Org Mode Manual
***************

This manual is for Org version 6.33x.

Copyright © 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 Free Software Foundation

     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.  Buying copies from the FSF supports it in developing GNU and promoting software freedom.''

     This document is part of a collection distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License.  If you want to distribute this document separately from the collection, you can do so by adding a copy of the license to the document, as described in section 6 of the license.

Introduction
************

Summary
=======

Org is a mode for keeping notes, maintaining TODO lists, and doing project planning with a fast and effective plain-text system.

Org develops organizational tasks around NOTES files that contain lists or information about projects as plain text.  Org 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.  Org supports TODO items, deadlines, timestamps, and scheduling.  It dynamically compiles entries into an agenda that utilizes and smoothly integrates much of the Emacs calendar and diary.  Plain text URL-like links connect to websites, emails, Usenet messages, BBDB entries, and any files related to the projects. For printing and sharing of notes, an Org file can be exported as a structured ASCII file, as HTML, or (TODO and agenda items only) as an iCalendar file.  It can also serve as a publishing tool for a set of linked web pages.

An important design aspect that distinguishes Org from, for example, Planner/Muse is that it encourages you to store every piece of information only once.  In Planner, you have project pages, day pages and possibly other files, duplicating some information such as tasks.  In Org, you only have notes files.  In your notes you mark entries as tasks, and label them with tags and timestamps.  All necessary lists, like a schedule for the day, the agenda for a meeting, tasks lists selected by tags, etc., are created dynamically when you need them.

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 you need it.  Org is a toolbox and can be used in different ways, for example as:

     * an outline extension with visibility cycling and structure editing
     * an ASCII system and table editor for taking structured notes
     * an ASCII table editor with spreadsheet-like capabilities
     * a TODO list editor
     * a full agenda and planner with deadlines and work scheduling
     * an environment to implement David Allen's GTD system
     * a basic database application
     * a simple hypertext system, with HTML and LaTeX export
     * a publishing tool to create a set of interlinked webpages

Org's automatic, context-sensitive table editor with spreadsheet capabilities can be integrated into any major mode by activating the minor Orgtbl mode.  Using a translation step, it can be used to maintain tables in arbitrary file types, for example in LaTeX.  The structure editing and list creation capabilities can be used outside Org with the minor Orgstruct mode.

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 http://orgmode.org.

Installation
============

Important: If you are using a version of Org that is part of the Emacs distribution or an XEmacs package, please skip this section and go directly to Activation.

If you have downloaded Org from the Web, either as a distribution .zip or .tar file, or as a Git archive, you must take the following steps to install it: go into the unpacked Org distribution directory and edit the top section of the file Makefile.  You must set the name of the Emacs binary (likely either emacs or xemacs), and the paths to the directories where local Lisp and Info files are kept.  If you don't have access to the system-wide directories, you can simply run Org directly from the distribution directory by adding the lisp subdirectory to the Emacs load path.  To do this, add the following line to .emacs:

     (setq load-path (cons "~/path/to/orgdir/lisp" load-path))

If you plan to use code from the contrib subdirectory, do a similar step for this directory:

     (setq load-path (cons "~/path/to/orgdir/contrib/lisp" load-path))

XEmacs users now need to install the file noutline.el from the xemacs sub-directory of the Org distribution.  Use the command:

          make install-noutline

Now byte-compile the Lisp files with the shell command:

     make

If you are running Org from the distribution directory, this is all.  If you want to install Org into the system directories, use (as administrator)

     make install

Installing Info files is system dependent, because of differences in the install-info program.  In Debian it copies the info files into the correct directory and modifies the info directory file.  In many other systems, the files need to be copied to the correct directory separately, and install-info then only modifies the directory file.  Check your system documentation to find out which of the following commands you need:

     make install-info
     make install-info-debian

Then add the following line to .emacs.  It is needed so that Emacs can autoload functions that are located in files not immediately loaded when Org-mode starts.

     (require 'org-install)

Do not forget to activate Org as described in the following section.

Activation
==========

Add the following lines to your .emacs file.  The last three lines define global keys for the commands org-store-link, org-agenda, and org-iswitchb---please choose suitable keys yourself.

     ;; The following lines are always needed.  Choose your own keys.
     (add-to-list 'auto-mode-alist '("\\.org\\'" . org-mode))
     (global-set-key "\C-cl" 'org-store-link)
     (global-set-key "\C-ca" 'org-agenda)
     (global-set-key "\C-cb" 'org-iswitchb)

Furthermore, you must activate font-lock-mode in Org buffers, because significant functionality depends on font-locking being active.  You can do this with either one of the following two lines (XEmacs users must use the second option):

     (global-font-lock-mode 1)                     ; for all buffers
     (add-hook 'org-mode-hook 'turn-on-font-lock)  ; Org buffers only

With this setup, all files with extension .org will be put into Org mode.  As an alternative, make the first line of a file look like this:

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

which will select 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 (zmacs-regions in XEmacs) turned on.  In Emacs 23 this is the default, in Emacs 22 you need to do this yourself with

     (transient-mark-mode 1)

If you do not like transient-mark-mode, you can create an active region by using the mouse to select a region, or pressing C-SPC twice before moving the cursor.

Feedback
========

If you find problems with Org, or if you have questions, remarks, or ideas about it, please mail to the Org mailing list emacs-orgmode@gnu.org. If you are not a member of the mailing list, your mail will be passed to the list after a moderator has approved it.

For bug reports, please provide as much information as possible, including the version information of Emacs (M-x emacs-version RET) and Org (M-x org-version RET), as well as the Org related setup in .emacs.  The easiest way to do this is to use the command

     M-x org-submit-bug-report

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

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 mode.

How to create a useful backtrace
................................

If working with Org produces an error with a message you don't 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 select Org -> Refresh/Reload -> Reload Org uncompiled from the menu.

 2. Go to the Options menu and select Enter Debugger on Error (XEmacs has this option in the Troubleshooting sub-menu).

 3. Do whatever you have to do to hit the error.  Don't forget to document the steps you take.

 4. When you hit the error, a *Backtrace* buffer will appear on the screen.  Save this buffer to a file (for example using C-x C-w) and attach it to your bug report.

Typesetting conventions used in this manual
===========================================

Org uses three types of keywords: TODO keywords, tags, and property names.  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
     User-defined tags are written in lowercase; built-in tags with special meaning are written with all capitals.

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

Document Structure
******************

Org is based on Outline mode and provides flexible commands to edit the structure of the document.

Outlines
========

Org is implemented on top of Outline mode.  Outlines allow a document to be organized in a hierarchical structure, which (at least for me) is the best representation of notes and thoughts.  An overview of this structure is achieved by folding (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/hide functionality into a single command, org-cycle, which is bound to the TAB key.

Headlines
=========

Headlines define the structure of an outline tree.  The headlines in Org start with one or more stars, on the left margin (See the variable org-special-ctrl-a/e to configure special behavior of C-a and C-e in headlines.).  For example:

     * Top level headline
     ** Second level
     *** 3rd level
         some text
     *** 3rd level
         more text

     * Another top level headline

Some people find the many stars too noisy and would prefer an outline that has whitespace followed by a single star as headline starters.  Clean view, describes a setup to realize this.

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

Visibility 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
     Subtree cycling: Rotate current subtree among the states

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

     The cursor must be on a headline for this to work (see, however, the option org-cycle-emulate-tab.).  When the cursor is at the beginning of the buffer and the first line is not a headline, then TAB actually runs global cycling (see below) (see the option org-cycle-global-at-bob.).  Also when called with a prefix argument (C-u TAB), global cycling is invoked.

S-TAB
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, the CONTENTS view up to headlines of level N will be shown.  Note that inside tables, S-TAB jumps to the previous field.

C-u C-u C-u TAB
     Show all, including drawers.

C-c C-r
     Reveal context around point, showing the current entry, the following heading and the hierarchy above.  Useful for working near a location that has been exposed by a sparse tree command (see Sparse trees) or an agenda command (see Agenda commands).  With a prefix argument show, on each level, all sibling headings.

C-c C-x b
     Show the current subtree in an indirect buffer (The indirect
     buffer
     (see Indirect Buffers (GNU Emacs Manual))) will contain the entire buffer, but will be narrowed to the current tree.  Editing the indirect buffer will also change the original buffer, but without affecting visibility in that buffer..  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.

When Emacs first visits an Org file, the global state is set to OVERVIEW, i.e. only the top level headlines are visible.  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: showeverything

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

C-u C-u TAB
     Switch back to the startup visibility of the buffer, i.e. whatever is requested by startup options and VISIBILITY properties in individual entries.

Motion
======

The following commands jump to other headlines in the buffer.

C-c C-n
     Next heading.

C-c C-p
     Previous heading.

C-c C-f
     Next heading same level.

C-c C-b
     Previous heading same level.

C-c C-u
     Backward to higher level heading.

C-c C-j
     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:

          TAB         Cycle visibility.
          down / up   Next/previous visible headline.
          RET         Select this location.
          /           Do a Sparse-tree search
          The following keys work if you turn off org-goto-auto-isearch
          n / p        Next/previous visible headline.
          f / b        Next/previous headline same level.
          u            One level up.
          0-9          Digit argument.
          q            Quit

     See also the variable org-goto-interface.

Structure editing
=================

M-RET
     Insert new heading with same level as current.  If the cursor is in a plain list item, a new item is created (see Plain lists).  To force creation of a new headline, use a prefix argument, or first press RET to get to the beginning of the next line.  When this command is used in the middle of a line, the line is split and the rest of the line becomes the new headline (If you do not want the line to be split, customize the variable org-M-RET-may-split-line.).  If the command is used at the beginning of a headline, the new headline is created before the current line.  If at the beginning of any other line, the content of that line is made the new heading.  If the command is used at the end of a folded subtree (i.e. behind the ellipses at the end of a headline), then a headline like the current one will be inserted after the end of the subtree.

C-RET
     Just like M-RET, except when adding a new heading below the current heading, the new heading is placed after the body instead of before it.  This command works from anywhere in the entry.

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

TAB in new, empty entry
     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
     Promote current heading by one level.

M-right
     Demote current heading by one level.

M-S-left
     Promote the current subtree by one level.

M-S-right
     Demote the current subtree by one level.

M-S-up
     Move subtree up (swap with previous subtree of same level).

M-S-down
     Move subtree down (swap with next subtree of same level).

C-c C-x C-w
     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
     Copy subtree to kill ring.  With a numeric prefix argument N, copy the N sequential subtrees.

C-c C-x C-y
     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
     Depending on the variables org-yank-adjusted-subtrees and org-yank-folded-subtrees, Org's internal yank command will paste 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 will take place, but the yanked tree will be folded unless doing so would swallow text previously visible.  Any prefix argument to this command will force 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 will yank previous kill items plainly, without adjustment and folding.

C-c C-x c
     Clone a subtree by making a number of sibling copies of it.  You will be 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
     Refile entry or region to a different location.  See Refiling notes.

C-c ^
     Sort same-level entries.  When there is an active region, all entries in the region will be 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 will be case-sensitive.  With two C-u C-u prefixes, duplicate entries will also be removed.

C-x n s
     Narrow buffer to current subtree.

C-x n w
     Widen buffer to remove narrowing.

C-c *
     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.

When there is an active region (Transient Mark mode), 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.  Note that when the cursor is inside a table (see Tables), the Meta-Cursor keys have different functionality.

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 it (See also the variables org-show-hierarchy-above, org-show-following-heading, org-show-siblings, and org-show-entry-below for detailed control on how much context is shown around each match.).  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 /
     This prompts for an extra key to select a sparse-tree creating command.

C-c / r
     Occur.  Prompts for a regexp 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 (This depends on the option org-remove-highlights-with-change), or by pressing C-c C-c. When called with a C-u prefix argument, previous highlights are kept, so several calls to this command can be stacked.

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 Agenda dispatcher). For example:

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

will define the key C-c a 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 will be 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  (This does not work under XEmacs, because XEmacs uses selective display for outlining, not text properties.). Or you can use the command C-c C-e v to export only the visible part of the document and print the resulting file.

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 the HTML exporter (see Exporting) parses and formats them.

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

  * Unordered list items start with -, +, or * (When using * as a bullet, lines must be indented or they will be seen as top-level headlines.  Also, when you are hiding leading stars to get a clean outline view, plain list items starting with a star are visually indistinguishable from true headlines.  In short: even though * is supported, it may be better to not use it for plain list items.) as bullets.

  * Ordered list items start with a numeral followed by either a period or a right parenthesis, such as 1. or 1).

  * Description list items are unordered list items, and contain the separator  ::  to separate 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.  Indentation also determines the end of a list item.  It ends before the next line that is indented like the bullet/number, or less.  Empty lines are part of the previous item, so you can have several paragraphs in one item.  If you would like an empty line to terminate all currently open plain lists, configure the variable org-empty-line-terminates-plain-lists. 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 Austin :: 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 (Org only changes the filling settings for Emacs.  For XEmacs, you should use Kyle E. Jones' filladapt.el.  To turn this on, put into .emacs: (require 'filladapt)), 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 should be part of a list item.

The following commands act on items when the cursor is in the first line of an item (the line with the bullet or number).

TAB
     Items can be folded just like headline levels.  Normally this works only if the cursor is on a plain list item.  For more details, see the variable org-cycle-include-plain-lists. to integrate, plain list items will be treated like low-level.  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.

     If org-cycle-include-plain-lists has not been set, TAB fixes the indentation of the current line in a heuristic way.

M-RET
     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 a line, the line is split and the rest of the line becomes the new item (If you do not want the line to be split, customize the variable org-M-RET-may-split-line.).  If this command is executed in the whitespace before a bullet or number, the new item is created before the current item.  If the command is executed in the white space before the text that is part of an item but does not contain the bullet, a bullet is added to the current line.

M-S-RET
     Insert a new item with a checkbox (see Checkboxes).

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

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

M-S-up
M-S-down
     Move the item including subitems up/down (swap with previous/next item of same indentation).  If the list is ordered, renumbering is automatic.

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 with a cursor motion or so.

C-c C-c
     If there is a checkbox (see Checkboxes) in the item line, toggle the state of the checkbox.  If not, this command makes sure that all the items on this list level use the same bullet.  Furthermore, if this is an ordered list, make sure the numbering is OK.

C-c -
     Cycle the entire list level through the different itemize/enumerate bullets (-, +, *, 1., 1)).  With a numeric prefix argument N, select the Nth bullet from this list.  If there is an active region when calling this, all lines will be converted to list items.  If the first line already was a list item, any item markers will be removed from the list.  Finally, even without an active region, a normal line will be 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.

S-left/right
     This command also cycles bullet styles when the cursor in on the bullet or anywhere in an item line, details depending on org-support-shift-select.

C-c ^
     Sort the plain list.  You will be prompted for the sorting method: numerically, alphabetically, by time, or by custom function.

Drawers
=======

Sometimes you want to keep information associated with an entry, but you normally don't want to see it.  For this, Org mode has drawers. Drawers need to be configured with the variable org-drawers (You can define drawers on a per-file basis with a line like #+DRAWERS: HIDDEN PROPERTIES STATE).  Drawers look like this:

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

Visibility cycling (see Visibility cycling) on the headline will hide and show the entry, but keep the drawer collapsed to a single line.  In order to look inside the drawer, you need to move the cursor to the drawer line and press TAB there.  Org mode uses the PROPERTIES drawer for storing properties (see Properties and Columns), and 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 drawer LOGBOOK.

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

Footnotes
=========

Org mode supports the creation of footnotes.  In contrast to the footnote.el package, Org mode's footnotes are designed for work on a larger document, not only for one-off documents like emails.  The basic syntax is similar to the one used by footnote.el, i.e. a footnote is defined in a paragraph that is started by a footnote marker in square brackets in column 0, no indentation allowed.  If you need a paragraph break inside a footnote, use the LaTeX idiom \par.  The footnote reference is simply the marker in square brackets, inside text.  For example:

     The Org homepage[fn:1] now looks a lot better than it used to.
     ...
     [fn:1] The link is: http://orgmode.org

Org mode extends the number-based syntax to named footnotes and optional inline definition.  Using plain numbers as markers (as footnote.el does) is supported for backward compatibility, but not encouraged because of possible conflicts with LaTeX snippets (see Embedded LaTeX).  Here are the valid references:

[1]
     A plain numeric footnote marker.  Compatible with footnote.el, but not recommended because somthing like [1] could easily be part of a code snippet.

[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]
     A LaTeX-like 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 the cursor 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-inline (The corresponding in-buffer setting is: #+STARTUP: fninline or #+STARTUP: nofninline), the definition will be 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:

          s   Sort the footnote definitions by reference sequence.  During editing,
              Org makes no effort to sort footnote definitions into a particular
              sequence.  If you want them sorted, use this command, which will
              also move entries according to org-footnote-section.  Automatic
              sorting after each insertion/deletion can be configured using the
              variable org-footnote-auto-adjust.
          r   Renumber the simple fn:N footnotes.  Automatic renumbering
              after each insertion/deletion can be configured using the variable
              org-footnote-auto-adjust.
          S   Short for first r, then s action.
          n   Normalize the footnotes by collecting all definitions (including
              inline definitions) into a special section, and then numbering them
              in sequence.  The references will then also be numbers.  This is
              meant to be the final step before finishing a document (e.g. sending
              off an email).  The exporters do this automatically, and so could
              something like message-send-hook.
          d   Delete the footnote at point, and all definitions of and references
              to it.

     Depending on the variable org-footnote-auto-adjust (the corresponding in-buffer options are fnadjust and nofnadjust.), renumbering and sorting footnotes can be automatic after each insertion or deletion.

C-c C-c
     If the cursor is on a footnote reference, jump to the definition.  If it is a 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/reference, and you can use the usual commands to follow these links.

The Orgstruct minor mode
========================

If you like the intuitive way the Org mode structure editing and list formatting works, you might want to use these commands in other modes like Text mode or Mail mode as well.  The minor mode orgstruct-mode makes this possible.   Toggle the mode with M-x orgstruct-mode, or turn it on by default, for example in Mail mode, with one of:

     (add-hook 'mail-mode-hook 'turn-on-orgstruct)
     (add-hook 'mail-mode-hook 'turn-on-orgstruct++)

When this mode is active and the cursor is on a line that looks to Org like a headline or the first line of a list item, most structure editing commands will work, even if the same keys normally have different functionality in the major mode you are using.  If the cursor is not in one of those special lines, Orgstruct mode lurks silently in the shadow.  When you use orgstruct++-mode, Org will also export indentation and autofill settings into that mode, and detect item context after the first line of an item.

Tables
******

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

The 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 separator.  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 or 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.  Any line starting with |- is considered as a horizontal separator line and will be expanded on the next 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 the cursor 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 variables org-enable-table-editor and org-table-auto-blank-field.

Creation and conversion
.......................

C-c |
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, 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's easier just to start typing, like |Name|Phone|Age RET |- TAB.

Re-aligning and field motion
............................

C-c C-c
Re-align the table without moving the cursor.
TAB
Re-align the table, move to the next field.  Creates a new row if necessary.
S-TAB
Re-align, move to previous field.
RET
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 does NEWLINE, so it can be used to split a table.
M-a
Move to beginning of the current table field, or on to the previous field.
M-e
Move to end of the current table field, or on to the next field.

Column and row editing
......................

M-left
M-right
Move the current column left/right.
M-S-left
Kill the current column.
M-S-right
Insert a new column to the left of the cursor position.
M-up
M-down
Move the current row up/down.
M-S-up
Kill the current row or horizontal line.
M-S-down
Insert a new row above the current row.  With a prefix argument, the line is created below the current one.
C-c -
Insert a horizontal line below current row.  With a prefix argument, the line is created above the current line.
C-c RET
Insert a horizontal line below current row, and move the cursor into the row below that line.
C-c ^
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 will be 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).  When called with a prefix argument, alphabetic sorting will be case-sensitive.

Regions
.......

C-c C-x M-w
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
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
Paste a rectangular region into a table. The upper left corner ends up in the current field.  All involved fields will be 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
Wrap several fields in a column like a paragraph.  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, the current field is split at the cursor position and the text fragment to the right of the cursor is prepended to the field one line down. 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 +
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
When current field is empty, copy from first non-empty field above.  When not empty, copy current field down to next row and move cursor along with it. Depending on the variable org-table-copy-increment, integer field values will be incremented during copy.  Integers that are too large will not be incremented.  Also, a 0 prefix argument temporarily disables the increment.  This key is also used by shift-selection and related modes (see Conflicts).

Miscellaneous
.............

C-c `
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.
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 |
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 above under 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.

If you don't like the automatic table editor because it gets in your way on lines which you would like to start with |, you can turn it off with

     (setq org-enable-table-editor nil)

Then the only table command that still works is C-c C-c to do a manual re-align.

Column width and alignment
==========================

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

Sometimes a single field or a few fields need to carry more text, leading to inconveniently wide columns.  To limit (This feature does not work on XEmacs.) the width of a column, one field anywhere in the column may contain just the string <N> where N is an integer specifying the width of the column in characters.  The next re-align will then set the width of this column to no more than this value.

     |---+------------------------------|               |---+--------|
     |   |                              |               |   | <6>    |
     | 1 | one                          |               | 1 | one    |
     | 2 | two                          |     ----\     | 2 | two    |
     | 3 | This is a long chunk of text |     ----/     | 3 | This=> |
     | 4 | four                         |               | 4 | four   |
     |---+------------------------------|               |---+--------|

Fields that are wider become clipped and end in the string =>. Note that the full text is still in the buffer, it is only invisible. To see the full text, hold the mouse over the field---a tool-tip window will show the full content.  To edit such a field, use the command C-c ` (that is C-c followed by the backquote).  This will open a new window with the full field.  Edit it and finish with C-c C-c.

When visiting a file containing a table with narrowed columns, the necessary character hiding has not yet happened, and the table needs to be aligned before it looks nice.  Setting the option org-startup-align-all-tables will realign all tables in a file upon visiting, but also slow down startup.  You can also set this option on a per-file basis with:

     #+STARTUP: align
     #+STARTUP: noalign

If you would like to overrule the automatic alignment of number-rich columns to the right and of string-rich column to the left, you and use <r> or <l> in a similar fashion.  You may also combine alignment and field width like this: <l10>.

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 <> to make a column a group of its own.  Boundaries between column groups will upon export be 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: $3=$2^2::$4=$2^3::$5=$2^4::$6=sqrt($2)::$7=sqrt(sqrt(($2)))

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

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

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 mail mode, use

     (add-hook 'mail-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.

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.

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 2nd field in the 3rd row.

Org also uses another, more general operator that looks like this:

     @ROW$COLUMN

Column references can be absolute like 1, 2,...N, or relative to the current column like +1 or -2.

The row specification only counts data lines and ignores horizontal separator lines (hlines).  You can use absolute row numbers 1...N, and row numbers relative to the current row like +3 or -1.  Or specify the row relative to one of the hlines: I refers to the first hline (Note that only hlines are counted that separate table lines.  If the table starts with a hline above the header, it does not count.), 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 refers to the current row and column.  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 will be 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.

As a special case, references like $LR5 and $LR12 can be used to refer in a stable way to the 5th and 12th field in the last row of the table.

Here are a few examples:

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

Range references
................

You may reference a rectangular range of fields by specifying two field references connected by two dots ...  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..$3        First three fields in the current row.
     $P..$Q        Range, using column names (see under Advanced)
     @2$1..@4$3    6 fields between these two fields.
     A2..C4        Same as above.
     @-1$-2..@-1   3 numbers from the column to the left, 2 up to current row

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 (but see the E mode switch below).  If there are no non-empty fields, [0] is returned to avoid syntax errors in formulas.

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

     #+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 kilometers (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.).  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-OR-ID,REF)

where NAME can be the name of a table in the current file as set by a #+TBLNAME: 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.

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 (GNU Emacs Calc Manual)), 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           switch the internal precision to 20 digits
     n3 s3 e2 f4   normal, scientific, engineering, or fixed display format
     D R           angle modes: degrees, radians
     F S           fraction and symbolic modes
     N             interpret all fields as numbers, use 0 for non-numbers
     T             force text interpretation
     E             keep empty fields in ranges
     L             literal

In addition, you may provide a printf format specifier to reformat the final result.  A few examples:

     $1+$2                Sum of first and second field
     $1+$2;%.2f           Same, format result to two decimals
     exp($2)+exp($1)      Math functions can be used
     $0;%.1f              Reformat current cell to 1 decimal
     ($3-32)*5/9          Degrees F -> C conversion
     $c/$1/$cm            Hz -> cm conversion, using constants.el
     tan($1);Dp3s1        Compute in degrees, precision 3, display SCI 1
     sin($1);Dp3%.1e      Same, but use printf specifier for display
     vmean($2..$7)        Compute column range mean, using vector function
     vmean($2..$7);EN     Same, 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.  For example

     if($1<20,teen,string(""))  ``teen'' if age $1 less than 20, else empty

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.  If a formula starts with a single-quote followed by an opening parenthesis, then it is evaluated as a Lisp form. The evaluation should return either a string or a number.  Just as with calc formulas, you can specify modes and a printf format after a semicolon.  With Emacs Lisp forms, you need to be conscious about the way field references are interpolated into the form.  By default, a reference will be interpolated as a Lisp string (in double-quotes) containing the field.  If you provide the N mode switch, all referenced elements will be numbers (non-number fields will be zero) and interpolated as Lisp numbers, without quotes.  If you provide the L flag, all fields will be interpolated literally, without quotes. I.e., if you want a reference to be interpreted as a string by the Lisp form, enclose the reference operator itself in double-quotes, like "$3".  Ranges are inserted as space-separated fields, so you can embed them in list or vector syntax.  A few examples, note how the N mode is used when we do computations in Lisp.

     Swap the first two characters of the content of column 1
       '(concat (substring $1 1 2) (substring $1 0 1) (substring $1 2))
     Add columns 1 and 2, equivalent to Calc's $1+$2
       '(+ $1 $2);N
     Compute the sum of columns 1-4, like Calc's vsum($1..$4)
       '(apply '+ '($1..$4));N

Field formulas
--------------

To assign a formula to a particular field, type it directly into the field, preceded by :=, for example :=$1+$2.  When you press TAB or RET or C-c C-c with the cursor still in the field, the formula will be stored as the formula for this field, evaluated, and the current field replaced with the result.

Formulas are stored in a special line starting with #+TBLFM: directly below the table.  If you typed the equation in the 4th field of the 3rd data line in the table, the formula will look 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.  Of course this is not true if you edit the table structure with normal editing commands---then you must fix the equations yourself. The left-hand side of a formula may also be a named field (see Advanced features), or a last-row reference like $LR3.

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

C-u C-c =
     Install a new formula for the current field.  The command prompts for a formula with default taken from the #+TBLFM: line, applies it to the current field, and stores it.

Column formulas
---------------

Often in a table, the same formula should be used for all fields in a particular column.  Instead of having to copy the formula to all fields in that column, Org allows you to assign a single formula to an entire column.  If the table contains horizontal separator hlines, everything before the first such line is considered part of the table header and will not be modified by column formulas.

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 the cursor still in the field, the formula will be 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 will only remember the most recently used formula.  In the #+TBLFM: line, column formulas will look like $4=$1+$2.  The left-hand side of a column formula cannot currently be the name of column, it must be the numeric column reference.

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

C-c =
     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 line, applies it to the current field and stores it.  With a numeric prefix argument(e.g. C-5 C-c =) the command will apply it to that many consecutive fields in the current column.

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 =
C-u C-c =
     Edit the formula associated with the current column/field in the minibuffer.  See Column formulas, and Field formulas.

C-u C-u C-c =
     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 ?
     While editing a formula in a table field, highlight the field(s) referenced by the reference at the cursor position in the formula.

C-c }
     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 {
     Toggle the formula debugger on and off.  See below.

C-c '
     Edit all formulas for the current table in a special buffer, where the formulas will be displayed one per line.  If the current field has an active formula, the cursor in the formula editor will mark it. While inside the special buffer, Org will automatically highlight any field or range reference at the cursor position.  You may edit, remove and add formulas, and use the following commands:

     C-c C-c
     C-x C-s
          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
          Exit the formula editor without installing changes.

     C-c C-r
          Toggle all references in the formula editor between standard (like B3) and internal (like @3$2).

     TAB
          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
          Complete Lisp symbols, just like in Emacs Lisp mode.

     S-up/down/left/right
          Shift the reference at point.  For example, if the reference is B3 and you press S-right, it will become C3. This also works for relative references and for hline references.

     M-S-up/down
          Move the test line for column formulas in the Org buffer up and down.

     M-up/down
          Scroll 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 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 line.

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

Debugging formulas
..................

When the evaluation of a formula leads to an error, the field content becomes the string #ERROR.  If you would like 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 will be displayed.

Updating the table
------------------

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

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

C-c *
     Recalculate the current row by first applying the stored column formulas from left to right, and all field formulas in the current row.

C-u C-c *
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 *
C-u C-u C-c C-c
     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.

Advanced features
-----------------

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

C-#
     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 |        |        |        |  29.7 |      |
     | ^ |         |        |        |        |    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 * will only affect 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 will be 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 will be 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.

     Unmarked lines are exempt from recalculation with C-u C-c *. All lines that should be recalculated should be marked with # or *.

/
     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.el 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

Org-Plot
========

Org-Plot can produce 2D and 3D graphs of information stored in org tables using Gnuplot http://www.gnuplot.info/ and gnuplot-mode http://cars9.uchicago.edu/~ravel/software/gnuplot-mode.html.  To see this in action, ensure that you have both Gnuplot and Gnuplot mode installed on your system, then call 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 |

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: lines preceding a table.  See below for a complete list of Org-plot options.  For more information and examples see the Org-plot tutorial at http://orgmode.org/worg/org-tutorials/org-plot.php.

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).

type
     Specify whether the plot will be 2d, 3d, or grid.

with
     Specify a with option to be inserted for every col being plotted (e.g. lines, points, boxes, impulses, etc...). 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.

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.

Hyperlinks
**********

Like HTML, Org provides links inside a file, external links to other files, Usenet articles, emails, and much more.

Link format
===========

Org will recognize plain URL-like links and activate them as clickable links.  The general link format, however, looks like this:

     [[link][description]]       or alternatively           [[link]]

Once a link in the buffer is complete (all brackets present), Org will change the display so that description is displayed instead of [[link][description]] and link is displayed instead of [[link]].  Links will be highlighted in the face org-link, which by default is an underlined face.  You can directly edit the visible part of a link.  Note that this can be either the link part (if there is no description) or the description part.  To edit also the invisible link part, use C-c C-l with the cursor on the link.

If you place the cursor at the beginning or just behind the end of the displayed text and press BACKSPACE, you will remove the (invisible) bracket at that location.  This makes the link incomplete and the internals are again displayed as plain text.  Inserting the missing bracket hides the link internals again.  To show the internal structure of all links, use the menu entry Org->Hyperlinks->Literal links.

Internal links
==============

If the link does not look like a URL, it is considered to be internal in the current file.  The most important case is a link like [[#my-custom-id]] which will link to the entry with the CUSTOM_ID property my-custom-id.  Such custom IDs are very good for HTML export (see HTML export) where they produce pretty section links.  You are responsible yourself to make sure these custom IDs are unique in a file.

Links such as [[My Target]] or [[My Target][Find my target]] lead to a text search in the current file.

The link can be followed with C-c C-o when the cursor is on the link, or with a mouse click (see Handling links).  Links to custom IDs will point to the corresponding headline.  The preferred match for a text link is a dedicated target: the same string in double angular brackets.  Targets may be located anywhere; sometimes it is convenient to put them into a comment line. For example

     # <<My Target>>

In HTML export (see HTML export), such targets will become named anchors for direct access through http links (Note that text before the first headline is usually not exported, so the first such target should be after the first headline, or in the line directly before the first headline.).

If no dedicated target exists, Org will search for the words in the link.  In the above example the search would be for my target.  Links starting with a star like *My Target restrict the search to headlines (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 will be offered as completions.  See Handling links, for more commands creating links.).  When searching, Org mode will first try an exact match, but then move on to more and more lenient searches.  For example, the link [[*My Targets]] will find any of the following:

     ** My targets
     ** TODO my targets are bright
     ** my 20 targets are

Following a link pushes a mark onto Org's own mark ring.  You can return to the previous position with C-c &.  Using this command several times in direct succession goes back to positions recorded earlier.

Radio targets
-------------

Org can automatically turn any occurrences of certain target names in normal text into a link.  So without explicitly creating a link, the text connects to the target radioing its position.  Radio targets are enclosed by triple angular brackets.  For example, a target <<<My Target>>> causes each occurrence of my target in normal text to become activated as a link.  The Org file is scanned automatically for radio targets only when the file is first loaded into Emacs.  To update the target list during editing, press C-c C-c with the cursor on or at a target.

External links
==============

Org supports links to files, websites, Usenet and email messages, BBDB database entries and links to both IRC conversations and their logs.  External links are URL-like locators.  They start with a short identifying string followed by a colon.  There can be no space after the colon.  The following list shows examples for each link type.

     http://www.astro.uva.nl/~dominik          on the web
     file:/home/dominik/images/jupiter.jpg     file, absolute path
     /home/dominik/images/jupiter.jpg          same as above
     file:papers/last.pdf                      file, relative path
     ./papers/last.pdf                         same as above
     file:sometextfile::NNN                    file with line number to jump to
     file:projects.org                         another Org file
     file:projects.org::some words             text search in Org file
     file:projects.org::*task title            heading search in Org file
     id:B7423F4D-2E8A-471B-8810-C40F074717E9   Link to heading by ID
     news:comp.emacs                           Usenet link
     mailto:adent@galaxy.net                   Mail link
     vm:folder                                 VM folder link
     vm:folder#id                              VM message link
     vm://myself@some.where.org/folder#id      VM on remote machine
     wl:folder                                 WANDERLUST folder link
     wl:folder#id                              WANDERLUST message link
     mhe:folder                                MH-E folder link
     mhe:folder#id                             MH-E message link
     rmail:folder                              RMAIL folder link
     rmail:folder#id                           RMAIL message link
     gnus:group                                Gnus group link
     gnus:group#id                             Gnus article link
     bbdb:R.*Stallman                          BBDB link (with regexp)
     irc:/irc.com/#emacs/bob                   IRC link
     shell:ls *.org                            A shell command
     elisp:org-agenda                          Interactive Elisp command
     elisp:(find-file-other-frame "Elisp.org") Elisp form to evaluate

A link should be enclosed in double brackets and may contain a descriptive text to be displayed instead of the URL (see Link format), for example:

     [[http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/][GNU Emacs]]

If the description is a file name or URL that points to an image, HTML export (see HTML export) will inline the image as a clickable button.  If there is no description at all and the link points to an image, that image will be inlined into the exported HTML file.

Org also finds external links in the normal text and activates them as links.  If spaces must be part of the link (for example in bbdb:Richard Stallman), or if you need to remove ambiguities about the end of the link, enclose them in square brackets.

Handling links
==============

Org provides methods to create a link in the correct syntax, to insert it into an Org file, and to follow the link.

C-c l
     Store a link to the current location.  This is a global command (you must create the key binding yourself) which can be used in any buffer to create a link.  The link will be stored for later insertion into an Org buffer (see below).  What kind of link will be created depends on the current buffer:

     Org-mode buffers

     For Org files, if there is a <<target>> at the cursor, the link points to the target.  Otherwise it points to the current headline, which will also be the description.

     If the headline has a CUSTOM_ID property, a link to this custom ID will be stored.  In addition or alternatively (depending on the value of org-link-to-org-use-id), a globally unique ID property will be created and/or used to construct a link.  So using this command in Org buffers will potentially create two links: a human-readable from the custom ID, and one that is globally unique and works even if the entry is moved from file to file.  Later, when inserting the link, you need to decide which one to use.

     Email/News clients: VM, Rmail, Wanderlust, MH-E, Gnus

     Pretty much all Emacs mail clients are supported.  The link will point to the current article, or, in some GNUS buffers, to the group.  The description is constructed from the author and the subject.

     Web browsers: W3 and W3M

     Here the link will be the current URL, with the page title as description.

     Contacts: BBDB

     Links created in a BBDB buffer will point to the current entry.

     Chat: IRC

     For IRC links, if you set the variable org-irc-link-to-logs to t, a file:/ style link to the relevant point in the logs for the current conversation is created.  Otherwise an irc:/ style link to the user/channel/server under the point will be stored.

     Other files

     For any other files, the link will point to the file, with a search string (see Search options) pointing to the contents of the current line.  If there is an active region, the selected words will form the basis of the search string.  If the automatically created link is not working correctly or accurately enough, you can write custom functions to select the search string and to do the search for particular file types---see Custom searches. The key binding C-c l is only a suggestion---see Installation.

     Agenda view

     When the cursor is in an agenda view, the created link points to the entry referenced by the current line.

C-c C-l
     Insert a link (Note that you don't 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.).  This prompts for a link to be inserted into the buffer. You can just type a link, using text for an internal link, or one of the link type prefixes mentioned in the examples above.  The link will be inserted into the buffer (After insertion of a stored link, the link will be removed from the list of stored links.  To keep it in the list later use, use a triple C-u prefix argument to C-c C-l, or configure the option org-keep-stored-link-after-insertion.), along with a descriptive text. If some text was selected when this command is called, the selected text becomes the default description.

     Inserting stored links

     All links stored during the current session are part of the history for this prompt, so you can access them with up and down (or M-p/n).

     Completion support
      Completion with TAB will help you to insert valid link prefixes like http: or ftp:, including the prefixes defined through link abbreviations (see Link abbreviations).  If you press RET after inserting only the PREFIX, Org will offer specific completion support for some link types (This works by calling a special function org-PREFIX-complete-link.)  For example, if you type file RET, file name completion (alternative access: C-u C-c C-l, see below) will be offered, and after bbdb RET you can complete contact names.

C-u C-c C-l
     When C-c C-l is called with a C-u prefix argument, a link to a file will be inserted and you may use file name completion to select the name of the file.  The path to the file is inserted relative to the directory of the current Org file, if the linked file is in the current directory or in a sub-directory of it, or if the path is written relative to the current directory using ../.  Otherwise an absolute path is used, if possible with ~/ for your home directory.  You can force an absolute path with two C-u prefixes.

C-c C-l (with cursor on existing link)
     When the cursor is on an existing link, C-c C-l allows you to edit the link and description parts of the link.

C-c C-o or RET
     Open link at point.  This will launch a web browser for URLs (using browse-url-at-point), run VM/MH-E/Wanderlust/Rmail/Gnus/BBDB for the corresponding links, and execute the command in a shell link.  When the cursor is on an internal link, this command runs the corresponding search. When the cursor is on a TAG list in a headline, it creates the corresponding TAGS view.  If the cursor is on a timestamp, it compiles the agenda for that date.  Furthermore, it will visit text and remote files in file: links with Emacs and select a suitable application for local non-text files. Classification of files is based on file extension only.  See option org-file-apps.  If you want to override the default application and visit the file with Emacs, use a C-u prefix.  If you want to avoid opening in Emacs, use a C-u C-u prefix.

     If the cursor is on a headline, but not on a link, offer all links in the headline and entry text.

mouse-2
mouse-1
     On links, mouse-2 will open the link just as C-c C-o would.  Under Emacs 22, mouse-1 will also follow a link.

mouse-3
     Like mouse-2, but force file links to be opened with Emacs, and internal links to be displayed in another window (See the variable org-display-internal-link-with-indirect-buffer).

C-c %
     Push the current position onto the mark ring, to be able to return easily. Commands following an internal link do this automatically.

C-c &
     Jump back to a recorded position.  A position is recorded by the commands following internal links, and by C-c %.  Using this command several times in direct succession moves through a ring of previously recorded positions.

C-c C-x C-n
C-c C-x C-p
     Move forward/backward to the next link in the buffer.  At the limit of the buffer, the search fails once, and then wraps around.  The key bindings for this are really too long, you might want to bind this also to C-n and C-p

          (add-hook 'org-load-hook
            (lambda ()
              (define-key 'org-mode-map "\C-n" 'org-next-link)
              (define-key 'org-mode-map "\C-p" 'org-previous-link)))

Using links outside Org
=======================

You can insert and follow links that have Org syntax not only in Org, but in any Emacs buffer.  For this, you should create two global commands, like this (please select suitable global keys yourself):

     (global-set-key "\C-c L" 'org-insert-link-global)
     (global-set-key "\C-c o" 'org-open-at-point-global)

Link abbreviations
==================

Long URLs can be cumbersome to type, and often many similar links are needed in a document.  For this you can use link abbreviations.  An abbreviated link looks like this

     [[linkword:tag][description]]

where the tag is optional.  The linkword must be a word; letter, numbers, -, and _ are allowed here.  Abbreviations are resolved according to the information in the variable org-link-abbrev-alist that relates the linkwords to replacement text.  Here is an example:

     (setq org-link-abbrev-alist
       '(("bugzilla" . "http://10.1.2.9/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=")
         ("google"   . "http://www.google.com/search?q=")
         ("ads"      . "http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/
                        nph-abs_connect?author=%s&db_key=AST")))

If the replacement text contains the string %s, it will be replaced with the tag.  Otherwise the tag will be appended to the string in order to create the link.  You may also specify a function that will be called with the tag as the only argument to create the link.

With the above setting, you could link to a specific bug with [[bugzilla:129]], search the web for OrgMode with [[google:OrgMode]] and find out what the Org author is doing besides Emacs hacking with [[ads:Dominik,C]].

If you need special abbreviations just for a single Org buffer, you can define them in the file with

     #+LINK: bugzilla  http://10.1.2.9/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=
     #+LINK: google    http://www.google.com/search?q=%s

In-buffer completion (see Completion) can be used after [ to complete link abbreviations.  You may also define a function org-PREFIX-complete-link that implements special (e.g. completion) support for inserting such a link with C-c C-l.  Such a function should not accept any arguments, and return the full link with prefix.

Search options in file links
============================

File links can contain additional information to make Emacs jump to a particular location in the file when following a link.  This can be a line number or a search option after a double (For backward compatibility, line numbers can also follow a single colon.) colon. For example, when the command C-c l creates a link (see Handling links) to a file, it encodes the words in the current line as a search string that can be used to find this line back later when following the link with C-c C-o.

Here is the syntax of the different ways to attach a search to a file link, together with an explanation:

     [[file:~/code/main.c::255]]
     [[file:~/xx.org::My Target]]
     [[file:~/xx.org::*My Target]]
     [[file:~/xx.org::/regexp/]]

255
     Jump to line 255.

My Target
     Search for a link target <<My Target>>, or do a text search for my target, similar to the search in internal links, see Internal links.  In HTML export (see HTML export), such a file link will become an HTML reference to the corresponding named anchor in the linked file.

*My Target
     In an Org file, restrict search to headlines.

/regexp/
     Do a regular expression search for regexp.  This uses the Emacs command occur to list all matches in a separate window.  If the target file is in Org mode, org-occur is used to create a sparse tree with the matches.

As a degenerate case, a file link with an empty file name can be used to search the current file.  For example, [[file:::find me]] does a search for find me in the current file, just as [[find me]] would.

Custom Searches
===============

The default mechanism for creating search strings and for doing the actual search related to a file link may not work correctly in all cases.  For example, BibTeX database files have many entries like year="1993" which would not result in good search strings, because the only unique identification for a BibTeX entry is the citation key.

If you come across such a problem, you can write custom functions to set the right search string for a particular file type, and to do the search for the string in the file.  Using add-hook, these functions need to be added to the hook variables org-create-file-search-functions and org-execute-file-search-functions.  See the docstring for these variables for more information.  Org actually uses this mechanism for BibTeX database files, and you can use the corresponding code as an implementation example.  See the file org-bibtex.el.

TODO Items
**********

Org mode does not maintain TODO lists as separate documents (Of course, you can make a document that contains only long lists of TODO items, but this is not required.).  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.

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
     Rotate the TODO state of the current item among

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

     The same rotation can also be done ``remotely'' from the timeline and agenda buffers with the t command key (see Agenda commands).

C-u C-c C-t
     Select a specific keyword using completion or (if it has been set up) the fast selection interface.  For the latter, you need to assign keys to TODO states, see Per-file keywords, and Setting tags, for more information.

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

C-c C-v
C-c / t
     View TODO items in a sparse tree (see Sparse trees).  Folds the entire buffer, but shows all TODO items and the headings hierarchy above them.  With a prefix argument, search for a specific TODO.  You will be 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 numeric prefix argument N, show the tree for the Nth keyword in the variable org-todo-keywords.  With two prefix arguments, find all TODO and DONE entries.

C-c a t
     Show the global TODO list.  Collects the TODO items from all agenda files (see Agenda Views) into a single buffer.  The new buffer will be in agenda-mode, which provides commands to examine and manipulate the TODO entries from the new buffer (see Agenda commands).  See Global TODO list, for more information.

S-M-RET
     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.

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).

TODO keywords as workflow states
--------------------------------

You can use TODO keywords to indicate different sequential states in the process of working on an item, for example (Changing this variable only becomes effective after restarting Org mode in a buffer.):

     (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 don't provide the separator bar, the last state is used as the DONE state. With this setup, the command C-c C-t will cycle 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 will change the state immediately to VERIFY. Or you can use S-left to go backward through the sequence.  If you define many keywords, you can use in-buffer completion (see Completion) or even 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.

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 would be set up like this:

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

In this case, different keywords do not indicate a sequence, 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-t (This is also true for the t command in the timeline and agenda buffers.).  When used several times in succession, it will still cycle 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 C-v.  For example, to see all things Lucy has to do, you would use C-3 C-c C-v.  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 C-c t.

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 to keep track of which subsequence should be used for a given entry.  In this setup, C-c C-t only operates within a subsequence, 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.  Besides the obvious ways like typing a keyword or using 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 subset 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-mode (see Conflicts).

S-right
S-left
     S-<left> and S-<right> and walk through all keywords from all sets, so for example S-<right> would switch from DONE to REPORT in the example above.  See also Conflicts, for a discussion of the interaction with shift-selection-mode.

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 section key after each keyword, in parentheses.  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 will be switched to this state.  SPC can be used to remove any TODO keyword from an entry. (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.)

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 | DONE
     #+TODO: REPORT BUG KNOWNCAUSE | FIXED
     #+TODO: | CANCELED

To make sure you are using the correct keyword, type #+ into the buffer and then use M-TAB 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 the cursor still in the line to make the changes known to Org mode (Org mode parses these lines only when Org mode is activated after visiting a file.  C-c C-c with the cursor in a line starting with #+ is simply restarting Org mode for the current buffer.).

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 2 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)
             ("DEFERRED"  . shadow)
             ("CANCELED"  . (:foreground "blue" :weight bold))))

While using a list with face properties as shown for CANCELED should work, this does not aways seem to be the case.  If necessary, define a special face and use that.

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 DONE until all subtasks (defined as children tasks) are marked as DONE.  And sometimes there is a logical sequence to a number of (sub)tasks, so that one task cannot be acted upon before all siblings above it are done.  If you customize the variable org-enforce-todo-dependencies, Org will block entries from changing state to DONE while they have children that are not DONE. Furthermore, if an entry has a property ORDERED, each of its children will be blocked until all earlier siblings are marked 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)

C-c C-x o
     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 like a tag.  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, circumventing any state blocking.

If you set the variable org-agenda-dim-blocked-tasks, TODO entries that cannot be closed because of such dependencies will be shown in a dimmed font or even made invisible in agenda views (see Agenda Views).

You can also block changes of TODO states by looking at checkboxes (see Checkboxes).  If you set the variable org-enforce-todo-checkbox-dependencies, an entry that has unchecked checkboxes will be 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 contributed module org-depend.el.

Progress logging
================

Org mode can automatically record a timestamp and possibly 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.

Closing items
-------------

The most basic logging is to keep track of when a certain TODO item was finished.  This is achieved with (The corresponding in-buffer setting is: #+STARTUP: logdone).

     (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] will be inserted just after the headline.  If you turn the entry back into a TODO item through further state cycling, that line will be removed again.  If you want to record a note along with the timestamp, use (The corresponding in-buffer setting is: #+STARTUP: lognotedone)

     (setq org-log-done 'note)

You will then be prompted for a note, and that note will be stored below the entry with a Closing Note heading.

In the timeline (see Timeline) and in the agenda (see Weekly/daily agenda), you can then use the l key to display the TODO items with a CLOSED timestamp on each day, giving you an overview of what has been done.

Tracking TODO state changes
---------------------------

When TODO keywords are used as workflow states (see Workflow states), you might want to 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 for a change.  These records will be inserted after the headline as an itemized list, newest first (See the variable org-log-states-order-reversed).  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 LOGBOOK.  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) and @ (for a note) 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 (It is possible that Org mode will record two timestamps when you are using both org-log-done and state change logging. However, it will never prompt for two notes---if you have configured both, the state change recording note will take precedence and cancel the Closing Note.), and that a note is recorded when switching to WAIT or CANCELED.  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@)

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:

Tracking your habits
--------------------

Org has the ability to track the consistency of a special category of TODOs, called ``habits''.  A habit has the following properties:

 1. You have enabled the habits module by customizing the variable org-modules.

 2. The habit is a TODO, with a TODO keyword representing an open state.

 3. The property STYLE is set to the value habit.

 4. The TODO has a scheduled date, with a .+ style repeat interval.

 5. 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.

 6. You must also have state logging for the DONE state enabled, in order for historical data to be represented in the consistency graph.  If it's not enabled it's not an error, but the consistency graphs will be 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>
        - 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]
        :PROPERTIES:
        :STYLE:    habit
        :LAST_REPEAT: [2009-10-19 Mon 00:36]
        :END:

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 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 wasn't 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 asterix 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 will overwrite any text in that column, so it's 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 will appear in consistency graphs.

org-habit-show-habits-only-for-today
     If non-nil, only show habits in today's agenda view.  This is set to true by default.

Lastly, pressing K in the agenda buffer will cause habits to temporarily be disabled and they won't 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.

Priorities
==========

If you use Org mode extensively, you may end up 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, 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 priority B.  Priorities make a difference only in the agenda (see Weekly/daily agenda); outside the agenda, they have no inherent meaning to Org mode.

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

C-c ,
     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 is removed from the headline. The priorities can also be changed ``remotely'' from the timeline and agenda buffer with the , command (see Agenda commands).

S-up
S-down
     Increase/decrease priority of current headline (See also the option org-priority-start-cycle-with-default.).  Note that these keys are also used to modify timestamps (see Creating timestamps).  See also Conflicts, for a discussion of the interaction with shift-selection-mode.

You can change the range of allowed priorities by setting the variables org-highest-priority, org-lowest-priority, and org-default-priority.  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

Breaking tasks down 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 tree (To keep subtasks out of the global TODO list, see the org-agenda-todo-list-sublevels.).  To keep the overview over the fraction of subtasks that are already completed, insert either [/] or [%] anywhere in the headline.  These cookies will be updates 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-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).

Checkboxes
==========

Every item in a plain list (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.  To toggle a checkbox, use C-c C-c, or use the mouse (thanks to Piotr Zielinski's org-mouse.el).

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 will make 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 appears (Set the variable org-hierarchical-checkbox-statistics if you want such cookies to represent the all checkboxes below the cookie, not just the direct children.).  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 will display 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 will be 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
     Toggle checkbox status or (with prefix arg) checkbox presence at point.  With double prefix argument, set it to [-], which is considered to be an intermediate state.

C-c C-x C-b
     Toggle checkbox status or (with prefix arg) 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 arg, add or remove the checkbox for all items in the region.

       - If the cursor 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.

M-S-RET
     Insert a new item with a checkbox. This works only if the cursor is already in a plain list item (see Plain lists).

C-c C-x o
     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 the variable org-track-ordered-property-with-tag.

C-c #
     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.  Or simply toggle any entry twice (checkboxes with C-c C-c).

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 will by default be 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).

Tag inheritance
===============

Tags make use of the hierarchical structure of outline trees.  If a heading has a certain tag, all subheadings will 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 will have 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 this (As with all these in-buffer settings, pressing C-c C-c activates any changes in the line.):

     #+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 will (for a simple match form) match as well (This is only true if the search does not involve more complex tests including properties (see Property searches).).  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).

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

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

Org will support tag insertion based on a list of tags.  By default this list is constructed dynamically, containing all tags currently used in the buffer.  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 with lines 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 option line 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 option lines, 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 option line 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 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 option line as:

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

The tags interface will show 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.

Don't forget to press C-c C-c with the cursor 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 will automatically present you with a special interface, listing inherited tags, the tags of the current headline, and a list of all valid tags with corresponding keys (Keys will automatically be assigned to tags which have no configured keys.).  In this interface, you can use the following keys:

a-z...
     Pressing keys assigned to tags will add or remove them from the list of tags in the current line.  Selecting a tag in a group of mutually exclusive tags will turn off any other tags from that group.

TAB
     Enter a tag in the minibuffer, even if the tag is not in the predefined list.  You will be able to complete on all tags present in the buffer.

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 will display 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 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 will immediately exit 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.

Tag searches
============

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

C-c \
C-c / m
     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.

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

C-c a M
     Create a global list of tag matches from all agenda files, but check only TODO items and force checking subitems (see variable 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.

Properties and Columns
**********************

Properties are a set of key-value pairs associated with an entry.  There are two main applications for properties in Org mode.  First, properties are like tags, but with a value.  Second, you can use properties to implement (very basic) database capabilities in an Org buffer.  For an example of the first application, 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:, one can use a property, say :Release:, that in different subtrees has different values, such as 1.0 or 2.0.  For an example of the second application of properties, 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).

Property syntax
===============

Properties are key-value pairs.  They need to be inserted into a special drawer (see Drawers) with the name PROPERTIES.  Each property is specified on a single line, with the key (surrounded by colons) first, and the value after it.  Here is an example:

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

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 will apply 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 predefine 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:

If you want to set properties that can be inherited by any entry in a file, use a line like

     #+PROPERTY: NDisks_ALL 1 2 3 4

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

C-c C-x p
     Set a property.  This prompts for a property name and a value.  If necessary, the property drawer is created as well.

M-x org-insert-property-drawer
     Insert a property drawer into the current entry.  The drawer will be inserted early in the entry, but after the lines with planning information like deadlines.

C-c C-c
     With the cursor in a property drawer, this executes property commands.

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

S-left/right
     Switch property at point to the next/previous allowed value.

C-c C-c d
     Remove a property from the current entry.

C-c C-c D
     Globally remove a property, from all entries in the current file.

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

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:

     TODO         The TODO keyword of the entry.
     TAGS         The tags defined directly in the headline.
     ALLTAGS      All tags, including inherited ones.
     CATEGORY     The category of an entry.
     PRIORITY     The priority of the entry, a string with a single letter.
     DEADLINE     The deadline time string, without the angular brackets.
     SCHEDULED    The scheduling timestamp, without the angular brackets.
     CLOSED       When was this entry closed?
     TIMESTAMP    The first keyword-less timestamp in the entry.
     TIMESTAMP_IA The first inactive timestamp in the entry.
     CLOCKSUM     The sum of CLOCK intervals in the subtree.  org-clock-sum
                  must be run first to compute the values.
     ITEM         The content of the entry.

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

C-c a m
     Create a global list of tag/property  matches from all agenda files. See Matching tags and properties.

C-c a M
     Create a global list of tag matches from all agenda files, but check only TODO items and force checking of subitems (see variable 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 into curly braces, it is interpreted as a regular expression and matched against the property values.

Property Inheritance
====================

The outline structure of Org-mode documents lends itself for 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.

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 subtrees).

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

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.

Defining columns
----------------

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

Scope of column definitions
...........................

To define a column format for an entire file, use a line like

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

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:

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.

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 will be 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 children.
                     Supported summary types are:
                     {+}       Sum numbers in this column.
                     {+;%.1f}  Like +, but format result with %.1f.
                     {$}       Currency, short for +;%.2f.
                     {:}       Sum times, HH:MM:SS, plain numbers are hours.
                     {X}       Checkbox status, [X] if all children are [X].
                     {X/}      Checkbox status, [n/m].
                     {X%}      Checkbox status, [n%].
                     {min}     Smallest number in column.
                     {max}     Largest number.
                     {mean}    Arithmetic mean of numbers.
                     {:min}    Smallest time value in column.
                     {:max}    Largest time value.
                     {:mean}   Arithmetic mean of time values.
                     {@min}   Minimum age (in days/hours/mins/seconds).
                     {@max}   Maximum age (in days/hours/mins/seconds).
                     {@mean}  Arithmetic mean of ages (in days/hours/mins/seconds).

Be aware that you can only have one summary type for any property you include. Subsequent columns referencing the same property will all display the same summary information.

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

     :COLUMNS:  %25ITEM %9Approved(Approved?){X} %Owner %11Status \ (Please note that the COLUMNS definition must be on a single line---it is wrapped here only because of formatting constraints.)
                        %10Time_Estimate{:} %CLOCKSUM
     :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 will be 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 will be 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 column is special, it lists the sum of CLOCK intervals in the subtree.

Using column view
-----------------

Turning column view on and off
..............................

C-c C-x C-c
Turn on column view.  If the cursor is before the first headline in the file, column view is turned on for the entire file, using the #+COLUMNS definition.  If the cursor 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
Recreate the column view, to include recent changes made in the buffer.
g
Same as r.
q
Exit column view.

Editing values
..............

left right up down
Move through the column view from field to field.
S-left/right
Switch to the next/previous allowed value of the field.  For this, you have to have specified allowed values for a property.
1..9,0
Directly select the nth allowed value, 0 selects the 10th value.
n / p
Same as S-left/right
e
Edit the property at point.  For the special properties, this will invoke the same interface that you normally use to change that property.  For example, when editing a TAGS property, the tag completion or fast selection interface will pop up.
C-c C-c
When there is a checkbox at point, toggle it.
v
View the full value of this property.  This is useful if the width of the column is smaller than that of the value.
a
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 the table structure
.............................

< / >
Make the column narrower/wider by one character.
S-M-right
Insert a new column, to the left of the current column.
S-M-left
Delete the current column.

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 4 values:

          local     use the tree in which the capture block is located
          global    make a global view, including all headings in the file
          "file:PATH-TO-FILE"
                    run column view at the top of this file
          "ID"      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.

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

:vlines
     When set to t, force column groups to get vertical lines.

:maxlevel
     When set to a number, don't capture entries below this level.

:skip-empty-rows
     When set to t, skip rows where the only non-empty specifier of the column view is ITEM.

The following commands insert or update the dynamic block:

C-c C-x i
     Insert a dynamic block capturing a column view.  You will be prompted for the scope or ID of the view.

C-c C-c
C-c C-x C-u
     Update dynamic block at point.  The cursor 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.

You can add formulas to the column view table and you may add plotting instructions in front of the table---these will survive an update of the block.  If there is a #+TBLFM: after the table, the table will actually be 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 contributed package (Contributed packages are not part of Emacs, but are distributed with the main distribution of Org (visit http://orgmode.org).).  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.

The Property API
================

There is a full API for accessing and changing properties.  This API can be used by Emacs Lisp programs to work with properties and to implement features based on them.  For more information see Using the property API.

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.

Timestamps, deadlines, and scheduling
=====================================

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> (This is inspired by the standard ISO 6801 date/time format.  To use an alternative format, see Custom time format.).  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 timeline and agenda displays, the headline of an entry associated with a plain timestamp will be 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 days (d), weeks (w), months (m), or years (y).  The following will show up in the agenda every Wednesday:

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

Diary-style sexp entries
     For more complex date specifications, Org mode supports using the special sexp diary entries implemented in the Emacs calendar/diary package.  For example

          * 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 will be 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]

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 .
     Prompt for a date and insert a corresponding timestamp.  When the cursor 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.

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

C-u C-c .
C-u C-c !
     Like C-c . and C-c !, but 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.

C-c <
     Insert a timestamp corresponding to the cursor date in the Calendar.

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

S-left
S-right
     Change date at cursor by one day.  These key bindings conflict with shift-selection and related modes (see Conflicts).

S-up
S-down
     Change the item under the cursor in a timestamp.  The cursor 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 will also shift the second, shifting the time block with constant length.  To change the length, modify the second time.  Note that if the cursor 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 Conflicts).

C-c C-y
     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).

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 will in fact accept any string containing some date and/or time information, and it is really smart about interpreting your input.  You can, for example, use C-y to paste a (possibly multi-line) string copied from an email message.  Org mode will find whatever information is in there and derive 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 will want to enter a date in the future: if you omit the month/year and the given day/month is before today, it will assume that you mean a future date (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.).  If the date has been automatically shifted into the future, the time prompt will show this with (=>F).

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

     3-2-5         --> 2003-02-05
     14            --> 2006-06-14
     12            --> 2006-07-12
     Fri           --> nearest Friday (defaultdate or later)
     sep 15        --> 2006-09-15
     feb 15        --> 2007-02-15
     sep 12 9      --> 2009-09-12
     12:45         --> 2006-06-13 12:45
     22 sept 0:34  --> 2006-09-22 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 ([dwmy]) to indicate change in days, weeks, months, or years.  With a single plus or minus, the date is always relative to today.  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 will be the nth such day.  E.g.

     +0            --> today
     .             --> today
     +4d           --> four days from today
     +4            --> same as above
     +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 unabbreviated names and/or other languages, configure the variables parse-time-months and parse-time-weekdays.

Parallel to the minibuffer prompt, a calendar is popped up (If you don't need/want the calendar, configure the variable org-popup-calendar-for-date-prompt.).  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 will be combined with the information entered at the prompt.  You can control the calendar fully from the minibuffer:

     > / <          Scroll calendar forward/backward by one month.
     mouse-1        Select date by clicking on it.
     S-right/left     One day forward/backward.
     S-down/up     One week forward/backward.
     M-S-right/left   One month forward/backward.
     RET           Choose date in calendar.

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 will be displayed live in the minibuffer (If you find this distracting, turn the display of with org-read-date-display-live.).

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
     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 the cursor onto a timestamp anymore, only before or after.

  * The S-up/down keys can no longer be used to adjust each component of a timestamp.  If the cursor is at the beginning of the stamp, S-up/down will change the stamp by one day, just like S-left/right.  At the end of the stamp, the time will be changed by one minute.

  * If the timestamp contains a range of clock times or a repeater, these will not be overlayed, but remain in the buffer as they were.

  * When you delete a timestamp character-by-character, it will only disappear 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.

Deadlines and scheduling
========================

A timestamp may be preceded by special keywords to facilitate planning:

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 will be listed in the agenda.  In addition, the agenda for today will carry a warning about the approaching or missed deadline, starting org-deadline-warning-days before the due date, and continuing until the entry is marked DONE.  An example:

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

     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>.

SCHEDULED

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

     The headline will be listed under the given date (It will still be listed on that date after it has been marked DONE.  If you don't like this, set the variable org-agenda-skip-scheduled-if-done.).  In addition, a reminder that the scheduled date has passed will be present in the compilation for today, until the entry is marked DONE. I.e. the task will automatically be forwarded until completed.

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

     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 will issue early and late warnings based on the assumption that the timestamp represents the nearest instance of the repeater.  However, the use of diary sexp entries like <%%(diary-float t 42)> in scheduling and deadline timestamps is limited.  Org mode does not know enough about the internals of each sexp function to issue early and late warnings.  However, it will show the item on each day where the sexp entry matches.

Inserting deadlines or schedules
--------------------------------

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

C-c C-d
     Insert DEADLINE keyword along with a stamp.  The insertion will happen in the line directly following the headline.  When called with a prefix arg, an existing deadline will be removed from the entry.  Depending on the variable org-log-redeadline (with corresponding #+STARTUP keywords logredeadline, lognoteredeadline, and nologredeadline), a note will be taken when changing an existing deadline.

C-c C-s
     Insert SCHEDULED keyword along with a stamp.  The insertion will happen in the line directly following the headline.  Any CLOSED timestamp will be removed.  When called with a prefix argument, remove the scheduling date from the entry.  Depending on the variable org-log-reschedule (with corresponding #+STARTUP keywords logredeadline, lognoteredeadline, and nologredeadline), a note will be taken when changing an existing scheduling time.

C-c C-x C-k
     Mark the current entry for agenda action.  After you have marked the entry like this, you can open the agenda or the calendar to find an appropriate date.  With the cursor on the selected date, press k s or k d to schedule the marked item.

C-c / d
     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
     Sparse tree for deadlines and scheduled items before a given date.

C-c / a
     Sparse tree for deadlines and scheduled items after a given date.

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 timestamp.  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.  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 completed once you have done so.  When you mark a DEADLINE or a SCHEDULE with the TODO keyword DONE, it will no longer produce entries in the agenda.  The problem with this is, however, 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 DONE (using C-c C-t), it will shift the base date of the repeating timestamp by the repeater interval, and immediately set the entry state back to TODO.  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>

A timestamp (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.) will be 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 will no longer be visible in the agenda when checking past dates, but all future instances will be visible.

With the +1m cookie, the date shift will always be exactly one month.  So if you have not paid the rent for three months, marking this entry DONE will still keep 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 you 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 markers with ++ and .+.  For example:

     ** TODO Call Father
        DEADLINE: <2008-02-10 Sun ++1w>
        Marking this DONE will shift 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 Check the batteries in the smoke detectors
        DEADLINE: <2005-11-01 Tue .+1m>
        Marking this DONE will shift the date to one month after
        today.

You may have both scheduling and deadline information for a specific task---just make sure that the repeater intervals on both are the same.

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.

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 subtree of a project.  And it remembers a history or tasks recently clocked, to 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 clock (To resume the clock under the assumption that you have worked on this task while outside Emacs, use (setq org-clock-persist t).) will be found (see Resolving idle time) and you will be prompted about what to do with it.

C-c C-x C-i
     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 will be wrapped into a :LOGBOOK: drawer (see also the variable org-clock-into-drawer).  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 will always be available when selecting a clocking task, with letter d.

     While the clock is running, the current clocking time is shown in the mode line, along with the title of the task.  The clock time shown will be 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 it (To add an effort estimate ``on the fly'', hook a function doing this to org-clock-in-prepare-hook.)  If the task is a repeating one (see Repeated tasks), only the time since the last reset of the task  (as recorded by the LAST_REPEAT property) will be shown.  More control over what time is shown can be exercised 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 default (See also the variable
     org-clock-modeline-total.).
      Clicking with mouse-1 onto the mode line entry will pop up a menu with clocking options.

C-c C-x C-o
     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 timestamp (The corresponding in-buffer setting is: #+STARTUP: lognoteclock-out).

C-c C-x C-e
     Update the effort estimate for the current clock task.

C-c C-y   or  C-c C-c
     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-c C-t
     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-x
     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
     Jump to the entry that contains the currently running clock.  With a C-u prefix arg, select the target task from a list of recently clocked tasks.

C-c C-x C-d
     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.

C-c C-x C-r
     Insert a dynamic block (see Dynamic blocks) containing a clock report as an Org-mode table into the current file.  When the cursor is at an existing clock table, just update it.  When called with a prefix argument, jump to the first clock report in the current document and update it.

          #+BEGIN: clocktable :maxlevel 2 :emphasize nil :scope file
          #+END: clocktable

     If such a block already exists at point, its content is replaced by the new table.  The BEGIN line can specify options:

          :maxlevel    Maximum level depth to which times are listed in the table.
          :emphasize   When t, emphasize level one and level two items.
          :scope       The scope to consider.  This can be any of the following:
                       nil        the current buffer or narrowed region
                       file       the full current buffer
                       subtree    the subtree where the clocktable is located
                       treeN      the surrounding level N tree, for example tree3
                       tree       the surrounding level 1 tree
                       agenda     all agenda files
                       ("file"..) scan these files
                       file-with-archives    current file and its archives
                       agenda-with-archives  all agenda files, including archives
          :block       The time block to consider.  This block is specified either
                       absolute, or relative to the current time and may be any of
                       these formats:
                       2007-12-31    New year eve 2007
                       2007-12       December 2007
                       2007-W50      ISO-week 50 in 2007
                       2007          the year 2007
                       today, yesterday, today-N          a relative day
                       thisweek, lastweek, thisweek-N     a relative week
                       thismonth, lastmonth, thismonth-N  a relative month
                       thisyear, lastyear, thisyear-N     a relative year
                       Use S-left/right keys to shift the time interval.
          :tstart      A time string specifying when to start considering times.
          :tend        A time string specifying when to stop considering times.
          :step        week or day, to split the table into chunks.
                       To use this, :block or :tstart, :tend are needed.
          :link        Link the item headlines in the table to their origins.
          :formula     Content of a #+TBLFM line 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 will survive updates and be evaluated.
          :timestamp   A timestamp for the entry, when available.  Look for SCHEDULED,
                       DEADLINE, TIMESTAMP and TIMESTAMP_IA, in this order.

     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: clocktable

     and to use a specific time range you could write (Note that all parameters must be specified in a single line---the line is broken here only to fit it into the manual.)

          #+BEGIN: clocktable :tstart "<2006-08-10 Thu 10:00>"
                              :tend "<2006-08-10 Thu 12:00>"
          #+END: clocktable

     A summary of the current subtree with % times would be

          #+BEGIN: clocktable :scope subtree :link t :formula %
          #+END: clocktable

C-c C-c
C-c C-x C-u
     Update dynamic block at point.  The cursor 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
     Shift the current :block interval and update the table.  The cursor needs to be in the #+BEGIN: clocktable line for this command.  If :block is today, it will be shifted to today-1 etc.

The l key may be used in the timeline (see Timeline) and in the agenda (see Weekly/daily agenda) to show which tasks have been worked on or closed during a day.

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 minutes (On computers using Mac OS X, 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 UTILITIES directory of the Org git distribution, to get the same general treatment of idleness.  On other systems, idle time refers to Emacs idle time only.), 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 will ask 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 will keep 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 will always leave you clocked out, no matter which option you choose.

C
     To cancel the clock altogether, use C.  Note that if instead of cancelling you subtract the away time, and the resulting clock amount is less than a minute, the clock will still be cancelled rather than clutter 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's 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.

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 (You may change the property being used with the variable org-effort-property.).  You can set the effort for an entry with the following commands:

C-c C-x e
     Set the effort estimate for the current entry.  With a numeric prefix argument, set it to the NTH allowed value (see below).  This command is also accessible from the agenda with the e key.

C-c C-x C-e
     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 8:00
     #+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 will immediately be summed up in the hierarchy. In the column next to it, any clocked time will be displayed.

If you switch to column view in the daily/weekly agenda, the effort column will summarize the estimated work effort for each day (Please note the pitfalls of summing hierarchical data in a flat list (see Agenda column view).), 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 will then also be 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 Agenda commands).  If you have these estimates defined consistently, two or three key presses will narrow down the list to stuff that fits into an available time slot.

Taking notes with a relative timer
==================================

When taking notes during, for example, a meeting or a video viewing, it can be useful to have access to times relative to a starting time.  Org provides such a relative timer and make it easy to create timed notes.

C-c C-x .
     Insert a relative time into the buffer.  The first time you use this, the timer will be started.  When called with a prefix argument, the timer is restarted.

C-c C-x -
     Insert a description list item with the current relative time.  With a prefix argument, first reset the timer to 0.

M-RET
     Once the timer list is started, you can also use M-RET to insert new timer items.

C-c C-x ,
     Pause the timer, or continue it if it is already paused.

C-u C-c C-x ,
     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.

C-c C-x 0
     Reset the timer without inserting anything into the buffer.  By default, the timer is reset to 0.  When called with a C-u prefix, reset the timer to specific starting offset.  The user is prompted for the offset, with a default taken from a timer string at point, if any, So this can be used to restart taking notes after a break in the process.  When called with a double prefix argument C-c 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.

Capture - Refile - Archive
**************************

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 uses the remember.el package to create tasks, and stores files related to a task (attachments) in a special directory.  Once in the system, tasks and projects need to be moved around.  Moving completed project trees to an archive file keeps the system compact and fast.

Remember
========

The Remember package by John Wiegley lets you store quick notes with little interruption of your work flow.  It is an excellent way to add new notes and tasks to Org files.  The remember.el package is part of Emacs 23, not Emacs 22.  See http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/RememberMode for more information.

Org significantly expands the possibilities of Remember: you may define templates for different note types, and associate target files and headlines with specific templates.  It also allows you to select the location where a note should be stored interactively, on the fly.

Setting up Remember for Org
---------------------------

The following customization will tell Remember to use Org files as target, and to create annotations compatible with Org links.

     (org-remember-insinuate)
     (setq org-directory "~/path/to/my/orgfiles/")
     (setq org-default-notes-file (concat org-directory "/notes.org"))
     (define-key global-map "\C-cr" 'org-remember)

The last line binds the command org-remember to a global key (Please select your own key, C-c r is only a suggestion.).  org-remember basically just calls Remember, but it makes a few things easier: if there is an active region, it will automatically copy the region into the Remember buffer.  It also allows to jump to the buffer and location where Remember notes are being stored: just call org-remember with a prefix argument.  If you use two prefix arguments, Org jumps to the location where the last remember note was stored.

The Remember buffer will actually use org-mode as its major mode, so that all editing features of Org mode are available.  In addition to this, a minor mode org-remember-mode is turned on, for the single purpose that you can use its keymap org-remember-mode-map to overwrite some of Org mode's key bindings.

You can also call org-remember in a special way from the agenda, using the k r key combination.  With this access, any timestamps inserted by the selected Remember template (see below) will default to the cursor date in the agenda, rather than to the current date.

Remember templates
------------------

In combination with Org, you can use templates to generate different types of Remember notes.  For example, if you would like to use one template to create general TODO entries, another one for journal entries, and a third one for collecting random ideas, you could use:

     (setq org-remember-templates
      '(("Todo" ?t "* TODO %?\n  %i\n  %a" "~/org/TODO.org" "Tasks")
        ("Journal" ?j "* %U %?\n\n  %i\n  %a" "~/org/JOURNAL.org")
        ("Idea" ?i "* %^{Title}\n  %i\n  %a" "~/org/JOURNAL.org" "New Ideas")))

In these entries, the first string is just a name, and the character specifies how to select the template.  It is useful if the character is also the first letter of the name.  The next string specifies the template.  Two more (optional) strings give the file in which, and the headline under which, the new note should be stored.  The file (if not present or nil) defaults to org-default-notes-file, the heading to org-remember-default-headline.  If the file name is not an absolute path, it will be interpreted relative to org-directory.

The heading can also be the symbols top or bottom to send notes as level 1 entries to the beginning or end of the file, respectively.  It may also be the symbol date-tree.  Then, a tree with year on level 1, month on level 2 and day on level three will be build in the file, and the entry will be filed into the tree under the current date (If the file contains an entry with a DATE_TREE property, the entire date tree will be build under that entry.)

An optional sixth element specifies the contexts in which the user can select the template.  This element can be a list of major modes or a function. org-remember will first check whether the function returns t or if we are in any of the listed major modes, and exclude templates for which this condition is not fulfilled.  Templates that do not specify this element at all, or that use nil or t as a value will always be selectable.

So for example:

     (setq org-remember-templates
      '(("Bug" ?b "* BUG %?\n  %i\n  %a" "~/org/BUGS.org" "Bugs" (emacs-lisp-mode))
        ("Journal" ?j "* %U %?\n\n  %i\n  %a" "~/org/JOURNAL.org" "X" my-check)
        ("Idea" ?i "* %^{Title}\n  %i\n  %a" "~/org/JOURNAL.org" "New Ideas")))

The first template will only be available when invoking org-remember from an buffer in emacs-lisp-mode.  The second template will only be available when the function my-check returns t.  The third template will be proposed in any context.

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

     * TODO
       [[file:LINK TO WHERE YOU CALLED REMEMBER]]

During expansion of the template, special %-escapes (If you need one of these sequences literally, escape the % with a backslash.) allow dynamic insertion of content:

     %^{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.
     %a          annotation, normally the link created with org-store-link
     %A          like %a, but prompt for the description part
     %i          initial content, the region when remember is called with C-u.
                 The entire text will be indented like %i itself.
     %t          timestamp, date only
     %T          timestamp with date and time
     %u, %U      like the above, but inactive timestamps
     %^t         like %t, but prompt for date.  Similarly %^T, %^u, %^U
                 You may define a prompt like %^{Birthday}t
     %n          user name (taken from user-full-name)
     %c          Current kill ring head.
     %x          Content of the X clipboard.
     %^C         Interactive selection of which kill or clip to use.
     %^L         Like %^C, but insert as link.
     %^g         prompt for tags, with completion on tags in target file.
     %k          title of currently clocked task
     %K          link to currently clocked task
     %^G         prompt for tags, with completion all tags in all agenda files.
     %^{PROP}p   Prompt the user for a value for property PROP
     %:keyword   specific information for certain link types, see below
     %[FILE]     insert the contents of the file given by FILE
     %(SEXP)     evaluate Elisp SEXP and replace with the result
     %!          immediately store note after completing the template
                 (skipping the C-c C-c that normally triggers storing)
     %&          jump to target location immediately after storing note

For specific link types, the following keywords will be defined (If you define your own link types (see Adding hyperlink types), any property you store with org-store-link-props can be accessed in remember templates in a similar way.):

     Link type          |  Available keywords
     -------------------+----------------------------------------------
     bbdb               |  %:name %:company
     bbdb               |  %::server %:port %:nick
     vm, wl, mh, rmail  |  %:type %:subject %:message-id
                        |  %:from %:fromname %:fromaddress
                        |  %:to   %:toname   %:toaddress
                        |  %:fromto (either "to NAME" or "from NAME") (This will always be the other, not the user.  See the variable org-from-is-user-regexp.)
     gnus               |  %:group, for messages also all email fields
     w3, w3m            |  %:url
     info               |  %:file %:node
     calendar           |  %:date"

To place the cursor after template expansion use:

     %?          After completing the template, position cursor here.

If you change your mind about which template to use, call org-remember in the remember buffer.  You may then select a new template that will be filled with the previous context information.

Storing notes
-------------

When you are finished preparing a note with Remember, you have to press C-c C-c to file the note away.  If you have started the clock in the Remember buffer, you will first be asked if you want to clock out now (To avoid this query, configure the variable org-remember-clock-out-on-exit.).  If you answer n, the clock will continue to run after the note was filed away.

The handler will then store the note in the file and under the headline specified in the template, or it will use the default file and headline. The window configuration will be restored, sending you back to the working context before the call to Remember.  To re-use the location found during the last call to Remember, exit the Remember buffer with C-0 C-c C-c, i.e. specify a zero prefix argument to C-c C-c. Another special case is C-2 C-c C-c which files the note as a child of the currently clocked item.

If you want to store the note directly to a different place, use C-1 C-c C-c instead to exit Remember (Configure the variable org-remember-store-without-prompt to make this behavior the default.).  The handler will then first prompt for a target file---if you press RET, the value specified for the template is used. Then the command offers the headings tree of the selected file, with the cursor position at the default headline (if you specified one in the template).  You can either immediately press RET to get the note placed there.  Or you can use the following keys to find a different location:

     TAB         Cycle visibility.
     down / up   Next/previous visible headline.
     n / p        Next/previous visible headline.
     f / b        Next/previous headline same level.
     u            One level up.

Pressing RET or left or right then leads to the following result.

Cursor position   Key   Note gets inserted
on headline       RET                as sublevel of the heading at cursor, first or last
                           depending on org-reverse-note-order.
  left/right   as same level, before/after current heading
buffer-start      RET   as level 2 heading at end of file or level 1 at beginning
    depending on org-reverse-note-order.
not on headline   RET
at cursor position, level taken from context.

Before inserting the text into a tree, the function ensures that the text has a headline, i.e. a first line that starts with a *.  If not, a headline is constructed from the current date.  If you have indented the text of the note below the headline, the indentation will be adapted if inserting the note into the tree requires demotion from level 1.

Attachments
===========

It is often useful to associate reference material with an outline node/task. Small chunks of plain text can simply be stored in the subtree of a project. Hyperlinks (see Hyperlinks) can be used to establish associations with files that live elsewhere on your computer or in the cloud, 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 named by the unique ID of each entry.  These directories are located in the data directory which lives in the same directory where your Org file lives (If you move entries or Org files from one directory to another, you may want to configure org-attach-directory to contain an absolute path.).  If you initialize this directory with git init, Org will automatically commit changes when it sees them. The attachment system has been contributed to Org by John Wiegley.

In cases where it seems better to do so, you can also attach a directory of your choice to an entry.  You can also make children inherit the attachment directory from a parent, so that an entire subtree uses the same attached directory.

The following commands deal with attachments.

C-c C-a
     The dispatcher for commands related to the attachment system.  After these keys, a list of commands is displayed and you need to press an additional key to select a command:

     a
          Select a file and move it into the task's attachment directory.  The file will be 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.

     n
          Create a new attachment as an Emacs buffer.

     z
          Synchronize the current task with its attachment directory, in case you added attachments yourself.

     o
          Open current task's attachment.  If there are more than one, prompt for a file name first.  Opening will follow the rules set by org-file-apps. For more details, see the information on following hyperlinks (see Handling links).

     O
          Also open the attachment, but force opening the file in Emacs.

     f
          Open the current task's attachment directory.

     F
          Also open the directory, but force using dired in Emacs.

     d
          Select and delete a single attachment.

     D
          Delete all of a task's attachments.  A safer way is to open the directory in dired and delete from there.

     C-c C-a s
          Set a specific directory as the entry's attachment directory.  This works by putting the directory path into the ATTACH_DIR property.

     C-c C-a i
          Set the ATTACH_DIR_INHERIT property, so that children will use the same directory for attachments as the parent does.

RSS feeds
=========

Org has the capability to add and change entries based on information found in RSS 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, you need to configure the variable org-feed-alist.  The docstring of this variable has detailed information.  Here is just an example:

     (setq org-feed-alist
           '(("ReQall" "http://www.reqall.com/user/feeds/rss/a1b2c3....."
              "~/org/feeds.org" "ReQall Entries")

will configure that new items from the feed provided by reqall.com will result in new entries in the file ~/org/feeds.org under the heading ReQall Entries, whenever the following command is used:

C-c C-x g
     Collect items from the feeds configured in org-feed-alist and act upon them.

C-c C-x G
     Prompt for a feed name and go to the inbox configured for this feed.

Under the same headline, Org will create a drawer FEEDSTATUS in which it will store information about the status of items in the feed, to avoid adding the same item several times.  You should add FEEDSTATUS to the list of drawers in that file:

     #+DRAWERS: LOGBOOK PROPERTIES FEEDSTATUS

For more information, see org-feed.el and the docstring of org-feed-alist.

Protocols for external access
=============================

You can set up Org for handling protocol calls from outside applications that are passed to Emacs through the emacsserver.  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 Remember (see Remember).  Or you could create a bookmark that will tell Emacs to open the local source file of a remote website you are looking at with the browser.  See http://orgmode.org/worg/org-contrib/org-protocol.php for detailed documentation and setup instructions.

Refiling notes
==============

When reviewing the captured data, you may want to refile 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
     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 will be 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.

C-u C-c C-w
     Use the refile interface to jump to a heading.

C-u C-u C-c C-w
     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.

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
     Archive the current entry using the command specified in the variable org-archive-default-command.

Moving a tree to the 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 $
     Archive the subtree starting at the cursor 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, each subtree is checked for open TODO entries. If none are found, the command offers to move it to the archive location.  If the cursor is not on a headline when this command is invoked, the level 1 trees will be checked.

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.  For information and examples on how to change this, see the documentation string of the variable org-archive-location.  There is also an in-buffer option for setting this variable, for example (For backward compatibility, the following also works: If there are several such lines in a file, each specifies the archive location for the text below it.  The first such line also applies to any text before its definition.  However, using this method is strongly deprecated as it is incompatible with the outline structure of the document.  The correct method for setting multiple archive locations in a buffer is using properties.):

     #+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.

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-TAB, or by setting the option org-cycle-open-archived-trees.  Also normal outline commands like show-all will 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 will always be 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-arrchived-trees is configured to nil.

The following commands help managing the ARCHIVE tag:

C-c C-x a
     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, each subtree is checked for open TODO entries.  If none are found, the command offers to set the ARCHIVE tag for the child.  If the cursor is not on a headline when this command is invoked, the level 1 trees will be checked.

C-TAB
     Cycle a tree even if it is tagged with ARCHIVE.

C-c C-x A
     Move the current entry to the Archive Sibling.  This is a sibling of the entry with the heading Archive and the tag ARCHIVE.  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.

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.  Seven different view types are provided:

  * an agenda that is like a calendar and shows information for specific dates,

  * a TODO list that covers all unfinished action items,

  * a match view, showings headlines based on the tags, properties, and TODO state associated with them,

  * a timeline view that shows all events in a single Org file, in time-sorted view,

  * a text search view that shows all entries from multiple files that contain specified keywords,

  * a stuck projects view showing projects that currently don't move along, and

  * custom views that are special searches and combinations of different views.

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.

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.

Agenda files
============

The information to be shown is normally collected from all agenda files, the files listed in the variable org-agenda-files (If the value of that variable is not a list, but a single file name, then the list of agenda files will be maintained in that external file.). If a directory is part of this list, all files with the extension .org in this directory will be part of the list.

Thus, even if you only work with a single Org file, that file should be put into the list (When using the dispatcher, pressing < before selecting a command will actually limit the command to the current file, and ignore org-agenda-files until the next dispatcher command.).  You can customize org-agenda-files, but the easiest way to maintain it is through the following commands

C-c [
     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 ]
     Remove current file from the list of agenda files.

C-,
C-'
     Cycle through agenda file list, visiting one file after the other.

M-x org-iswitchb
     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 Agenda dispatcher).  To restrict the agenda scope for an extended period, use the following commands:

C-c C-x <
     Permanently restrict the agenda to the current subtree.  When with a prefix argument, or with the cursor before the first headline in a file, the agenda scope is set 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 >
     Remove the permanent restriction created by C-c C-x <.

When working with speedbar.el, you can use the following commands in the Speedbar frame:

< in the speedbar frame
     Permanently restrict the agenda to the item---either an Org file or a subtree in such a file---at the cursor in the Speedbar frame. If there is a window displaying an agenda view, the new restriction takes effect immediately.

> in the speedbar frame
     Lift the restriction.

The agenda dispatcher
=====================

The views are created through a dispatcher, which should be bound to a global key---for example C-c a (see Installation).  In the following we will assume that C-c a is indeed how the dispatcher is accessed and list keyboard access to commands accordingly.  After pressing C-c a, 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 Global TODO list).

m / M
     Create a list of headlines matching a TAGS expression (see Matching tags and properties).

L
     Create the timeline view for the current buffer (see Timeline).

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, default is 1.

# / !
     Create a list of stuck projects (see Stuck projects).

<
     Restrict an agenda command to the current buffer (For backward compatibility, you can also press 1 to restrict to the current 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 subtree (For backward compatibility, you can also press 0 to restrict to the current region/subtree.).  After pressing < <, you still need to press the character selecting the command.

You can also define custom commands that will be 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.

The built-in agenda views
=========================

In this section we describe the built-in views.

The 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.

C-c a a
     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 (For backward compatibility, the universal prefix 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).)  (like C-u 2 1 C-c a a) you may set the number of days to be displayed (see also the variable org-agenda-ndays)

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 Agenda commands.

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 will happen automatically.  All diary entries including holidays, anniversaries, etc., will be 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 sexp 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 sexp entries, and does it faster because there is no overhead for first creating the diary display.  Note that the sexp entries must start at the left margin, no whitespace is allowed before them.  For example, the following segment of an Org file will be processed and entries will be made in the agenda:

     * Birthdays and similar stuff
     #+CATEGORY: Holiday
     %%(org-calendar-holiday)   ; special function for holiday names
     #+CATEGORY: Ann
     %%(diary-anniversary 14  5 1956) Arthur Dent is %d years old
     %%(diary-anniversary  2 10 1869) Mahatma Gandhi would be %d years old

Anniversaries from BBDB
.......................

If you are using the Big Brothers Database to store your contacts, you will very likely prefer to store anniversaries in BBDB rather than in a separate Org or diary file.  Org supports this and will show BBDB anniversaries as part of the agenda.  All you need to do is to add the following to one your 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 to press C-o anniversary RET with the cursor in a BBDB record and then add the date in the format YYYY-MM-DD, followed by a space and the class of the anniversary (birthday or wedding, or a format string).  If you omit the class, it will default to birthday. Here are a few examples, the header for the file org-bbdb.el contains more detailed information.

     1973-06-22
     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 will suffer 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.

Appointment reminders
.....................

Org can interact with Emacs appointments notification facility.  To add all the appointments of your agenda files, use the command org-agenda-to-appt.  This command also lets you filter through the list of your appointments and add only those belonging to a specific category or matching a regular expression. See the docstring for details.

The global TODO list
--------------------

The global TODO list contains all unfinished TODO items formatted and collected into a single place.

C-c a t
     Show the global TODO list.  This collects the TODO items from all agenda files (see Agenda Views) into a single buffer.  The buffer is in agenda-mode, so there are commands to examine and manipulate the TODO entries directly from that buffer (see Agenda commands).

C-c a T
     Like the above, but allows selection of a specific TODO keyword.  You can also do this by specifying a prefix argument to C-c a t.  With a C-u prefix 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 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 Agenda commands.

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, org-agenda-todo-ignore-deadlines, and/or org-agenda-todo-ignore-with-date to exclude such items from the global TODO list.

  - 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.

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.

C-c a m
     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 Agenda dispatcher).

C-c a M
     Like C-c a m, but only select headlines that are also TODO items and force checking subitems (see 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 Agenda commands.

Match syntax
............

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.  For example, work+{^boss.*} matches headlines that contain the tag :work: and any tag starting with boss.

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 a search +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 will correspond 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 will depend 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 will be done accordingly.  Special values that will be recognized are "<now>" for now (including time), and "<today>", and "<tomorrow>" for these days at 0:00 hours, i.e. without a time specification.  Also strings like "<+5d>" or "<-2m>" with units d, w, m, and y for day, week, month, and year, respectively, can be used.

  - 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.

Accessing TODO, LEVEL, and CATEGORY during a search is fast.  Accessing any other properties will slow down the search.  However, once you have paid the price by accessing one property, testing additional properties is cheap again.

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 C-c a M, or equivalently start the TODO part after the slash with !.  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.

Timeline for a single file
--------------------------

The timeline summarizes all time-stamped items from a single Org mode file in a time-sorted view.  The main purpose of this command is to give an overview over events in a project.

C-c a L
     Show a time-sorted view of the Org file, with all time-stamped items. When called with a C-u prefix, all unfinished TODO entries (scheduled or not) are also listed under the current date.

The commands available in the timeline buffer are listed in Agenda commands.

Search view
-----------

This agenda view is a general text search facility for Org mode entries. It is particularly useful to find notes.

C-c a s
     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 will find entries that contain computer equipment as a substring.  If the two words are separated by more space or a line break, the search will still match. Search view can also search for specific keywords in the entry, using Boolean logic.  The search string +computer +wifi -ethernet -{8\.11[bg]} will search for 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.

Note that in addition to the agenda files, this command will also search the files listed in org-agenda-text-search-extra-files.

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 will never show up in the TODO lists Org mode produces.  During the review, you need to identify such projects and define next actions for them.

C-c a #
     List projects that are stuck.

C-c a !
     Customize the variable org-stuck-projects to define what a stuck project is and how to find it.

You almost certainly will have to configure this view before it will work 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 will still be searched for stuck projects.

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 the prefix using the option org-agenda-prefix-format. The prefix is followed by a cleaned-up version of the outline headline associated with the item.

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 (For backward compatibility, the following also works: if there are several such lines in a file, each specifies the category for the text below it. The first category also applies to any text before the first CATEGORY line.  However, using this method is strongly deprecated as it is incompatible with the outline structure of the document.  The correct method for setting multiple categories in a buffer is using a property.):

     #+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.

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 as in <2005-05-10 Tue 19:00>.  Time ranges can be specified with two timestamps, like <2005-05-10 Tue 20:30>--<2005-05-10 Tue 22:15>.

In the headline of the entry itself, a time(range) may also appear as plain text (like 12:45 or a 8:30-1pm).  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.

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 will be 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).

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, the cursor needs to be in the desired line.

Motion
......

n
Next line (same as up and C-p).
p
Previous line (same as down and C-n).

View/Go to Org file
...................

mouse-3
SPC
Display the original location of the item in another window. With prefix arg, make sure that the entire entry is made visible in the outline, not only the heading.
L
Display original location and recenter that window.
mouse-2
mouse-1
TAB
Go to the original location of the item in another window.  Under Emacs 22, mouse-1 will also works for this.
RET
Go to the original location of the item and delete other windows.
F
Toggle Follow mode.  In Follow mode, as you move the cursor 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
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
Follow a link in the entry.  This will offer a selection of any links in the text belonging to the referenced Org node.  If there is only one link, it will be followed without a selection prompt.

Change display
..............

o
Delete other windows.
v d  or short  d
v w  or short  w
v m
v y
Switch to day/week/month/year view.  When switching to day or week view, this setting becomes the default for subsequent agenda commands.  Since month and year views are slow to create, they do not become the default. A numeric prefix argument may be used to jump directly to a specific day of the year, ISO week, month, or year, respectively.  For example, 32 d jumps to February 1st, 9 w to ISO week number 9.  When setting day, week, or month view, a year may be encoded in the prefix argument as well.  For example, 200712 w will jump to week 12 in 2007.  If such a year specification has only one or two digits, it will be mapped to the interval 1938-2037.
f
Go forward in time to display the following org-agenda-ndays days. For example, if the display covers a week, switch to the following week. With prefix arg, go forward that many times org-agenda-ndays days.
b
Go backward in time to display earlier dates.
.
Go to today.
j
Prompt for a date and go there.
D
Toggle the inclusion of diary entries.  See Weekly/daily agenda.
v l  or short  l
Toggle Logbook mode.  In Logbook mode, entries that were marked DONE while logging was on (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, show all possible logbook entries, including state changes.  When called with two prefix args C-u C-u, show only logging information, nothing else.
v [  or short  [
Include inactive timestamps into the current view.  Only for weekly/daily agenda and timeline views.
v a
v A
Toggle Archives mode.  In Archives mode, trees that are marked ARCHIVED are also scanned when producing the agenda.  When you use the capital A, even all archive files are included.  To exit archives mode, press v a again.
v R  or short  R
Toggle Clockreport mode.  In Clockreport mode, the daily/weekly agenda will always show a table with the clocked times for the timespan 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.
v E  or short  E
Toggle entry text mode.  In entry text mode, a number of lines from the Org outline node referenced by an agenda line will be 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 will temporarily modify that number to the prefix value.
G
Toggle the time grid on and off.  See also the variables org-agenda-use-time-grid and org-agenda-time-grid.
r
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.
g
Same as r.
s
C-x C-s
Save all Org buffers in the current Emacs session, and also the locations of IDs.
C-c C-x C-c
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 line, or from the default variable org-columns-default-format), will be used in the agenda.

C-c C-x >
Remove the restriction lock on the agenda, if it is currently restricted to a file or subtree (see Agenda files).

Secondary filtering and query editing
.....................................

/
Filter the current agenda view with respect to a tag and/or effort estimates. The difference between this and a custom agenda command is that filtering is very fast, so that you can switch quickly between different filters without having to recreate the agenda (Custom commands can preset a filter by binding the variable org-agenda-filter-preset as an option.  This filter will then be applied to the view and persist as a basic filter through refreshes and more secondary filtering.)

You will be prompted for a tag selection letter, SPC will mean any tag at all.  Pressing TAB at that prompt will offer use 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.  When called with prefix arg, remove the entries that do have the tag.  A second / at the prompt will turn off the filter and unhide any hidden entries. If the first key you press is either + or -, the previous filter will be narrowed by requiring or forbidding the selected additional tag. Instead of pressing + or - after /, you can also immediately use the \ command.

In order to filter for effort estimates, you should set-up allowed 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 will then restrict to entries with effort smaller-or-equal, equal, or larger-or-equal than the selected value.  If the digits 0-9 are not used as fast access keys to tags, you can also simply press the index digit directly without an operator.  In this case, < will be assumed.  For application of the operator, entries without a defined effort will be treated according to the value of org-sort-agenda-noeffort-is-high.  To filter for tasks without effort definition, press ? as the operator.

Org also supports automatic, context-aware tag filtering.  If the variable org-agenda-auto-exclude-function is set to a user-defined function, that function can decide which tags should be excluded from the agenda automatically.  Once this is set, the / command then accepts RET as a sub-option key and runs the auto exclusion logic.  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 org-my-auto-exclude-function (tag)
       (and (cond
             ((string= tag "Net")
              (/= 0 (call-process "/sbin/ping" nil nil nil
                                  "-c1" "-q" "-t1" "mail.gnu.org")))
             ((or (string= tag "Errand") (string= tag "Call"))
              (let ((hour (nth 2 (decode-time))))
                (or (< hour 8) (> hour 21)))))
            (concat "-" tag)))

     (setq org-agenda-auto-exclude-function 'org-my-auto-exclude-function)

\
Narrow the current agenda filter by an additional condition.  When called with prefix arg, remove the entries that do have the tag, or that do match the effort criterion.  You can achieve the same effect by pressing + or - as the first key after the / command.

[ ] { }

in search view
     add new search words ([ and ]) or new regular expressions ({ and }) to the query string.  The opening bracket/brace will add a positive search term prefixed by +, indicating that this search term must occur/match in the entry.  The closing bracket/brace will add a negative search term which must not occur/match in the entry for it to be selected.

Remote editing
..............

0-9
Digit argument.
C-_
Undo a change due to a remote editing command.  The change is undone both in the agenda buffer and in the remote buffer.
t
Change the TODO state of the item, both in the agenda and in the original org file.
C-S-right/left
Switch to the next/previous set of TODO keywords.
C-k
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
Refile the entry at point.
C-c C-x C-a  or short  a
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 will be required.
C-c C-x a
Toggle the ARCHIVE tag for the current headline.
C-c C-x A
Move the subtree corresponding to the current entry to its archive sibling.
C-c C-x C-s  or short  $
Archive the subtree corresponding to the current headline.  This means the entry will be moved to the configured archive location, most likely a different file.
T
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.
:
Set tags for the current headline.  If there is an active region in the agenda, change a tag for all headings in the region.
,
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.
P
Display weighted priority of current item.
+
S-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.
-
S-down
Decrease the priority of the current item.
z
Add a note to the entry.  This note will be recorded, and then files to the same location where state change notes are put.  Depending on org-log-into-drawer, this maybe inside a drawer.
C-c C-a
Dispatcher for all command related to attachments.
C-c C-s
Schedule this item
C-c C-d
Set a deadline for this item.
k
Agenda actions, to set dates for selected items to the cursor date. This command also works in the calendar!  The command prompts for an additional key:

     m   Mark the entry at point for action.  You can also make entries
         in Org files with C-c C-x C-k.
     d   Set the deadline of the marked entry to the date at point.
     s   Schedule the marked entry at the date at point.
     r   Call org-remember with the cursor date as default date.

Press r afterward to refresh the agenda and see the effect of the command.
S-right
Change the timestamp associated with the current line by one day into the future.  With a numeric prefix argument, change it by that many days.  For example, 3 6 5 S-right will change 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 arg.  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
Change the timestamp associated with the current line by one day into the past.
>
Change the timestamp associated with the current line to today. The key > has been chosen, because it is the same as S-. on my keyboard.
I
Start the clock on the current item.  If a clock is running already, it is stopped first.
O
Stop the previously started clock.
X
Cancel the currently running clock.

J
Jump to the running clock in another window.

Bulk remote editing selected entries
....................................

s
Mark the entry at point for bulk action.

u
Unmark entry for bulk action.

U
Unmark all marked entries for bulk action.

B
Bulk action: act on all marked entries in the agenda.  This will prompt for another key to select the action to be applied:

     r  Prompt for a single refile target and move all entries.  The entries
        will no longer be in the agenda, refresh (g) to bring them back.
     $  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 time stamps).
     +  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.

Calendar commands
.................

c
Open the Emacs calendar and move to the date at the agenda cursor.
c
When in the calendar, compute and show the Org mode agenda for the date at the cursor.
i
Insert a new entry into the diary, using the date at the cursor and (for block entries) the date at the mark.  This will add to the Emacs diary file (This file is parsed for the agenda when org-agenda-include-diary is set.), in a way similar to the i command in the calendar.  The diary file will pop up in another window, where you can add the entry.

If you configure org-agenda-diary-file to point to an Org-mode file, Org will create entries (in org-mode syntax) in that file instead.  Most entries will be stored in a date-based outline tree that will later make it easy to archive appointments from previous months/years.  The tree will be build under an entry with a DATE_TREE property, or else with years as top-level entries.  Emacs will prompt you for the entry text - if you specify it, the entry will be created in org-agenda-diary-file without further interaction.  If you directly press RET at the prompt without typing text, the target file will be shown in another window for you to finish the entry there.  See also the k r command.
M
Show the phases of the moon for the three months around current date.
S
Show sunrise and sunset times.  The geographical location must be set with calendar variables, see the documentation for the Emacs calendar.
C
Convert the date at cursor into many other cultural and historic calendars.
H
Show holidays for three months around the cursor date.

M-x org-export-icalendar-combine-agenda-files
Export a single iCalendar file containing entries from all agenda files. This is a globally available command, and also available in the agenda menu.

Exporting to a file
...................

C-x C-w
Write the agenda view to a file.  Depending on the extension of the selected file name, the view will be exported as HTML (extension .html or .htm), Postscript (extension .ps), PDF (extension .pdf), and plain text (any other extension).  When called with a C-u prefix argument, immediately open the newly created file.  Use the variable org-agenda-exporter-settings to set options for ps-print and for htmlize to be used during export.

Quit and Exit
.............

q
Quit agenda, remove the agenda buffer.
x
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 will not be removed.

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 will be accessible through the dispatcher (see Agenda dispatcher), just like the default commands.

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-c a C.  You can also directly set it with Emacs Lisp in .emacs.  The following example contains all valid search types:

     (setq org-agenda-custom-commands
           '(("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 C-c a in order to access the command. Usually this will be 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 key (You can provide a description for a prefix key by inserting a cons cell with the prefix and the description.).  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:

C-c a w
     as a global search for TODO entries with WAITING as the TODO keyword

C-c a W
     as the same search, but only in the current buffer and displaying the results as a sparse tree

C-c a u
     as a global tags search for headlines marked :boss: but not :urgent:

C-c a v
     as the same search as C-c a u, but limiting the search to headlines that are also TODO items

C-c a U
     as the same search as C-c a u, but only in the current buffer and displaying the result as a sparse tree

C-c a f
     to create a sparse tree (again: current buffer only) with all entries containing the word FIXME

C-c a 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.

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 C-c a a), alltodo for the global TODO list (as constructed with C-c a t), 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 will define C-c a h to create a multi-block view for stuff you need to attend to at home.  The resulting agenda buffer will contain your agenda for the current week, all TODO items that carry the tag home, and also all lines tagged with garden.  Finally the command C-c a o provides a similar view for office tasks.

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-following-heading nil)
               (org-show-hierarchy-above nil)))
             ("N" search ""
              ((org-agenda-files '("~org/notes.org"))
               (org-agenda-text-search-extra-files nil)))))

Now the C-c a w command will sort 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 C-c a U will now turn out ultra-compact, because neither the headline hierarchy above the match, nor the headline following the match will be shown.  The command C-c a N will do 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 C-c a 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.

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, HTML (You need to install Hrvoje Niksic's htmlize.el.), Postscript, PDF (To create PDF output, the ghostscript ps2pdf utility must be installed on the system.  Selecting a PDF file with also create the postscript file.), and iCalendar files.  If you want to do this only occasionally, use the command

C-x C-w
     Write the agenda view to a file.  Depending on the extension of the selected file name, the view will be exported as HTML (extension .html or .htm), Postscript (extension .ps), iCalendar (extension .ics), or plain text (any other extension).  Use the variable org-agenda-exporter-settings to set options for ps-print and for htmlize to be used during export, for example

          (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)))

If you need to export certain agenda views frequently, you can associate any custom agenda command with a list of output file names (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.).  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 will use the htmlize.el 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:

C-c a e
     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 don't want to use colors for the black-and-white printer.  Settings specified in org-agenda-exporter-settings will also apply, but the settings in org-agenda-custom-commands take precedence.

From the command line you may also use

     emacs -f org-batch-store-agenda-views -kill

or, if you need to modify some parameters (Quoting depends on the system you use, please check the FAQ for examples.)

     emacs -eval '(org-batch-store-agenda-views                      \
                   org-agenda-ndays 30                               \
                   org-agenda-start-day "2007-11-01"                 \
                   org-agenda-include-diary nil                      \
                   org-agenda-files (quote ("~/org/project.org")))'  \
           -kill

which will create 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.

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
     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 the variable org-overriding-columns-format is currently set, and if so, takes the format from there.  Otherwise it takes the format associated with the first item in the agenda, or, if that item does not have a specific format (defined in a property, or in its file), it uses 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 will visit 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 will then sum the values displayed in the agenda.  In the daily/weekly agenda, the sums will cover a single day, in all other views they cover the entire block.  It is vital 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 will lead to incorrect results because some values will count double.

 3. When the column view in the agenda shows the CLOCKSUM, 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).

Markup for rich export
**********************

When exporting Org-mode documents, the exporter tries to reflect the structure of the document as accurately as possible in the backend.  Since export targets like HTML, LaTeX, or DocBook allow much richer formatting, Org mode has rules on how to prepare text for rich export.  This section summarizes the markup rules used in an Org-mode buffer.

Structural markup elements
==========================

Document title
--------------

The title of the exported document is taken from the special line

     #+TITLE: This is the title of the document

If this line does not exist, the title is derived from the first non-empty, non-comment line in the buffer.  If no such line exists, or if you have turned off exporting of the text before the first headline (see below), the title will be the file name without extension.

If you are exporting only a subtree by marking is as the region, the heading of the subtree will become the title of the document.  If the subtree has a property EXPORT_TITLE, that will take precedence.

Headings and sections
---------------------

The outline structure of the document as described in Document Structure, forms the basis for defining sections of the exported document. However, since the outline structure is also used for (for example) lists of tasks, only the first three outline levels will be used as headings.  Deeper levels will become itemized lists.  You can change the location of this switch globally by setting the variable org-export-headline-levels, or on a per-file basis with a line

     #+OPTIONS: H:4

Table of contents
-----------------

The table of contents is normally inserted directly before the first headline of the file.  If you would like to get it to a different location, insert the string [TABLE-OF-CONTENTS] on a line by itself at the desired location.  The depth of the table of contents is by default the same as the number of headline levels, but you can choose a smaller number, or turn off the table of contents entirely, by configuring the variable org-export-with-toc, or on a per-file basis with a line like

     #+OPTIONS: toc:2          (only to two levels in TOC)
     #+OPTIONS: toc:nil        (no TOC at all)

Text before the first headline
------------------------------

Org mode normally exports the text before the first headline, and even uses the first line as the document title.  The text will be fully marked up.  If you need to include literal HTML, LaTeX, or DocBook code, use the special constructs described below in the sections for the individual exporters.

Some people like to use the space before the first headline for setup and internal links and therefore would like to control the exported text before the first headline in a different way.  You can do so by setting the variable org-export-skip-text-before-1st-heading to t.  On a per-file basis, you can get the same effect with #+OPTIONS: skip:t.

If you still want to have some text before the first headline, use the #+TEXT construct:

     #+OPTIONS: skip:t
     #+TEXT: This text will go before the *first* headline.
     #+TEXT: [TABLE-OF-CONTENTS]
     #+TEXT: This goes between the table of contents and the first headline

Lists
-----

Plain lists as described in Plain lists, are translated to the backend's syntax for such lists.  Most backends support unordered, ordered, and description lists.

Paragraphs, line breaks, and quoting
------------------------------------

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 keep the line breaks 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-mode 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

Footnote markup
---------------

Footnotes defined in the way described in Footnotes, will be exported by all backends.  Org allows multiple references to the same note, and different backends support this to varying degrees.

Emphasis and monospace
----------------------

You can make words *bold*, /italic/, _underlined_, =code= and ~verbatim~, and, if you must, +strike-through+.  Text in the code and verbatim string is not processed for Org-mode specific syntax, it is exported verbatim.

Horizontal rules
----------------

A line consisting of only dashes, and at least 5 of them, will be exported as a horizontal line (<hr/> in HTML).

Comment lines
-------------

Lines starting with # in column zero are treated as comments and will never be exported. If you want an indented line to be treated as a comment, start it with #+ .  Also entire subtrees starting with the word COMMENT will never be exported.  Finally, regions surrounded by #+BEGIN_COMMENT ... #+END_COMMENT will not be exported.

C-c ;
     Toggle the COMMENT keyword at the beginning of an entry.

Images and Tables
=================

Both the native Org mode tables (see Tables) and tables formatted with the table.el package will be exported properly.  For Org mode tables, the lines before the first horizontal separator line will become table header lines.  You can use the following lines somewhere before the table to assign a caption and a label for cross references:

     #+CAPTION: This is the caption for the next table (or link)
     #+LABEL:   tbl:basic-data
        | ... | ...|
        |-----|----|

Some backends (HTML, LaTeX, and DocBook) allow you to directly include images into the exported document.  Org does this, if a link to an image files does not have a description part, for example [[./img/a.jpg]]. If you wish to define a caption for the image and maybe a label for internal cross references, you sure that the link is on a line by itself precede it with:

     #+CAPTION: This is the caption for the next figure link (or table)
     #+LABEL:   fig:SED-HR4049
     [[./img/a.jpg]]

You may also define additional attributes for the figure.  As this is backend-specific, see the sections about the individual backends for more information.

Literal examples
================

You can include literal examples that should not be subjected to markup.  Such examples will be typeset in monospace, so this is well suited for source code and similar examples.

     #+BEGIN_EXAMPLE
     Some example from a text file.
     #+END_EXAMPLE

Note that such blocks may be indented in order to align nicely with indented text and in particular with plain list structure (see Plain lists).  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 buffer (Currently this works for the HTML backend, and requires the htmlize.el package version 1.34 or later.  It also works for LaTeX with the listings package, if you turn on the option org-export-latex-listings and make sure that the listings package is included by the LaTeX header.).  This is done with the src block, where you also need to specify the name of the major mode that should be used to fontify the example:

     #+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.  If you use a +n switch, the numbering from the previous numbered snippet will be continued in the current one.  In literal examples, Org will interpret 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 will remote-highlight the corresponding code line, which is kind of cool.

You can also add a -r switch which removes the labels from the source code (Adding -k to -n -r will keep 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.).  With the -n switch, links to these references will be labeled by the line numbers from the code listing, otherwise links will 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.

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.

C-c '
     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 (Upon exit, lines starting with * or # will get a comma prepended, to keep them from being interpreted by Org as outline nodes or special comments.  These commas will be striped for editing with C-c ', and also for export.), the edited version will then replace the old version in the Org buffer.  Fixed-width regions (where each line starts with a colon followed by a space) will be edited using artist-mode (You may select a different-mode with the variable org-edit-fixed-width-region-mode.) to allow creating ASCII drawings easily.  Using this command in an empty line will create a new fixed-width region.

C-c l
     Calling org-store-link while editing a source code example in a temporary buffer created with C-c ' will prompt 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.

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 optional second and third parameter are the markup (e.g. quote, example, or src), and, if the markup is src, the language for formatting the contents.  The markup is optional, if it is not given, the text will be assumed to be in Org mode format and will be processed normally.  The include line will also allow additional keyword parameters :prefix1 and :prefix to specify prefixes for the first line and for each following line, as well as any options accepted by the selected markup.  For example, to include a file as an item, use

     #+INCLUDE: "~/snippets/xx" :prefix1 "   + " :prefix "     "

C-c '
     Visit the include file at point.

Macro replacement
=================

You can define text snippets with

     #+MACRO: name   replacement text $1, $2 are arguments

which can be referenced anywhere in the document (even in code examples) with {{{name(arg1,arg2)}}}.  In addition to defined macros, {{{title}}}, {{{author}}}, etc., will reference information set by the #+TITLE:, #+AUTHOR:, and similar lines.  Also, {{{date(FORMAT)}}} and {{{modification-time(FORMAT)}}} refer to current date time and to the modification time of the file being exported, respectively. FORMAT should be a format string understood by format-time-string.

Macro expansion takes place during export, and some people use it to construct complex HTML code.

Embedded LaTeX
==============

Plain ASCII is normally sufficient for almost all note taking.  One exception, however, are scientific notes which need to be able to contain mathematical symbols and the occasional formula.  LaTeX (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.)  is widely used to typeset scientific documents. Org mode supports embedding LaTeX code into its files, because many academics are used to reading LaTeX source code, and because it can be readily processed into images for HTML production.

It is not necessary to mark LaTeX macros and code in any special way. If you observe a few conventions, Org mode knows how to find it and what to do with it.

Special symbols
---------------

You can use LaTeX macros to insert special symbols like \alpha to indicate the Greek letter, or \to to indicate an arrow.  Completion for these macros is available, just type \ and maybe a few letters, and press M-TAB to see possible completions.  Unlike LaTeX code, Org mode allows these macros to be present without surrounding math delimiters, for example:

     Angles are written as Greek letters \alpha, \beta and \gamma.

During export, these symbols will be transformed into the native format of the exporter backend.  Strings like \alpha will be exported as &alpha; in the HTML output, and as $\alpha$ in the LaTeX output.  Similarly, \nbsp will become &nbsp; in HTML and ~ in LaTeX.  If you need such a symbol inside a word, terminate it like this: \Aacute{}stor.

A large number of entities is provided, with names taken from both HTML and LaTeX, see the variable org-html-entities for the complete list. \- is treated as a shy hyphen, and --, ---, and ... are all converted into special commands creating hyphens of different lengths or a compact set of dots.

Subscripts and superscripts
---------------------------

Just like in LaTeX, ^ and _ are used to indicate super- and subscripts.  Again, these can be used without embedding them in math-mode delimiters.  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 mass if the sun is M_sun = 1.989 x 10^30 kg.  The radius of
     the sun is R_{sun} = 6.96 x 10^8 m.

To avoid interpretation as raised or lowered text, you can quote ^ and _ with a backslash: \^ and \_.  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-export-with-sub-superscripts to globally change this convention, or use, on a per-file basis:

     #+OPTIONS: ^:{}

LaTeX fragments
---------------

With symbols, sub- and superscripts, HTML is pretty much at its end when it comes to representing mathematical formulas (Yes, there is MathML, but that is not yet fully supported by many browsers, and there is no decent converter for turning LaTeX or ASCII representations of formulas into MathML. So for the time being, converting formulas into images seems the way to go.). More complex expressions need a dedicated formula processor. To this end, Org mode can contain arbitrary LaTeX fragments. It provides commands to preview the typeset result of these fragments, and upon export to HTML, all fragments will be converted to images and inlined into the HTML document (The LaTeX export will not use images for displaying LaTeX fragments but include these fragments directly into the LaTeX code.). For this to work you need to be on a system with a working LaTeX installation. You also need the dvipng program, available at http://sourceforge.net/projects/dvipng/. The LaTeX header that will be used when processing a fragment can be configured with the variable org-format-latex-header.

LaTeX fragments don't need any special marking at all.  The following snippets will be identified as LaTeX source code:

  * Environments of any kind.  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 \[ a=-\sqrt{2} \].

If you need any of the delimiter ASCII sequences for other purposes, you can configure the option org-format-latex-options to deselect the ones you do not wish to have interpreted by the LaTeX converter.

Previewing LaTeX fragments
--------------------------

LaTeX fragments can be processed to produce preview images of the typeset expressions:

C-c C-x C-l
     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 prefix argument, process the entire subtree.  When called with two prefix arguments, or when the cursor is before the first headline, process the entire buffer.

C-c C-c
     Remove the overlay preview images.

You can customize the variable org-format-latex-options to influence some aspects of the preview. In particular, the :scale (and for HTML export, :html-scale) property can be used to adjust the size of the preview images.

During HTML export (see HTML export), all LaTeX fragments are converted into images and inlined into the document if the following setting is active:

     (setq org-export-with-LaTeX-fragments t)

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 http://www.astro.uva.nl/~dominik/Tools/cdlatex. Don't use CDLaTeX mode itself under Org mode, but use the light version org-cdlatex-mode that comes as part of Org mode.  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):

  * Environment templates can be inserted with C-c {.

  * The TAB key will do template expansion if the cursor is inside a LaTeX fragment (Org mode has a method to test if the cursor is inside such a fragment, see the documentation of the function org-inside-LaTeX-fragment-p.).  For example, TAB will expand fr to \frac{}{} and position the cursor correctly inside the first brace.  Another TAB will get you into the second brace.  Even outside fragments, TAB will expand 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 will be expanded to an equation environment. To get a list of all abbreviations, type M-x cdlatex-command-help.

  * Pressing _ and ^ inside a LaTeX fragment will insert 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 will pop up.

  * Pressing the single-quote ' followed by another character modifies the symbol before point with an accent or a font.  If you wait more than 1.5 seconds after the backquote, a help window will pop up.  Character modification will work only inside LaTeX fragments, outside the quote is normal.

Exporting
*********

Org-mode documents can be exported into a variety of other formats.  For printing and sharing of notes, ASCII export produces a readable and simple version of an Org file.  HTML export allows you to publish a notes file on the web, while the XOXO format provides a solid base for exchange with a broad range of other applications. LaTeX export lets you use Org mode and its structured editing functions to easily create LaTeX files.  DocBook export makes it possible to convert Org files to many other formats using DocBook tools.  To incorporate entries with associated times like deadlines or appointments into a desktop calendar program like iCal, Org mode can also produce extracts in the iCalendar format.  Currently Org mode only supports export, not import of these different formats.

Org supports export of selected regions when transient-mark-mode is enabled (default in Emacs 23).

Selective export
================

You may use tags to select the parts of a document that should be exported, or to exclude parts from export.  This behavior is governed by two variables: org-export-select-tags and org-export-exclude-tags.

Org first checks if any of the select tags is present in the buffer. If yes, all trees that do not carry one of these tags will be excluded.  If a selected tree is a subtree, the heading hierarchy above it will also be selected for export, but not the text below those headings.

If none of the select tags is found, the whole buffer will be selected for export.

Finally, all subtrees that are marked by any of the exclude tags will be removed from the export buffer.

Export options
==============

The exporter recognizes special lines in the buffer which provide additional information.  These lines may be put anywhere in the file. The whole set of lines can be inserted into the buffer with C-c C-e t.  For individual lines, a good way to make sure the keyword is correct is to type #+ and then use M-TAB completion (see Completion).   For a summary of other in-buffer settings not specifically related to export, see In-buffer settings. In particular, note that you can place commonly-used (export) options in a separate file which can be included using #+SETUPFILE.

C-c C-e t
     Insert template with export options, see example below.

     #+TITLE:       the title to be shown (default is the buffer name)
     #+AUTHOR:      the author (default taken from user-full-name)
     #+DATE:        a date, fixed, of a format string for format-time-string
     #+EMAIL:       his/her email address (default from user-mail-address)
     #+DESCRIPTION: the page description, e.g. for the XHTML meta tag
     #+KEYWORDS:    the page keywords, e.g. for the XHTML meta tag
     #+LANGUAGE:    language for HTML, e.g. en (org-export-default-language)
     #+TEXT:        Some descriptive text to be inserted at the beginning.
     #+TEXT:        Several lines may be given.
     #+OPTIONS:     H:2 num:t toc:t \n:nil @:t ::t |:t ^:t f:t TeX:t ...
     #+BIND:        lisp-var lisp-val, e.g.: org-export-latex-low-levels itemize
                    You need to confirm using these, or configure org-export-allow-BIND
     #+LINK_UP:     the ``up'' link of an exported page
     #+LINK_HOME:   the ``home'' link of an exported page
     #+LATEX_HEADER: extra line(s) for the LaTeX header, like \usepackage{xyz}
     #+EXPORT_SELECT_TAGS:   Tags that select a tree for export
     #+EXPORT_EXCLUDE_TAGS:  Tags that exclude a tree from export

The OPTIONS line is a compact (If you want to configure many options this way, you can use several OPTIONS lines.) form to specify export settings.  Here you can:

     H:         set the number of headline levels for export
     num:       turn on/off section-numbers
     toc:       turn on/off table of contents, or set level limit (integer)
     \n:        turn on/off line-break-preservation
     @:         turn on/off quoted HTML tags
     ::         turn on/off fixed-width sections
     |:         turn on/off tables
     ^:         turn on/off TeX-like syntax for sub- and superscripts.  If
                you write "^:{}", a_{b} will be interpreted, but
                the simple a_b will be left as it is.
     -:         turn on/off conversion of special strings.
     f:         turn on/off footnotes like this[1].
     todo:      turn on/off inclusion of TODO keywords into exported text
     pri:       turn on/off priority cookies
     tags:      turn on/off inclusion of tags, may also be not-in-toc
     <:         turn on/off inclusion of any time/date stamps like DEADLINES
     *:         turn on/off emphasized text (bold, italic, underlined)
     TeX:       turn on/off simple TeX macros in plain text
     LaTeX:     turn on/off LaTeX fragments
     skip:      turn on/off skipping the text before the first heading
     author:    turn on/off inclusion of author name/email into exported file
     creator:   turn on/off inclusion of creator info into exported file
     timestamp: turn on/off inclusion creation time into exported file
     d:         turn on/off inclusion of drawers

These options take effect in both the HTML and LaTeX export, except for TeX and LaTeX, which are respectively t and nil for the LaTeX export.

When exporting only a single subtree by selecting it with C-c @ before calling an export command, the subtree can overrule some of the file's export settings with properties EXPORT_FILE_NAME, EXPORT_TITLE, EXPORT_TEXT, EXPORT_AUTHOR, EXPORT_DATE, and EXPORT_OPTIONS.

The export dispatcher
=====================

All export commands can be reached using the export dispatcher, which is a prefix key that prompts for an additional key specifying the command. Normally the entire file is exported, but if there is an active region that contains one outline tree, the first heading is used as document title and the subtrees are exported.

C-c C-e
     Dispatcher for export and publishing commands.  Displays a help-window listing the additional key(s) needed to launch an export or publishing command.  The prefix arg is passed through to the exporter.  A double prefix C-u C-u causes most commands to be executed in the background, in a separate Emacs process (To make this behavior the default, customize the variable org-export-run-in-background.).

C-c C-e v
     Like C-c C-e, but only export the text that is currently visible (i.e. not hidden by outline visibility).

C-u C-u C-c C-e
     Call an the exporter, but reverse the setting of org-export-run-in-background, i.e. request background processing if not set, or force processing in the current Emacs process if set.

ASCII export
============

ASCII export produces a simple and very readable version of an Org-mode file.

C-c C-e a
     Export as ASCII file.  For an Org file, myfile.org, the ASCII file will be myfile.txt.  The file will be overwritten without warning.  If there is an active region (This requires transient-mark-mode be turned on.), only the region will be exported. If the selected region is a single tree (To select the current subtree, use C-c @.), the tree head will become the document title.  If the tree head entry has or inherits an EXPORT_FILE_NAME property, that name will be used for the export.

C-c C-e A
     Export to a temporary buffer, do not create a file.

C-c C-e v a
     Export only the visible part of the document.

In the exported version, the first 3 outline levels will become headlines, defining a general document structure.  Additional levels will be exported as itemized lists.  If you want that transition to occur at a different level, specify it with a prefix argument.  For example,

     C-1 C-c C-e a

creates only top level headlines and does the rest as items.  When headlines are converted to items, the indentation of the text following the headline is changed to fit nicely under the item.  This is done with the assumption that the first body line indicates the base indentation of the body text.  Any indentation larger than this is adjusted to preserve the layout relative to the first line.  Should there be lines with less indentation than the first, these are left alone.

Links will be exported in a footnote-like style, with the descriptive part in the text and the link in a note before the next heading.  See the variable org-export-ascii-links-to-notes for details and other options.

HTML export
===========

Org mode contains an HTML (XHTML 1.0 strict) exporter with extensive HTML formatting, in ways similar to John Gruber's markdown language, but with additional support for tables.

HTML export commands
--------------------

C-c C-e h
     Export as HTML file myfile.html.  For an Org file myfile.org, the ASCII file will be myfile.html.  The file will be overwritten without warning.  If there is an active region (This requires transient-mark-mode be turned on.), only the region will be exported. If the selected region is a single tree (To select the current subtree, use C-c @.), the tree head will become the document title.  If the tree head entry has, or inherits, an EXPORT_FILE_NAME property, that name will be used for the export.

C-c C-e b
     Export as HTML file and immediately open it with a browser.

C-c C-e H
     Export to a temporary buffer, do not create a file.

C-c C-e R
     Export the active region to a temporary buffer.  With a prefix argument, do not produce the file header and footer, but just the plain HTML section for the region.  This is good for cut-and-paste operations.

C-c C-e v h

C-c C-e v b

C-c C-e v H

C-c C-e v R
     Export only the visible part of the document.

M-x org-export-region-as-html
     Convert the region to HTML under the assumption that it was Org-mode syntax before.  This is a global command that can be invoked in any buffer.

M-x org-replace-region-by-HTML
     Replace the active region (assumed to be in Org-mode syntax) by HTML code.

In the exported version, the first 3 outline levels will become headlines, defining a general document structure.  Additional levels will be exported as itemized lists.  If you want that transition to occur at a different level, specify it with a numeric prefix argument.  For example,

     C-2 C-c C-e b

creates two levels of headings and does the rest as items.

Quoting HTML tags
-----------------

Plain < and > are always transformed to &lt; and &gt; in HTML export.  If you want to include simple HTML tags which should be interpreted as such, mark them with @ as in @<b>bold text@</b>.  Note that this really works only for simple tags.  For more extensive HTML that should be copied verbatim to the exported file use either

     #+HTML: Literal HTML code for export

or

     #+BEGIN_HTML
     All lines between these markers are exported literally
     #+END_HTML

Links in HTML export
--------------------

Internal links (see Internal links) will continue to work in HTML.  This includes automatic links created by radio targets (see Radio targets).  Links to external files will still work if the target file is on the same relative path as the published Org file.  Links to other .org files will be translated into HTML links under the assumption that an HTML version also exists of the linked file, at the same relative path.  id: links can then be used to jump to specific entries across files.  For information related to linking files while publishing them to a publishing directory see Publishing links.

If you want to specify attributes for links, you can do so using a special #+ATTR_HTML line to define attributes that will be added to the <a> or <img> tags.  Here is an example that sets title and style attributes for a link:

     #+ATTR_HTML: title="The Org-mode homepage" style="color:red;"
     [[http://orgmode.org]]

Tables
------

Org-mode tables are exported to HTML using the table tag defined in org-export-html-table-tag.  The default setting makes tables without cell borders and frame.  If you would like to change this for individual tables, place somthing like the following before the table:

     #+CAPTION: This is a table with lines around and between cells
     #+ATTR_HTML: border="2" rules="all" frame="all"

Images in HTML export
---------------------

HTML export can inline images given as links in the Org file, and it can make an image the clickable part of a link.  By default (But see the variable org-export-html-inline-images.), images are inlined if a link does not have a description.  So [[file:myimg.jpg]] will be inlined, while [[file:myimg.jpg][the image]] will just produce a link the image that points to the image.  If the description part itself is a file: link or a http: URL pointing to an image, this image will be inlined and activated so that clicking on the image will activate the link.  For example, to include a thumbnail that will link to a high resolution version of the image, you could use:

     [[file:highres.jpg][file:thumb.jpg]]

If you need to add attributes to an inlines image, use a #+ATTR_HTML. In the example below we specify the alt and title attributes to support text viewers and accessibility, and align it to the right.

     #+CAPTION: A black cat stalking a spider
     #+ATTR_HTML: alt="cat/spider image" title="Action!" align="right"
     [[./img/a.jpg]]

and you could use http addresses just as well.

Text areas in HTML export
-------------------------

An alternative way to publish literal code examples in HTML is to use text areas, where the example can even be edited before pasting it into an application.  It is triggered by a -t switch at an example or src block.  Using this switch disables any options for syntax and label highlighting, and line numbering, which may be present.  You may also use -h and -w switches to specify the height and width of the text area, which default to the number of lines in the example, and 80, respectively.  For example

     #+BEGIN_EXAMPLE -t -w 40
     (defun org-xor (a b)
        "Exclusive or."
        (if a (not b) b))
     #+END_EXAMPLE

CSS support
-----------

You can also give style information for the exported file.  The HTML exporter assigns the following special CSS classes (If the classes on TODO keywords and tags lead to conflicts, use the variables org-export-html-todo-kwd-class-prefix and org-export-html-tag-class-prefix to make them unique.) 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.author            author information, including email
     p.date              publishing date
     p.creator           creator info, about org-mode version
     .title              document title
     .todo               TODO keywords, all not-done states
     .done               the DONE keywords, all stated the count as done
     .WAITING            each TODO keyword also uses a class named after itself
     .timestamp          timestamp
     .timestamp-kwd      keyword associated with a timestamp, like SCHEDULED
     .timestamp-wrapper  span around keyword plus timestamp
     .tag                tag in a headline
     ._HOME              each tag uses itself as a class, "@" replaced by "_"
     .target             target for links
     .linenr             the line number in a code example
     .code-highlighted   for highlighting referenced code lines
     div.outline-N       div for outline level N (headline plus text))
     div.outline-text-N  extra div for text at outline level N
     .section-number-N   section number in headlines, different for each level
     div.figure          how to format an inlined image
     pre.src             formatted source code
     pre.example         normal example
     p.verse             verse paragraph
     div.footnotes       footnote section headline
     p.footnote          footnote definition paragraph, containing a footnote
     .footref            a footnote reference number (always a <sup>)
     .footnum            footnote number in footnote definition (always <sup>)

Each exported file contains a compact default style that defines these classes in a basic way (This style is defined in the constant org-export-html-style-default, which you should not modify.  To turn inclusion of these defaults off, customize org-export-html-style-include-default).  You may overwrite these settings, or add to them by using the variables org-export-html-style (for Org-wide settings) and org-export-html-style-extra (for more granular settings, like file-local settings).  To set the latter variable individually for each file, you can use

     #+STYLE: <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="stylesheet.css" />

For longer style definitions, you can use several such lines.  You could also directly write a <style> </style> section in this way, without referring to an external file.

Javascript supported display of web pages
-----------------------------------------

Sebastian Rose has written a JavaScript program especially designed to enhance the web viewing experience of HTML files created with Org.  This program allows you to view large files in two different ways.  The first 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 view type is a folding view much like Org provides inside Emacs.  The script is available at http://orgmode.org/org-info.js and you can find the documentation for it at http://orgmode.org/worg/code/org-info-js/. We host the script at our site, but if you use it a lot, you might not want to be dependent on orgmode.org and prefer to install a local copy on your own web server.

To use the script, you need to make sure that the org-jsinfo.el module gets loaded.  It should be loaded by default, but you can try M-x customize-variable RET org-modules RET to convince yourself that this is indeed the case.  All it then takes to make use of the program is adding a single line to the Org file:

     #+INFOJS_OPT: view:info toc:nil

If this line is found, the HTML header will automatically contain the code needed to invoke the script.  Using the line above, you can set the following viewing options:

     path:    The path to the script.  The default is to grab the script from
              http://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 website is first shown.  Possible values are:
              info      Info-like interface with one section per page.
              overview  Folding interface, initially showing only top-level.
              content   Folding interface, starting with all headlines visible.
              showall   Folding interface, all headlines and text visible.
     sdepth:  Maximum headline level that will still become an independent
              section for info and folding modes.  The default is taken from
              org-export-headline-levels (= 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 content 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 will never be 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 will be 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.

LaTeX and PDF export
====================

Org mode contains a LaTeX exporter written by Bastien Guerry.  With further processing, this backend is also used to produce PDF output.  Since the LaTeX output uses hyperref to implement links and cross references, the PDF output file will be fully linked.

LaTeX export commands
---------------------

C-c C-e l
     Export as LaTeX file myfile.tex.  For an Org file myfile.org, the ASCII file will be myfile.tex.  The file will be overwritten without warning.  If there is an active region (This requires transient-mark-mode be turned on.), only the region will be exported. If the selected region is a single tree (To select the current subtree, use C-c @.), the tree head will become the document title.  If the tree head entry has or inherits an EXPORT_FILE_NAME property, that name will be used for the export.

C-c C-e L
     Export to a temporary buffer, do not create a file.

C-c C-e v l

C-c C-e v L
     Export only the visible part of the document.

M-x org-export-region-as-latex
     Convert the region to LaTeX under the assumption that it was Org mode syntax before.  This is a global command that can be invoked in any buffer.

M-x org-replace-region-by-latex
     Replace the active region (assumed to be in Org mode syntax) by LaTeX code.

C-c C-e p
     Export as LaTeX and then process to PDF.

C-c C-e d
     Export as LaTeX and then process to PDF, then open the resulting PDF file.

In the exported version, the first 3 outline levels will become headlines, defining a general document structure.  Additional levels will be exported as description lists.  The exporter can ignore them or convert them to a custom string depending on org-latex-low-levels.

If you want that transition to occur at a different level, specify it with a numeric prefix argument. For example,

     C-2 C-c C-e l

creates two levels of headings and does the rest as items.

Quoting LaTeX code
------------------

Embedded LaTeX as described in Embedded LaTeX, will be correctly inserted into the LaTeX file.  This includes simple macros like \ref{LABEL} to create a cross reference to a figure.  Furthermore, you can add special code that should only be present in LaTeX export with the following constructs:

     #+LaTeX: Literal LaTeX code for export

or

     #+BEGIN_LaTeX
     All lines between these markers are exported literally
     #+END_LaTeX

Sectioning structure
--------------------

By default, the LaTeX output uses the class article.

You can change this globally by setting a different value for org-export-latex-default-class or locally by adding an option like #+LaTeX_CLASS: myclass in your file, or with a :LaTeX_CLASS: property that applies when exporting a region containing only this (sub)tree. The class should be listed in org-export-latex-classes, where you can also define the sectioning structure for each class, as well as defining additional classes.  You can also use #+LATEX_HEADER: \usepackage{xyz} to add lines to the header.

Tables in LaTeX export
----------------------

For LaTeX export of a table, you can specify a label and a caption (see Images and tables).  You can also use the ATTR_LaTeX line to request a longtable environment for the table, so that it may span several pages.  Finally, you can set the alignment string:

     #+CAPTION: A long table
     #+LABEL: tbl:long
     #+ATTR_LaTeX: longtable align=l|lp{3cm}r|l
     | ..... | ..... |
     | ..... | ..... |

Images in LaTeX export
----------------------

Images that are linked to without a description part in the link, like [[file:img.jpg]] or [[./img.jpg]] will be inserted into the PDF output file resulting from LaTeX processing.  Org will use an \includegraphics macro to insert the image.  If you have specified a caption and/or a label as described in Images and tables, the figure will be wrapped into a figure environment and thus become a floating element.  You can use an #+ATTR_LaTeX: line to specify the various options that can be used in the optional argument of the \includegraphics macro.  To modify the placement option of the figure environment, add something like placement=[h!] to the Attributes.

If you'd like to let text flow around the image, add the word wrap to the #+ATTR_LaTeX: line, which will make the figure occupy the left half of the page.  To fine-tune, the placement field will be the set of additional arguments needed by the wrapfigure environment. Note that if you change the size of the image, you need to use compatible settings for \includegraphics and wrapfigure.

     #+CAPTION:    The black-body emission of the disk around HR 4049
     #+LABEL:      fig:SED-HR4049
     #+ATTR_LaTeX: width=5cm,angle=90
     [[./img/sed-hr4049.pdf]]

     #+ATTR_LaTeX: width=0.38\textwidth wrap placement={r}{0.4\textwidth}
     [[./img/hst.png]]

If you need references to a label created in this way, write \ref{fig:SED-HR4049} just like in LaTeX.

DocBook export
==============

Org contains a DocBook exporter written by Baoqiu Cui.  Once an Org file is exported to DocBook format, it can be further processed to produce other formats, including PDF, HTML, man pages, etc., using many available DocBook tools and stylesheets.

Currently DocBook exporter only supports DocBook V5.0.

DocBook export commands
-----------------------

C-c C-e D
     Export as DocBook file.  For an Org file, myfile.org, the DocBook XML file will be myfile.xml.  The file will be overwritten without warning.  If there is an active region (This requires transient-mark-mode to be turned on), only the region will be exported.  If the selected region is a single tree (To select the current subtree, use C-c @.), the tree head will become the document title.  If the tree head entry has, or inherits, an EXPORT_FILE_NAME property, that name will be used for the export.

C-c C-e V
     Export as DocBook file, process to PDF, then open the resulting PDF file.

     Note that, in order to produce PDF output based on exported DocBook file, you need to have XSLT processor and XSL-FO processor software installed on your system.  Check variables org-export-docbook-xslt-proc-command and org-export-docbook-xsl-fo-proc-command.

C-c C-e v D
     Export only the visible part of the document.

Quoting DocBook code
--------------------

You can quote DocBook code in Org files and copy it verbatim into exported DocBook file with the following constructs:

     #+DOCBOOK: Literal DocBook code for export

or

     #+BEGIN_DOCBOOK
     All lines between these markers are exported by DocBook exporter
     literally.
     #+END_DOCBOOK

For example, you can use the following lines to include a DocBook warning admonition.  As to what this warning says, you should pay attention to the document context when quoting DocBook code in Org files.  You may make exported DocBook XML files invalid by not quoting DocBook code correctly.

     #+BEGIN_DOCBOOK
     <warning>
       <para>You should know what you are doing when quoting DocBook XML code
       in your Org file.  Invalid DocBook XML file may be generated by
       DocBook exporter if you are not careful!</para>
     </warning>
     #+END_DOCBOOK

Recursive sections
------------------

DocBook exporter exports Org files as articles using the article element in DocBook.  Recursive sections, i.e. section elements, are used in exported articles.  Top level headlines in Org files are exported as top level sections, and lower level headlines are exported as nested sections.  The entire structure of Org files will be exported completely, no matter how many nested levels of headlines there are.

Using recursive sections makes it easy to port and reuse exported DocBook code in other DocBook document types like book or set.

Tables in DocBook export
------------------------

Tables in Org files are exported as HTML tables, which have been supported since DocBook V4.3.

If a table does not have a caption, an informal table is generated using the informaltable element; otherwise, a formal table will be generated using the table element.

Images in DocBook export
------------------------

Images that are linked to without a description part in the link, like [[file:img.jpg]] or [[./img.jpg]], will be exported to DocBook using mediaobject elements.  Each mediaobject element contains an imageobject that wraps an imagedata element.  If you have specified a caption for an image as described in Images and tables, a caption element will be added in mediaobject.  If a label is also specified, it will be exported as an xml:id attribute of the mediaobject element.

Image attributes supported by the imagedata element, like align or width, can be specified in two ways: you can either customize variable org-export-docbook-default-image-attributes or use the #+ATTR_DOCBOOK: line.  Attributes specified in variable org-export-docbook-default-image-attributes are applied to all inline images in the Org file to be exported (unless they are overwritten by image attributes specified in #+ATTR_DOCBOOK: lines).

The #+ATTR_DOCBOOK: line can be used to specify additional image attributes or overwrite default image attributes for individual images.  If the same attribute appears in both the #+ATTR_DOCBOOK: line and variable org-export-docbook-default-image-attributes, the former overwrites the latter.  Here is an example about how image attributes can be set:

     #+CAPTION:    The logo of Org mode
     #+LABEL:      unicorn-svg
     #+ATTR_DOCBOOK: scalefit="1" width="100%" depth="100%"
     [[./img/org-mode-unicorn.svg]]

By default, DocBook exporter recognizes the following image file types: jpeg, jpg, png, gif, and svg.  You can customize variable org-export-docbook-inline-image-extensions to add more types to this list as long as DocBook supports them.

Special characters in DocBook export
------------------------------------

Special characters that are written in TeX-like syntax, such as \alpha, \Gamma, and \Zeta, are supported by DocBook exporter.  These characters are rewritten to XML entities, like &alpha;, &Gamma;, and &Zeta;, based on the list saved in variable org-html-entities.  As long as the generated DocBook file includes the corresponding entities, these special characters are recognized.

You can customize variable org-export-docbook-doctype to include the entities you need.  For example, you can set variable org-export-docbook-doctype to the following value to recognize all special characters included in XHTML entities:

     "<!DOCTYPE article [
     <!ENTITY % xhtml1-symbol PUBLIC
     \"-//W3C//ENTITIES Symbol for HTML//EN//XML\"
     \"http://www.w3.org/2003/entities/2007/xhtml1-symbol.ent\"
     >
     %xhtml1-symbol;
     ]>
     "

Freemind export
===============

The freemind exporter was written by Lennart Borgman.

C-c C-e m
     Export as Freemind mind map myfile.mm.

XOXO export
===========

Org mode contains an exporter that produces XOXO-style output. Currently, this exporter only handles the general outline structure and does not interpret any additional Org-mode features.

C-c C-e x
     Export as XOXO file myfile.html.

C-c C-e v x
     Export only the visible part of the document.

iCalendar export
================

Some people use Org mode for keeping track of projects, but still prefer a standard calendar application for anniversaries and appointments.  In this case it can be useful to show deadlines and other time-stamped items in Org files in the calendar application.  Org mode can export calendar information in the standard iCalendar format.  If you also want to have TODO entries included in the export, configure the variable org-icalendar-include-todo.  Plain timestamps are exported as VEVENT, and TODO items as VTODO.  It will also create events from deadlines that are in non-TODO items.  Deadlines and scheduling dates in TODO items will be used to set the start and due dates for the TODO entry (See the variables org-icalendar-use-deadline and org-icalendar-use-scheduled.). As categories, it will use the tags locally defined in the heading, and the file/tree category (To add inherited tags or the TODO state, configure the variable org-icalendar-categories.).

The iCalendar standard requires each entry to have a globally unique identifier (UID).  Org creates these identifiers during export.  If you set the variable org-icalendar-store-UID, the UID will be stored in the :ID: property of the entry and re-used next time you report this entry.  Since a single entry can give rise to multiple iCalendar entries (as a timestamp, a deadline, a scheduled item, and as a TODO item), Org adds prefixes to the UID, depending on what triggered the inclusion of the entry. In this way the UID remains unique, but a synchronization program can still figure out from which entry all the different instances originate.

C-c C-e i
     Create iCalendar entries for the current file and store them in the same directory, using a file extension .ics.

C-c C-e I
     Like C-c C-e i, but do this for all files in org-agenda-files.  For each of these files, a separate iCalendar file will be written.

C-c C-e c
     Create a single large iCalendar file from all files in org-agenda-files and write it to the file given by org-combined-agenda-icalendar-file.

The export will honor SUMMARY, DESCRIPTION and LOCATION (The LOCATION property can be inherited from higher in the hierarchy if you configure org-use-property-inheritance accordingly.) properties if the selected entries have them.  If not, the summary will be derived from the headline, and the description from the body (limited to org-icalendar-include-body characters).

How this calendar is best read and updated, depends on the application you are using.  The FAQ covers this issue.

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.

Configuration
=============

Publishing needs significant configuration to specify files, destination and many other properties of a project.

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 ...)
     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 will 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 will also be published, in the sequence given.

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 will be 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 called before starting the publishing process, for example, to
run make for updating files to be published.
:completion-function
Function called after finishing the publishing process, for example, to
change permissions of the resulting files.

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 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.

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-publish-org-to-html which calls the HTML exporter (see HTML export).  But you also can publish your content as PDF files using org-publish-org-to-pdf.  If you want to publish the Org file itself, but with archived, commented, and tag-excluded trees removed, use org-publish-org-to-org and set the parameters :plain-source and/or :htmlized-source.  This will produce file.org and file.org.html in the publishing directory (file-source.org and file-source.org.html if source and publishing directories are equal.  Note that with this kind of setup, you need to add :exclude "-source\\.org" to the project definition in org-publish-project-alist to avoid that the published source files will be considered as new org files the next time the project is published.).  Other files like images only need to be copied to the publishing destination, for this you may 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 will all be called in turn.
:plain-source
Non-nil means, publish plain source.
:htmlized-source
Non-nil means, publish htmlized source.

The function must accept two arguments: a property list containing at least a :publishing-directory property, and the name of the file to be published.  It should take the specified file, make the necessary transformation (if any) and place the result into the destination folder.

Options for the HTML/LaTeX 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.

:link-up                 org-export-html-link-up
:link-home               org-export-html-link-home
:language                org-export-default-language
:customtime              org-display-custom-times
:headline-levels         org-export-headline-levels
:section-numbers         org-export-with-section-numbers
:section-number-format   org-export-section-number-format
:table-of-contents       org-export-with-toc
:preserve-breaks         org-export-preserve-breaks
:archived-trees          org-export-with-archived-trees
:emphasize               org-export-with-emphasize
:sub-superscript         org-export-with-sub-superscripts
:special-strings         org-export-with-special-strings
:footnotes               org-export-with-footnotes
:drawers                 org-export-with-drawers
:tags                    org-export-with-tags
:todo-keywords           org-export-with-todo-keywords
:priority                org-export-with-priority
:TeX-macros              org-export-with-TeX-macros
:LaTeX-fragments         org-export-with-LaTeX-fragments
:latex-listings          org-export-latex-listings
:skip-before-1st-heading   org-export-skip-text-before-1st-heading
:fixed-width             org-export-with-fixed-width
:timestamps              org-export-with-timestamps
:author-info             org-export-author-info
:creator-info            org-export-creator-info
:tables                  org-export-with-tables
:table-auto-headline     org-export-highlight-first-table-line
:style-include-default   org-export-html-style-include-default
:style                   org-export-html-style
:style-extra             org-export-html-style-extra
:convert-org-links       org-export-html-link-org-files-as-html
:inline-images           org-export-html-inline-images
:html-extension          org-export-html-extension
:xml-declaration         org-export-html-xml-declaration
:html-table-tag          org-export-html-table-tag
:expand-quoted-html      org-export-html-expand
:timestamp               org-export-html-with-timestamp
:publishing-directory    org-export-publishing-directory
:preamble                org-export-html-preamble
:postamble               org-export-html-postamble
:auto-preamble           org-export-html-auto-preamble
:auto-postamble          org-export-html-auto-postamble
:author                  user-full-name
:email                   user-mail-address : addr;addr;..
:select-tags             org-export-select-tags
:exclude-tags            org-export-exclude-tags
:latex-image-options     org-export-latex-image-default-option

Most of the org-export-with-* variables have the same effect in both HTML and LaTeX exporters, except for :TeX-macros and :LaTeX-fragments, respectively nil and t in the LaTeX export.

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 options), however, override everything.

Links between published files
-----------------------------

To create a link from one Org file to another, you would use something like [[file:foo.org][The foo]] or simply file:foo.org. (see Hyperlinks).  When published, this link becomes a link to foo.html.  In this way, you can interlink the pages of your "org web" project and the links will work as expected when you publish them to HTML.  If you also publish the Org source file and want to link to that, use an http: link instead of a file: link, because file: links are converted to link to the corresponding html file.

You may also link to related files, such as images. Provided you are careful with relative file names, and provided you have also configured Org to upload the related files, these links will work too. See Complex example, for an example of this usage.

Sometimes an Org file to be published may contain links that are only valid in your production environment, but not in the publishing location.  In this case, use the property

:link-validation-function
Function to validate links

to define a function for checking link validity.  This function must accept two arguments, the file name and a directory relative to which the file name is interpreted in the production environment.  If this function returns nil, then the HTML generator will only insert a description into the HTML file, but no link.  One option for this function is org-publish-validate-link which checks if the given file is part of any project in org-publish-project-alist.

Project page index
------------------

The following properties may be used to control publishing of an index of files or a summary page for a given project.

:auto-index
When non-nil, publish an index during org-publish-current-project
or org-publish-all.

:index-filename
Filename for output of index. Defaults to sitemap.org (which
becomes sitemap.html).

:index-title
Title of index page. Defaults to name of file.

:index-function
Plug-in function to use for generation of index.
Defaults to org-publish-org-index, which generates a plain list
of links to all files in the project.

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 gif files in the project definition since the 3rd 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.  The timestamp mechanism in Org is not smart enough to detect if included files have been modified.

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.

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-directory "~/public_html"
              :section-numbers nil
              :table-of-contents nil
              :style "<link rel=\"stylesheet\"
                     href=\"../other/mystyle.css\"
                     type=\"text/css\"/>")))

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'd 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-publish-org-to-html
               :exclude "PrivatePage.org"   ;; regexp
               :headline-levels 3
               :section-numbers nil
               :table-of-contents nil
               :style "<link rel=\"stylesheet\"
                       href=\"../other/mystyle.css\" type=\"text/css\"/>"
               :auto-preamble t
               :auto-postamble nil)

              ("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"))))

Triggering publication
======================

Once properly configured, Org can publish with the following commands:

C-c C-e C
     Prompt for a specific project and publish all files that belong to it.

C-c C-e P
     Publish the project containing the current file.

C-c C-e F
     Publish only the current file.

C-c C-e E
     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:.

Miscellaneous
*************

Completion
==========

Emacs would not be Emacs without completion, and Org-mode uses it whenever it makes sense.  If you prefer an iswitchb- or ido-like interface for some of the completion prompts, you can specify your preference by setting at most one of the variables org-completion-use-iswitchb org-completion-use-ido.

Org supports in-buffer completion.  This type of completion does not make use of the minibuffer.  You simply type a few letters into the buffer and use the key to complete text right there.

M-TAB
     Complete word at point

       * At the beginning of a headline, complete TODO keywords.

       * After \, complete TeX symbols supported by the exporter.

       * After *, complete headlines in the current buffer so that they can be used in search links like [[*find this headline]].

       * After : in a headline, complete tags.  The list of tags is taken from the variable org-tag-alist (possibly set through the #+TAGS in-buffer option, see Setting tags), or it is created dynamically 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 the special keywords like TYP_TODO or OPTIONS which set file-specific options for Org mode.  When the option keyword is already complete, pressing M-TAB again will insert example settings for this keyword.

       * In the line after #+STARTUP: , complete startup keywords, i.e. valid keys for this line.

       * Elsewhere, complete dictionary words using Ispell.

Speed keys
==========

Single keys can be made to execute commands when the cursor is at the beginning of a headline, i.e. before the first star.  Configure the variable org-use-speed-commands to activate this feature.  There is a pre-defined list of commands, and you can add more such commands using the variable org-speed-commands-user.  Speed keys do not only speed up navigation and other commands, but they also provide an alternative way to execute commands bound to keys that are not or not easily available on a tty, or on a small mobile device with a limited keyboard.

To see which commands are available, activate the feature and press ? with the cursor at the beginning of a headline.

Customization
=============

There are more than 180 variables that can be used to customize Org.  For the sake of compactness of the manual, I am not describing the variables here.  A structured overview of customization variables is available with M-x org-customize.  Or select Browse Org Group from the Org->Customization menu.  Many settings can also be activated on a per-file basis, by putting special lines into the buffer (see In-buffer settings).

Summary of in-buffer settings
=============================

Org mode uses special lines in the buffer to define settings on a per-file basis.  These lines start with a #+ followed by a keyword, a colon, and then individual words defining a setting.  Several setting words can be in the same line, but you can also have multiple lines for the keyword.  While these settings are described throughout the manual, here is a summary.  After changing any of those lines in the buffer, press C-c C-c with the cursor still in the line to activate the changes immediately.  Otherwise they become effective only when the file is visited again in a new Emacs session.

#+ARCHIVE: %s_done::
     This line sets the archive location for the agenda file.  It applies for all subsequent lines until the next #+ARCHIVE line, or the end of the file.  The first such line also applies to any entries before it. The corresponding variable is org-archive-location.

#+CATEGORY:
     This line sets the category for the agenda file.  The category applies for all subsequent lines until the next #+CATEGORY line, or the end of the file.  The first such line also applies to any entries before it.

#+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 to be used in table formulas.  This line set 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 can be inherited by any entry in the file, including the top-level entries.

#+DRAWERS: NAME1 .....
     Set the file-local set of drawers.  The corresponding global variable is org-drawers.

#+LINK:  linkword replace
     These lines (several are allowed) specify link abbreviations. 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 that 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
     This line defines a file that holds more in-buffer setup.  Normally this is entirely ignored.  Only when the buffer is parsed for option-setting lines (i.e. when starting Org mode for a file, when pressing C-c C-c in a settings line, or when exporting), then the contents of this file are parsed as if they had been included in the buffer.  In particular, the file can be any other Org mode file with internal setup.  You can visit the file the cursor is in the line with C-c '.

#+STARTUP:
     This line sets options to be used at startup of Org mode, when an Org file is being visited.

     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 t, which means overview.

          overview         top-level headlines only
          content          all headlines
          showall          no folding of any entries
          showeverything   show even drawer contents

     Dynamic virtual indentation is controlled by the variable org-startup-indented (Emacs 23 and Org-mode 6.29 are required)

          indent     start with org-indent-mode turned on
          noindent   start with org-indent-mode turned off

     Then there are options for aligning tables upon visiting a file.  This is useful in files containing narrowed table columns.  The corresponding variable is org-startup-align-all-tables, with a default value nil.

          align      align all tables
          noalign    don't align tables 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)

          logdone            record a timestamp when an item is marked DONE
          lognotedone        record timestamp and a note when DONE
          nologdone          don't record when items are marked DONE
          logrepeat          record a time when reinstating a repeating item
          lognoterepeat      record a note when reinstating a repeating item
          nologrepeat        do not record when reinstating repeating item
          lognoteclock-out   record a note when clocking out
          nolognoteclock-out don't record a note when clocking out
          logreschedule      record a timestamp when scheduling time changes
          lognotereschedule  record a note when scheduling time changes
          nologreschedule    do not record when a scheduling date changes
          logredeadline      record a timestamp when deadline changes
          lognoteredeadline  record a note when deadline changes
          nologredeadline    do not record when a deadline date changes

     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).

          hidestars  make all but one of the stars starting a headline invisible.
          showstars  show all stars starting a headline
          indent     virtual indentation according to outline level
          noindent   no virtual indentation according to outline level
          odd        allow only odd outline levels (1,3,...)
          oddeven    allow all outline levels

     To turn on custom format overlays over timestamps (variables org-put-time-stamp-overlays and org-time-stamp-overlay-formats), use

          customtime overlay custom time format

     The following options influence the table spreadsheet (variable constants-unit-system).

          constcgs   constants.el should use the c-g-s unit system
          constSI    constants.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.

          fninline    define footnotes inline
          fnnoinline  define footnotes in separate section
          fnlocal     define footnotes near first reference, but not inline
          fnprompt    prompt for footnote labels
          fnauto      create [fn:1]-like labels automatically (default)
          fnconfirm   offer automatic label for editing or confirmation
          fnplain     create [1]-like labels automatically
          fnadjust    automatically renumber and sort footnotes
          nofnadjust  do not renumber and sort automatically

     To hide blocks on startup, use these keywords. The corresponding variable is org-hide-block-startup.

          hideblocks   Hide all begin/end blocks on startup
          nohideblocks Do not hide blocks on startup

#+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.

#+TBLFM:
     This line contains the formulas for the table directly above the line.

#+TITLE:, #+AUTHOR:, #+EMAIL:, #+LANGUAGE:, #+TEXT:, #+DATE:,
#+OPTIONS:, #+BIND:
#+DESCRIPTION:, #+KEYWORDS:
#+LATEX_HEADER:, #+STYLE:, #+LINK_UP:, #+LINK_HOME:,
#+EXPORT_SELECT_TAGS:, #+EXPORT_EXCLUDE_TAGS:
     These lines provide settings for exporting files.  For more details see Export options.

#+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.

The very busy C-c C-c key
=========================

The key C-c C-c has many purposes in Org, which are all mentioned scattered throughout this manual.  One specific function of this key is to add tags to a headline (see Tags).  In many other circumstances it means something like ``Hey Org, look here and update according to what you see here''.  Here is a summary of what this means in different contexts.

  - If there are highlights in the buffer from the creation of a sparse tree, or from clock display, remove these highlights.

  - If the cursor is in one of the special #+KEYWORD lines, this triggers scanning the buffer for these lines and updating the information.

  - If the cursor is inside a table, realign the table.  This command works even if the automatic table editor has been turned off.

  - If the cursor is on a #+TBLFM line, re-apply the formulas to the entire table.

  - If the cursor is inside a table created by the table.el package, activate that table.

  - If the current buffer is a Remember buffer, close the note and file it. With a prefix argument, file it, without further interaction, to the default location.

  - If the cursor is on a <<<target>>>, update radio targets and corresponding links in this buffer.

  - If the cursor is in a property line or at the start or end of a property drawer, offer property commands.

  - If the cursor is at a footnote reference, go to the corresponding definition, and vice versa.

  - If the cursor is on a statistics cookie, update it.

  - If the cursor is in a plain list item with a checkbox, toggle the status of the checkbox.

  - If the cursor is on a numbered item in a plain list, renumber the ordered list.

  - If the cursor is on the #+BEGIN line of a dynamic block, the block is updated.

A cleaner outline view
======================

Some people find it noisy and distracting that the Org headlines start with a potentially large number of stars, and that text below the headlines is not indented.  While this is no problem when writing a book-like document where the outline headings are really section headings, in a more list-oriented outline, indented structure is a lot cleaner:

     * Top level headline             |    * Top level headline
     ** Second level                  |      * Second level
     *** 3rd level                    |        * 3rd level
     some text                        |          some text
     *** 3rd level                    |        * 3rd level
     more text                        |          more text
     * Another top level headline     |    * Another top level headline

If you are using at least Emacs 23.1.50.3 and version 6.29 of Org, this kind of view can be achieved dynamically at display time using org-indent-mode.  In this minor mode, all lines are prefixed for display with the necessary amount of space.  Also headlines are prefixed with additional stars, so that the amount of indentation shifts by two (See the variable org-indent-indentation-per-level.) spaces per level.  All headline stars but the last one are made invisible using the org-hide face (Turning on org-indent-mode sets org-hide-leading-stars to t and org-adapt-indentation to nil.) - see below under 2. for more information on how this works.  You can turn on org-indent-mode for all files by customizing the variable org-startup-indented, or you can turn it on for individual files using

     #+STARTUP: indent

If you want a similar effect in earlier version of Emacs and/or Org, or if you want the indentation to be hard space characters so that the plain text file looks as similar as possible to the Emacs display, Org supports you in the following way:

 1. Indentation of text below headlines

     You may indent text below each headline to make the left boundary line up with the headline, like

          *** 3rd level
              more text, now indented

     Org supports this with paragraph filling, line wrapping, and structure editing (See also the variable org-adapt-indentation.), preserving or adapting the indentation as appropriate.

 2. Hiding leading stars
      You can modify the display in such a way that all leading stars become invisible.  To do this in a global way, configure the variable org-hide-leading-stars or change this on a per-file basis with

          #+STARTUP: hidestars
          #+STARTUP: showstars

     With hidden stars, the tree becomes:

          * Top level headline
           * Second level
            * 3rd level
            ...

     The leading stars are not truly replaced by whitespace, they are only fontified with the face org-hide that uses the background color as font color.  If you are not using either white or black background, you may have to customize this face to get the wanted effect.  Another possibility is to set this font such that the extra stars are almost invisible, for example using the color grey90 on a white background.

 3. Things become cleaner still if you skip all the even levels and use only odd levels 1, 3, 5..., effectively adding two stars to go from one outline level to the next (When you need to specify a level for a property search or refile targets, LEVEL=2 will correspond to 3 stars, etc.).  In this way we get the outline view shown at the beginning of this section.  In order to make the structure editing and export commands handle this convention correctly, configure the variable org-odd-levels-only, or set this on a per-file basis with one of the following lines:

          #+STARTUP: odd
          #+STARTUP: oddeven

     You can convert an Org file from single-star-per-level to the double-star-per-level convention with M-x org-convert-to-odd-levels RET in that file.  The reverse operation is M-x org-convert-to-oddeven-levels.

Using Org on a tty
==================

Because Org contains a large number of commands, by default many of Org's core commands are bound to keys that are generally not accessible on a tty, such as the cursor keys (left, right, up, down), TAB and RET, in particular when used together with modifiers like Meta and/or Shift.  To access these commands on a tty when special keys are unavailable, the following alternative bindings can be used.  The tty bindings below will likely be more cumbersome; you may find for some of the bindings below that a customized workaround suits you better.  For example, changing a timestamp is really only fun with S-cursor keys, whereas on a tty you would rather use C-c . to re-insert the timestamp.

Default   Alternative 1   Speed key   Alternative 2
S-TAB       C-u TAB         C
M-left      C-c C-x l             l   Esc left
M-S-left    C-c C-x L             L
M-right     C-c C-x r             r   Esc right
M-S-right   C-c C-x R             R
M-up        C-c C-x u                 Esc up
M-S-up      C-c C-x U             U
M-down      C-c C-x d                 Esc down
M-S-down    C-c C-x D             D
S-RET       C-c C-x c
M-RET       C-c C-x m                 Esc RET
M-S-RET     C-c C-x M
S-left      C-c left
S-right     C-c right
S-up        C-c up
S-down      C-c down
C-S-left    C-c C-x left
C-S-right   C-c C-x right

Interaction with other packages
===============================

Org lives in the world of GNU Emacs and interacts in various ways with other code out there.

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 checks for the availability of Calc by looking for the function calc-eval which will have been autoloaded during setup if Calc has been installed properly.  As of Emacs 22, Calc is part of the Emacs distribution.  Another possibility for interaction between the two packages is using Calc for embedded calculations. See Embedded Mode (GNU Emacs Calc Manual).

constants.el by Carsten Dominik
     In a table formula (see The spreadsheet), it is possible to use names for natural constants or units.  Instead of defining your own constants in the variable org-table-formula-constants, install the constants package which defines a large number of constants and units, and lets you use unit prefixes like M for Mega, etc.  You will need version 2.0 of this package, available at http://www.astro.uva.nl/~dominik/Tools. Org checks for the function constants-get, which has to be autoloaded in your setup.  See the installation instructions 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 CDLaTeX mode.

imenu.el by Ake Stenhoff and Lars Lindberg
     Imenu allows menu access to an index of items in a file.  Org mode supports Imenu---all you need to do to get the index is the following:

          (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.

remember.el by John Wiegley
     Org cooperates with remember, see Remember. Remember.el is not part of Emacs, find it on the web.

speedbar.el by Eric M. Ludlam
     Speedbar is a package that creates a special frame displaying files and index items in files.  Org mode supports Speedbar and allows you to drill into Org files directly from the Speedbar.  It also allows you to restrict the scope of agenda commands to a file or a subtree by using the command < in the Speedbar frame.

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 (http://sourceforge.net/projects/table, and also part of Emacs 22). When TAB or C-c C-c is pressed in such a table, Org mode will call table-recognize-table and move the cursor into the table.  Inside a table, the keymap of Org mode is inactive.  In order to execute Org mode-related commands, leave the table.

     C-c C-c
          Recognize table.el table.  Works when the cursor is in a table.el table.

     C-c ~
          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.

     table.el is part of Emacs 22.

footnote.el by Steven L. Baur
     Org mode recognizes numerical footnotes as provided by this package. However, Org mode also has its own footnote support (see Footnotes), which makes using footnote.el unnecessary.

Packages that lead to conflicts with Org mode
---------------------------------------------

     In Emacs 23, shift-selection-mode is on by default, meaning that cursor motions combined with the shift key should start or enlarge regions. This conflicts with the use of S-cursor commands in Org to change timestamps, TODO keywords, priorities, and item bullet types if the cursor is at such a location.  By default, S-cursor commands outside special contexts don't do anything, but you can customize the variable org-support-shift-select.  Org mode then tries to accommodate shift selection by (i) using it outside of the special contexts where special commands apply, and by (ii) extending an existing active region even if the cursor moves across a special context.

CUA.el by Kim. F. Storm
     Key bindings in Org conflict with the S-<cursor> keys used by CUA mode (as well as pc-select-mode and s-region-mode) to select and extend the region.  In fact, Emacs 23 has this built-in in the form of shift-selection-mode, see previous paragraph.  If you are using Emacs 23, you probably don't want to use another package for this purpose.  However, if you prefer to leave these keys to a different package while working in Org mode, configure the variable org-replace-disputed-keys.  When set, Org will move the following key bindings in Org files, and in the agenda buffer (but not during date selection).

          S-UP      ->  M-p             S-DOWN     ->  M-n
          S-LEFT    ->  M--             S-RIGHT    ->  M-+
          C-S-LEFT  ->  M-S--           C-S-RIGHT  ->  M-S-+

     Yes, these are unfortunately more difficult to remember.  If you want to have other replacement keys, look at the variable org-disputed-keys.

yasnippet.el
     The way Org-mode binds the TAB key (binding to [tab] instead of "\t") overrules yasnippets' access to this key.  The following code fixed this problem:

          (add-hook 'org-mode-hook
                    (lambda ()
                      (org-set-local 'yas/trigger-key [tab])
                      (define-key yas/keymap [tab] 'yas/next-field-group)))

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.

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)

Hacking
*******

This appendix covers some aspects where users can extend the functionality of Org.

Hooks
=====

Org has a large number of hook variables that can be used to add functionality.  This appendix about hacking is going to illustrate the use of some of them.  A complete list of all hooks with documentation is maintained by the Worg project and can be found at http://orgmode.org/worg/org-configs/org-hooks.php.

Add-on packages
===============

A large number of add-on packages have been written by various authors. These packages are not part of Emacs, but they are distributed as contributed packages with the separate release available at the Org mode home page at http://orgmode.org.  The list of contributed packages, along with documentation about each package, is maintained by the Worg project at http://orgmode.org/worg/org-contrib/.

Adding hyperlink types
======================

Org has a large number of hyperlink types built-in (see Hyperlinks).  If you would like to add new link types, Org provides an interface for doing so.  Let's look at an example file, org-man.el, that will add support for creating links like [[man:printf][The printf manpage]] to show Unix manual pages inside Emacs:

     ;;; org-man.el - Support for links to manpages in Org

     (require 'org)

     (org-add-link-type "man" 'org-man-open)
     (add-hook 'org-store-link-functions 'org-man-store-link)

     (defcustom org-man-command 'man
       "The Emacs command to be used to display a man page."
       :group 'org-link
       :type '(choice (const man) (const woman)))

     (defun org-man-open (path)
       "Visit the manpage on PATH.
     PATH should be a topic that can be thrown at the man command."
       (funcall org-man-command path))

     (defun org-man-store-link ()
       "Store a link to a manpage."
       (when (memq major-mode '(Man-mode woman-mode))
         ;; This is a man page, we do make this link
         (let* ((page (org-man-get-page-name))
                (link (concat "man:" page))
                (description (format "Manpage for %s" page)))
           (org-store-link-props
            :type "man"
            :link link
            :description description))))

     (defun org-man-get-page-name ()
       "Extract the page name from the buffer name."
       ;; This works for both `Man-mode' and `woman-mode'.
       (if (string-match " \\(\\S-+\\)\\*" (buffer-name))
           (match-string 1 (buffer-name))
         (error "Cannot create link to this man page")))

     (provide 'org-man)

     ;;; org-man.el ends here

You would activate this new link type in .emacs with

     (require 'org-man)

Let's go through the file and see what it does.

 1. It does (require 'org) to make sure that org.el has been loaded.

 2. The next line calls org-add-link-type to define a new link type with prefix man.  The call also contains the name of a function that will be called to follow such a link.

 3. The next line adds a function to org-store-link-functions, in order to allow the command C-c l to record a useful link in a buffer displaying a man page.

The rest of the file defines the necessary variables and functions. First there is a customization variable that determines which Emacs command should be used to display man pages.  There are two options, man and woman.  Then the function to follow a link is defined.  It gets the link path as an argument---in this case the link path is just a topic for the manual command.  The function calls the value of org-man-command to display the man page.

Finally the function org-man-store-link is defined.  When you try to store a link with C-c l, this function will be called to try to make a link.  The function must first decide if it is supposed to create the link for this buffer type; we do this by checking the value of the variable major-mode.  If not, the function must exit and return the value nil.  If yes, the link is created by getting the manual topic from the buffer name and prefixing it with the string man:.  Then it must call the command org-store-link-props and set the :type and :link properties.  Optionally you can also set the :description property to provide a default for the link description when the link is later inserted into an Org buffer with C-c C-l.

When is makes sense for your new link type, you may also define a function org-PREFIX-complete-link that implements special (e.g. completion) support for inserting such a link with C-c C-l.  Such a function should not accept any arguments, and return the full link with prefix.

Context-sensitive commands
==========================

Org has several commands that act differently depending on context.  The most important example it the C-c C-c (see The very busy C-c C-c key). Also the M-cursor and M-S-cursor keys have this property.

Add-ons can tap into this functionality by providing a function that detects special context for that add-on and executes functionality appropriate for the context.  Here is an example from Dan Davison's org-R.el which allows you to evaluate commands based on the R programming language.  For this package, special contexts are lines that start with #+R: or #+RR:.

     (defun org-R-apply-maybe ()
       "Detect if this is context for org-R and execute R commands."
       (if (save-excursion
             (beginning-of-line 1)
             (looking-at "#\\+RR?:"))
           (progn (call-interactively 'org-R-apply)
                  t) ;; to signal that we took action
         nil)) ;; to signal that we did not

     (add-hook 'org-ctrl-c-ctrl-c-hook 'org-R-apply-maybe)

The function first checks if the cursor is in such a line.  If that is the case, org-R-apply is called and the function returns t to signal that action was taken, and C-c C-c will stop looking for other contexts.  If the function finds it should do nothing locally, it returns nil so that other, similar functions can have a try.

Tables and lists in arbitrary syntax
====================================

Since Orgtbl mode can be used as a minor mode in arbitrary buffers, a frequent feature request has been to make it work with native tables in specific languages, for example LaTeX.  However, this is extremely hard to do in a general way, would lead to a customization nightmare, and would take away much of the simplicity of the Orgtbl-mode table editor.

This appendix describes a different approach.  We keep the Orgtbl mode table in its native format (the source table), and use a custom function to translate the table to the correct syntax, and to install it in the right location (the target table).  This puts the burden of writing conversion functions on the user, but it allows for a very flexible system.

Bastien added the ability to do the same with lists.  You can use Org's facilities to edit and structure lists by turning orgstruct-mode on, then locally exporting such lists in another format (HTML, LaTeX or Texinfo.)

Radio tables
------------

To define the location of the target table, you first need to create two lines that are comments in the current mode, but contain magic words for Orgtbl mode to find.  Orgtbl mode will insert the translated table between these lines, replacing whatever was there before.  For example:

     /* BEGIN RECEIVE ORGTBL table_name */
     /* END RECEIVE ORGTBL table_name */

Just above the source table, we put a special line that tells Orgtbl mode how to translate this table and where to install it.  For example:

     #+ORGTBL: SEND table_name translation_function arguments....

table_name is the reference name for the table that is also used in the receiver lines. translation_function is the Lisp function that does the translation.  Furthermore, the line can contain a list of arguments (alternating key and value) at the end.  The arguments will be passed as a property list to the translation function for interpretation.  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 as separate lines for this parameter!

:skipcols (n1 n2 ...)
     List of columns that should be skipped.  If the table has a column with calculation marks, that column is automatically discarded as well. Please note that the translator function sees the table after the removal of these columns, the function never knows that there have been additional columns.

The one problem remaining is how to keep the source table in the buffer without disturbing the normal workings of the file, for example during compilation of a C file or processing of a LaTeX file.  There are a number of different solutions:

  * The table could be placed in a block comment if that is supported by the language.  For example, in C mode you could wrap the table between /* and */ lines.

  * Sometimes it is possible to put the table after some kind of END statement, for example \bye in TeX and \end{document} in LaTeX.

  * You can just comment the table line-by-line whenever you want to process the file, and uncomment it whenever you need to edit the table.  This only sounds tedious---the command M-x orgtbl-toggle-comment makes this comment-toggling very easy, in particular if you bind it to a key.

A LaTeX example of radio tables
-------------------------------

The best way to wrap the source table in LaTeX is to use the comment environment provided by comment.sty.  It has to be activated by placing \usepackage{comment} into the document header.  Orgtbl mode can insert a radio table skeleton (By default this works only for LaTeX, HTML, and Texinfo.  Configure the variable orgtbl-radio-tables to install templates for other modes.)  with the command M-x orgtbl-insert-radio-table.  You will be prompted for a table name, let's say we use salesfigures.  You will then get the following template:

     % BEGIN RECEIVE ORGTBL salesfigures
     % END RECEIVE ORGTBL salesfigures
     \begin{comment}
     #+ORGTBL: SEND salesfigures orgtbl-to-latex
     | | |
     \end{comment}

The #+ORGTBL: SEND line tells Orgtbl mode to use the function orgtbl-to-latex to convert the table into LaTeX and to put it into the receiver location with name salesfigures.  You may now fill in the table, feel free to use the spreadsheet features (If the #+TBLFM line 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.):

     % 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}

When you are done, press C-c C-c in the table to get the converted table inserted between the two marker lines.

Now let's assume you want to make the table header by hand, because you want to control how columns are aligned, etc.  In this case we make sure that the table translator skips the first 2 lines of the source table, and tell the command to work as a splice, i.e. to not produce header and footer commands of the target table:

     \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.  It uses a tabular environment to typeset the table and marks horizontal lines with \hline.  Furthermore, it interprets the following parameters (see also Translator functions):

:splice nil/t
     When set to t, return only table body lines, don't wrap them into a tabular environment.  Default is nil.

:fmt fmt
     A format to be used to wrap each field, it should contain %s for the original field value.  For example, to wrap each field value in dollars, you could use :fmt "$%s$".  This may also be a property list with column numbers and formats. for example :fmt (2 "$%s$" 4 "%s\\%%"). A function of one argument can be used in place of the strings; the function must return a formatted string.

:efmt efmt
     Use this format to print numbers with exponentials.  The format should have %s twice for inserting mantissa and exponent, for example "%s\\times10^{%s}".  The default is "%s\\,(%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 will also be applied.  Similar to fmt, functions of two arguments can be supplied instead of strings.

Translator functions
--------------------

Orgtbl mode has several translator functions built-in: orgtbl-to-csv (comma-separated values), orgtbl-to-tsv (TAB-separated values) orgtbl-to-latex, orgtbl-to-html, and orgtbl-to-texinfo. Except for orgtbl-to-html (The HTML translator uses the same code that produces tables during HTML export.), these all use a generic translator, orgtbl-to-generic.  For example, orgtbl-to-latex itself is a very short function that computes the column definitions for the tabular environment, defines a few field and line separators and then hands processing over to the generic translator.  Here is the entire code:

     (defun orgtbl-to-latex (table params)
       "Convert the Orgtbl mode TABLE to LaTeX."
       (let* ((alignment (mapconcat (lambda (x) (if x "r" "l"))
                                    org-table-last-alignment ""))
              (params2
               (list
                :tstart (concat "\\begin{tabular}{" alignment "}")
                :tend "\\end{tabular}"
                :lstart "" :lend " \\\\" :sep " & "
                :efmt "%s\\,(%s)" :hline "\\hline")))
         (orgtbl-to-generic table (org-combine-plists params2 params))))

As you can see, the properties passed into the function (variable PARAMS) are combined with the ones newly defined in the function (variable PARAMS2).  The ones passed into the function (i.e. the ones set by the ORGTBL SEND line) take precedence.  So if you would like to use the LaTeX translator, but wanted the line endings to be \\[2mm] instead of the default \\, you could just overrule the default with

     #+ORGTBL: SEND test orgtbl-to-latex :lend " \\\\[2mm]"

For a new language, you can either write your own converter function in analogy with the LaTeX translator, or you can use the generic function directly.  For example, if you have a language where a table is started with !BTBL!, ended with !ETBL!, and where table lines are started with !BL!, ended with !EL!, and where the field separator is a TAB, you could call the generic translator like this (on a single line!):

     #+ORGTBL: SEND test orgtbl-to-generic :tstart "!BTBL!" :tend "!ETBL!"
                                   :lstart "!BL! " :lend " !EL!" :sep "\t"

Please check the documentation string of the function orgtbl-to-generic for a full list of parameters understood by that function, and remember that you can pass each of them into orgtbl-to-latex, orgtbl-to-texinfo, and any other function using the generic function.

Of course you can also write a completely new function doing complicated things the generic translator cannot do.  A translator function takes two arguments.  The first argument is the table, a list of lines, each line either the symbol hline or a list of fields.  The second argument is the property list containing all parameters specified in the #+ORGTBL: SEND line.  The function must return a single string containing the formatted table.  If you write a generally useful translator, please post it on emacs-orgmode@gnu.org so that others can benefit from your work.

Radio lists
-----------

Sending and receiving radio lists works exactly the same way than sending and receiving radio tables (see Radio tables).  As for radio tables, you can insert radio lists templates in HTML, LaTeX and Texinfo modes by calling org-list-insert-radio-list.

Here are the differences with radio tables:

  - Use ORGLST instead of ORGTBL.

  - The available translation functions for radio lists don't take parameters.

  - C-c C-c will work when pressed on the first item of the list.

Here is a LaTeX example.  Let's say that you have this in your LaTeX file:

     % BEGIN RECEIVE ORGLST to-buy
     % END RECEIVE ORGLST to-buy
     \begin{comment}
     #+ORGLIST: SEND to-buy orgtbl-to-latex
     - a new house
     - a new computer
       + a new keyboard
       + a new mouse
     - a new life
     \end{comment}

Pressing `C-c C-c' on a new house and will insert the converted LaTeX list between the two marker lines.

Dynamic blocks
==============

Org documents can contain dynamic blocks.  These are specially marked regions that are updated by some user-written function. A good example for such a block is the clock table inserted by the command C-c C-x C-r (see Clocking work time).

Dynamic block are enclosed by a BEGIN-END structure that assigns a name to the block and can also specify parameters for the function producing the content of the block.

#+BEGIN:dynamic block

     #+BEGIN: myblock :parameter1 value1 :parameter2 value2 ...

     #+END:

Dynamic blocks are updated with the following commands

C-c C-x C-u
     Update dynamic block at point.

C-u C-c C-x C-u
     Update all dynamic blocks in the current file.

Updating a dynamic block means to remove all the text between BEGIN and END, parse the BEGIN line for parameters and then call the specific writer function for this block to insert the new content.  If you want to use the original content in the writer function, you can use the extra parameter :content.

For a block with name myblock, the writer function is org-dblock-write:myblock with as only parameter a property list with the parameters given in the begin line.  Here is a trivial example of a block that keeps track of when the block update function was last run:

     #+BEGIN: block-update-time :format "on %m/%d/%Y at %H:%M"

     #+END:

The corresponding block writer function could look like this:

     (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 (current-time)))))

If you want to make sure that all dynamic blocks are always up-to-date, you could add the function org-update-all-dblocks to a hook, for example before-save-hook.  org-update-all-dblocks is written in a way such that it does nothing in buffers that are not in org-mode.

Special agenda views
====================

Org provides a special hook that can be used to narrow down the selection made by any of the agenda views.  You may specify a function that is used at each match to verify if the match should indeed be part of the agenda view, and if not, how much should be skipped.

Let's say you want to produce a list of projects that contain a WAITING tag anywhere in the project tree.  Let's further assume that you have marked all tree headings that define a project with the TODO keyword PROJECT.  In this case you would run a TODO search for the keyword PROJECT, but skip the match unless there is a WAITING tag anywhere in the subtree belonging to the project line.

To achieve this, you must write a function that searches the subtree for the tag.  If the tag is found, the function must return nil to indicate that this match should not be skipped.  If there is no such tag, return the location of the end of the subtree, to indicate that search should continue from there.

     (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

Now you may use this function in an agenda custom command, for example like this:

     (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 get a meaningful header in the agenda view.

A general way to create custom searches is to base them on a search for entries with a certain level limit.  If you want to study all entries with your custom search function, simply do a search for LEVEL>0 (Note that, when using org-odd-levels-only, a level number corresponds to order in the hierarchy, not to the number of stars.), and then use org-agenda-skip-function to select the entries you really want to have.

You may also put a Lisp form into org-agenda-skip-function.  In particular, you may use the functions org-agenda-skip-entry-if and org-agenda-skip-subtree-if in this form, 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 'timestamp)
     Skip current entry if it has any timestamp, may also be deadline or scheduled.

'(org-agenda-skip-entry 'regexp "regular expression")
     Skip current entry if the regular expression matches in the entry.

'(org-agenda-skip-entry '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.

Therefore we could also have written the search for WAITING projects like this, even without defining a 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: "))))

Extracting agenda information
=============================

Org provides commands to access agenda information for the command line in Emacs batch mode.  This extracted information can be sent directly to a printer, or it can be read by a program that does further processing of the data.  The first of these commands is the function org-batch-agenda, that produces an agenda view and sends it as ASCII text to STDOUT.  The command takes a single string as parameter. If the string has length 1, it is used as a key to one of the commands you have configured in org-agenda-custom-commands, basically any key you can use after C-c a.  For example, to directly print the current TODO list, you could use

     emacs -batch -l ~/.emacs -eval '(org-batch-agenda "t")' | lpr

If the parameter is a string with 2 or more characters, it is used as a tags/TODO match string.  For example, to print your local shopping list (all items with the tag shop, but excluding the tag NewYork), you could use

     emacs -batch -l ~/.emacs                                      \
           -eval '(org-batch-agenda "+shop-NewYork")' | lpr

You may also modify parameters on the fly like this:

     emacs -batch -l ~/.emacs                                      \
        -eval '(org-batch-agenda "a"                               \
                 org-agenda-ndays 30                               \
                 org-agenda-include-diary nil                      \
                 org-agenda-files (quote ("~/org/project.org")))'  \
        | lpr

which will produce a 30-day agenda, fully restricted to the Org file ~/org/projects.org, not even including the diary.

If you want to process the agenda data in more sophisticated ways, you can use the command org-batch-agenda-csv to get a comma-separated list of values for each agenda item.  Each line in the output will contain a number of fields separated by commas.  The fields in a line are:

     category     The category of the item
     head         The headline, without TODO keyword, TAGS and PRIORITY
     type         The type of the agenda entry, can be
                     todo               selected in TODO match
                     tagsmatch          selected in tags match
                     diary              imported from diary
                     deadline           a deadline
                     scheduled          scheduled
                     timestamp          appointment, selected by timestamp
                     closed             entry was closed on date
                     upcoming-deadline  warning about nearing deadline
                     past-scheduled     forwarded scheduled item
                     block              entry 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

Time and date will only be given if a timestamp (or deadline/scheduled) led to the selection of the item.

A CSV list like this is very easy to use in a post-processing script. For example, here is a Perl program that gets the TODO list from Emacs/Org and prints all the items, preceded by 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";
     }

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 VALUE 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 at point.

 -- 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 will be 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.

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.  The function will be called without arguments, with the cursor positioned at the beginning of the headline. The return values of all calls to the function will be collected and returned as a list.

     The call to FUNC will be wrapped into a save-excursion form, so FUNC does not need to preserve point.  After evaluation, the cursor will be moved to the end of the line (presumably of the headline of the processed entry) and search continues from there.  Under some circumstances, this may not produce the wanted results.  For example, if you have removed (e.g. archived) the current (sub)tree it could mean that the next entry will be skipped entirely.  In such cases, you can specify the position from where search should continue by making FUNC set the variable `org-map-continue-from' to the desired buffer position.

     MATCH is a tags/property/todo match as it is used in the agenda match view. Only headlines that are matched by this query will be considered during the iteration.  When MATCH is nil or t, all headlines will be visited by the iteration.

     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
          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
          (file1 file2 ...)
                  if this is a list, all files in the list will be scanned

     The remaining args are treated as settings for the skipping facilities of the scanner.  The following items can be given here:

          archive   skip trees with the archive tag
          comment   skip trees with the COMMENT keyword
          function or Lisp form
                    will be used as value for org-agenda-skip-function,
                    so whenever the function returns t, FUNC
                    will not be called for that entry and search will
                    continue from the point where the function leaves it

The function given to that mapping routine can really do anything you like. It can use the property API (see Using the property API) to gather more information about the entry, or in order to change metadata in the entry. Here are a couple of functions that might be handy:

 -- 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 will 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.

Here is a simple example that will turn all entries in the current file with a tag TOMORROW into TODO entries with the keyword UPCOMING. Entries in comment trees and in archive trees will be ignored.

     (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))

MobileOrg
*********

MobileOrg is an application for the iPhone/iPod Touch series of devices, developed by Richard Moreland.  MobileOrg offers offline viewing and capture support for an Org-mode system rooted on a ``real'' computer.  It does also allow you to record changes to existing entries.  For information about MobileOrg, see http://mobileorg.ncogni.to/).

This appendix describes the support Org has for creating agenda views in a format that can be displayed by MobileOrg, and for integrating notes captured and changes made by MobileOrg into the main system.

For changing tags and TODO states in MobileOrg, you should have set up the customization variables org-todo-keywords and org-tags-alist to cover all important tags and todo keywords, even if individual files use only part of these.  MobileOrg will also offer you states and tags set up with in-buffer settings, but it will understand the logistics of todo state sets (see Per-file keywords) and mutually exclusive tags (see Setting tags) only for those set in these variables.

Setting up the staging area
===========================

Org-mode has commands to prepare a directory with files for MobileOrg, and to read captured notes from there.  If Emacs can directly write to the WebDAV directory accessed by MobileOrg, just point to this directory using the variable org-mobile-directory.  Using the tramp method, org-mobile-directory may point to a remote directory accessible through, for example, ssh/scp:

     (setq org-mobile-directory "/scpc:user@remote.host:org/webdav/")

If Emacs cannot access the WebDAV directory directly using a tramp method, or you prefer to maintain a local copy, you can use a local directory for staging.  Other means must then be used to keep this directory in sync with the WebDAV directory.  In the following example, files are staged in ~/stage, and Org-mode hooks take care of moving files to and from the WebDAV directory using scp.

     (setq org-mobile-directory "~/stage/")
     (add-hook 'org-mobile-post-push-hook
       (lambda () (shell-command "scp -r ~/stage/* user@wdhost:mobile/")))
     (add-hook 'org-mobile-pre-pull-hook
       (lambda () (shell-command "scp user@wdhost:mobile/mobileorg.org ~/stage/ ")))
     (add-hook 'org-mobile-post-pull-hook
       (lambda () (shell-command "scp ~/stage/mobileorg.org user@wdhost:mobile/")))

Pushing to MobileOrg
====================

This operation copies all files currently listed in org-mobile-files to the directory org-mobile-directory.  By default this list contains all agenda files (as listed in org-agenda-files), but additional files can be included by customizing org-mobiles-files.  File names will be staged with path relative to org-directory, so all files should be inside this directory.  The push operation also creates (in the same directory) a special Org file agendas.org.  This file is an Org-mode style outline, containing every custom agenda view defined by the user. While creating the agendas, Org-mode will force (See the variable org-mobile-force-id-on-agenda-items.)  an ID property on all entries referenced by the agendas, so that these entries can be uniquely identified if MobileOrg flags them for further action.  Finally, Org writes the file index.org, containing links to all other files.  If MobileOrg is configured to request this file from the WebDAV server, all agendas and Org files will be downloaded to the device.  To speed up the download, MobileOrg will only read files whose checksums (stored automatically in the file checksums.dat) have changed.

Pulling from MobileOrg
======================

When MobileOrg synchronizes with the WebDAV server, it not only pulls the Org files for viewing.  It also appends captured entries and pointers to flagged and changed entries to the file mobileorg.org on the server. Org has a pull operation that integrates this information into an inbox file and operates on the pointers to flagged entries.  Here is how it works:

 1. Org moves all entries found in mobileorg.org (mobileorg.org will be empty after this operation.) and appends them to the file pointed to by the variable org-mobile-inbox-for-pull.  Each captured entry and each editing event will be a top-level entry in the inbox file.

 2. After moving the entries, Org will attempt to implement the changes made in MobileOrg.  Some changes are applied directly and without user interaction.  Examples are all changes to tags, TODO state, headline and body text that can be cleanly applied.  Entries that have been flagged for further action will receive a tag :FLAGGED:, so that they can be easily found again.  When there is a problem finding an entry or applying the change, the pointer entry will remain in the inbox and will be marked with an error message.  You need to later resolve these issues by hand.

 3. Org will then generate an agenda view with all flagged entries.  The user should then go through these entries and do whatever actions are necessary. If a note has been stored while flagging an entry in MobileOrg, that note will be displayed in the echo area when the cursor is on the corresponding agenda line.

     ?
          Pressing ? in that special agenda will display the full flagging note in another window and also push it onto the kill ring.  So you could use ? z C-y C-c C-c to store that flagging note as a normal note in the entry. Pressing ? twice in succession will offer to remove the :FLAGGED: tag along with the recorded flagging note (which is stored in a property).  In this way you indicate, that the intended processing for this flagged entry is finished.

If you are not able to process all flagged entries directly, you can always return to this agenda view using C-c a ?.  Note, however, that there is a subtle difference.  The view created automatically by M-x org-mobile-pull RET is guaranteed to search all files that have been addressed by the last pull.  This might include a file that is not currently in your list of agenda files.  If you later use C-c a ? to regenerate the view, only the current agenda files will be searched.

History and Acknowledgments
***************************

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.

A special thanks goes to Bastien Guerry who has not only written a large number of extensions to Org (most of them integrated into the core by now), but who has also helped in the development and maintenance of Org so much that he should be considered the main co-contributor to this package.

Since the first release, literally thousands of emails to me or to emacs-orgmode@gnu.org 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.

  * Russel Adams came up with the idea for drawers.

  * Thomas Baumann wrote org-bbdb.el and org-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.

  * Brad Bozarth showed how to pull RSS feed data into Org-mode files.

  * Tom Breton wrote org-choose.el.

  * Charles Cave's suggestion sparked the implementation of templates for Remember.

  * 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.

  * Dan Davison wrote (together with Eric Schulte) Org Babel.

  * 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.

  * Christian Egli converted the documentation into Texinfo format, patched CSS formatting into the HTML exporter, and inspired the agenda.

  * 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.

  * Niels Giesen had the idea to automatically archive DONE trees.

  * Bastien Guerry wrote the LaTeX exporter and org-bibtex.el, and has been prolific with patches, ideas, and bug reports.

  * Kai Grossjohann pointed out key-binding conflicts with other packages.

  * 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 org-irc.el.

  * Scott Jaderholm proposed footnotes, control over whitespace between folded entries, and column view for properties.

  * 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.

  * Jason F. McBrayer suggested agenda export to CSV format.

  * 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.

  * 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.

  * 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.

  * Sebastian Rose wrote org-info.js, a Java script for displaying webpages derived from Org using an Info-like or a folding interface with single-key navigation.

  * 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.

  * Eric Schulte wrote org-plot.el and (together with Dan Davison) Org Babel, and contributed various patches, small features and modules.

  * Linking to VM/BBDB/Gnus was first inspired by Tom Shannon's organizer-mode.el.

  * 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 Org's contrib directory.

  * 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.

  * Andy Stewart contributed code to org-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.

  * Jürgen Vollmer contributed code generating the table of contents in HTML output.

  * Chris Wallace provided a patch implementing the QUOTE keyword.

  * David Wainberg suggested archiving, and improvements to the linking system.

  * John Wiegley wrote emacs-wiki.el, planner.el, and muse.el, which have some overlap with Org.  Initially the development of Org was fully independent because I was not aware of the existence of these packages.  But with time I have occasionally looked at John's code and learned a lot from it.  John has also 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 support for pcomplete.

  * 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.

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 RET and then click yourself through the tree.