[Nesco]

To people using org mode, how does it help you more than Markdown? Genuinely curious because I tried at some point and it felt too heavy.

Maybe because I am a vim user instead of eMacs?

[impulsivepuppet]

Org mode offers so much more than just syntax. You can use org files as a calendar, a todo/issue tracker with time accounting, a diary/knowledge base (zettelkasten, org-roam), as a literate programming tool (think jupyter code notebooks but for practically any programming language with org-babel), or a publishing tool (static site generator, latex/pdf export) all at the same time.

To be quite frank, Org mode is a lifestyle which existed long before Notion or Obsidian did. Saying that it has a barrier to entry is a bit of an understatement.

Having said all that, quite ironically, I've migrated over to Obsidian because I started using Intellij more for work, meaning that I don't need Emacs for its other capabilities all that much.

[jcynix]

Markdown is a markup tool, i.e. you decorate your text. Orgmode on the other hand is a complete toolbox where you can add tags to notes, filter on these tags, manage calendars, etc. You can enter tables both for formatting and spreadsheet like calculation.

And you can insert snippets of code into your notes, like

    #+BEGIN_SRC shell
       ls | wc -l
      find . -type f -name "*foo*" 
    #+END_SRC

(or javascript, elisp, html, ... instead of shell) where the markup is changed appropriately in these regions.

You can even augment orgmode with elisp code if you are so inclined.

[polivier]

`org-mode` used with Emacs is the tinkerer's dream playgound. Apart from the basic markdown stuff, there are so many wild things you can do. For example, org code blocks are not just the basic markdown code blocks that show formatted code. Org code blocks can actually be executed and can show the output of the code, inline. So you can write code blocks (that may include data found in variables/tables/etc elsewhere in the org file), then "refresh" your org file and all the inline outputs of the code blocks will be updated.

[stevekemp]

First of all "emacs" rather than "eMacs".

But to answer your main question, markdown is used for writing text which can then be converted to HTML, PDF, etc, etc. It's used just to format things. org can be used in that way, and it might feel better/worse depending on what you feel about the choices used for various formatting styles.

However the big gain of org is that you can use it to format dynamic tables, handle todo-lists, have deadlines, recurring tasks, etc, etc. It makes no sense to compare org-files with markdown-files. It's like saying "I use notepad how does Excel help you do more?" - they do different thigns.

Now, much like excel, most people don't do everythign with org, but they can if they want to. It is extraordinarily flexible, and can be extended with custom lisp code if necessary.

I track rental properties with an org-document for each property, and I get per-year profit/loss statements in a neat format with graphs too. You can't do that with markdown.

[faustlast]

Besides being a markup for structured text with special syntax for links/tables/math, here are my highlights that I use:

1. Code blocks that can be executed have their result captured

2. Links to everything

3. Drawing vector images (SVG) with a tablet

4. Perform calculations on tabular data (like a simple Excel sheet)

5. Agenda (connected to Google Calendar)

6. Spaced repetition system for language learning

7. LaTeX export for reports/presentations with citations

Expanding:

1.1. Execute code on different remote machines

1.2. Work with sessions and execute code asynchronously

1.3. Use noweb syntax for reusing code blocks

1.4. Tangle ("export") source blocks to files (locally or in a remote machine!)

1.5. Use a source block to generate a graph/plot and view the figure in the same place

1.6. Use narrow functionalities to automate script executions (example: execute all blocks in this section).

2.1. Links to PDF pages, commits/pr`s/branches, email, other files` particular lines, remote files, web pages, etc.

7.1. Very easy to select which sections I want to export or not

7.2. Include hand-drawn SVG graphics in the PDF output

7.3. Generate Beamer presentations

[slightwinder]

Markdown is just a markup-language, while orgmode is a tool-collection with a community of its own, which happens to also come with its own markup-language. That's not the same, and comparing them on that level makes little sense.

> Genuinely curious because I tried at some point and it felt too heavy.

Which part felt heavy? The syntax? The tooling? The setup? orgmode's purpose is to deliver an environment for managing your notes, tasks, data, etc. Of course, will it be more heavy than just the markup-language alone, as most documentation focuses on the tooling and which jobs you can execute with it. This more akin to a whole Office-suit, than a simple plaintext-editor.

[MoreQARespect]

Orgmode has standardized primitives for the things which exist in some markdown note taking implementations but differ from implementation to implementation.

Markdown doesn't have a built in concept of todo or tag or scheduled event, for instance. It wasn't built for that.

I hate emacs but orgmode is still the file format which contains all of the primitives I need for my notes which looks like it will have the most staying power. I hope to be able to edit the same files in 2035 using whatever brain-connection device everybody is using in the future that I used in 2015 running on a netbook with 1GB of RAM.

Markdown files from the note taking flavor of today will have to be migrated somehow.

[myaccountonhn]

I don't use it anymore but org-babel allows you to execute commands in code blocks. I would use that to build interactive explorations when learning how APIs work for example. I didn't find that nearly as seamless with Markdown.

Combined with org-agenda you also unlock a calendar with recurring events, task priorities and more.