Org-mode Tutorial / Cheat Sheet

Subheadings can nest within other headings such as this one. This is really convenient for organizing stuff.

You can turn an existing header into a TODO item by cycling its TODO status. The shortcut for this is C-c C-t (t for todo).

Non-TODO -> TODO -> DONE -> Non-TODO … (with C-c C-t).

1. item 1
2. item 2
   1. sub 1
   2. sub 2
      1. subsub 1

Start with -, +, or *.

• hello
• item 2
• item 3
  • subitem 1
  • sub
    • subsub

Start with -, +, or * and followed by ::

Matlab is a funny language. 
 - Scope :: Scope doesn't work as expected, and messes everything up
   when loops mix variables up in recursive functions.
 - Namespaces :: You wish. 
 - Header Files :: Nope.

gives

Matlab is a funny language.

Scope

Scope doesn't work as expected, and messes everything up when loops mix variables up in recursive functions.

Namespaces

You wish.

Header Files

Nope.

When exporting, tables are drawn without cell borders or frames. Here are useful table formatting commands which you place immediately before a table.

This is a table with lines around and between cells

this	is	a	sample	table
move	from	one	col	to
the	other	with	<TAB>	this column

Org-mode is great for inserting snippets of code. This can be done with the

#+BEGIN_SRC [major-mode-name] [options]
#+END_SRC

[major-mode-name] adds a lot of extra functionality to these code blocks within your org file. It's also good for whoever is reading to know what the language is.

For example:

1:  int main() { 
2:  return 0; 
3:  }

It gets tiring to use the long tags if you're doing this a lot. These are shortcuts to generate the above snippet borders. To insert, type a '<' followed by a template selector and then <TAB>.

Template selectors:

s    #+begin_src ... #+end_src 
e    #+begin_example ... #+end_example
q    #+begin_quote ... #+end_quote 
v    #+begin_verse ... #+end_verse 
c    #+begin_center ... #+end_center 
l    #+begin_latex ... #+end_latex 
L    #+latex: 
h    #+begin_html ... #+end_html 
H    #+html: 
a    #+begin_ascii ... #+end_ascii 
A    #+ascii: 
i    #+index: line 
I    #+include: line 

You can link files together with

[[file:filename][name-of-link]]

This will preserve links after export to HTML as well.

You can create a link to a section within your document with the section name in brackets. The second option lets you call the link something else.

[[section-title]]
[[section-title][link-title]]

When org files are exported, certain variables are set automatically but can be manually set by you. To change a variable's value, use

#+VARIABLE-NAME: value

anywhere in your document. At the top is probably best.

To paste a template of all export options in your org document so that you can set them immediately, use (org-insert-export-options-template), or C-c C-e t.

This will print

#+TITLE:       the title to be shown (default is the buffer name)
#+AUTHOR:      the author (default taken from user-full-name)
#+DATE:        a date, an Org timestamp120, or 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
#+XSLT:        the XSLT stylesheet used by DocBook exporter to generate FO file

within your document, but with your actual variable values instead of descriptions. Change any of the variables to the value of your choice. These descriptions are provided here for your reference.

The #+OPTIONS variable is very useful for specific tweaks and will effect both HTML and LaTeX exports.

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 (DOES NOT WORK)
@:         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
tasks:     turn on/off inclusion of tasks (TODO items), can be nil to remove
all tasks, todo to remove DONE tasks, or list of kwds to keep
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:     configure export of LaTeX fragments.  Default auto
skip:      turn on/off skipping the text before the first heading
author:    turn on/off inclusion of author name/email into exported file
email:     turn on/off inclusion of author 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

Variables are set with nil or t, and sometimes take an argument. For example

#+OPTIONS:     H:2 num:t toc:t \n:nil @:t ::t |:t ^:t f:t TeX:t ...

#+TITLE: This is the title of the document

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

You can include files in an org document, which will be rendered on export. This is done using the single line command

#+INCLUDE: "file-path" [type] [src-language]

type can be either (quote, example, or src). if type is src, then src-language can be any major-mode language.

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

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 states that 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>)

#+LINK_UP: 
#+LINK_HOME: index.html

To enable project publishing with org-mode, create a local file in the project directory with the instructions. In our example we have named it org_publish.el.

(defconst home (file-name-directory (or load-file-name buffer-file-name)))

(require 'org-publish)
(setq org-publish-project-alist
      `(
        ;; add all the components here
        ;; *notes* - publishes org files to html
        ("main-page"
         :base-directory ,(concat home "org/")
         :base-extension "org"  ; Filename suffix without dot
         :publishing-directory ,(concat home "html/")
         :recursive t           ; DONT include subdirectories
         :publishing-function org-publish-org-to-html
         :headline-levels 4             ; Just the default for this project.
         :style "<link rel=\"stylesheet\" type=\"text/css\" href=\"../css/stylesheet.css\" />"
         :auto-preamble t
         :auto-sitemap t                ; generate automagically
         :sitemap-sort-folders last
         :sitemap-title "Main Sitemap"
         )

        ;; The meeting notes to be published
        ("meeting-notes"
         :base-directory ,(concat home "org/meeting-notes/")
         :base-extension "org"
         :publishing-directory ,(concat home "html/meeting-notes/")
         :recursive nil
         :publishing-function org-publish-org-to-html
         :headline-levels 4
         :style "<link rel=\"stylesheet\" type=\"text/css\" href=\"../../css/stylesheet.css\" />"
         :auto-preamble t
         :auto-sitemap t
         :sitemap-title "Meeting Notes Directory"
         )

        ;; *static* - copies files to directories
        ("org-static"
         :base-directory ,(concat home "org/")
         :base-extension "css\\|js\\|png\\|jpg\\|gif\\|pdf\\|mp3\\|ogg\\|swf"
         :publishing-directory ,(concat home "html/")
         :recursive t
         :publishing-function org-publish-attachment
         )

        ;; *publish* with M-x org-publish-project RET emacsclub RET
        ("emacsclub" :components ("main-page" "meeting-notes" "org-static"))
        ))