I love Org mostly for its ability to link to stuff. In my mind it's the big feature that sets it apart from using, say, a separate application to do my task management. For instance:
- When I'm reading email (in emacs), I can quickly create a TODO that links back to the current email I'm reading (most of my TODOs, in fact, link to an email, so this is very useful),
- For my org file where I keep notes about the servers I'm running, I might link to a specific line on a remote apache config,
- For a bug report I might link to a specific git commit in a project to look at later
Any TODO that is important gets scheduled, so that it is linked to from the agenda view. In this way it's very hard for me to lose track of anything, despite most of my work communication happening through email. In fact I now prefer email over using something like Basecamp, because org makes it easier for me to manage!
Because Emacs is an OS the way it should be — an extensible system with a unified UI instead of a pile of separate and hardly interoperable applications.
Org links are great. I admire your email linking setup. I never got email working in Emacs. As a Windows user relying on Gmail, there is significant friction. Thankfully AutoHotKey gives me Emacs keybindings in Gmail and I can actually link to messages if need be with normal http links.
Reading through the list of changes, I am very happy that I moved away from org mode.
- New syntax for export blocks
- org-file-apps no longer accepts S-expressions as commands
- Preparation and completion functions in publishing projects change signature
- Old Babel header properties are no longer supported
So in other words, for the classes I teach every two years, I can forget about being able to open up my previous files and have them just work. This was a constant battle and is pretty much unique to org mode.
I have experienced the same thing at least twice in the last 5 years ... automated scripts for compiling and uploading >50 .org files for a course website, suddenly fails. Spend 3 days chasing down why. Small naming change in an org function.
You are right that the org developers often make changes that break old code, documents, and habits. I was often enough upset about this in the past. But to be fair, they are really trying to make org more powerful and more consistent, and 90% of the changes are necessary for that even though they are painful.
I really recommend everyone to try it.
The power of org mode lies in its simplicity.
No fancy gui, not too many features but allows creating and extending.
When you need to be productive you need a simple tool so you do not spend your time being busy instead of working
I absolutely agree with this. And as reformed vi user and current emacs acolyte, everyone should use emacs for everything always.
But... I really wish someone would spend some time building some first class alternative implementations of org-mode. I say this not because I want to escape emacs (I'll never go!), but because I wish org-mode would replace Markdown. It's a better format. People outside the emacs world just think I'm weird for using it. If Vim/Atom/Sublime/Eclipse/Netbeans/Etc all supported org as a format, then I wouldn't have to use anything else.
"Simplicity"?! <Cough> It took me quite a few hours to learn. :-)
At first, I was a bit frustrated and thought "Because of recommendations, I just spent X hours learning a tool where the GUI applications can be learned in minutes?! Was this a good use of my life?"
Then I realized the usability I had -- and that it was the closest thing I ever got to paper and pencil with a keyboard; I didn't need to think so it was not in the way when I wrote down notes.
While I agree with people trying it, I also just want to give the other side. I tried it for a few weeks, and stopped. For some people it is perfect, but I found it didn't integrate well with anything else.
Like much of Emacs, it assumes you want to spend your whole life in org-mode. If that's not compatible with your life (and for me it's not. Sometimes I'm on another computer, sometimes an android device, sometimes in Eclipse), then org-mode will fight you constantly.
The export function is stellar (although I had to hack the OOo support to work on Windows); HTML exports look great (well, after using the right stylesheet).
It's a really great way of bootstrapping/seeding presentations.
I've tried to use org mode several times. Its functionality is truly great, but having to use emacs to use it is too much of a hurdle for me. I struggle to remember all the emacs key combinations, so in the end I just give up and revert to text files.
It would be great if someone ported org mode out of emacs. I've tried the Sublime Text org mode package[0] but it's still too bare to be useful. Does anyone know of an alternative way to use it?
Are you more of a vim person? If so, spacemacs might be something to use. Sure, it is slow and buggy in some rarely-used layers, but other than that it is a really neat experience. The org mode layer sees quite some love, and works well.
What is it about org-mode that you find attractive? For me org-mode is inseparable from emacs. I find it hard to imagine what you'd be looking for in another editor and how it would work.
You can write an org file manually using any editor. Org-mode just provides a lot of tools to make this easier and more efficient. How would these tools look in another environment? Lots of GUI buttons?
I use org mode, and thought it would be a gentle way of establishing some familiarity with emacs. But whenever I want to do anything other than the slightest edits to my todo files I open the file in vim! Emacs just has no built in functionality, everything has to be implemented. It's like raising a baby - teach it eat, drink, crawl. Eventually it will be somewhat capable, but then I can't simply fire it up on another machine. Maybe I'm missing something, but every time I look up the simplest edit, I'm presented with 30 lines of code. Maybe the gentle approach is not the way to get going with emacs. Anyway, point being I'm also looking for a vim alternative.
What are Org users doing for mobile access? Using the phone to ssh to an emacs? Using mobile org? I also saw an Org plugin for an iOS editor. How do you keep it synched?
I was never happy with the workflow of automatically syncing mobile org, so I gave up. A scheduled task on the desktop exports org to HTML in a Dropbox folder. Read-only HTML on mobile is good enough for my use in most cases. I capture with Google Keep if needed.
MobileOrg does that, and it can sync up with your phone's calendar. I use it exclusively for capture and sync to PC when home thru ssh. I don't use the calendar sync as I use a physical agenda, but works nicely except time ranges don't get synced to phone's calendar.
sshing into my PC with emacs. With Evil mode (vim modes and keybindings for emacs, without loosing emacs' ones) it's perfectly usable. Don't need an extra app for that IMO.
For 1: I think the best way to start is to simply schedule your important TODOs (C-c C-s), so that you see them on the weekly agenda view. This is how I started, and then I slowly started to incorporate things like tags when I realized I needed some more organization. (And make sure to add your org files to `org-agenda-files`.)
That's a mostly up-to-date list of supported languages, with links to example usage.
Technically, org-babel will support any language, but some have more interoperability with the overall system than others. At the simplest, you'll get syntax highlighting, tangle, and noweb support. At the most complex, you can execute them inside emacs/org and get the results, feed those into more blocks, etc. (making it very much like a python notebook or similar concept, but for any supported language).
You can even see the org file generating each of those pages.
Anyone have any org-mode config settings that they've found invaluable? I finally have my normal emacs config mostly working how I want it, so why not go in and add more stuff to it with org-mode!
I use org-mode's agenda as kanban board, so adding a global shortcut for agenda is invaluable.
Also more states. And I typically use a blank line between tree branches. Without altering org-cycle-separator-lines, it will be eaten up by last leaf of previous branch which I found annoying.
More and more I keep wanting to try emacs or vim, because nothing else seems to work as far as productivity. I've tried Evernote and a bunch of other applications, nothing seems to be useful (to me). I always stick to my notepads of paper and pens, that may never change.
I do mostly front end work, so the tools I'm constantly in is in iTerm 2, Adobe products, Mail, Sublime, and Transmit for SFTP.
Would there be any benefit of spending time learning these? Where does one even begin?
The most crucial thing for me is the inheritance of org-block face by src-blocks. Now finally I'm once again able to use fixed-width font for all codes and variable-width font for all normal notes, which greatly optimizes the reading experience. This has been an issue since org 8.2.1
For me, the biggie is better embedded code support. For example, with RMarkdown, I can embed chunks of... R code in Markdown and have them executed with results put in line. Org mode, by contrast, has had support for dozens of languages for quite some time.
Beyond that, flexibility in rendered output formats. Markdown doesn't really provide any mechanisms for when you want some things to be different between the HTML and LaTeX -> PDF output. Org-mode supports multi output format issues quite neatly.
Little things such as supporting in-document cross references work in Org-mode, but not Markdown. If you've ever needed to do something like "As seen in Figure [X]", know that with Markdown you'll be doing some hacks. Org-mode? Just works.
[+] [-] mjhoy|9 years ago|reply
- When I'm reading email (in emacs), I can quickly create a TODO that links back to the current email I'm reading (most of my TODOs, in fact, link to an email, so this is very useful),
- For my org file where I keep notes about the servers I'm running, I might link to a specific line on a remote apache config,
- For a bug report I might link to a specific git commit in a project to look at later
Any TODO that is important gets scheduled, so that it is linked to from the agenda view. In this way it's very hard for me to lose track of anything, despite most of my work communication happening through email. In fact I now prefer email over using something like Basecamp, because org makes it easier for me to manage!
[+] [-] Fice|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] shoover|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bachmeier|9 years ago|reply
- New syntax for export blocks
- org-file-apps no longer accepts S-expressions as commands
- Preparation and completion functions in publishing projects change signature
- Old Babel header properties are no longer supported
So in other words, for the classes I teach every two years, I can forget about being able to open up my previous files and have them just work. This was a constant battle and is pretty much unique to org mode.
[+] [-] plg|9 years ago|reply
Now again?
It's very frustrating.
[+] [-] drieddust|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tmalsburg2|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] shoover|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Veen|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|9 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] cheez|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] e40|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] superflit|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] peatmoss|9 years ago|reply
But... I really wish someone would spend some time building some first class alternative implementations of org-mode. I say this not because I want to escape emacs (I'll never go!), but because I wish org-mode would replace Markdown. It's a better format. People outside the emacs world just think I'm weird for using it. If Vim/Atom/Sublime/Eclipse/Netbeans/Etc all supported org as a format, then I wouldn't have to use anything else.
[+] [-] berntb|9 years ago|reply
At first, I was a bit frustrated and thought "Because of recommendations, I just spent X hours learning a tool where the GUI applications can be learned in minutes?! Was this a good use of my life?"
Then I realized the usability I had -- and that it was the closest thing I ever got to paper and pencil with a keyboard; I didn't need to think so it was not in the way when I wrote down notes.
Still use it.
[+] [-] CJefferson|9 years ago|reply
Like much of Emacs, it assumes you want to spend your whole life in org-mode. If that's not compatible with your life (and for me it's not. Sometimes I'm on another computer, sometimes an android device, sometimes in Eclipse), then org-mode will fight you constantly.
[+] [-] _pmf_|9 years ago|reply
It's a really great way of bootstrapping/seeding presentations.
[+] [-] biomene|9 years ago|reply
It would be great if someone ported org mode out of emacs. I've tried the Sublime Text org mode package[0] but it's still too bare to be useful. Does anyone know of an alternative way to use it?
[0]: https://github.com/danielmagnussons/orgmode
[+] [-] Johnny_Brahms|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] torrent-of-ions|9 years ago|reply
You can write an org file manually using any editor. Org-mode just provides a lot of tools to make this easier and more efficient. How would these tools look in another environment? Lots of GUI buttons?
[+] [-] logingone|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] melling|9 years ago|reply
https://github.com/melling/ios_topics/blob/master/README.org
https://github.com/melling/ComputerLanguages
https://github.com/melling/ErgonomicNotes/blob/master/README...
[+] [-] massysett|9 years ago|reply
I need tasklists to be accessible on the phone.
[+] [-] vvvpqsw|9 years ago|reply
It works great, emacs run better in android than in my desktop.
[+] [-] shoover|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gkya|9 years ago|reply
MobileOrg does that, and it can sync up with your phone's calendar. I use it exclusively for capture and sync to PC when home thru ssh. I don't use the calendar sync as I use a physical agenda, but works nicely except time ranges don't get synced to phone's calendar.
[+] [-] wcummings|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] groks|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] necessity|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zaphar|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] iLemming|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Wonnk13|9 years ago|reply
1. org agenda integration into their todo lists 2. babel mode? i'd love to integrate code into some of study guides for interviews
love emacs, but i never feel like im using more than 1% of org mode's potential.
[+] [-] mcshicks|9 years ago|reply
http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html
[+] [-] mjhoy|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Jtsummers|9 years ago|reply
That's a mostly up-to-date list of supported languages, with links to example usage.
Technically, org-babel will support any language, but some have more interoperability with the overall system than others. At the simplest, you'll get syntax highlighting, tangle, and noweb support. At the most complex, you can execute them inside emacs/org and get the results, feed those into more blocks, etc. (making it very much like a python notebook or similar concept, but for any supported language).
You can even see the org file generating each of those pages.
[+] [-] _asummers|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nextos|9 years ago|reply
Also more states. And I typically use a blank line between tree branches. Without altering org-cycle-separator-lines, it will be eaten up by last leaf of previous branch which I found annoying.
Apart from that their defaults are pretty good.
[+] [-] shoover|9 years ago|reply
In the org files, to collapse and clean up the outline visuals:
In init.el (see [1] for define-keys macro): A helper [2] to quickly export a subtree to HTML is very handy.[1]: https://bitbucket.org/shoover/emacs.d/src/4f5461d826c92c749b...
[2]: https://bitbucket.org/shoover/emacs.d/src/4f5461d826c92c749b...
[+] [-] SnowingXIV|9 years ago|reply
I do mostly front end work, so the tools I'm constantly in is in iTerm 2, Adobe products, Mail, Sublime, and Transmit for SFTP.
Would there be any benefit of spending time learning these? Where does one even begin?
[+] [-] SZJX|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jiehong|9 years ago|reply
Here is a link to the git repository of the org-file containing those changes:
http://orgmode.org/cgit.cgi/org-mode.git/plain/etc/ORG-NEWS
[+] [-] kozikow|9 years ago|reply
> New option org-attach-commit
> When non-nil, commit attachments with git, assuming the document is in a git repository.
Anyone knows if it would work with org-store-link in magit? That would be handy.
[+] [-] vittore|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] peatmoss|9 years ago|reply
Beyond that, flexibility in rendered output formats. Markdown doesn't really provide any mechanisms for when you want some things to be different between the HTML and LaTeX -> PDF output. Org-mode supports multi output format issues quite neatly.
Little things such as supporting in-document cross references work in Org-mode, but not Markdown. If you've ever needed to do something like "As seen in Figure [X]", know that with Markdown you'll be doing some hacks. Org-mode? Just works.