracting Source Code
paragraphs, markup rulesParagraphs
passing arguments to code blocksEnvironment of a Code Block
pasting, of subtreesStructure Editing
PDF exportLaTeX Export
pdflatexLaTeX/PDF export commands
per-file keywordsPer-file keywords
PINDEX’, keywordIndices
plain linksLink Format
plain listsPlain Lists
plain lists, in LaTeX exportPlain lists in LaTeX export
plain text external linksExternal Links
plot tables using GnuplotOrg Plot
PLOT’, keywordOrg Plot
post’, header argumentResults of Evaluation
presentation, of agenda itemsPresentation and Sorting
print editionSummary
printing sparse treesSparse Trees
prioritiesPriorities
PRIORITIES’, keywordPriorities
PRIORITIES’, keywordIn-buffer Settings
priorities, of agenda itemsSorting of agenda items
priority cookiePriorities
PRIORITY’, special propertySpecial Properties
program index, in Texinfo exportIndices
progress loggingProgress Logging
projects, for publishingProject alist
prologue’, header argumentEnvironment of a Code Block
promotion, of subtreesStructure Editing
proof, in LaTeX exportSpecial blocks in LaTeX export
propertiesProperties and Columns
properties, APIUsing the Property API
properties, column viewDefining columns
properties, inheritanceProperty Inheritance
properties, searchingProperty Searches
properties, specialSpecial Properties
property syntaxProperty Syntax
PROPERTY’, keywordProperty Syntax
PROPERTY’, keywordIn-buffer Settings
property’, macroMacro Replacement
protocol, captureThe capture protocol
protocol, new protocolProtocols
protocol, open-sourceThe open-source protocol
protocol, open-source rewritten URLThe open-source protocol
protocol, open-source, set-up mappingThe open-source protocol
protocol, store-linkThe store-link protocol
protocols, for external accessCapture and Attachments
protocols, for external accessProtocols
publishingPublishing
publishing optionsPublishing options

Q
query editing, in agendaFiltering/limiting agenda items
quote blocksParagraphs
quote blocks, in LaTeX exportQuote blocks in LaTeX export

R
radio button, checkbox asCheckboxes
radio tablesRadio tables
radio targetsRadio Targets
range formulaField and range formulas
range referencesReferences
ranges, timeTimestamps
recomputing table fieldsUpdating the table
referencesReferences
references, namedReferences
references, remoteReferences
references, to a different tableReferences
references, to fieldsReferences
references, to rangesReferences
refiling notesRefiling and Archiving
refiling notesRefile and Copy
refresh set-upIn-buffer Settings
region, activeStructure Editing
regular expressions syntaxRegular Expressions
regular expressions, in searchesRegular Expressions
regular expressions, with tags searchMatching tags and properties
relative timerTimers
remindersWeekly/daily agenda
remote editing, bulk, from agendaAgenda Commands
remote editing, from agendaAgenda Commands
remote editing, undoAgenda Commands
remote referencesReferences
repeated tasksRepeated tasks
report, of clocked timeThe clock table
reporting a bugFeedback
resolve idle timeResolving idle time
results’, header argumentResults of Evaluation
RESULTS’, keywordEvaluating Code Blocks
results’, macroMacro Replacement
revealing contextGlobal and local cycling
rewritten URL in open-source protocolThe open-source protocol
Rmail linksExternal Links
row separator, in tablesBuilt-in Table Editor
row, of field coordinatesReferences
rownames’, header argumentEnvironment of a Code Block
RSS feedsCapture and Attachments
RSS feedsRSS Feeds
rsyncUploading Files

S
SCHEDULED’ markerDeadlines and Scheduling
SCHEDULED’, special propertySpecial Properties
schedulingTimestamps
scripts, for agenda processingExtracting Agenda Information
search option in file linksSearch Options
search strings, customCustom Searches
search viewSearch view
searching for tagsTag Searches
searching, for textSearch view
searching, of propertiesProperty Searches
sectioning structure, for LaTeX exportLaTeX header and sectioning
SELECT_TAGS’, keywordExport Settings
sep’, header argumentResults of Evaluation
sep, Texinfo attributePlain lists in Texinfo export
SEQ_TODO’, keywordPer-file keywords
SEQ_TODO’, keywordIn-buffer Settings
session’, header argumentEnvironment of a Code Block
setting tagsSetting Tags
SETUPFILE’, keywordExport Settings
SETUPFILE’, keywordIn-buffer Settings
sexp timestampsTimestamps
shebang’, header argumentExtracting Source Code
shell linksExternal Links
shift-selectionConflicts
shift-selection-modePlain Lists
show all, commandGlobal and local cycling
show all, global visibility stateGlobal and local cycling
show branches, commandGlobal and local cycling
show children, commandGlobal and local cycling
show hidden textVisibility Cycling
shy hyphen, special symbolSpecial Symbols
sitemap, of published pagesSite map
smartphoneOrg Mobile
sorting, of agenda itemsSorting of agenda items
sorting, of plain listPlain Lists
sorting, of subtreesStructure Editing
source blockLiteral Examples
source blocks, in LaTeX exportSource blocks in LaTeX export
source code, batch executionBatch Execution
source code, block structureStructure of Code Blocks
source code, editingEditing Source Code
source code, evaluatingEvaluating Code Blocks
source code, exportingExporting Code Blocks
source code, extractingExtracting Source Code
source code, inlineStructure of Code Blocks
source code, languagesLanguages
source code, libraryLibrary of Babel
source code, noweb referenceNoweb Reference Syntax
source code, results of evaluationResults of Evaluation
source code, working withWorking with Source Code
sparse tree, for deadlinesInserting deadline/schedule
sparse tree, for TODOTODO Basics
sparse tree, tag basedTags
sparse treesSparse Trees
special blocks, in ASCII exportASCII/Latin-1/UTF-8 export
special blocks, in LaTeX exportSpecial blocks in LaTeX export
special keywordsIn-buffer Settings
special symbolsSpecial Symbols
special symbols, in-buffer displaySpecial Symbols
speed keysSpeed Keys
speedbar.elCooperation
spreadsheet capabilitiesThe Spreadsheet
square brackets, around linksExternal Links
startup visibilityGlobal and local cycling
STARTUP’, keywordInitial visibility
STARTUP, keywordBlocks
STARTUP’, keywordIn-buffer Settings
statistics, for checkboxesCheckboxes
statistics, for TODO itemsBreaking Down Tasks
store-link protocolThe store-link protocol
storing link, in a source code bufferLiteral Examples
storing linksHandling Links
strike-through text, markup rulesEmphasis and Monospace
structure editingStructure Editing
structure of documentDocument Structure
STYLE’, propertyTracking your habits
styles, customApplying custom styles
styles, customAdvanced topics in ODT export
SUBAUTHOR’, keywordTexinfo specific export settings
SUBAUTHOR’, keywordTexinfo title and copyright page
sublevels, inclusion into tags matchTag Inheritance
sublevels, inclusion into TODO listGlobal TODO list
subscriptSubscripts and Superscripts
SUBTITLE’, keywordASCII/Latin-1/UTF-8 export
SUBTITLE’, keywordBeamer specific export settings
SUBTITLE’, keywordHTML specific export settings
SUBTITLE’, keywordLaTeX specific export settings
SUBTITLE’, keywordODT specific export settings
SUBTITLE’, keywordTexinfo specific export settings
subtree cyclingGlobal and local cycling
subtree visibility statesGlobal and local cycling
subtree, cut and pasteStructure Editing
subtree, subtree visibility stateGlobal and local cycling
subtrees, cut and pasteStructure Editing
summarySummary
SUMMARY’, propertyiCalendar Export
superscriptSubscripts and Superscripts
switches, in code blocksStructure of Code Blocks
syntax checkerOrg Syntax
syntax, nowebNoweb Reference Syntax
syntax, of formulasFormula syntax for Calc

T
table editor, built-inBuilt-in Table Editor
table editor, table.elCooperation
table indirectionReferences
table lookup functionsLookup functions
table of contentsTable of Contents
table of contents, exclude entriesTable of Contents
table syntaxBuilt-in Table Editor
table-type, Texinfo attributePlain lists in Texinfo export
table.elCooperation
tablesTables
tables, in HTMLTables in HTML export
tables, in LaTeX exportTables in LaTeX export
tables, in ODT exportTables in ODT export
tables, in ODT exportAdvanced topics in ODT export
tables, in other modesTables in Arbitrary Syntax
tag completionCompletion
tag filtering, in agendaFiltering/limiting agenda items
tag inheritanceTag Inheritance
tag searchesTag Searches
tagsTags
tags hierarchyTag Hierarchy
tags viewMatching tags and properties
tags-todoStoring searches
tags-treeStoring searches
tags, as an agenda viewStoring searches
tags, groupsTag Hierarchy
TAGS’, keywordSetting Tags
TAGS’, keywordIn-buffer Settings
tags, settingSetting Tags
TAGS’, special propertySpecial Properties
tangle-mode’, header argumentExtracting Source Code
tangle’, header argumentExtracting Source Code
tanglingExtracting Source Code
targets, for linksInternal Links
targets, radioRadio Targets
tasks, breaking downBreaking Down Tasks
tasks, repeatedRepeated tasks
TBLFM’ keywords, multipleEditing and debugging formulas
TBLFM’, keywordField and range formulas
TBLFM’, switchingEditing and debugging formulas
template expansionStructure Templates
template insertionStructure Templates
template, customApplying custom styles
template, customAdvanced topics in ODT export
templates, for CaptureCapture templates
TempoStructure Templates
TeX interpretationEmbedded LaTeX
TeX symbol completionCompletion
TEXINFO_CLASS’, keywordTexinfo specific export settings
TEXINFO_CLASS’, keywordTexinfo file header
TEXINFO_CLASS’, keywordHeadings and sectioning structure
TEXINFO_DIR_CATEGORY’, keywordTexinfo specific export settings
TEXINFO_DIR_CATEGORY’, keywordInfo directory file
TEXINFO_DIR_DESC’, keywordTexinfo specific export settings
TEXINFO_DIR_DESC’, keywordInfo directory file
TEXINFO_DIR_TITLE’, keywordTexinfo specific export settings
TEXINFO_DIR_TITLE’, keywordInfo directory file
TEXINFO_FILENAME’, keywordTexinfo specific export settings
TEXINFO_FILENAME’, keywordTexinfo file header
TEXINFO_HEADER’, keywordTexinfo specific export settings
TEXINFO_HEADER’, keywordTexinfo file header
TEXINFO_POST_HEADER’, keywordTexinfo specific export settings
TEXINFO_PRINTED_TITLE’, keywordTexinfo specific export settings
TEXINFO_PRINTED_TITLE’, keywordTexinfo title and copyright page
TEXINFO’, keywordQuoting Texinfo code
text areas, in HTMLText areas in HTML export
text searchSearch view
time clockingClocking Work Time
time format, customCustom time format
time gridTime-of-day specifications
time-of-day specificationTime-of-day specifications
time, computingDurations and time values
time’, macroMacro Replacement
time, reading in minibufferThe date/time prompt
timerangeTimestamps
timesDates and Times
timestampDates and Times
timestampTimestamps
TIMESTAMP_IA’, special propertySpecial Properties
timestamp, inactiveTimestamps
TIMESTAMP’, special propertySpecial Properties
timestamp, with repeater intervalTimestamps
timestampsTimestamps
TIMEZONE’, propertyiCalendar Export
TINDEX’, keywordIndices
TITLE’, keywordExport Settings
title’, macroMacro Replacement
toc’, in ‘OPTIONS’ keywordTable of Contents
TOC’, keywordTable of Contents
TODO dependenciesTODO dependencies
TODO dependencies, ‘NOBLOCKINGTODO dependencies
TODO itemsTODO Items
TODO keyword matchingGlobal TODO list
TODO keyword matching, with tags searchMatching tags and properties
TODO keyword setsMultiple sets in one file
TODO keywords completionCompletion
TODO list, globalGlobal TODO list
TODO typesTODO types
TODO workflowWorkflow states
todo-treeStoring searches
todo, as an agenda viewStoring searches
TODO’, keywordPer-file keywords
TODO’, keywordIn-buffer Settings
TODO’, special propertySpecial Properties
top headline filtering, in agendaFiltering/limiting agenda items
Top node, in Texinfo exportHeadings and sectioning structure
transient mark modeStructure Editing
translator functionTranslator functions
trees, sparseSparse Trees
trees, visibilityVisibility Cycling
tty key bindingsTTY Keys
two-column tables, in Texinfo exportPlain lists in Texinfo export
TYP_TODO’, keywordPer-file keywords
TYP_TODO’, keywordIn-buffer Settings
types as TODO keywordsTODO types

U
underlined text, markup rulesEmphasis and Monospace
undoing remote-editing eventsAgenda Commands
unisonUploading Files
UNNUMBERED’, propertyExport Settings
unoconvExtending ODT export
updating, tableUpdating the table
URL linksExternal Links
Usenet linksExternal Links
using sessions in code blocksEnvironment of a Code Block
UTF-8 exportASCII/Latin-1/UTF-8 export

V
var’, header argumentEnvironment of a Code Block
variable index, in Texinfo exportIndices
vectors, in table calculationsFormula syntax for Calc
verbatim blocks, in LaTeX exportExample blocks in LaTeX export
verbatim text, markup rulesEmphasis and Monospace
verse blocksParagraphs
verse blocks, in LaTeX exportVerse blocks in LaTeX export
view file commands in agendaAgenda Commands
VINDEX’, keywordIndices
viper.elConflicts
visibility cyclingVisibility Cycling
visibility cycling, drawersDrawers
VISIBILITY’, propertyInitial visibility
visible text, printingSparse Trees
VM linksExternal Links

W
Wanderlust linksExternal Links
weekly agendaWeekly/daily agenda
windmove.elConflicts
workflow states as TODO keywordsWorkflow states
working directory, in a code blockEnvironment of a Code Block
wrap’, header argumentResults of Evaluation

X
xelatexLaTeX/PDF export commands

Y
yasnippet.elConflicts

Z
zero width spaceEscape Character
zipPre-requisites for ODT export


E Key Index

Jump to:   _   -   ,   :   !   ?   .   '   [   *   /   #   %   `   ^   +   <   >   $   1  
A   B   C   D   E   F   G   H   I   J   K   L   M   N   O   P   Q   R   S   T   U   V   W   X   Z  
Index EntrySection

_
_CDLaTeX mode

-
-Agenda Commands

,
,Agenda Commands

:
:Agenda Commands

!
!Setting Tags
! (Agenda dispatcher)Stuck projects

?
? (Agenda dispatcher)Pulling from the mobile application

.
.The date/time prompt
.Agenda Commands

'
'CDLaTeX mode

[
[Agenda Commands

*
*Agenda Commands
* (Agenda dispatcher)Agenda Dispatcher

/
/ (Agenda dispatcher)Agenda Dispatcher

#
# (Agenda dispatcher)Stuck projects

%
%Agenda Commands

`
`CDLaTeX mode

^
^CDLaTeX mode

+
+Agenda Commands

<
<Using column view
<The date/time prompt
< (Agenda dispatcher)Agenda Dispatcher
< < (Agenda dispatcher)Agenda Dispatcher

>
>Using column view
>The date/time prompt
>Agenda Commands

$
$Agenda Commands

1
1..9,0Using column view

A
aUsing column view
AAgenda Commands
aAgenda Commands
a (Agenda dispatcher)Weekly/daily agenda

B
bAgenda Commands
BAgenda Commands

C
CResolving idle time
cAgenda Commands
cAgenda Commands
CAgenda Commands
C (Agenda dispatcher)Storing searches
C (Capture menuCapture templates
C-_Agenda Commands
C-,Agenda Files
C-.The date/time prompt
C-'Agenda Files
C-#Advanced features
C-0 C-c C-wRefile and Copy
C-2 C-c C-wRefile and Copy
C-3 C-c C-wRefile and Copy
C-c -Plain Lists
C-c -Built-in Table Editor
C-c ,Priorities
C-c ;Comment Lines
C-c !Creating Timestamps
C-c ?Editing and debugging formulas
C-c .Creating Timestamps
C-c 'Editing and debugging formulas
C-c 'Literal Examples
C-c 'Include Files
C-c 'Editing Source Code
C-c 'Cooperation
C-c [Agenda Files
C-c ]Agenda Files
C-c {Editing and debugging formulas
C-c {CDLaTeX mode
C-c }Editing and debugging formulas
C-c }Editing and debugging formulas
C-c @Structure Editing
C-c *Structure Editing
C-c *Plain Lists
C-c *Updating the table
C-c /Sparse Trees
C-c /Conflicts
C-c / /Sparse Trees
C-c / aInserting deadline/schedule
C-c / bInserting deadline/schedule
C-c / dInserting deadline/schedule
C-c / mTag Searches
C-c / mProperty Searches
C-c / pProperty Searches
C-c / rSparse Trees
C-c / tTODO Basics
C-c \Tag Searches
C-c \Property Searches
C-c &Handling Links
C-c #Checkboxes
C-c %Handling Links
C-c `Built-in Table Editor
C-c ^Structure Editing
C-c ^Plain Lists
C-c ^Built-in Table Editor
C-c +Built-in Table Editor
C-c <Creating Timestamps
C-c =Column formulas
C-c =Editing and debugging formulas
C-c >Creating Timestamps
C-c |Built-in Table Editor
C-c |Built-in Table Editor
C-c ~Cooperation
C-c $Moving subtrees
C-c C-,Structure Templates
C-c C-*Plain Lists
C-c C-aAttachment defaults and dispatcher
C-c C-aAgenda Commands
C-c C-a aAttachment defaults and dispatcher
C-c C-a bAttachment defaults and dispatcher
C-c C-a cAttachment defaults and dispatcher
C-c C-a dAttachment defaults and dispatcher
C-c C-a DAttachment defaults and dispatcher
C-c C-a fAttachment defaults and dispatcher
C-c C-a FAttachment defaults and dispatcher
C-c C-a lAttachment defaults and dispatcher
C-c C-a mAttachment defaults and dispatcher
C-c C-a nAttachment defaults and dispatcher
C-c C-a oAttachment defaults and dispatcher
C-c C-a OAttachment defaults and dispatcher
C-c C-a sAttachment defaults and dispatcher
C-c C-a SAttachment defaults and dispatcher
C-c C-a zAttachment defaults and dispatcher
C-c C-bMotion
C-c C-bEditing support
C-c C-cPlain Lists
C-c C-cBuilt-in Table Editor
C-c C-cColumn Width and Alignment
C-c C-cEditing and debugging formulas
C-c C-cEditing and debugging formulas
C-c C-cEditing and debugging formulas
C-c C-cCheckboxes
C-c C-cSetting Tags
C-c C-cSetting Tags
C-c C-cProperty Syntax
C-c C-cUsing column view
C-c C-cUsing column view
C-c C-cCapturing column view
C-c C-cCreating Timestamps
C-c C-cClocking commands
C-c C-cThe clock table
C-c C-cCreating Footnotes
C-c C-cEvaluating Code Blocks
C-c C-cKey bindings and Useful Functions
C-c C-cThe Very Busy C-c C-c Key
C-c C-c (Capture buffer)Using capture
C-c C-c cProperty Syntax
C-c C-c dProperty Syntax
C-c C-c DProperty Syntax
C-c C-c m mMarkdown Export
C-c C-c m MMarkdown Export
C-c C-c sProperty Syntax
C-c C-dInserting deadline/schedule
C-c C-dAgenda Commands
C-c C-eThe Export Dispatcher
C-c C-e c aiCalendar Export
C-c C-e c ciCalendar Export
C-c C-e c fiCalendar Export
C-c C-e C-aThe Export Dispatcher
C-c C-e C-bThe Export Dispatcher
C-c C-e C-sThe Export Dispatcher
C-c C-e C-vSparse Trees
C-c C-e C-vThe Export Dispatcher
C-c C-e h hHTML export commands
C-c C-e h HHTML export commands
C-c C-e h oHTML export commands
C-c C-e i iTexinfo export commands
C-c C-e i tTexinfo export commands
C-c C-e l bBeamer export commands
C-c C-e l BBeamer export commands
C-c C-e l lLaTeX/PDF export commands
C-c C-e l LLaTeX/PDF export commands
C-c C-e l OBeamer export commands
C-c C-e l oLaTeX/PDF export commands
C-c C-e l PBeamer export commands
C-c C-e l pLaTeX/PDF export commands
C-c C-e m oMarkdown Export
C-c C-e o oODT export commands
C-c C-e o OODT export commands
C-c C-e O oOrg Export
C-c C-e O vOrg Export
C-c C-e P aTriggering Publication
C-c C-e P fTriggering Publication
C-c C-e P pTriggering Publication
C-c C-e P xTriggering Publication
C-c C-e t aASCII/Latin-1/UTF-8 export
C-c C-e t AASCII/Latin-1/UTF-8 export
C-c C-e t lASCII/Latin-1/UTF-8 export
C-c C-e t LASCII/Latin-1/UTF-8 export
C-c C-e t uASCII/Latin-1/UTF-8 export
C-c C-e t UASCII/Latin-1/UTF-8 export
C-c C-fMotion
C-c C-jMotion
C-c C-kGlobal and local cycling
C-c C-k (Capture buffer)Using capture
C-c C-lHandling Links
C-c C-M-wRefile and Copy
C-c C-nMotion
C-c C-oHandling Links
C-c C-oCreating Timestamps
C-c C-oAgenda Commands
C-c C-oCreating Footnotes
C-c C-oKey bindings and Useful Functions
C-c C-pMotion
C-c C-qEditing and debugging formulas
C-c C-qSetting Tags
C-c C-rGlobal and local cycling
C-c C-rEditing and debugging formulas
C-c C-sInserting deadline/schedule
C-c C-sAgenda Commands
C-c C-tTODO Basics
C-c C-tClocking commands
C-c C-TABInternal archiving
C-c C-uMotion
C-c C-v aKey bindings and Useful Functions
C-c C-v bKey bindings and Useful Functions
C-c C-v cKey bindings and Useful Functions
C-c C-v C-aKey bindings and Useful Functions
C-c C-v C-bKey bindings and Useful Functions
C-c C-v C-cKey bindings and Useful Functions
C-c C-v C-dKey bindings and Useful Functions
C-c C-v C-eKey bindings and Useful Functions
C-c C-v C-fKey bindings and Useful Functions
C-c C-v C-gKey bindings and Useful Functions
C-c C-v C-hKey bindings and Useful Functions
C-c C-v C-iKey bindings and Useful Functions
C-c C-v C-IKey bindings and Useful Functions
C-c C-v C-jKey bindings and Useful Functions
C-c C-v C-lKey bindings and Useful Functions
C-c C-v C-nKey bindings and Useful Functions
C-c C-v C-oKey bindings and Useful Functions
C-c C-v C-pKey bindings and Useful Functions
C-c C-v C-rKey bindings and Useful Functions
C-c C-v C-sKey bindings and Useful Functions
C-c C-v C-tKey bindings and Useful Functions
C-c C-v C-uKey bindings and Useful Functions
C-c C-v C-vNoweb Reference Syntax
C-c C-v C-vKey bindings and Useful Functions
C-c C-v C-xKey bindings and Useful Functions
C-c C-v C-zKey bindings and Useful Functions
C-c C-v dKey bindings and Useful Functions
C-c C-v eEvaluating Code Blocks
C-c C-v eKey bindings and Useful Functions
C-c C-v fExtracting Source Code
C-c C-v fKey bindings and Useful Functions
C-c C-v gKey bindings and Useful Functions
C-c C-v hKey bindings and Useful Functions
C-c C-v iLibrary of Babel
C-c C-v iKey bindings and Useful Functions
C-c C-v IKey bindings and Useful Functions
C-c C-v jKey bindings and Useful Functions
C-c C-v lKey bindings and Useful Functions
C-c C-v nKey bindings and Useful Functions
C-c C-v oKey bindings and Useful Functions
C-c C-v pKey bindings and Useful Functions
C-c C-v rKey bindings and Useful Functions
C-c C-v sKey bindings and Useful Functions
C-c C-v tExtracting Source Code
C-c C-v tKey bindings and Useful Functions
C-c C-v uKey bindings and Useful Functions
C-c C-v vNoweb Reference Syntax
C-c C-v vKey bindings and Useful Functions
C-c C-v xKey bindings and Useful Functions
C-c C-v zKey bindings and Useful Functions
C-c C-wStructure Editing
C-c C-wRefile and Copy
C-c C-wAgenda Commands
C-c C-w (Capture buffer)Using capture
C-c C-x _Timers
C-c C-x -Timers
C-c C-x ,Timers
C-c C-x ;Timers
C-c C-x .Timers
C-c C-x @Citations
C-c C-x \Subscripts and Superscripts
C-c C-x \Special Symbols
C-c C-x <Agenda Files
C-c C-x >Agenda Files
C-c C-x >Agenda Commands
C-c C-x 0Timers
C-c C-x aInternal archiving
C-c C-x AInternal archiving
C-c C-x aAgenda Commands
C-c C-x AAgenda Commands
C-c C-x bGlobal and local cycling
C-c C-x bAgenda Commands
C-c C-x cStructure Editing
C-c C-x C-aArchiving
C-c C-x C-aAgenda Commands
C-c C-x C-bCheckboxes
C-c C-x C-cUsing column view
C-c C-x C-cAgenda Commands
C-c C-x C-cAgenda Column View
C-c C-x C-dClocking commands
C-c C-x C-eClocking commands
C-c C-x C-eEffort Estimates
C-c C-x C-iClocking commands
C-c C-x C-jClocking commands
C-c C-x C-lPreviewing LaTeX fragments
C-c C-x C-nHandling Links
C-c C-x C-oClocking commands
C-c C-x C-pHandling Links
C-c C-x C-qClocking commands
C-c C-x C-rCheckboxes
C-c C-x C-sMoving subtrees
C-c C-x C-sAgenda Commands
C-c C-x C-tCustom time format
C-c C-x C-uCapturing column view
C-c C-x C-uThe clock table
C-c C-x C-uDynamic Blocks
C-c C-x C-vImages
C-c C-x C-wStructure Editing
C-c C-x C-wBuilt-in Table Editor
C-c C-x C-xClocking commands
C-c C-x C-yStructure Editing
C-c C-x C-yBuilt-in Table Editor
C-c C-x dDrawers
C-c C-x eEffort Estimates
C-c C-x eAgenda Commands
C-c C-x fCreating Footnotes
C-c C-x gRSS Feeds
C-c C-x GRSS Feeds
C-c C-x IDocumentation Access
C-c C-x M-wStructure Editing
C-c C-x M-wBuilt-in Table Editor
C-c C-x oTODO dependencies
C-c C-x oCheckboxes
C-c C-x pProperty Syntax
C-c C-x pUsing Header Arguments
C-c C-x qTag Hierarchy
C-c C-x vGlobal and local cycling
C-c C-x xCapturing column view
C-c C-x xThe clock table
C-c C-x xDynamic Blocks
C-c C-yCreating Timestamps
C-c C-yClocking commands
C-c C-zDrawers
C-c C-zAgenda Commands
C-c M-wRefile and Copy
C-c RETBuilt-in Table Editor
C-c TABGlobal and local cycling
C-c TABColumn Width and Alignment
C-gSetting Tags
C-kAgenda Commands
C-RETStructure Editing
C-S-DOWNClocking commands
C-S-LEFTMultiple sets in one file
C-S-LEFTAgenda Commands
C-S-RETStructure Editing
C-S-RIGHTMultiple sets in one file
C-S-RIGHTAgenda Commands
C-S-UPClocking commands
C-u C-c !Creating Timestamps
C-u C-c .Creating Timestamps
C-u C-c *Updating the table
C-u C-c =Field and range formulas
C-u C-c =Editing and debugging formulas
C-u C-c C-cUpdating the table
C-u C-c C-lHandling Links
C-u C-c C-tProgress Logging
C-u C-c C-wRefile and Copy
C-u C-c C-x aInternal archiving
C-u C-c C-x C-sMoving subtrees
C-u C-c C-x C-uCapturing column view
C-u C-c C-x C-uThe clock table
C-u C-c C-x C-uDynamic Blocks
C-u C-c TABColumn Width and Alignment
C-u C-u C-c !Creating Timestamps
C-u C-u C-c .Creating Timestamps
C-u C-u C-c *Updating the table
C-u C-u C-c =Editing and debugging formulas
C-u C-u C-c C-cUpdating the table
C-u C-u C-c C-tMultiple sets in one file
C-u C-u C-c C-wRefile and Copy
C-u C-u C-c C-x C-sMoving subtrees
C-u C-u C-c TABColumn Width and Alignment
C-u C-u C-u C-c C-wRefile and Copy
C-u C-u C-u C-u C-c C-tTODO dependencies
C-u C-u C-u TABGlobal and local cycling
C-u C-u TABGlobal and local cycling
C-u C-u TABInitial visibility
C-u TABGlobal and local cycling
C-vThe date/time prompt
C-x C-sEditing and debugging formulas
C-x C-sAgenda Commands
C-x C-sEditing Source Code
C-x C-wExporting Agenda Views
C-x n bStructure Editing
C-x n sStructure Editing
C-x n wStructure Editing
C-yStructure Editing

D
dAgenda Commands
DAgenda Commands

E
eUsing column view
EAgenda Commands
eAgenda Commands
e (Agenda dispatcher)Exporting Agenda Views

F
FAgenda Commands
fAgenda Commands

G
gUsing column view
GAgenda Commands
gAgenda Commands

H
HAgenda Commands

I
IAgenda Commands
iAgenda Commands

J
jAgenda Commands
JAgenda Commands
JAgenda Commands

K
kResolving idle time
KResolving idle time
kAgenda Commands
k c (Agenda)Using capture

L
lAgenda Commands

M
mAgenda Commands
MAgenda Commands
m (Agenda dispatcher)Tag Searches
M (Agenda dispatcher)Tag Searches
m (Agenda dispatcher)Property Searches
M (Agenda dispatcher)Property Searches
m (Agenda dispatcher)Matching tags and properties
M (Agenda dispatcher)Matching tags and properties
M-*Agenda Commands
M-aBuilt-in Table Editor
M-DOWNStructure Editing
M-DOWNPlain Lists
M-DOWNBuilt-in Table Editor
M-DOWNEditing and debugging formulas
M-DOWNAgenda Commands
M-DOWNKey bindings and Useful Functions
M-eBuilt-in Table Editor
M-g M-nSparse Trees
M-g M-pSparse Trees
M-g nSparse Trees
M-g pSparse Trees
M-LEFTStructure Editing
M-LEFTPlain Lists
M-LEFTBuilt-in Table Editor
M-mAgenda Commands
M-RETStructure Editing
M-RETPlain Lists
M-RETBuilt-in Table Editor
M-RETTimers
M-RIGHTStructure Editing
M-RIGHTPlain Lists
M-RIGHTBuilt-in Table Editor
M-S-DOWNBuilt-in Table Editor
M-S-DOWNEditing and debugging formulas
M-S-LEFTStructure Editing
M-S-LEFTPlain Lists
M-S-LEFTBuilt-in Table Editor
M-S-LEFTThe date/time prompt
M-S-RETStructure Editing
M-S-RETPlain Lists
M-S-RETCheckboxes
M-S-RIGHTStructure Editing
M-S-RIGHTPlain Lists
M-S-RIGHTBuilt-in Table Editor
M-S-RIGHTThe date/time prompt
M-S-UPBuilt-in Table Editor
M-S-UPEditing and debugging formulas
M-TABEditing and debugging formulas
M-TABPer-file keywords
M-TABSetting Tags
M-TABProperty Syntax
M-TABCompletion
M-UPStructure Editing
M-UPPlain Lists
M-UPBuilt-in Table Editor
M-UPEditing and debugging formulas
M-UPAgenda Commands
M-UPKey bindings and Useful Functions
M-vThe date/time prompt
mouse-1Handling Links
mouse-1The date/time prompt
mouse-1Creating Footnotes
mouse-2Handling Links
mouse-2Agenda Commands
mouse-2Creating Footnotes
mouse-3Handling Links
mouse-3Agenda Commands

N
nUsing column view
nAgenda Commands

O
oAgenda Commands
OAgenda Commands

P
pUsing column view
pAgenda Commands

Q
qSetting Tags
qUsing column view
qAgenda Commands

R
rUsing column view
rGlobal TODO list
RAgenda Commands
rAgenda Commands
RETBuilt-in Table Editor
RETHandling Links
RETSetting Tags
RETThe date/time prompt
RETAgenda Commands

S
sResolving idle time
SResolving idle time
sAgenda Commands
SAgenda Commands
s (Agenda dispatcher)Agenda Dispatcher
s (Agenda dispatcher)Search view
S-DOWNPlain Lists
S-DOWNBuilt-in Table Editor
S-DOWNEditing and debugging formulas
S-DOWNPriorities
S-DOWNCreating Timestamps
S-DOWNThe date/time prompt
S-DOWNAgenda Commands
S-LEFTPlain Lists
S-LEFTBuilt-in Table Editor
S-LEFTEditing and debugging formulas
S-LEFTTODO Basics
S-LEFTMultiple sets in one file
S-LEFTProperty Syntax
S-LEFTUsing column view
S-LEFTCreating Timestamps
S-LEFTThe date/time prompt
S-LEFTThe clock table
S-LEFTAgenda Commands
S-M-DOWNClocking commands
S-M-LEFTUsing column view
S-M-RETTODO Basics
S-M-RIGHTUsing column view
S-M-UPClocking commands
S-RETBuilt-in Table Editor
S-RIGHTPlain Lists
S-RIGHTBuilt-in Table Editor
S-RIGHTEditing and debugging formulas
S-RIGHTTODO Basics
S-RIGHTMultiple sets in one file
S-RIGHTProperty Syntax
S-RIGHTUsing column view
S-RIGHTCreating Timestamps
S-RIGHTThe date/time prompt
S-RIGHTThe clock table
S-RIGHTAgenda Commands
S-TABGlobal and local cycling
S-TABBuilt-in Table Editor
S-UPPlain Lists
S-UPBuilt-in Table Editor
S-UPEditing and debugging formulas
S-UPPriorities
S-UPCreating Timestamps
S-UPThe date/time prompt
S-UPAgenda Commands
SPCSetting Tags
SPCAgenda Commands

T
tAgenda Commands
TAgenda Commands
t (Agenda dispatcher)TODO Basics
t (Agenda dispatcher)Global TODO list
T (Agenda dispatcher)Global TODO list
TABGlobal and local cycling
TABStructure Editing
TABPlain Lists
TABBuilt-in Table Editor
TABEditing and debugging formulas
TABSetting Tags
TABAgenda Commands
TABCDLaTeX mode

U
uAgenda Commands
UAgenda Commands

V
vUsing column view
v [Agenda Commands
v aAgenda Commands
v AAgenda Commands
v cAgenda Commands
v dAgenda Commands
v EAgenda Commands
v lAgenda Commands
v LAgenda Commands
v mAgenda Commands
v RAgenda Commands
v SPCAgenda Commands
v wAgenda Commands
v yAgenda Commands

W
wAgenda Commands

X
XAgenda Commands
xAgenda Commands

Z
zAgenda Commands


F Command and Function Index

Jump to:   L   N   O   P   W  
Index EntrySection

L
lisp-complete-symbolEditing and debugging formulas

N
next-errorSparse Trees

O
or-clock-gotoClocking commands
org-agendaActivation
org-agenda-add-noteAgenda Commands
org-agenda-archiveAgenda Commands
org-agenda-archive-default-with-confirmationAgenda Commands
org-agenda-archive-to-archive-siblingAgenda Commands
org-agenda-archives-modeAgenda Commands
org-agenda-bulk-actionAgenda Commands
org-agenda-bulk-markAgenda Commands
org-agenda-bulk-mark-allAgenda Commands
org-agenda-bulk-mark-regexpAgenda Commands
org-agenda-bulk-toggleAgenda Commands
org-agenda-bulk-toggle-allAgenda Commands
org-agenda-bulk-unmarkAgenda Commands
org-agenda-bulk-unmark-allAgenda Commands
org-agenda-captureAgenda Commands
org-agenda-clock-cancelAgenda Commands
org-agenda-clock-gotoAgenda Commands
org-agenda-clock-gotoAgenda Commands
org-agenda-clock-inAgenda Commands
org-agenda-clock-outAgenda Commands
org-agenda-clockreport-modeAgenda Commands
org-agenda-columnsAgenda Commands
org-agenda-columnsAgenda Column View
org-agenda-convert-dateAgenda Commands
org-agenda-date-promptAgenda Commands
org-agenda-day-viewAgenda Commands
org-agenda-deadlineAgenda Commands
org-agenda-diary-entryAgenda Commands
org-agenda-do-date-earlierAgenda Commands
org-agenda-do-date-laterAgenda Commands
org-agenda-drag-line-backwardAgenda Commands
org-agenda-drag-line-forwardAgenda Commands
org-agenda-earlierAgenda Commands
org-agenda-entry-text-modeAgenda Commands
org-agenda-exitAgenda Commands
org-agenda-file-to-frontAgenda Files
org-agenda-filterFiltering/limiting agenda items
org-agenda-filter-by-categoryFiltering/limiting agenda items
org-agenda-filter-by-effortFiltering/limiting agenda items
org-agenda-filter-by-regexpFiltering/limiting agenda items
org-agenda-filter-by-tagFiltering/limiting agenda items
org-agenda-filter-by-top-headlineFiltering/limiting agenda items
org-agenda-follow-modeAgenda Commands
org-agenda-gotoAgenda Commands
org-agenda-goto-calendarAgenda Commands
org-agenda-goto-dateAgenda Commands
org-agenda-goto-todayAgenda Commands
org-agenda-holidaysAgenda Commands
org-agenda-killAgenda Commands
org-agenda-laterAgenda Commands
org-agenda-limit-interactivelyFiltering/limiting agenda items
org-agenda-listWeekly/daily agenda
org-agenda-list-stuck-projectsStuck projects
org-agenda-log-modeAgenda Commands
org-agenda-manipulate-query-addAgenda Commands
org-agenda-month-viewAgenda Commands
org-agenda-next-lineAgenda Commands
org-agenda-open-linkAgenda Commands
org-agenda-phases-of-moonAgenda Commands
org-agenda-previous-lineAgenda Commands
org-agenda-priorityAgenda Commands
org-agenda-priority-downAgenda Commands
org-agenda-priority-upAgenda Commands
org-agenda-quitAgenda Commands
org-agenda-recenterAgenda Commands
org-agenda-redoAgenda Commands
org-agenda-refileAgenda Commands
org-agenda-remove-restriction-lockAgenda Files
org-agenda-remove-restriction-lockAgenda Files
org-agenda-remove-restriction-lockAgenda Commands
org-agenda-reset-viewAgenda Commands
org-agenda-scheduleAgenda Commands
org-agenda-set-effortAgenda Commands
org-agenda-set-restriction-lockAgenda Files
org-agenda-set-tagsAgenda Commands
org-agenda-show-and-scroll-upAgenda Commands
org-agenda-show-tagsAgenda Commands
org-agenda-skip-entry-ifSpecial Agenda Views
org-agenda-skip-subtree-ifSpecial Agenda Views
org-agenda-sunrise-sunsetAgenda Commands
org-agenda-switch-toAgenda Commands
org-agenda-todoAgenda Commands
org-agenda-todo-nextsetAgenda Commands
org-agenda-toggle-archive-tagAgenda Commands
org-agenda-toggle-diaryAgenda Commands
org-agenda-tree-to-indirect-bufferAgenda Commands
org-agenda-undoAgenda Commands
org-agenda-week-viewAgenda Commands
org-agenda-writeExporting Agenda Views
org-agenda-year-viewAgenda Commands
org-anniversaryTimestamps
org-archive-subtreeMoving subtrees
org-archive-subtree-defaultArchiving
org-archive-to-archive-siblingInternal archiving
org-ascii-convert-region-to-asciiExport in Foreign Buffers
org-ascii-convert-region-to-utf8Export in Foreign Buffers
org-ascii-export-as-asciiASCII/Latin-1/UTF-8 export
org-ascii-export-to-asciiASCII/Latin-1/UTF-8 export
org-attachAttachment defaults and dispatcher
org-attachAgenda Commands
org-attach-attachAttachment defaults and dispatcher
org-attach-bufferAttachment defaults and dispatcher
org-attach-dired-to-subtreeAttach from Dired
org-attach-newAttachment defaults and dispatcher
org-attach-openAttachment defaults and dispatcher
org-attach-open-in-emacsAttachment defaults and dispatcher
org-attach-revealAttachment defaults and dispatcher
org-attach-reveal-in-emacsAttachment defaults and dispatcher
org-attach-syncAttachment defaults and dispatcher
org-babel-check-src-blockKey bindings and Useful Functions
org-babel-demarcate-blockKey bindings and Useful Functions
org-babel-describe-bindingsKey bindings and Useful Functions
org-babel-do-key-sequence-in-edit-bufferKey bindings and Useful Functions
org-babel-execute-bufferKey bindings and Useful Functions
org-babel-execute-maybeKey bindings and Useful Functions
org-babel-execute-src-blockEvaluating Code Blocks
org-babel-execute-src-blockKey bindings and Useful Functions
org-babel-execute-subtreeKey bindings and Useful Functions
org-babel-expand-src-blockNoweb Reference Syntax
org-babel-expand-src-blockKey bindings and Useful Functions
org-babel-goto-named-resultKey bindings and Useful Functions
org-babel-goto-named-src-blockKey bindings and Useful Functions
org-babel-goto-src-block-headKey bindings and Useful Functions
org-babel-insert-header-argKey bindings and Useful Functions
org-babel-load-in-sessionKey bindings and Useful Functions
org-babel-load-in-sessionKey bindings and Useful Functions
org-babel-lob-ingestLibrary of Babel
org-babel-lob-ingestKey bindings and Useful Functions
org-babel-next-src-blockKey bindings and Useful Functions
org-babel-open-src-block-resultKey bindings and Useful Functions
org-babel-open-src-block-resultKey bindings and Useful Functions
org-babel-pop-to-sessionKey bindings and Useful Functions
org-babel-previous-src-blockKey bindings and Useful Functions
org-babel-sha1-hashKey bindings and Useful Functions
org-babel-switch-to-session-with-codeKey bindings and Useful Functions
org-babel-tangleExtracting Source Code
org-babel-tangleKey bindings and Useful Functions
org-babel-tangle-fileExtracting Source Code
org-babel-tangle-fileKey bindings and Useful Functions
org-babel-tangle-jump-to-orgExtracting Source Code
org-babel-view-src-block-infoKey bindings and Useful Functions
org-backward-heading-same-levelMotion
org-batch-agendaExtracting Agenda Information
org-batch-agenda-csvExtracting Agenda Information
org-bbdb-anniversariesWeekly/daily agenda
org-bbdb-anniversaries-futureWeekly/daily agenda
org-beamer-export-as-latexBeamer export commands
org-beamer-export-to-latexBeamer export commands
org-beamer-export-to-pdfBeamer export commands
org-beamer-select-environmentEditing support
org-blockTimestamps
org-buffer-property-keysUsing the Property API
org-calendar-goto-agendaAgenda Commands
org-captureActivation
org-captureUsing capture
org-capture-finalizeUsing capture
org-capture-killUsing capture
org-capture-refileUsing capture
org-check-after-dateInserting deadline/schedule
org-check-before-dateInserting deadline/schedule
org-check-deadlinesInserting deadline/schedule
org-cite-insertCitations
org-clock-cancelClocking commands
org-clock-displayClocking commands
org-clock-inClocking commands
org-clock-in-lastClocking commands
org-clock-modify-effort-estimateClocking commands
org-clock-modify-effort-estimateEffort Estimates
org-clock-outClocking commands
org-clock-reportThe clock table
org-clock-timestamp-downClocking commands
org-clock-timestamp-upClocking commands
org-clock-timestamps-downClocking commands
org-clock-timestamps-upClocking commands
org-clocktable-try-shiftThe clock table
org-clocktable-write-defaultThe clock table
org-clone-subtree-with-time-shiftStructure Editing
org-columns-deleteUsing column view
org-columns-edit-allowedUsing column view
org-columns-edit-valueUsing column view
org-columns-insert-dblockCapturing column view
org-columns-narrowUsing column view
org-columns-newUsing column view
org-columns-next-allowed-valueUsing column view
org-columns-previous-allowed-valueUsing column view
org-columns-quitUsing column view
org-columns-redoUsing column view
org-columns-show-valueUsing column view
org-columns-toggle-or-columns-quitUsing column view
org-columns-widenUsing column view
org-compute-property-at-pointProperty Syntax
org-copy-subtreeStructure Editing
org-copy-visibleGlobal and local cycling
org-cut-subtreeStructure Editing
org-cycleGlobal and local cycling
org-cycleStructure Editing
org-cyclePlain Lists
org-cycle-agenda-filesAgenda Files
org-cyclicTimestamps
org-dateTimestamps
org-date-from-calendarCreating Timestamps
org-dblock-updateCapturing column view
org-dblock-updateThe clock table
org-dblock-updateDynamic Blocks
org-deadlineInserting deadline/schedule
org-delete-propertyProperty Syntax
org-delete-property-globallyProperty Syntax
org-demoteUsing the Mapping API
org-demote-subtreeStructure Editing
org-do-demoteStructure Editing
org-do-promoteStructure Editing
org-dynamic-block-insert-dblockDynamic Blocks
org-edit-specialLiteral Examples
org-edit-specialInclude Files
org-edit-specialCooperation
org-entities-helpSpecial Symbols
org-entry-add-to-multivalued-propertyUsing the Property API
org-entry-deleteUsing the Property API
org-entry-getUsing the Property API
org-entry-get-multivalued-propertyUsing the Property API
org-entry-member-in-multivalued-propertyUsing the Property API
org-entry-propertiesUsing the Property API
org-entry-putUsing the Property API
org-entry-put-multivalued-propertyUsing the Property API
org-entry-remove-from-multivalued-propertyUsing the Property API
org-evaluate-time-rangeCreating Timestamps
org-evaluate-time-rangeClocking commands
org-export-define-backendAdding Export Back-ends
org-export-define-derived-backendAdding Export Back-ends
org-export-dispatchThe Export Dispatcher
org-forward-heading-same-levelMotion
org-global-cycleGlobal and local cycling
org-gotoMotion
org-goto-calendarCreating Timestamps
org-html-convert-region-to-htmlExport in Foreign Buffers
org-html-export-as-htmlHTML export commands
org-html-export-to-htmlHTML export commands
org-icalendar-combine-agenda-filesiCalendar Export
org-icalendar-export-agenda-filesiCalendar Export
org-icalendar-export-to-icsiCalendar Export
org-indent-modeOrg Indent Mode
org-info-find-nodeDocumentation Access
org-insert-drawerDrawers
org-insert-drawerProperty Syntax
org-insert-headingPlain Lists
org-insert-headingTimers
org-insert-heading-respect-contentStructure Editing
org-insert-linkHandling Links
org-insert-link-globalUsing Links Outside Org
org-insert-property-drawerUsing the Property API
org-insert-property-drawerUsing the Property API
org-insert-structure-templateStructure Templates
org-insert-todo-headingStructure Editing
org-insert-todo-headingTODO Basics
org-insert-todo-headingCheckboxes
org-insert-todo-heading-respect-contentStructure Editing
org-latex-convert-region-to-latexExport in Foreign Buffers
org-latex-export-as-latexLaTeX/PDF export commands
org-latex-export-to-latex~LaTeX/PDF export commands
org-latex-export-to-pdfLaTeX/PDF export commands
org-latex-previewPreviewing LaTeX fragments
org-link-escapeLink Format
org-link-set-parametersAdding Hyperlink Types
org-lintOrg Syntax
org-list-checkbox-radio-modeCheckboxes
org-lookup-allLookup functions
org-lookup-firstLookup functions
org-lookup-lastLookup functions
org-map-entriesUsing the Mapping API
org-mark-ring-gotoHandling Links
org-mark-ring-pushHandling Links
org-mark-subtreeStructure Editing
org-match-sparse-treeTag Searches
org-match-sparse-treeProperty Searches
org-md-convert-region-to-mdExport in Foreign Buffers
org-md-export-as-markdownMarkdown Export
org-md-export-to-markdownMarkdown Export
org-meta-returnStructure Editing
org-mobile-pullPulling from the mobile application
org-mobile-pushPushing to the mobile application
org-move-subtree-downStructure Editing
org-move-subtree-upStructure Editing
org-narrow-to-blockStructure Editing
org-narrow-to-blockDynamic Blocks
org-narrow-to-subtreeStructure Editing
org-next-linkHandling Links
org-next-visible-headingMotion
org-occurSparse Trees
org-odt-convertExtending ODT export
org-odt-export-to-odtODT export commands
org-open-at-pointHandling Links
org-open-at-pointCreating Timestamps
org-open-at-point-globalUsing Links Outside Org
org-org-export-to-orgOrg Export
org-paste-subtreeStructure Editing
org-previous-linkHandling Links
org-previous-visible-headingMotion
org-priorityPriorities
org-priorityUsing the Mapping API
org-priority-downPriorities
org-priority-upPriorities
org-promoteUsing the Mapping API
org-promote-subtreeStructure Editing
org-property-actionProperty Syntax
org-protocol-createThe open-source protocol
org-protocol-create-for-orgThe open-source protocol
org-publishTriggering Publication
org-publish-allTriggering Publication
org-publish-current-fileTriggering Publication
org-publish-current-projectTriggering Publication
org-publish-find-dateSite map
org-publish-find-propertySite map
org-publish-find-titleSite map
org-refileStructure Editing
org-refileRefile and Copy
org-refile-cache-clearRefile and Copy
org-refile-copyRefile and Copy
org-refile-goto-last-storedRefile and Copy
org-refile-reverseRefile and Copy
org-remove-fileAgenda Files
org-revealGlobal and local cycling
org-save-all-org-buffersAgenda Commands
org-scheduleInserting deadline/schedule
org-search-viewSearch view
org-set-effortEffort Estimates
org-set-propertyProperty Syntax
org-set-propertyProperty Syntax
org-set-propertyUsing Header Arguments
org-set-startup-visibilityGlobal and local cycling
org-set-startup-visibilityInitial visibility
org-set-tags-commandSetting Tags
org-show-allGlobal and local cycling
org-show-branchesGlobal and local cycling
org-show-childrenGlobal and local cycling
org-show-todo-treeTODO Basics
org-sortStructure Editing
org-sparse-treeSparse Trees
org-speed-command-helpSpeed Keys
org-speedbar-set-agenda-restrictionAgenda Files
org-store-agenda-viewsExporting Agenda Views
org-store-linkActivation
org-store-linkHandling Links
org-submit-bug-reportFeedback
org-switchbAgenda Files
org-table-alignBuilt-in Table Editor
org-table-alignColumn Width and Alignment
org-table-beginning-of-fieldBuilt-in Table Editor
org-table-blank-fieldBuilt-in Table Editor
org-table-copy-downBuilt-in Table Editor
org-table-copy-regionBuilt-in Table Editor
org-table-create-or-convert-from-regionBuilt-in Table Editor
org-table-create-or-convert-from-regionBuilt-in Table Editor
org-table-create-with-table.elCooperation
org-table-cut-regionBuilt-in Table Editor
org-table-delete-columnBuilt-in Table Editor
org-table-edit-fieldBuilt-in Table Editor
org-table-edit-formulasEditing and debugging formulas
org-table-end-of-fieldBuilt-in Table Editor
org-table-eval-formulaField and range formulas
org-table-eval-formulaColumn formulas
org-table-eval-formulaEditing and debugging formulas
org-table-eval-formulaEditing and debugging formulas
org-table-expandColumn Width and Alignment
org-table-exportBuilt-in Table Editor
org-table-fedit-abortEditing and debugging formulas
org-table-fedit-finishEditing and debugging formulas
org-table-fedit-line-downEditing and debugging formulas
org-table-fedit-line-upEditing and debugging formulas
org-table-fedit-lisp-indentEditing and debugging formulas
org-table-fedit-ref-downEditing and debugging formulas
org-table-fedit-ref-leftEditing and debugging formulas
org-table-fedit-ref-rightEditing and debugging formulas
org-table-fedit-ref-upEditing and debugging formulas
org-table-fedit-scroll-downEditing and debugging formulas
org-table-fedit-scroll-upEditing and debugging formulas
org-table-fedit-toggle-ref-typeEditing and debugging formulas
org-table-field-infoEditing and debugging formulas
org-table-header-line-modeBuilt-in Table Editor
org-table-hline-and-moveBuilt-in Table Editor
org-table-importBuilt-in Table Editor
org-table-insert-columnBuilt-in Table Editor
org-table-insert-hlineBuilt-in Table Editor
org-table-insert-rowBuilt-in Table Editor
org-table-iterateUpdating the table
org-table-iterate-buffer-tablesUpdating the table
org-table-kill-rowBuilt-in Table Editor
org-table-move-cell-downBuilt-in Table Editor
org-table-move-cell-leftBuilt-in Table Editor
org-table-move-cell-rightBuilt-in Table Editor
org-table-move-cell-upBuilt-in Table Editor
org-table-move-column-leftBuilt-in Table Editor
org-table-move-column-rightBuilt-in Table Editor
org-table-move-row-downBuilt-in Table Editor
org-table-move-row-upBuilt-in Table Editor
org-table-next-fieldBuilt-in Table Editor
org-table-next-rowBuilt-in Table Editor
org-table-paste-rectangleBuilt-in Table Editor
org-table-previous-fieldBuilt-in Table Editor
org-table-recalculateUpdating the table
org-table-recalculate-buffer-tablesUpdating the table
org-table-rotate-recalc-marksAdvanced features
org-table-shrinkColumn Width and Alignment
org-table-sort-linesBuilt-in Table Editor
org-table-sumBuilt-in Table Editor
org-table-toggle-column-widthColumn Width and Alignment
org-table-toggle-coordinate-overlaysEditing and debugging formulas
org-table-toggle-coordinate-overlaysEditing and debugging formulas
org-table-toggle-formula-debuggerEditing and debugging formulas
org-table-transpose-table-at-pointBuilt-in Table Editor
org-table-wrap-regionBuilt-in Table Editor
org-tags-viewTag Searches
org-tags-viewProperty Searches
org-tags-viewMatching tags and properties
org-tags-viewMatching tags and properties
org-texinfo-convert-region-to-texinfoExport in Foreign Buffers
org-texinfo-export-to-infoTexinfo export commands
org-texinfo-export-to-texinfoTexinfo export commands
org-time-stampCreating Timestamps
org-time-stamp-inactiveCreating Timestamps
org-timerTimers
org-timer-itemTimers
org-timer-pause-or-continueTimers
org-timer-set-timerTimers
org-timer-startTimers
org-timer-stopTimers
org-timestamp-down-dayCreating Timestamps
org-timestamp-up-dayCreating Timestamps
org-todoClocking commands
org-todoUsing the Mapping API
org-todo-listGlobal TODO list
org-todo-listGlobal TODO list
org-toggle-archive-tagInternal archiving
org-toggle-checkboxCheckboxes
org-toggle-commentComment Lines
org-toggle-headingStructure Editing
org-toggle-inline-imagesImages
org-toggle-ordered-propertyTODO dependencies
org-toggle-ordered-propertyCheckboxes
org-toggle-pretty-entitiesSubscripts and Superscripts
org-toggle-pretty-entitiesSpecial Symbols
org-toggle-radio-buttonCheckboxes
org-toggle-sticky-agendaAgenda Dispatcher
org-toggle-tagUsing the Mapping API
org-toggle-tags-groupsTag Hierarchy
org-toggle-time-stamp-overlaysCustom time format
org-tree-to-indirect-bufferGlobal and local cycling
org-update-statistics-cookiesCheckboxes
org-versionFeedback
org-yankStructure Editing
orgtbl-ascii-drawOrg Plot
orgtbl-modeOrgtbl Mode
orgtbl-to-csvTranslator functions
orgtbl-to-genericTranslator functions
orgtbl-to-htmlTranslator functions
orgtbl-to-latexTranslator functions
orgtbl-to-orgtblTranslator functions
orgtbl-to-texinfoTranslator functions
orgtbl-to-tsvTranslator functions
orgtbl-to-unicodeTranslator functions
outline-up-headingMotion

P
pcompleteProperty Syntax
previous-errorSparse Trees

W
widenStructure Editing


G Variable Index

This is not a complete index of variables and faces, only the ones that are mentioned in the manual. For a more complete list, use M-x org-customize and then click yourself through the tree.

Jump to:   C   L   O   P   U  
Index EntrySection

C
cdlatex-simplify-sub-super-scriptsCDLaTeX mode
constants-unit-systemReferences
constants-unit-systemIn-buffer Settings

L
LaTeX-verbatim-environmentsA LaTeX example

O
org-adapt-indentationHard indentation
org-agenda-auto-exclude-functionFiltering/limiting agenda items
org-agenda-bulk-custom-functionsAgenda Commands
org-agenda-bulk-custom-functionsAgenda Commands
org-agenda-bulk-persistent-marksAgenda Commands
org-agenda-category-filter-presetFiltering/limiting agenda items
org-agenda-category-icon-alistCategories
org-agenda-clock-consistency-checksAgenda Commands
org-agenda-columns-add-appointments-to-effort-sumEffort Estimates
org-agenda-confirm-killAgenda Commands
org-agenda-custom-commandsSparse Trees
org-agenda-custom-commandsStoring searches
org-agenda-custom-commandsSetting options
org-agenda-custom-commandsExtracting Agenda Information
org-agenda-custom-commands-contextsSetting options
org-agenda-diary-fileAgenda Commands
org-agenda-dim-blocked-tasksTODO dependencies
org-agenda-dim-blocked-tasksSpeeding Up Your Agendas
org-agenda-effort-filter-presetFiltering/limiting agenda items
org-agenda-entry-text-maxlinesAgenda Commands
org-agenda-exporter-settingsExporting Agenda Views
org-agenda-exporter-settingsExporting Agenda Views
org-agenda-filesAgenda Files
org-agenda-filesSorting of agenda items
org-agenda-ignore-propertiesSpeeding Up Your Agendas
org-agenda-inhibit-startupSpeeding Up Your Agendas
org-agenda-log-mode-itemsAgenda Commands
org-agenda-loop-over-headlines-in-active-regionExecute commands in the active region
org-agenda-max-effortFiltering/limiting agenda items
org-agenda-max-entriesFiltering/limiting agenda items
org-agenda-max-tagsFiltering/limiting agenda items
org-agenda-max-todosFiltering/limiting agenda items
org-agenda-overriding-headerSpecial Agenda Views
org-agenda-prefix-formatPresentation and Sorting
org-agenda-regexp-filter-presetFiltering/limiting agenda items
org-agenda-restore-windows-after-quitAgenda Views
org-agenda-search-headline-for-timeTime-of-day specifications
org-agenda-show-inherited-tagsAgenda Commands
org-agenda-show-inherited-tagsSpeeding Up Your Agendas
org-agenda-skip-archived-treesInternal archiving
org-agenda-skip-archived-treesAgenda Views
org-agenda-skip-comment-treesAgenda Views
org-agenda-skip-deadline-prewarning-if-scheduledDeadlines and Scheduling
org-agenda-skip-functionSpecial Agenda Views
org-agenda-skip-functionSpecial Agenda Views
org-agenda-skip-functionUsing the Mapping API
org-agenda-skip-function-globalSpecial Agenda Views
org-agenda-skip-scheduled-delay-if-deadlineDeadlines and Scheduling
org-agenda-skip-scheduled-if-deadline-is-shownRepeated tasks
org-agenda-skip-scheduled-if-doneDeadlines and Scheduling
org-agenda-sorting-strategySorting of agenda items
org-agenda-spanWeekly/daily agenda
org-agenda-spanAgenda Commands
org-agenda-start-dayWeekly/daily agenda
org-agenda-start-on-weekdayWeekly/daily agenda
org-agenda-start-with-clockreport-modeAgenda Commands
org-agenda-start-with-entry-text-modeAgenda Commands
org-agenda-start-with-follow-modeAgenda Commands
org-agenda-stickyAgenda Dispatcher
org-agenda-tag-filter-presetFiltering/limiting agenda items
org-agenda-tags-columnPresentation and Sorting
org-agenda-tags-todo-honor-ignore-optionsMatching tags and properties
org-agenda-text-search-extra-filesAgenda Dispatcher
org-agenda-text-search-extra-filesSearch view
org-agenda-time-gridTime-of-day specifications
org-agenda-time-gridAgenda Commands
org-agenda-todo-ignore-deadlinesGlobal TODO list
org-agenda-todo-ignore-scheduledGlobal TODO list
org-agenda-todo-ignore-timestampGlobal TODO list
org-agenda-todo-ignore-with-dateGlobal TODO list
org-agenda-todo-list-sublevelsBreaking Down Tasks
org-agenda-todo-list-sublevelsGlobal TODO list
org-agenda-use-tag-inheritanceTag Inheritance
org-agenda-use-tag-inheritanceSpeeding Up Your Agendas
org-agenda-use-time-gridTime-of-day specifications
org-agenda-use-time-gridAgenda Commands
org-agenda-window-setupAgenda Views
org-alphabetical-listsPlain Lists
org-archive-default-commandArchiving
org-archive-default-commandAgenda Commands
org-archive-locationMoving subtrees
org-archive-locationIn-buffer Settings
org-archive-save-context-infoMoving subtrees
org-archive-subtree-save-file-pMoving subtrees
org-ascii-links-to-notesASCII/Latin-1/UTF-8 export
org-ascii-text-widthASCII/Latin-1/UTF-8 export
org-attach-archive-deleteAttachment options
org-attach-auto-tagAttachment options
org-attach-commandsAttachment options
org-attach-dir-relativeAttachment options
org-attach-expertAttachment options
org-attach-id-dirAttachment options
org-attach-id-to-path-function-listAttachment options
org-attach-methodAttachment defaults and dispatcher
org-attach-methodAttachment options
org-attach-preferred-new-methodAttachment options
org-attach-store-link-pAttachment options
org-attach-use-inheritanceAttachment options
org-babel-default-header-argsUsing Header Arguments
org-babel-default-header-argsUsing Header Arguments
org-babel-default-inline-header-argsUsing Header Arguments
org-babel-inline-result-wrapEvaluating Code Blocks
org-babel-load-languagesLanguages
org-babel-post-tangle-hookExtracting Source Code
org-babel-pre-tangle-hookExtracting Source Code
org-babel-tangle-body-hookExtracting Source Code
org-babel-tangle-finished-hookExtracting Source Code
org-beamer-environments-defaultFrames and Blocks in Beamer
org-beamer-environments-extraFrames and Blocks in Beamer
org-beamer-frame-levelFrames and Blocks in Beamer
org-beamer-themeBeamer specific export settings
org-calc-default-modesFormula syntax for Calc
org-capture-bookmarkUsing capture
org-capture-last-storedUsing capture
org-capture-templatesCapture templates
org-capture-templates-contextsTemplates in contexts
org-capture-use-agenda-dateAgenda Commands
org-checkbox-hierarchical-statisticsCheckboxes
org-clock-auto-clockout-timerResolving idle time
org-clock-continuouslyClocking commands
org-clock-continuouslyClocking commands
org-clock-continuouslyResolving idle time
org-clock-display-default-rangeThe clock table
org-clock-idle-timeResolving idle time
org-clock-in-prepare-hookClocking commands
org-clock-into-drawerClocking commands
org-clock-mode-line-totalClocking commands
org-clock-persistClocking Work Time
org-clock-report-include-clocking-taskAgenda Commands
org-clock-x11idle-program-nameResolving idle time
org-clocktable-defaultsThe clock table
org-closed-keep-when-no-todoClosing items
org-coderef-label-formatLiteral Examples
org-columnsUsing column view
org-columns-default-formatUsing column view
org-columns-default-formatEffort Estimates
org-columns-default-formatAgenda Commands
org-columns-default-formatAgenda Column View
org-columns-default-format-for-agendaAgenda Column View
org-columns-skip-archived-treesInternal archiving
org-columns-summary-typesColumn attributes
org-complete-tags-always-offer-all-agenda-tagsSetting Tags
org-confirm-babel-evaluateCode Evaluation Security
org-create-file-search-functionsCustom Searches
org-crypt-tag-matcherOrg Crypt
org-ctrl-k-protect-subtreeHeadlines
org-cycle-emulate-tabGlobal and local cycling
org-cycle-global-at-bobGlobal and local cycling
org-cycle-include-plain-listsPlain Lists
org-cycle-inline-images-displayImages
org-cycle-open-archived-treesInternal archiving
org-cycle-separator-linesHeadlines
org-deadline-warning-daysDeadlines and Scheduling
org-deadline-warning-daysInserting deadline/schedule
org-default-notes-fileSetting up capture
org-default-notes-fileTemplate elements
org-directoryTemplate elements
org-display-custom-timesCustom time format
org-disputed-keysConflicts
org-done, faceFaces for TODO keywords
org-edit-src-auto-save-idle-delayEditing Source Code
org-effort-propertyEffort Estimates
org-enforce-todo-dependenciesTODO dependencies
org-enforce-todo-dependenciesTODO dependencies
org-entities-userSpecial Symbols
org-execute-file-search-functionsCustom Searches
org-export-allow-bind-keywordsExport Settings
org-export-async-init-fileThe Export Dispatcher
org-export-backendsExporting
org-export-before-parsing-hookAdvanced Export Configuration
org-export-before-processing-hookAdvanced Export Configuration
org-export-creator-stringHTML preamble and postamble
org-export-date-timestamp-formatExport Settings
org-export-default-languageExport Settings
org-export-default-languageLaTeX header and sectioning
org-export-dispatch-use-expert-uiThe Export Dispatcher
org-export-exclude-tagsExport Settings
org-export-global-macrosMacro Replacement
org-export-headline-levelsExport Settings
org-export-html-table-tagTables in HTML export
org-export-html-tag-class-prefixCSS support
org-export-html-todo-kwd-class-prefixCSS support
org-export-html-use-infojsJavaScript support
org-export-in-backgroundThe Export Dispatcher
org-export-initial-scopeThe Export Dispatcher
org-export-odt-convert-capabilitiesAdvanced topics in ODT export
org-export-odt-convert-processAdvanced topics in ODT export
org-export-odt-convert-processesAdvanced topics in ODT export
org-export-odt-preferred-output-formatODT export commands
org-export-odt-schema-dirAdvanced topics in ODT export
org-export-preserve-breaksExport Settings
org-export-select-tagsExport Settings
org-export-time-stamp-fileExport Settings
org-export-time-stamp-fileHTML preamble and postamble
org-export-use-babelExporting Code Blocks
org-export-with-archived-treesInternal archiving
org-export-with-archived-treesExport Settings
org-export-with-authorExport Settings
org-export-with-broken-linksExport Settings
org-export-with-clocksExport Settings
org-export-with-creatorExport Settings
org-export-with-dateExport Settings
org-export-with-drawersExport Settings
org-export-with-emailExport Settings
org-export-with-emphasizeExport Settings
org-export-with-entitiesExport Settings
org-export-with-fixed-widthExport Settings
org-export-with-footnotesExport Settings
org-export-with-inlinetasksExport Settings
org-export-with-latexLaTeX fragments
org-export-with-latexExport Settings
org-export-with-planningExport Settings
org-export-with-priorityExport Settings
org-export-with-propertiesExport Settings
org-export-with-section-numbersExport Settings
org-export-with-smart-quotesExport Settings
org-export-with-special-stringsExport Settings
org-export-with-statistics-cookiesExport Settings
org-export-with-sub-superscriptsExport Settings
org-export-with-tablesExport Settings
org-export-with-tagsExport Settings
org-export-with-tasksExport Settings
org-export-with-timestampsExport Settings
org-export-with-titleExport Settings
org-export-with-tocExport Settings
org-export-with-tocTable of Contents
org-export-with-todo-keywordsExport Settings
org-expot-creator-stringExport Settings
org-faces-easy-propertiesFaces for TODO keywords
org-fast-tag-selection-include-todoFast access to TODO states
org-fast-tag-selection-single-keySetting Tags
org-file-appsHandling Links
org-file-appsAttachment defaults and dispatcher
org-fold-catch-invisible-editsCatching invisible edits
org-fontify-emphasized-textEmphasis and Monospace
org-footnote-auto-adjustCreating Footnotes
org-footnote-auto-adjustIn-buffer Settings
org-footnote-auto-labelCreating Footnotes
org-footnote-auto-labelIn-buffer Settings
org-footnote-define-inlineCreating Footnotes
org-footnote-define-inlineIn-buffer Settings
org-footnote-sectionHeadlines
org-footnote-sectionCreating Footnotes
org-format-latex-headerLaTeX fragments
org-format-latex-headerPreviewing LaTeX fragments
org-format-latex-optionsPreviewing LaTeX fragments
org-global-propertiesProperty Syntax
org-global-propertiesEffort Estimates
org-goto-auto-isearchMotion
org-goto-interfaceMotion
org-group-tagsTag Hierarchy
org-habit-following-daysTracking your habits
org-habit-graph-columnTracking your habits
org-habit-preceding-daysTracking your habits
org-habit-show-habits-only-for-todayTracking your habits
org-hide-block-startupBlocks
org-hide-block-startupIn-buffer Settings
org-hide-drawer-startupIn-buffer Settings
org-hide-leading-starsHard indentation
org-hide-leading-starsIn-buffer Settings
org-hide-macro-markersMacro Replacement
org-hide, faceHard indentation
org-hierarchical-todo-statisticsBreaking Down Tasks
org-html-container-elementHTML specific export settings
org-html-doctypeHTML specific export settings
org-html-doctypeHTML doctypes
org-html-doctype-alistHTML doctypes
org-html-headHTML specific export settings
org-html-headCSS support
org-html-headBare HTML
org-html-head-extraHTML specific export settings
org-html-head-extraCSS support
org-html-head-extraBare HTML
org-html-head-include-default-styleCSS support
org-html-head-include-default-styleBare HTML
org-html-head-include-scriptsBare HTML
org-html-html5-elementsHTML doctypes
org-html-html5-fancyHTML doctypes
org-html-inline-imagesImages in HTML export
org-html-link-homeHTML specific export settings
org-html-link-org-files-as-htmlLinks in HTML export
org-html-link-upHTML specific export settings
org-html-mathjax-optionsHTML specific export settings
org-html-mathjax-options~Math formatting in HTML export
org-html-mathjax-templateMath formatting in HTML export
org-html-postambleHTML preamble and postamble
org-html-postambleBare HTML
org-html-postamble-formatHTML preamble and postamble
org-html-preambleHTML preamble and postamble
org-html-preambleBare HTML
org-html-preamble-formatHTML preamble and postamble
org-html-self-link-headlinesHeadlines in HTML export
org-html-style-defaultCSS support
org-html-table-align-individual-fieldsTables in HTML export
org-html-table-caption-aboveTables in HTML export
org-html-table-data-tagsTables in HTML export
org-html-table-default-attributesTables in HTML export
org-html-table-header-tagsTables in HTML export
org-html-table-row-tagsTables in HTML export
org-html-table-use-header-tags-for-first-columnTables in HTML export
org-html-use-infojsBare HTML
org-html-validation-linkHTML preamble and postamble
org-icalendar-alarm-timeiCalendar Export
org-icalendar-categoriesiCalendar Export
org-icalendar-combined-agenda-fileiCalendar Export
org-icalendar-include-bodyiCalendar Export
org-icalendar-include-todoiCalendar Export
org-icalendar-store-UIDiCalendar Export
org-icalendar-use-deadlineiCalendar Export
org-icalendar-use-schedulediCalendar Export
org-id-link-to-org-use-idHandling Links
org-image-actual-widthImages
org-imenu-depthCooperation
org-indent-indentation-per-levelOrg Indent Mode
org-indent-mode-turns-off-org-adapt-indentationOrg Indent Mode
org-indent-mode-turns-on-hiding-starsOrg Indent Mode
org-infojs-optionsJavaScript support
org-insert-mode-line-in-empty-fileActivation
org-irc-links-to-logsHandling Links
org-latex-bibtex-compilerLaTeX/PDF export commands
org-latex-classesLaTeX specific export settings
org-latex-classesLaTeX specific export settings
org-latex-classesLaTeX header and sectioning
org-latex-compilerLaTeX/PDF export commands
org-latex-compilerLaTeX specific export settings
org-latex-default-classLaTeX specific export settings
org-latex-default-classLaTeX header and sectioning
org-latex-default-packages-alistLaTeX/PDF export commands
org-latex-default-packages-alistLaTeX header and sectioning
org-latex-default-table-environmentTables in LaTeX export
org-latex-default-table-modeTables in LaTeX export
org-latex-engraved-optionsSource blocks in LaTeX export
org-latex-hyperref-templateLaTeX specific export settings
org-latex-hyperref-templateLaTeX specific export settings
org-latex-images-centeredImages in LaTeX export
org-latex-language-alistLaTeX specific export settings
org-latex-listings-optionsSource blocks in LaTeX export
org-latex-minted-optionsSource blocks in LaTeX export
org-latex-packages-alistLaTeX specific export settings
org-latex-packages-alistLaTeX header and sectioning
org-latex-src-block-backendLiteral Examples
org-latex-subtitle-formatLaTeX specific export settings
org-latex-subtitle-separateLaTeX specific export settings
org-latex-tables-booktabsTables in LaTeX export
org-latex-tables-centeredTables in LaTeX export
org-latex-title-commandLaTeX specific export settings
org-latex-title-commandLaTeX specific export settings
org-latex-to-mathml-convert-commandLaTeX math snippets
org-latex-to-mathml-jar-fileLaTeX math snippets
org-link-abbrev-alistLink Abbreviations
org-link-abbrev-alistIn-buffer Settings
org-link-elisp-confirm-functionCode Evaluation Security
org-link-email-description-formatHandling Links
org-link-frame-setupHandling Links
org-link-from-user-regexpTemplate expansion
org-link-keep-stored-after-insertionHandling Links
org-link-parametersAdding Hyperlink Types
org-link-search-must-match-exact-headlineInternal Links
org-link-shell-confirm-functionCode Evaluation Security
org-link-use-indirect-buffer-for-internalsHandling Links
org-list-automatic-rulesPlain Lists
org-list-automatic-rulesCheckboxes
org-list-demote-modify-bulletPlain Lists
org-list-indent-offsetPlain Lists
org-list-use-circular-motionPlain Lists
org-log-doneTracking TODO state changes
org-log-doneAgenda Commands
org-log-doneIn-buffer Settings
org-log-into-drawerTracking TODO state changes
org-log-into-drawerAgenda Commands
org-log-note-clock-outClocking commands
org-log-note-clock-outIn-buffer Settings
org-log-redeadlineInserting deadline/schedule
org-log-refileRefile and Copy
org-log-repeatRepeated tasks
org-log-repeatIn-buffer Settings
org-log-rescheduleInserting deadline/schedule
org-log-states-order-reversedTracking TODO state changes
org-loop-over-headlines-in-active-regionExecute commands in the active region
org-M-RET-may-split-lineStructure Editing
org-M-RET-may-split-linePlain Lists
org-md-headline-styleMarkdown Export
org-mobile-directorySetting up the staging area
org-mobile-encryptionSetting up the staging area
org-mobile-filesPushing to the mobile application
org-mobile-inbox-for-pullPulling from the mobile application
org-num-faceDynamic Headline Numbering
org-num-format-functionDynamic Headline Numbering
org-num-max-levelDynamic Headline Numbering
org-num-skip-commentedDynamic Headline Numbering
org-num-skip-footnotesDynamic Headline Numbering
org-num-skip-tagsDynamic Headline Numbering
org-num-skip-unnumberedDynamic Headline Numbering
org-odd-levels-onlyMatching tags and properties
org-odd-levels-onlyHard indentation
org-odd-levels-onlyIn-buffer Settings
org-odd-levels-onlySpecial Agenda Views
org-odt-category-map-alistLabels and captions in ODT export
org-odt-convert-processExtending ODT export
org-odt-create-custom-styles-for-srcblocksLiteral examples in ODT export
org-odt-fontify-srcblocksLiteral examples in ODT export
org-odt-pixels-per-inchImages in ODT export
org-odt-preferred-output-formatODT export commands
org-odt-preferred-output-formatExtending ODT export
org-odt-styles-fileODT specific export settings
org-odt-styles-fileApplying custom styles
org-odt-table-stylesAdvanced topics in ODT export
org-odt-table-stylesAdvanced topics in ODT export
org-outline-path-complete-in-stepsRefile and Copy
org-plain-list-ordered-item-terminatorPlain Lists
org-plain-list-ordered-item-terminatorPlain Lists
org-popup-calendar-for-date-promptThe date/time prompt
org-pretty-entitiesSubscripts and Superscripts
org-pretty-entitiesIn-buffer Settings
org-pretty-entities-include-sub-superscriptsSubscripts and Superscripts
org-preview-latex-default-processPreviewing LaTeX fragments
org-priority-defaultPriorities
org-priority-defaultIn-buffer Settings
org-priority-facesPriorities
org-priority-highestPriorities
org-priority-highestIn-buffer Settings
org-priority-lowestPriorities
org-priority-lowestIn-buffer Settings
org-priority-start-cycle-with-defaultPriorities
org-property-allowed-value-functionsUsing the Property API
org-protocol-default-template-keyThe capture protocol
org-protocol-project-alistThe open-source protocol
org-publish-project-alistProject alist
org-publish-project-alistPublishing options
org-publish-project-alistSite map
org-publish-use-timestamps-flagTriggering Publication
org-put-time-stamp-overlaysIn-buffer Settings
org-read-date-display-liveThe date/time prompt
org-read-date-force-compatible-datesThe date/time prompt
org-read-date-prefer-futureThe date/time prompt
org-refile-allow-creating-parent-nodesRefile and Copy
org-refile-keepRefile and Copy
org-refile-targetsRefile and Copy
org-refile-use-cacheRefile and Copy
org-refile-use-outline-pathRefile and Copy
org-remove-highlights-with-changeSparse Trees
org-remove-highlights-with-changeClocking commands
org-replace-disputed-keysConflicts
org-return-follows-linkHandling Links
org-reverse-note-orderRefile and Copy
org-scheduled-delay-daysDeadlines and Scheduling
org-show-context-detailSparse Trees
org-sort-agenda-noeffort-is-highFiltering/limiting agenda items
org-sparse-tree-open-archived-treesInternal archiving
org-special-ctrl-a/eHeadlines
org-special-ctrl-kHeadlines
org-speed-commandsSpeed Keys
org-src-ask-before-returning-to-edit-bufferEditing Source Code
org-src-block-facesEditing Source Code
org-src-fontify-nativelyEditing Source Code
org-src-lang-modesEditing Source Code
org-src-preserve-indentationEditing Source Code
org-src-window-setupEditing Source Code
org-startup-align-all-tablesColumn Width and Alignment
org-startup-align-all-tablesIn-buffer Settings
org-startup-foldedInitial visibility
org-startup-foldedIn-buffer Settings
org-startup-foldedSpeeding Up Your Agendas
org-startup-indentedOrg Indent Mode
org-startup-indentedIn-buffer Settings
org-startup-numeratedDynamic Headline Numbering
org-startup-numeratedIn-buffer Settings
org-startup-shrink-all-tablesColumn Width and Alignment
org-startup-shrink-all-tablesIn-buffer Settings
org-startup-with-inline-imagesImages
org-startup-with-inline-imagesIn-buffer Settings
org-startup-with-latex-previewPreviewing LaTeX fragments
org-store-link-propsTemplate expansion
org-structure-template-alistStructure Templates
org-stuck-projectsStuck projects
org-support-shift-selectPlain Lists
org-support-shift-selectPlain Lists
org-support-shift-selectConflicts
org-table-automatic-realignColumn Width and Alignment
org-table-copy-incrementBuilt-in Table Editor
org-table-current-columnReferences
org-table-current-dlineReferences
org-table-duration-custom-formatDurations and time values
org-table-export-default-formatBuilt-in Table Editor
org-table-formulaIn-buffer Settings
org-table-formula-constantsReferences
org-table-formula-constantsIn-buffer Settings
org-table-formula-constantsCooperation
org-table-header-line-pBuilt-in Table Editor
org-table-use-standard-referencesEditing and debugging formulas
org-tag-alistSetting Tags
org-tag-alistIn-buffer Settings
org-tag-facesTags
org-tag-persistent-alistSetting Tags
org-tags-columnSetting Tags
org-tags-exclude-from-inheritanceTag Inheritance
org-tags-match-list-sublevelsTag Inheritance
org-tags-match-list-sublevelsTag Searches
org-tags-match-list-sublevelsProperty Searches
org-tags-match-list-sublevelsMatching tags and properties
org-tempo-keywords-alistStructure Templates
org-texinfo-classesTexinfo file header
org-texinfo-classesHeadings and sectioning structure
org-texinfo-coding-systemTexinfo file header
org-texinfo-default-classTexinfo specific export settings
org-texinfo-default-classHeadings and sectioning structure
org-texinfo-info-processTexinfo export commands
org-texinfo-table-default-markupPlain lists in Texinfo export
org-time-stamp-custom-formatsCustom time format
org-time-stamp-overlay-formatsIn-buffer Settings
org-time-stamp-rounding-minutesCreating Timestamps
org-timer-default-timerTimers
org-todo-keyword-facesFaces for TODO keywords
org-todo-keywordsTODO Basics
org-todo-keywordsTODO Extensions
org-todo-keywordsGlobal TODO list
org-todo-keywordsIn-buffer Settings
org-todo-repeat-to-stateRepeated tasks
org-todo-state-tags-triggersTODO Basics
org-todo, faceFaces for TODO keywords
org-track-ordered-property-with-tagTODO dependencies
org-track-ordered-property-with-tagCheckboxes
org-treat-insert-todo-heading-as-state-changeStructure Editing
org-treat-S-cursor-todo-selection-as-state-changeTODO Basics
org-use-property-inheritanceProperty Inheritance
org-use-property-inheritanceUsing Header Arguments
org-use-property-inheritanceUsing the Property API
org-use-speed-commandsSpeed Keys
org-use-sub-superscriptsSubscripts and Superscripts
org-use-tag-inheritanceTag Inheritance
org-yank-adjusted-subtreesStructure Editing
org-yank-folded-subtreesStructure Editing

P
parse-time-monthsThe date/time prompt
parse-time-weekdaysThe date/time prompt

U
user-full-nameExport Settings
user-mail-addressExport Settings


Footnotes

(1)

If you do not use Font Lock globally turn it on in Org buffer with ‘(add-hook 'org-mode-hook #'turn-on-font-lock)’.

(2)

Please consider subscribing to the mailing list in order to minimize the work the mailing list moderators have to do.

(3)

See the variables org-special-ctrl-a/e, org-special-ctrl-k, and org-ctrl-k-protect-subtree to configure special behavior of C-a, C-e, and C-k in headlines. Note also that clocking only works with headings indented less than 30 stars.

(4)

See, however, the option org-cycle-emulate-tab.

(5)

The indirect buffer contains the entire buffer, but is narrowed to the current tree. Editing the indirect buffer also changes the original buffer, but without affecting visibility in that buffer. For more information about indirect buffers, see GNU Emacs Manual.

(6)

When org-agenda-inhibit-startup is non-nil, Org does not honor the default visibility state when first opening a file for the agenda (see Speeding Up Your Agendas).

(7)

See also the variable org-show-context-detail to decide how much context is shown around each match.

(8)

This depends on the option org-remove-highlights-with-change.

(9)

When using ‘*’ as a bullet, lines must be indented so that they are not interpreted as headlines. Also, when you are hiding leading stars to get a clean outline view, plain list items starting with a star may be hard to distinguish from true headlines. In short: even though ‘*’ is supported, it may be better to not use it for plain list items.

(10)

You can filter out any of them by configuring org-plain-list-ordered-item-terminator.

(11)

You can also get ‘a.’, ‘A.’, ‘a)’ and ‘A)’ by configuring org-list-allow-alphabetical. To minimize confusion with normal text, those are limited to one character only. Beyond that limit, bullets automatically become numbers.

(12)

If there’s a checkbox in the item, the cookie must be put before the checkbox. If you have activated alphabetical lists, you can also use counters like ‘[@b]’.

(13)

If you do not want the item to be split, customize the variable org-M-RET-may-split-line.

(14)

If you want to cycle around items that way, you may customize org-list-use-circular-motion.

(15)

See org-list-use-circular-motion for a cyclic behavior.

(16)

Many desktops intercept M-TAB to switch windows. Use C-M-i or ESC TAB instead.

(17)

To insert a vertical bar into a table field, use ‘\vert’ or, inside a word ‘abc\vert{}def’.

(18)

Org understands references typed by the user as ‘B4’, but it does not use this syntax when offering a formula for editing. You can customize this behavior using the variable org-table-use-standard-references.

(19)

The computation time scales as O(N^2) because table FOO is parsed for each field to be copied.

(20)

The file ‘constants.el’ can supply the values of constants in two different unit systems, ‘SI’ and ‘cgs’. Which one is used depends on the value of the variable constants-unit-system. You can use the ‘STARTUP’ options ‘constSI’ and ‘constcgs’ to set this value for the current buffer.

(21)

The printf reformatting is limited in precision because the value passed to it is converted into an “integer” or “double”. The “integer” is limited in size by truncating the signed value to 32 bits. The “double” is limited in precision to 64 bits overall which leaves approximately 16 significant decimal digits.

(22)

Such names must start with an alphabetic character and use only alphanumeric/underscore characters.

(23)

Plain URIs are recognized only for a well-defined set of schemes. See External Links. Unlike URI syntax, they cannot contain parenthesis or white spaces, either. URIs within angle brackets have no such limitation.

(24)

More accurately, the precise behavior depends on how point arrived there—see Invisible Text.

(25)

To insert a link targeting a headline, in-buffer completion can be used. Just type a star followed by a few optional letters into the buffer and press M-TAB. All headlines in the current buffer are offered as completions.

(26)

When targeting a ‘NAME’ keyword, the ‘CAPTION’ keyword is mandatory in order to get proper numbering (see Captions).

(27)

The actual behavior of the search depends on the value of the variable org-link-search-must-match-exact-headline. If its value is nil, then a fuzzy text search is done. If it is t, then only the exact headline is matched, ignoring spaces and statistic cookies. If the value is query-to-create, then an exact headline is searched; if it is not found, then the user is queried to create it.

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The Org Id library must first be loaded, either through org-customize, by enabling id in org-modules, or by adding ‘(require 'org-id)’ in your Emacs init file.

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Note that you do not have to use this command to insert a link. Links in Org are plain text, and you can type or paste them straight into the buffer. By using this command, the links are automatically enclosed in double brackets, and you will be asked for the optional descriptive text.

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After insertion of a stored link, the link will be removed from the list of stored links. To keep it in the list for later use, use a triple C-u prefix argument to C-c C-l, or configure the option org-link-keep-stored-after-insertion.

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This works if a function has been defined in the :complete property of a link in org-link-parameters.

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See the variable org-link-use-indirect-buffer-for-internals.

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For backward compatibility, line numbers can also follow a single colon.

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Of course, you can make a document that contains only long lists of TODO items, but this is not required.

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Changing the variable org-todo-keywords only becomes effective after restarting Org mode in a buffer.

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This is also true for the t command in the agenda buffer.

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All characters are allowed except ‘@’, ‘^’ and ‘!’, which have a special meaning here.

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Check also the variable org-fast-tag-selection-include-todo, it allows you to change the TODO state through the tags interface (see Setting Tags), in case you like to mingle the two concepts. Note that this means you need to come up with unique keys across both sets of keywords.

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Org mode parses these lines only when Org mode is activated after visiting a file. C-c C-c with point in a line starting with ‘#+’ is simply restarting Org mode for the current buffer.

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The corresponding in-buffer setting is: ‘#+STARTUP: logdone’.

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The corresponding in-buffer setting is: ‘#+STARTUP: lognotedone’.

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See the variable org-log-states-order-reversed.

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Note that the ‘LOGBOOK’ drawer is unfolded when pressing SPC in the agenda to show an entry—use C-u SPC to keep it folded here.

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It is possible that Org mode records two timestamps when you are using both org-log-done and state change logging. However, it never prompts for two notes: if you have configured both, the state change recording note takes precedence and cancel the closing note.

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See also the option org-priority-start-cycle-with-default.

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To keep subtasks out of the global TODO list, see the option org-agenda-todo-list-sublevels.

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With the exception of description lists. But you can allow it by modifying org-list-automatic-rules accordingly.

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Set the variable org-checkbox-hierarchical-statistics if you want such cookies to count all checkboxes below the cookie, not just those belonging to direct children.

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C-u C-c C-c on the first item of a list with no checkbox adds checkboxes to the rest of the list.

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As with all these in-buffer settings, pressing C-c C-c activates any changes in the line.

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This is only true if the search does not involve more complex tests including properties (see Property Searches).

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To extend this default list to all tags used in all agenda files (see Agenda Views), customize the variable org-complete-tags-always-offer-all-agenda-tags.

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Keys are automatically assigned to tags that have no configured keys.

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If more than one summary type applies to the same property, the parent values are computed according to the first of them.

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An age can be defined as a duration, using units defined in org-duration-units, e.g., ‘3d 1h’. If any value in the column is as such, the summary is also expressed as a duration.

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Please note that the ‘COLUMNS’ definition must be on a single line; it is wrapped here only because of formatting constraints.

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Contributed packages are not part of Emacs, but are distributed with the main distribution of Org—visit https://orgmode.org.

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The Org date format is inspired by the standard ISO 8601 date/time format. To use an alternative format, see Custom time format. The day name is optional when you type the date yourself. However, any date inserted or modified by Org adds that day name, for reading convenience.

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When working with the standard diary expression functions, you need to be very careful with the order of the arguments. That order depends evilly on the variable calendar-date-style. For example, to specify a date December 1, 2005, the call might look like ‘(diary-date 12 1 2005)’ or ‘(diary-date 1 12 2005)’ or ‘(diary-date 2005 12 1)’, depending on the settings. This has been the source of much confusion. Org mode users can resort to special versions of these functions, namely org-date, org-anniversary, org-cyclic, and ~org-block. These work just like the corresponding diary- functions, but with stable ISO order of arguments (year, month, day) wherever applicable, independent of the value of calendar-date-style.

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See the variable org-read-date-prefer-future. You may set that variable to the symbol time to even make a time before now shift the date to tomorrow.

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If you do not need/want the calendar, configure the variable org-popup-calendar-for-date-prompt.

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You can also use the calendar command . to jump to today’s date, but if you are inserting an hour specification for your timestamp, . will then insert a dot after the hour. By contrast, C-. will always jump to today’s date.

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If you find this distracting, turn off the display with org-read-date-display-live.

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It will still be listed on that date after it has been marked as done. If you do not like this, set the variable org-agenda-skip-scheduled-if-done.

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The ‘SCHEDULED’ and ‘DEADLINE’ dates are inserted on the line right below the headline. Do not put any text between this line and the headline.

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Note the corresponding ‘STARTUP’ options ‘logredeadline’, ‘lognoteredeadline’, and ‘nologredeadline’.

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Note the corresponding ‘STARTUP’ options ‘logreschedule’, ‘lognotereschedule’, and ‘nologreschedule’.

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Org does not repeat inactive timestamps, however. See Timestamps.

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In fact, the target state is taken from, in this sequence, the ‘REPEAT_TO_STATE’ property, the variable org-todo-repeat-to-state if it is a string, the previous TODO state if org-todo-repeat-to-state is t, or the first state of the TODO state sequence.

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You can change this using the option org-log-repeat, or the ‘STARTUP’ options ‘logrepeat’, ‘lognoterepeat’, and ‘nologrepeat’. With ‘lognoterepeat’, you will also be prompted for a note.

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Clocking only works if all headings are indented with less than 30 stars. This is a hard-coded limitation of lmax in org-clock-sum.

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To resume the clock under the assumption that you have worked on this task while outside Emacs, use ‘(setq org-clock-persist t)’.

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To add an effort estimate “on the fly”, hook a function doing this to org-clock-in-prepare-hook.

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The last reset of the task is recorded by the ‘LAST_REPEAT’ property.

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See also the variable org-clock-mode-line-total.

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The corresponding in-buffer setting is: ‘#+STARTUP: lognoteclock-out’.

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When using :step, untilnow starts from the beginning of 2003, not the beginning of time.

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Language terms can be set through the variable org-clock-clocktable-language-setup.

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Note that all parameters must be specified in a single line—the line is broken here only to fit it into the manual.

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On computers using macOS, idleness is based on actual user idleness, not just Emacs’ idle time. For X11, you can install a utility program ‘x11idle.c’, available in the ‘org-contrib/’ repository, or install the xprintidle package and set it to the variable org-clock-x11idle-program-name if you are running Debian, to get the same general treatment of idleness. On other systems, idle time refers to Emacs idle time only.

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Please note the pitfalls of summing hierarchical data in a flat list (see Using Column View in the Agenda).

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Note the corresponding ‘STARTUP’ options ‘logrefile’, ‘lognoterefile’, and ‘nologrefile’.

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Org used to offer four different targets for date/week tree capture. Now, Org automatically translates these to use file+olp+datetree, applying the :time-prompt and :tree-type properties. Please rewrite your date/week-tree targets using file+olp+datetree since the older targets are now deprecated.

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A date tree is an outline structure with years on the highest level, months or ISO weeks as sublevels and then dates on the lowest level.

* 2022
** 2022-10 October
*** 2022-10-07 Friday
*** 2022-10-08 Saturday

Tags are allowed in the tree structure.

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When the file name is not absolute, Org assumes it is relative to org-directory.

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If you need one of these sequences literally, escape the ‘%’ with a backslash.

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If you define your own link types (see Adding Hyperlink Types), any property you store with org-store-link-props can be accessed in capture templates in a similar way.

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This is always the other, not the user. See the variable org-link-from-user-regexp.

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If you move entries or Org files from one directory to another, you may want to configure org-attach-id-dir to contain an absolute path.

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If the value of that variable is not a list, but a single file name, then the list of agenda files in maintained in that external file.

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When using the dispatcher, pressing < before selecting a command actually limits the command to the current file, and ignores org-agenda-files until the next dispatcher command.

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For backward compatibility, you can also press 1 to restrict to the current buffer.

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For backward compatibility, you can also press 0 to restrict to the current region/subtree.

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For backward compatibility, the universal prefix argument C-u causes all TODO entries to be listed before the agenda. This feature is deprecated, use the dedicated TODO list, or a block agenda instead (see Block agenda).

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The variable org-anniversary used in the example is just like diary-anniversary, but the argument order is always according to ISO and therefore independent of the value of calendar-date-style.

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You can, however, disable this by setting org-agenda-search-headline-for-time variable to a nil value.

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Custom agenda commands can preset a filter by binding one of the variables org-agenda-tag-filter-preset, org-agenda-category-filter-preset, org-agenda-effort-filter-preset or org-agenda-regexp-filter-preset as an option. This filter is then applied to the view and persists as a basic filter through refreshes and more secondary filtering. The filter is a global property of the entire agenda view—in a block agenda, you should only set this in the global options section, not in the section of an individual block.

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Only tags filtering is respected here, effort filtering is ignored.

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You can also create persistent custom functions through org-agenda-bulk-custom-functions.

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This file is parsed for the agenda when org-agenda-include-diary is set.

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You can provide a description for a prefix key by inserting a cons cell with the prefix and the description.

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Planned means here that these entries have some planning information attached to them, like a time-stamp, a scheduled or a deadline string. See org-agenda-entry-types on how to set what planning information is taken into account.

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For HTML you need to install Hrvoje Nikšić’s ‘htmlize.el’ as an Emacs package from NonGNU ELPA or from Hrvoje Nikšić’s repository.

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To create PDF output, the Ghostscript ps2pdf utility must be installed on the system. Selecting a PDF file also creates the postscript file.

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If you want to store standard views like the weekly agenda or the global TODO list as well, you need to define custom commands for them in order to be able to specify file names.

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Quoting depends on the system you use, please check the FAQ for examples.

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You can turn this on by default by setting the variable org-pretty-entities, or on a per-file base with the ‘STARTUP’ option ‘entitiespretty’.

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This behavior can be disabled with ‘-’ export setting (see Export Settings).

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LaTeX is a macro system based on Donald E. Knuth’s TeX system. Many of the features described here as “LaTeX” are really from TeX, but for simplicity I am blurring this distinction.

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When MathJax is used, only the environments recognized by MathJax are processed. When dvipng, dvisvgm, or ImageMagick suite is used to create images, any LaTeX environment is handled.

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These are respectively available at https://sourceforge.net/projects/dvipng/, http://dvisvgm.bplaced.net/ and from the ImageMagick suite. Choose the converter by setting the variable org-preview-latex-default-process accordingly.

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Org mode has a method to test if point is inside such a fragment, see the documentation of the function org-inside-LaTeX-fragment-p.

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This works automatically for the HTML backend (it requires version 1.34 of the ‘htmlize.el’ package, which you need to install). Fontified code chunks in LaTeX can be achieved using either the listings LaTeX package, minted LaTeX package, or by using engrave-faces . Refer to org-latex-src-block-backend for details.

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Source code in code blocks may also be evaluated either interactively or on export. See Working with Source Code for more information on evaluating code blocks.

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Adding ‘-k’ to ‘-n -rkeeps the labels in the source code while using line numbers for the links, which might be useful to explain those in an Org mode example code.

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You may select a different mode with the variable org-edit-fixed-width-region-mode.

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What Emacs considers to be an image depends on image-file-name-extensions and image-file-name-regexps.

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The variable org-startup-with-inline-images can be set within a buffer with the ‘STARTUP’ options ‘inlineimages’ and ‘noinlineimages’.

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The width can be customized in Emacs >= 24.1, built with imagemagick support.

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The corresponding in-buffer setting is: ‘#+STARTUP: fninline’ or ‘#+STARTUP: nofninline’.

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The corresponding in-buffer options are ‘#+STARTUP: fnadjust’ and ‘#+STARTUP: nofnadjust’.

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Many desktops intercept M-TAB to switch windows. Use C-M-i or ESC TAB instead.

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The variable org-export-date-timestamp-format defines how this timestamp are exported.

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For export to LaTeX format—or LaTeX-related formats such as Beamer—, the ‘org-latex-package-alist’ variable needs further configuration. See LaTeX specific export settings.

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At the moment, some export back-ends do not obey this specification. For example, LaTeX export excludes every unnumbered headline from the table of contents.

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Note that org-link-search-must-match-exact-headline is locally bound to non-nil. Therefore, org-link-search only matches headlines and named elements.

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Since commas separate the arguments, commas within arguments have to be escaped with the backslash character. So only those backslash characters before a comma need escaping with another backslash character.

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For a less drastic behavior, consider using a select tag (see Export Settings) instead.

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If ‘BEAMER_ENV’ is set, Org export adds ‘B_environment’ tag to make it visible. The tag serves as a visual aid and has no semantic relevance.

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By default, Org loads MathJax from jsDelivr, as recommended in Getting Started with MathJax Components.

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Please note that exported formulas are part of an HTML document, and that signs such as ‘<’, ‘>’, or ‘&’ have special meanings. See MathJax TeX and LaTeX in HTML documents.

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If the classes on TODO keywords and tags lead to conflicts, use the variables org-html-todo-kwd-class-prefix and org-html-tag-class-prefix to make them unique.

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This does not allow setting different bibliography compilers for different files. However, “smart” LaTeX compilation systems, such as latexmk, can select the correct bibliography compiler.

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Minted uses an external Python package for code highlighting, which requires the flag ‘-shell-escape’ to be added to org-latex-pdf-process.

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See Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) Version 1.2.

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See MathToWeb.

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See https://dlmf.nist.gov/LaTeXML/.

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OpenDocument-v1.2 Specification

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See the ‘<table:table-template>’ element of the OpenDocument-v1.2 specification.

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See the attributes ‘table:template-name’, ‘table:use-first-row-styles’, ‘table:use-last-row-styles’, ‘table:use-first-column-styles’, ‘table:use-last-column-styles’, ‘table:use-banding-rows-styles’, and ‘table:use-banding-column-styles’ of the ‘<table:table>’ element in the OpenDocument-v1.2 specification.

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If the publishing directory is the same as the source directory, ‘file.org’ is exported as ‘file.org.org’, so you probably do not want to do this.

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The option org-babel-no-eval-on-ctrl-c-ctrl-c can be used to remove code evaluation from the C-c C-c key binding.

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Actually, the constructs ‘call_<name>()’ and ‘src_<lang>{}’ are not evaluated when they appear in a keyword (see Summary of In-Buffer Settings).

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Actually, the constructs ‘call_<name>()’ and ‘src_<lang>{}’ are not evaluated when they appear in a keyword (see Summary of In-Buffer Settings).

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For noweb literate programming details, see https://www.cs.tufts.edu/~nr/noweb/.

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For more information, please refer to the commentary section in ‘org-tempo.el’.

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Org Indent mode also sets wrap-prefix correctly for indenting and wrapping long lines of headlines or text. This minor mode also handles Visual Line mode and directly applied settings through word-wrap.

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This works, but requires extra effort. Org Indent mode is more convenient for most applications.

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org-adapt-indentation can also be set to ‘'headline-data’, in which case only data lines below the headline will be indented.

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Note that Org Indent mode also sets the wrap-prefix property, such that Visual Line mode (or purely setting word-wrap) wraps long lines, including headlines, correctly indented.

(151)

For a server to host files, consider using a WebDAV server, such as Nextcloud. Additional help is at this FAQ entry.

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If Emacs is configured for safe storing of passwords, then configure the variable org-mobile-encryption-password; please read the docstring of that variable.

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Symbolic links in org-directory need to have the same name as their targets.

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While creating the agendas, Org mode forces ‘ID’ properties on all referenced entries, so that these entries can be uniquely identified if Org Mobile flags them for further action. To avoid setting properties configure the variable org-mobile-force-id-on-agenda-items to nil. Org mode then relies on outline paths, assuming they are unique.

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Checksums are stored automatically in the file ‘checksums.dat’.

(156)

The file will be empty after this operation.

(157)

https://www.ctan.org/pkg/comment

(158)

By default this works only for LaTeX, HTML, and Texinfo. Configure the variable orgtbl-radio-table-templates to install templates for other modes.

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If the ‘TBLFM’ keyword contains an odd number of dollar characters, this may cause problems with Font Lock in LaTeX mode. As shown in the example you can fix this by adding an extra line inside the ‘comment’ environment that is used to balance the dollar expressions. If you are using AUCTeX with the font-latex library, a much better solution is to add the ‘comment’ environment to the variable LaTeX-verbatim-environments.

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The agenda* view is the same as agenda except that it only considers appointments, i.e., scheduled and deadline items that have a time specification ‘[h]h:mm’ in their time-stamps.

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Note that, for org-odd-levels-only, a level number corresponds to order in the hierarchy, not to the number of stars.