content/blog/2024-08-11-org-mode-features.org

When focused on a heading, you can press TAB (org-cycle) to cycle that subtree among the states folded, children, and subtree.

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

If you're looking to cycle more than one subtree or heading at a time, you can press S-TAB or C-u TAB to cycle the entire buffer among the states overview, contents, and show all.

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

If you need to set a default view for a certain file, you can run C-u C-u TAB to set the org-set-startup-visibility. Alternatively, just put the following at the top of the buffer:

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

One of my favorite ways to separate my tasks are to assign priorities. You can do this by placing a priority cookie into the headline of a TODO item.

*** TODO [#A] My Task
*** TODO [#C] My Other Task

You can quickly shift priorities with S-UP and S-DOWN, as well as set the allowed priorities for a buffer with the following syntax:

#+PRIORITIES: A C B
#+PRIORITIES: 1 10 5

Plans can be set per task by settings special keywords with a date. You can set a DEADLINE to note when the task will appear in the agenda or set the SCHEDULED variable to note when you plan to start working on the task.

* TODO My Task
DEADLINE: <2004-02-29 Sun>

* My Other Task
SCHEDULED: <2004-12-25 Sat>

As a side note, I use Beorg on iOS to sync and edit my org-mode files on the go. Within this app, I use the SCHEDULED variable by default and rely heavily on that variable to alert me of tasks with iOS native notifications.

You can search for tags with C-c \ or open the org-agenda with M-x org-agenda m and search for a tag of your choosing.

With the built-in table editor, press C-c | to convert the active region to a table or create an empty table.

When focused on a table, press TAB to re-align the table. There are more commands available to re-align, traverse, and edit cells and regions within tables in Emacs.

For example, refer to the following table. This table uses the TBLFM variable to define functions that will apply to the cells within the table. When I press C-c C-c, the table cells updated to their resulting values.

If you spend a lot of time in spreadsheets, you'll appreciate the Emacs Calc package, which Emacs uses to implement spreadsheet-like capabilities within org-mode tables.

Read through the spreadsheet documentation to learn more about field references (@ROW$COLUMN), range references ($1..$3), coordinates, formulas, and more.

For example, refer to the following table. Here is a table that computes the Taylor series of degree n at location x for a couple of functions. You can clear the values out of the Result column for each row, press C-c C-c, and watch as the table re-calculates the results for each.

Alternatively, you can also refer to the following table. This table will update to different values based on the TBLFM I select when I'm pressing C-c C-c. The results are [1,2] when focused on the first line and [2,4] when focused on the second line.

If you run a technical blog, write code frequently, or like to take notes with source code examples, you will appreciate the source code functionality of org-mode.

With this feature, org-mode can manage the source code you define with features such as editing, formatting, extracting, exporting, and publishing. Additionally, you can compile and execute source code dynamically within the org-mode file or buffer.

A full source code block uses the following structure:

#+NAME: <name>
#+BEGIN_SRC <language> <switches> <header arguments>
  <body>
#+END_SRC

You can also use inline blocks:

src_<language>[<header arguments>]{<body>}

When focused on a code block, press C-c' to edit the code block in a special editor. Press C-x C-x to save the buffer and C-c ' again to close the buffer.

Emacs provides syntax highlighting by default within org-mode's source code blocks. Org-mode will copy the text to a temporary buffer, highlight it using the major mode relevant to the language (e.g., CC Mode), and then return the resulting highlighted text.

By default, org-mode will only evaluate Emacs Lisp code blocks. You will need to enable other languages in order to evaluate code blocks written in languages other than elisp.

When focused on a code block, you can execute the block with C-c C-c. The results of the evaluation will appear below the code block in a RESULTS block.

For example, here is a code block in elisp that I have written and evaluated with org-mode inside this blog post. I will press C-c C-c and you will see the results below the code block.

(defun greet-me ()
  (message "Hello, world!"))

(greet-me)

#+RESULTS:
: Hello, world!

This functionality allows you to translate Org to the following formats (additional formats may be available via external packages):

• ascii (ASCII format)
• beamer (LaTeX Beamer format)
• html (HTML format)
• icalendar (iCalendar format)
• latex (LaTeX format)
• md (Markdown format)
• odt (OpenDocument Text format)
• org (Org format)
• texinfo (Texinfo format)
• man (Man page format) You can export with C-c C-h and then select your preferred destination format. For example, an export from org to HTML as a file would use C-c C-e h h.

If the native functionality isn't useful enough for you, there are a myriad of external tools, including blogs and wikis, that work with org-mode.