14 ms·

Org Mode for Emacs – Your Life in Plain Text

344 points by grhmc 11y ago

intrasight 11y ago
I have been interesting in learning Org Mode since first finding out about it a couple years ago. I probably would have had more success if I'd started before purchasing a smartphone. Like a billion others, my smartphone as become my personal digital assistant. Now I would love to (again) have a smartphone with a full keyboard - but the market seems to have rejected that form-factor.
- elliotec 11y ago
  I know people really love Org Mode, but I completely fail to see the utility of it. I even used emacs (as a text editor!) for a while, and tried Org Mode multiple times, usually ending in confusion and frustration. Not for lack of trying! From my experience, our smart phones are much better personal digital assistants than Org Mode can be, as robust as it is.
  - mikekchar 11y ago
    I think there are a couple of key things that people need to grasp with Org mode. First is the way it cycles visibility. You go from closed, to semi-open, to completely open, back to closed again. You can't go backwards. I know this frustrated me for a long time before I got used to it. The next biggest frustration is the way it folds empty lines. If you have a paragraph followed by an empty line, when you fold the paragraph, the trailing empty line will get folded as well. This makes it practically impossible to have empty spaces in your outline. Trying to make it work will result in madness for your average user. Just relenting on those 2 issues and allowing org mode it's own way will go a long way to making it easier to use, I've found. The main benefit I've found for using org mode is being able to write up TODO lists and then easily move everything around by folding it and cutting and pasting. Also being able to change the organization by easily changing the hierarchy is amazing. I know of no other application that allows so much ease of change. After that, the spreadsheet capabilities are really quite interesting. I've actually implemented full on XP-style planning lists with automatic velocity calculation in org mode -- complete with automatically generated burn down charts. Of course, other people use org mode for completely other uses. This is just what I end up using it for.
    - kiiski 11y ago
      > then easily move everything around by folding it and cutting and pasting. You could also use `org-cut-subtree` or `org-copy-subtree` for that. And of course `org-refile` (C-c C-w) is very useful, although you'll probably want to customize it to allow refiling to other places than just the first level headlines of the current file.
      - mikekchar 11y ago
        Sorry for the slow reply. Just got around to looking at `org-refile`. That is absolutely awesome! Thanks!!!
    - keep 11y ago
      I too found the behavior of visibility cycling via <TAB> to be a little annoying. What frustrated me was that pressing <TAB> a third time throws a tonne of text (assuming you have a reasonable amount of text) at the buffer. Recently I started using some other visibility commands like show-children (C-c <TAB>) and show-branches (C-c C-k). For example, I use org-capture+datetree when taking notes and can have months worth of information in an org buffer. I like to use '2 C-c <TAB>' when situated on a month headline to show me all of the top level headings for each day in that month. It gives me a nice overview of what I have been doing for the month. With regard to your second issue, you can control this behavior with the org-cycle-separator-lines variable. By default, leaving two blank lines will make org leave a space in your outline when folding.
  - ecspike 11y ago
    I used OrgMode during graduate school for all my math/science formula heavy papers. Org lets you mix OrgMode outlining (which is very close to Markdown) and LaTeX. I generally write in org mode and then export to whatever I need to. I use it on and off for TODO list management but it is really good for writing.
- PeCaN 11y ago
  org-mode has an extremely low barrier to entry. I thought it seemed monstrous and magical for a while, but the learning curve is basically strictly linear (and goes on as far as you want, because Emacs). Smartphones aren't gonna replace org-mode any time soon either: if you do any work on a laptop or desktop, you'll want org-mode. It's the best way to manage ideas and projects.
  - intrasight 11y ago
    The problem is that most people now work on multiple devices, including mobile/smartphones, and expect their org to be available at all times in all places. Now, once we have virtual terminals and keyboards in our VR headsets...
  - pkaye 11y ago
    Can you sync org-mode between the desktop and mobile devices?
    - ecspike 11y ago
      I have several of my files in Dropbox and let it do the heavy lifting. I generally only view the file from mobile. There is a MobileOrg app but it isn't great.
      - denzil 11y ago
        There is also Orgzly for Android, which is much nicer than MobileOrg if you use Dropbox.
- mark_l_watson 11y ago
  I keep some org mode files in a Dropbox folder 'org' that I can edit with Emacs on all of my laptops, and with Dropbox friendly editors on my iPad and Android Note 4 phone. It is OK to edit text org files with a plain text editor.
- marktd 11y ago
  This is my concern as well - if I want to use Org Mode for everything, including "random thing that just occurred to me that I need to do," then what do I do if "random thing that just occurred to me that I need to do" occurs to me while I'm on my phone, not my computer? I want one unified way to organize my TODOs, and it seems like org-mode isn't great for that.
  - TeMPOraL 11y ago
    There's a mobile app you can use to note stuff down straight to an org-mode file and then sync it up via Dropbox. Otherwise, I'd note it down in whatever other app you have. If you're following any kind of productivity methodology like GTD, you'll probably have a time in which you can simply retype your notes from your mobile to your org-mode system.
- ashitlerferad 11y ago
  You might enjoy the Neo900 or the Pyra: https://neo900.org/ https://neo900.org/ https://pyra-handheld.com/ https://pyra-handheld.com/
hashkb 11y ago
I bet org mode is one of the most posted things on HN. It has passionate users. I'm not one of them.
- baddox 11y ago
  I use Emacs and I really like Org mode, but its learning curve is simply too steep given how platform-locked it is.
  - landr0id 11y ago
    I use it in vim and I have to say it's not really too difficult if you're used to Markdown. I was actually using it today for the first time to take notes in class and I was amazed by the beautiful documents it produces.
- pzone 11y ago
  My theory is that HN loves Emacs because HN loves Lisp.
  - daniel-cussen 11y ago
    I'm an anecdatum that did, in fact, learn Emacs b/c of Lisp. B/c of HN. B/c of PG...and strangely enough, I've been working on my emacs skillz all day.
    - pzone 11y ago
      As a kid I took an "intro to programming" summer course based around scheme. If I hadn't felt some echo of familiarity with all the parentheses when I started with emacs, I don't know if I would have become an avid fan like I am today.
el3ctron 11y ago
a very happy org-mode user here!
tangue 11y ago
I don't know why this get in the frontpage but for those who are willing to give it a try : Org is the best software I've ever used to clock time and generate reports. And org-capture + Deft is a decent note management system (though there is place for improvement)
- alphapapa 11y ago
  Deft is good if you store notes in many small files, but doing that gives up many of the powerful features built-in to Org, like the Agenda. (Unless you want to add every little file to your agenda-files list...) You might find this useful: https://github.com/alphapapa/helm-org-rifle https://github.com/alphapapa/helm-org-rifle
girzel 11y ago
It's always good to see Org mode flagged up (though it gets a surprising amount of love on HN). I use Org more or less constantly, and I'll take this opportunity to note an Org-related observation that I've been mulling over for a bit. It's apropos of nothing, but then so was this submission :) The observation has to do with how new Org users get to know the system. The whole thing can seem pretty daunting, especially when you look at some of the examples of TODO setups (http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html) in the wild. Pretty crazy. My nutshell advice for new users is: in the beginning, you should emphasize learning to use Org's tools effectively, rather than spending time organizing your Org files structurally. The initial impulse is: I'm going to make this file look just like my brain (or my project). Instead, learn to use the agenda commands, so that you can make the Agenda look like your project, not the file. A couple of reasons for this: If you start out trying to make structure (and I'm also talking about very complicated TODO keyword flowcharts), you're going to get it wrong, and it's going to be a pain in the butt to fix. Learning Agenda commands, on the other hand, will always provide you with more flexibility, not less. It will give you the power to handle new situations easily, and to narrow your focus with ease. (Actually the same principle applies to Emacs usage in general.) For instance: I do a fair amount of event and conference management, little four/five day things. In the beginning, I started by making Org files where each day was a heading, and then the various events lived under the various headings. This meant that, if events got changed around, I had to go to the file and refile, which isn't terrible, but is a pain. Instead, I now have no day-based headings at all, just a pile of potential events with timestamps. The Agenda organizes things into days for me. If I need to reschedule something, the Agenda provides more than ample commands for shifting dates by hour/day, or simply entering a new date altogether. Dump everything in one file, all top-level todos. Use the built-in TODO keywords. Learn to make timestamps, and schedule/deadline cookies. After you're good at that, maybe consider using tags (but maybe don't). Spend the rest of your time learning how the Agenda commands work. Stay in the Agenda, and if you must look at a file, do it with <SPC> on the headline (followed by "o" when you're done), or, if you must, <TAB>. Resist the temptation to futz with your files at all, until some real need begins to emerge from daily usage. If you hold out until the annoyance is killing you, it should be very clear what needs to change, and how, and you're unlikely to do something that you'll regret later. (I should note that I use Org for two general types of work: one is document authoring, the other is todo/agenda management. The above basically only applies to the latter.) Learn to impose dynamic, temporary structure on your agenda, rather than imposing static, one-time structure on your files. Here endeth the (unasked-for) lesson. :)
tambourine_man 11y ago
Somewhat related, check out Vim Wiki if you are on the other side of the great editor's fence: https://github.com/vimwiki/vimwiki https://github.com/vimwiki/vimwiki Not feature for feature compatible, but sharing the same spirit
b01t 11y ago
I don't use emacs; should I still invest my time in OrgMode?
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- e19293001 11y ago
  Yes. I would say it's worth learning. The best way to learn emacs is to use it everyday. When you're comfortable enough, then you can start learning org-mode. You'll be much more productive eventually after you discovered what org-mode can do.
- carbonmachine 11y ago
  I've used emacs solely for orgmode over the last year and I'm not sure I'd recommend it whole-heartedly. Orgmode is great, but the emacs learning curve is steep and unforgiving. It still feels as if I'm faking my way through an ancient language whenever I fumble through keyboard "shortcuts". That said, it's incredibly powerful. Wouldn't continue to torture myself if it wasn't. I like the plain text files, the authoring experience (the document feels alive somehow), and I've never been more organized. I just wish it existed outside emacs!
  - egor83 11y ago
    > I just wish it existed outside emacs! "Orgmode for Sublime Text 2 and 3" (didn't try it myself though) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11311465 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11311465
- Delmania 11y ago
  If you're only using Emacs for OrgMode, my answer is an resolute, "No". You're far better finding a tool that fits in with your current workflow. The last time we had a post about Emacs, I wrote a rather long winded response, but the summation of it was this: the value in investing in tools like Sublime Text, Vim, Emacs, etc is when you can pile as much of your workflow into that tool is possible. The power of Emacs is that it is a completely customizable tool. It's primary purpose, of course, is to be a text editor, but you can configure it to be an email reader, web browsing client, note taking tool, it can run external commands, etc. It's powerful, and it can literally be the only application you have open. The downfall with Emacs is that integrating it in certain environments, namely Windows, is not a trivial matter. I use Visual Studio, Outlook, and Lync at work. I could configure all of that to run in Emacs, but then I'd be taked with maintaining that in addition to my own work.
SpaceCadetJones 11y ago
I haven't extended my use of org-mode outside of simple outlines for taking notes and todos, but for that it's been wonderful. Something always irked me about Microsoft Word, it didn't work quite right. I didn't like a number of other softwares I tried. Same goes for TODOs. Now I have a good place to manage both and I get to use that glorious evil-mode as well.
kevan 11y ago
I haven't seen this come up before, but skimming through the features it reminds me a lot of Engelbart's NLS [1]. Tables, lists, links, exports to other formats, all from a plaintext base, it seems like this was directly inspired by a lot of Engelbart's ideas. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mother_of_All_Demos https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mother_of_All_Demos
colah3 11y ago
I really like org-mode and used it heavily for about a year. But I found having my todo list on a single computer pretty limiting. Thankfully, there's a new generation of org-mode inspired cloud apps: * https://workflowy.com/ https://workflowy.com/ -- the most mature app * https://www.moo.do https://www.moo.do -- really nice Google Apps integration * https://checkvist.com/ https://checkvist.com/ -- extremely feature rich I'm really excited by these tools. I feel like org-mode has some really nice insights, but there's a lot of potential to improve.
- mmel 11y ago
  I used orgmode for a while before importing them all into Microsoft OneNote, haven't looked back
  - Tomte 11y ago
    OneNote is a bit idiosyncratic and I've had problems using it "right" whenever I tried it. But then I finally read some blog posts and documentation and it clicked. I'm not looking back, either. Even though I'm Emacs-inclined (though not living in Emacs), orgmode is too unwieldy and complicated for me, and the "killer missing feature" is quick entry and editing on my mobile phone. OneNote does that very, very well.
    - MandieD 11y ago
      Mind sharing the links or names of what posts or docs helped you the most with OneNote?
      - Tomte 11y ago
        https://www.eng.vt.edu/sites/default/files/pageattachments/msonenote13.pdf https://www.eng.vt.edu/sites/default/files/pageattachments/m... was pretty helpful. I don't remember the others.
    - 392c91e8165b 11y ago
      >Even though I'm Emacs-inclined (though not living in Emacs), orgmode is too unwieldy and complicated for me I do live in Emacs, but I prefer the mouse to the keyboard for tasks that can be done both ways, and balked at learning the many dozens of keyboard shortcuts ("keys", in Emacs terminology) org mode wanted me to learn.
catnaroek 11y ago
Emacs has been my text editor of choice for quite a while already, and I'm pretty happy with it. But I've never seen the point to org-mode. What's the benefit over simply using a physical notebook to take notes and keep track of my schedule?
- TeMPOraL 11y ago
  That's not the question for org-mode - that's the question of using digital vs. physical for note taking. And the answer probably depends on person. For me, I went through everything. I've been switching around between paper and digital. I did GTD on paper, did Bullet Journal, and on the computer side I went through Workflowy, OneNote, using Outlook for tasks and some other things too. I eventually gravitated towards org-mode and stayed there. For me the biggest advantage of org-mode over everything else, paper and digital alike, is its speed and flexibility. I ultimately dislike physical note-taking because my handwriting sucks. And other computer tools lack the speed you get from pure keyboard interface, and the flexibility of org-mode's Agenda system.
  - pzone 11y ago
    Yeah. Comparing org-mode to handwritten notes? You can grep through your notes, quickly refile, integrate with other software, use hyperlinks, and synchronize over multiple devices. But the same is true of onenote or evernote.
    - catnaroek 11y ago
      I can draw arbitrary diagrams and pictures on my notebook. I can write using arbitrarily big or small letters. I can write fancy formulas and even make up my own notations on the fly. I can use pens of different colors, and let the colors highlight the relationships between ideas. And I don't need to worry about “synchronization”, because I always carry my notebook with me. It's not all downsides for handwritten notes.
      - TeMPOraL 11y ago
preek 11y ago
I've switched to Emacs after 14 years of Vim (with the required evangelism^^). Initially it was because of Clojure, but then I tried org-mode. Now my GTD Setup (formerly Things.app), Notes for everything (formerly Evernote), Time Tracking (formerly Minco), Pomodoro Technique as well as writing slide decks (I'm a part time lecturer, so I do that a lot) are _all_ within org-mode. And not, because it's hipster, but because it's just so much better - plus it's completely platform agnostic and future proof, because it's just text. Cannot recommend it more. I started using simple outlines for meeting minutes and quickly realised that it will be easy and more efficient to migrate the aforementioned workflows into org-mode, too. A last one: Finally I can properly link between Mails, todos and notes (using mu4e for mails). That was never completely working on OS X with Evernote, Mail.app and Things and is just so important!
- Uberphallus 11y ago
  For anyone trying not to make the same terrible mistake, you have vim-orgmode: https://github.com/jceb/vim-orgmode https://github.com/jceb/vim-orgmode
  - midgetjones 11y ago
    Or for anyone that is more open-minded, yet worried about the learning curve of switching from vim to emacs: http://spacemacs.org/ http://spacemacs.org/
    - TeMPOraL 11y ago
      Also worth checking out for anyone who (like me) thinks vim has much better keybinding philosophy than Emacs, and that switching evil-mode makes Emacs a perfect working environment.
      - sillysaurus3 11y ago
        Any vim user, try this: 1. brew install emacs, apt-get install emacs, or pkg add emacs 2. vim ~/.emacs 3. paste the following, verbatim. Don't bother reading it: (require 'package) ;; You might already have this line (add-to-list 'package-archives '("melpa" . "https://melpa.org/packages/")) (when (< emacs-major-version 24) ;; For important compatibility libraries like cl-lib (add-to-list 'package-archives '("gnu" . "http://elpa.gnu.org/packages/"))) (package-initialize) ;; You might already have this line 4. :wq 5. Open emacs 6. Press escape, then "x", then enter. Now type package-install and press enter. 7. Type evil-mode and press enter. 8. Click the "Buffers" menu at the top of the screen, then click "scratch" Now pretend like you're using Vim. It's almost identical. It's literally like using Vim. You can shift-V = to indent code, gg shift-V gG to select the whole buffer (or, y'know, command-A), etc. There were only two minor differences that annoyed me: ctrl-u no longer scrolls up, and yanking text copies to the global system clipboard. (v"+y is supposed to do that, not yanking!) To fix the scrolling issue, press escape then x and type "customize". In the search field, type "evil". You'll get a list of fancy customizations. One of them is C-u for scrolling; enable it, then click "apply and save" at the top. That should get you started. There are a bunch of fun things to do... Try escape, x, list-packages. You don't even need to know a single keybinding. You'll just get a list of packages with hyperlinks you can click on, which pops up a little info blob that usually has a link to a github repo for the package. If you try to stick with emacs, the next week or so will be "interesting." You an use escape x apropos to find info about escape x commands. (These are called "M-x" in emacs parlance. And if you use the GUI version of emacs, you can use alt-x instead of pressing escape then x. It's much easier, but doesn't seem to work in the terminal.) Personally, I stuck with it in order to learn how emacs worked: how you can design a program to be so extensible, and how extensible it truly was. Gamedevs in particular might be interested in going through this gauntlet; the way that emacs lisp exposes functionality will inform the design of the next engine you write. Check out Yegge's post about the universal design pattern as applied to gamedev.
dunderdash 11y ago
My favorite part lately - org babel for scripting in just about any language (think more flexible ipython/jupyter notebook, in org)
Tomte 11y ago
"plus it's completely platform agnostic and future proof, because it's just text" This always irks me a bit. Being text doesn't mean that there is no file format and internal semantics to it. Sure, it's easy to hack together some transformation in Perl, but "plus it's completely platform agnostic and future proof, because it's just binary" would be correct, as well. As long as the format is documented.
- girzel 11y ago
  Right. And an Org file that's "gone off" somehow is pretty frustrating. Totally fixable, but very frustrating.
- berntb 11y ago
  There is in fact a good Org Mode parser for Perl. I used this, recommended. This is recent news, CSS-style extractors: https://perlancar.wordpress.com/2016/03/23/selecting-elements-of-org-document-with-css-selector-like-syntax/ https://perlancar.wordpress.com/2016/03/23/selecting-element...
- preek 11y ago
  You didn't reply under my thread, but I'm glad I saw your post anyway. What I meant is this: I do have a paperless workflow and used to have thousands of Evernote notes with meeting minutes, scans of paper, etc. Whilst this is working pretty well for now on the Desktop and Mobile, there will be a time in 10-40 years when I need to go back to some of those documents. And whilst I wish Evernote all the best of luck, chances are good that they won't be around or worse. Whilst you are correct in 'as long as binary is documented' it's platform agnostic, you are also completely wrong. Have you tried to read some documents from just 15 years ago recently? Apart from reading from floppy disks, it's just hard. The internal semantics of org-mode are important to me now, when I do my actual project. In the far future, the only thing that is important is that I can full-text search and find my old legal documents. That's just a billion times more easy and realistic with a flat text file than with a hypothetical well-documented binary format.
- barbs 11y ago
  I think an appropriate analogy would be the difference between the source-code and the binary of an application. In theory, the binary would be agnostic and future-proof given the documentation of the format, but the source-code is much more readable by humans and compilers of other platforms, which would make it more future-proof.
sunng 11y ago
I'm org-mode beginner but quite enjoy it so far. I use emacs org-mode on my Linux desktop, and orgzly(http://www.orgzly.com/ http://www.orgzly.com/) on my Android. org files were synced via syncthing.
pqhwan 11y ago
I learned VI before Emacs, and by the time I heard about Org Mode, I had developed a way of using Vim similarly; in a nutshell, I write in a clang file (usually named control.c), and (mis)use syntax highlighting on things like switch statement, comments, TODOs and code folding to add structure (screenshot: http://imgur.com/kqrEahz http://imgur.com/kqrEahz). I did most of my coding in C in college, got into the habit of writing pseudocode into editors, and ended up with this practice. For the Org Mode aficionados: I feel that this "thing" meets my needs for the most part. I can create task items, comment them out when I'm done, add notes and TODOs, and fold everything so I can focus on the task I'm working on. What feature do you think I'll benefit the most from, if I decide to switch to Org Mode?
- preek 11y ago
  This is a rather neat hack, kudos! You've got the syntax highlighting and collapsing which are two important features for such a system. org-mode is a little more, though. Say, you have lots of todos with schedules and deadlines, how do you find them? Certainly you could write a regexp and put it in a separate buffer. Or use the org-mode Agenda. Say, you want to share and export your file, because it's a meeting minute document. Sure, you could write your own parser, convert the thing to markdown and use pandoc. Or use org-mode Export to everything (HTML, PDF, Slides, ...). Say, you want to track time on your tasks, because it's client work. Sure, you could write a VIM plugin, but then you realize that VIM and async jobs are hard (yeah, Neovim is coming..). Or use org-mode clocks and reports. Or something else completely - like I mentioned I really do enjoy your hack! However, when re-implementing a tool - I'd first figure out why I need a different tool before I spent working on a new one. And believe me, I tried to do what you do in VIM(; Ah, and don't be afraid of Emacs - there is a mode called 'evil-mode' that is just the perfect VIM emulation. I'm using it daily. Therefore switching is a matter of minutes. Except if you have lots of handcrafted VIM plugins to port, that is^^
- ProfDreamer 11y ago
  The one thing I would benefit the most from when switching from your approach to Org mode are agenda views: http://orgmode.org/manual/Agenda-Views.html http://orgmode.org/manual/Agenda-Views.html
joe563323 11y ago
This will be the major entry point for emacs for many people. Also org mode is very helpful. Simply put it is an amazing add on to human memory. Think like playing a video game on 512 mb ram with lots of lag, that default human memory and now think if the same pc has been upgraded to 32 gb ram. The game will be more fun and no lags and that what org-mode does when used rightly(awesome community will help you get it right. :) )
pholz 11y ago
The most important thing when working with text is, for me, consistent keyboard shortcuts. Just CTRL+A, CTRL+E, CTRL+K, CTRL+Y, ALT+D, CTRL-left/right alone get used so frequently in Emacs that in any other editor I immediately try to set things up the same way (thankfully, there seems to always be someone who writes an Emacs mode plugin for almost any IDE). A massive benefit of org mode, then, is that I can write my notes, meeting minutes, TODOs and even latex/pdf papers as well as track time right there in org mode, with consistent shortcuts and consistent emphasis markup. org-export takes care of producing .md, .pdf, .odt, .html or whatever so that I can communicate with other people. All my org files live in a Dropbox-synced folder. The only thing missing is a mobile app that shows you your agenda in a reasonable format...
carlesfe 11y ago
I'm always interested in orgmode, but for TODOs and tasks I need ubiquitous access, a mobile app, and the ability to delegate tasks. Is there any way to do that (e.g. using a bridge app) with org-mode?
eulji 11y ago
Disclaimer: mediocre developer here I have recently switched to emacs from TextMate. I have not been using TextMate to its full potential as I simply did not have the need to do so. It was good. It worked great out of the box. Then I realized that I needed to do much more than just use a text editor and have been glueing a lots of other utilities together. Then I doscovered emacs. A behemoth godknows how old. And decided to learn it. The learning experience is really steep but I think it's worth it. EMACS survived the test of the time along with VI(m). But sometimes I just feel it's too much and the great extensibility comes at price. I am looking forward to Atom but the performance is not that great compared to EMACS. Not yet.
atemerev 11y ago
Tried to switch to vim/Emacs repeatedly for more than 10 years, never understood the reason of cryptic commands and shortcuts, that was OK 25 years ago, but since then, keyboards got, say, _arrow keys_. Alt-F is "forward one word"? OK, can be memorized, but there is Alt-right arrow for everything else, much more intuitive. UI matters. Shortcuts and their relationships are part of the UI, and it's horrible for Emacs. It's the same as some people saying "syntax doesn't matter in programming languages", to which I say BS.
- chm 11y ago
  Vim and Emacs are two different beasts. My personal setup is using Spacemacs, after having my own clumsy customization on both Vim and Emacs. So now I use Emacs with Vim keybindings. Spacemacs has been suggested many many times in similar threads. I also suggest you give it a try, as its keybindings are very user friendly and documentation is good. And per your specific example: Vim has a great system to move around text. You just need to get used to it, but basically, you'll be executing "motions", where you're telling the software exactly what you want to do using very few keypresses. Anything can look cryptic if you don't take the time to learn it! Trust us, it's worth your while! You are truly limiting yourself by only using arrow keys. You'll quickly stop using them at all in Vim, while gaining productivity quickly. And if you don't like Vim per se, some software supports Vim keybindings.
  - atemerev 11y ago
    I tried repeatedly for many years and still couldn't adapt. And I easily adapted to, say, blind typing.
    - chm 11y ago
      Then try again with Spacemacs. It's basically just a distribution of Emacs that comes preconfigured. I didn't even want to learn the Emacs bindings after using Vim, but this is a non-problem in Spacemacs. Just add the plugins you need to your config file, and voilà. I'm sure you could like it.
  - deleted 11y ago
jyriand 11y ago
Have been using org-mode for a few years now but never reached the point where I would feel comfortable. I can't find a good way to organize my files, there are at least 20-30 files in my Dropbox, some are empty, some contain random notes.
- pzone 11y ago
  Have you tried org-capture? It's nice to have the files be accessible through keyboard shortcuts, but it has the additional benefit that the potential places I could drop some random note are specified in advance, forcing me to maintain some level of organization.
- lemonberry 11y ago
  I've been struggling with this. This comment was pretty eye opening: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11386943 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11386943
ageofwant 11y ago
I found that vim + markdown and vim folds are most of what I need. I got most what I'm currently doing from here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wh_WGWii7UE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wh_WGWii7UE
MarcScott 11y ago
Most comments here seem to focus on the notes and GTD side of org-mode. For me, org-mode is my go to markup language. So much so that I now find writing in Markdown to be almost painful. A few of my favourite features are: - Tables are amazingly easy in org-mode, with spreadsheet features thrown in as well. - Code snippets can be written in their own major mode, giving me syntax highlighting, auto completion and the ability to run the code and embed the output into the markup. - Local links autocomplete, so I don't worry about breaking them with typos. - I can export to HTML, Markdown, ODF or PDF. - GitHub supports org-mode Readmes
- terhechte 11y ago
  Absolutely. When I can, I write everything in Org-Mode: - Code / Project Documentation: Written in Org-Mode, then exported as PDF via Latex - Blog: My complete blog is written in Org-Mode [1] (Source: [2]). Via Source-Blocks, I can write Code-Examples directly in the document, execute them there, and make sure they work correctly and / or embed the results. I can even write multiple code blocks and then reference them within each other. This makes it easy to explain a subject by continuously revealing more snippets from a larger code example - Link Lists: I'm storing links to books, articles, papers, in Org-Mode where I can add quotes, tags, or relevant thoughts in a structured way. I actually, currently, use Org-Mode much more for writing than for organising / tasks / todos. [1] http://appventure.me http://appventure.me [2] https://github.com/terhechte/appventure-blog/blob/master/resources/posts/2015-08-20-swift-pattern-matching-in-detail.org https://github.com/terhechte/appventure-blog/blob/master/res...
- Chattered 11y ago
  I recently had a paper published written in org mode and I have another in review. I don't plan to write straight LaTeX again. For me, babel is the killer feature. I can write code snippets in the buffer, highlighted and indented according to the corresponding emacs mode, with paredit for lisp, and beautifully exported via pygments. A single key combo lets me evaluate my code in persistent repls associated with my buffer, and I can choose what combo of code/result I want to export. I had some of my snippets generate raw LaTeX that I could include in the document. Org links make section references trivial, and I have it hooked up to ebib so my citations are pure org. In the emacs buffer, clicking a citation link takes me straight to the bibtex entry. I don't much use the organiser, but I do use org heavily for writing cross referenced notes about other people's code.
miseg 11y ago
I can appreciate the ability it gives you to flesh out tasks and projects. Mindmapping is another nice tool to achieve this. Freemind is a useful piece of software (but doesn't have the future-proofness of plain text.)
vim-guru 11y ago
I've been using Org-mode and babel for about a month; and I'm sold! I think the way I was writing software before outlines and the literate nature of Org-mode was just wrong. The software you write when you do literate programming can be read like a book, following the data-flow chronologically. That's a really attractive trait if you are to share your code with others and of course your future self.
gexla 11y ago
OrgMode is one of the killer features of Emacs and the among my top greatest finds in the world of softwares. Don't use an Orgmode copycat on another platform. Go straight for OrgMode on Emacs. If you are a Vim user, EVIL mode has the best Vim keybindings I have ever used. You don't have to leave your other dev environments for Emacs. Use Emacs only for OrgMode if you like. My only issue with OrgMode is that it's a bit of a rabbit hole. Sometimes I clean slate my system to get rid of built up complexities, cruft, debt and other messes and I get stuck when I look at OrgMode. It's a full on project to get it to where I feel I want it to be and there is always something I an improve or change. It's never ending. Sometimes I just want something quick which handles just text and has lots of features for doing different things with that text. In this case, I reach for Acsciidoctor. Yes, I know that OrgMode could be the same, but I need the constraints to keep me from tinkering.
- PeCaN 11y ago
  I switched from vim to emacs a week or so ago and with evil-mode I hardly even notice. It's actually really good, pretty much a full implementation of vim inside emacs—not like other editor's vim emulation which is usually just hjkl and a few motions (coughbrackets,atom,vs codecough). The main reason I switched was to check out org-mode (I didn't even plan to fully switch for a while), and it's that good. org-mode is the killer app for emacs. gdb-mode is really good too actually, as is eshell. For web development maybe emacs isn't any better, but for C it's really really nice.
dogweather 11y ago
I find org mode hard to use — the keystrokes seem inconsistent, and I get funky visual results. I.e., sometimes the reordering does what I expect, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes a blank line gets inserted which changes the control behavior. Maybe I'm doing something wrong.
theodorewiles 11y ago
My system for remote editing: System A: get a notebook. Write down what you want to capture when you are away from your comp. When you sit down, check your notebook. System B: Run your org mode on a linode. Download Connectbot (SSH client) for your phone. You can now connect to your Org wherever you have cell service and work from one always-running emacs instance with emacs --daemon and emacsclient -c. I bought a personal blackberry (yes, I know) solely for the physical keyboard which makes throwing out a CTRL or META keypress much easier.
satyajitranjeev 11y ago
I recently read a blog post[1] describing to store dot files in org mode. It is a fantastic technique and I really don't need to worry about symlinking files. All my dot files are stored in one orgmode file. Brilliant usage of org-bable feature. This also influenced moving my init.el file to org file. [1] https://expoundite.net/guides/dotfile-management https://expoundite.net/guides/dotfile-management
Gratsby 11y ago
I am an emacs user, but my initial foray into org mode wasn't particularly successful. I was much happier in OneNote. Now that I work mostly in an OSX environment where OneNote is a stripped down shell of it's Windows counterpart, I've been searching for a replacement. I think it's time to give org-mode a try once again. I'm not big on this set of documentation though. It's great for a reference, but I would like to see something more engaging that reviewed the features and gave a brief how-to. If anyone has any links, I'd love to explore. Also... one of the things that I liked most about onenote is a canned integration with outlook - from my meeting calendar entry I could click a button and it would start a new note with the title of the meeting, the date/time, a list of attendees, etc. Does anyone do something similar in org-mode for taking meeting notes?
- BooneJS 11y ago
  Have you considered VoodooPad for a personal Wiki? https://plausible.coop/voodoopad/ https://plausible.coop/voodoopad/
luxpir 11y ago
Anyone turned off by the ridiculous amount of config required for a todo list, feel free to try out my plaintext productivity 'suite'. It's intended to be used in vim, but do as you please! > https://github.com/luxpir/plaintext-productivity https://github.com/luxpir/plaintext-productivity Features: todos, timestamps, tagging, calendar, kanban-in-a-text-file (vertical, not horizontal) It was a response to org-mode complexity and the cruft it encourages you to stow away and never look at again, as well as its rather insane amount of features, 95% of which I had no need for. I make some more detailed comments about org-mode in the post linked to from the repo (https://lukespear.co.uk/plaintext-productivity https://lukespear.co.uk/plaintext-productivity).
- groovy2shoes 11y ago
  Not to put you down or discourage you from sharing useful things, but even that much config is too much for me. My .vimrc and .gvimrc are small enough that I have them memorized, and I have no reservations about manually typing things like "TODO", date/time, tags, or check boxes. Like I said, I don't mean to discourage you, but that's my personal preference. I'm sure org-mode and the like make some people more productive, but honestly I don't think the (rather small, really) feature set justifies the bloat; and, frankly, I have a tendency to get sucked into a self-inflicted configuration hell, so I'm likely more productive without them. ETA: Looks like you're being downvoted. I have no idea why, given that this is Hacker News, after all, and you've just linked us to a hack of your own... Sometimes I hate this place.
  - luxpir 11y ago
    Appreciate the response. The org-mode lot can be quote passionate, as much as the proponents of 'the other' editor I mentioned... TBH the config is not as minimalist as it could be - the autocomplete isn't necessary, nor the archive and save keymappings. Just the syntax, fold and timestamp settings would do - 5 lines? Many would have those set up already... anyway, the idea is to be editor-agnostic, even (poor) Windows 10 users could use notepad with its timestamping or Notepad++ with its folding etc. No discouragement at all - whatever works for you. Manually typing is essentially what the calendar setup I posted 'offers'. It's typically quicker than picking from a date-box to just type 12 - TASK under the correct month. Completely with you on that front. My main problem with org-mode and taskwarrior etc. is they are based on the premise that you will have an inordinate number of tasks to manage. Productivity does not that way lie, IMO. I am not into 'folding away' 400 tasks and brain dumping every useless thought I have. Nor am I into being forced to review dozens of time-wasting entries every week. Being strict with my work tasks/goals/deadlines means I run a lean list - I've run too many crufty ones before to go back there. I just want the computer to automate as much as it can and to augment my wetware, not to give me more work. Also no probs for the downvotes. The comment started with a few + but then they quickly got overruled. It happens, no big deal, I just always prefer to have both sides of a cult presented in my decision-making :)
malloryerik 11y ago
I just wish there were a decent mobile client.
lcall 11y ago
I have written an org-mode replacement that addresses some of the key challenges (hard to learn, awkward) while keeping some key benefits (efficient from keyboard, extremely flexible), and adding huge flexibility in what can be done: http://onemodel.org http://onemodel.org It is a personal organizer, and the beginning of a platform to change how individuals (or mankind) manage knowledge overall. (Now with an improved web site.) Feedback welcome!!
- alphapapa 11y ago
  Looks interesting, but Java is a turn-off for me. Even more of a turn-off for me is storing data in Postgres. Postgres is great, but one of the primary benefits of Org is that it stores data in plain-text. I can get data out of my Org files on any platform with any program that can view text files. To get data out of a Postgres file...is orders of magnitude more complicated. But it looks interesting. I'd recommend putting up some screenshots, because the front page of your site is a list of links without much actual information. :)
  - lcall 11y ago
    Just saw your reply. The app has export (& import) features to convert anything to (or from) an indented plain-text outline. Thanks for the suggestion. There are screen shots under "about" then "what it is today" then "screen shots". I should probably put them on the top in a side frame or such. The FAQs have in them somewhere, links to a discussion of a more detailed comparison with org-mode. I could use web design input, maybe via lists or at the site.
look_lookatme 11y ago
Org Mode really is the application of emacs principles to information management. I love it and used to keep my emacs config in org. The reason I don't use it so much for GTD or capture is the lack of a usable iOS sync experience.
wangchow 11y ago
I find the "Mastering Emacs" book very helpful to learn emacs for anyone interested! https://www.masteringemacs.org/ https://www.masteringemacs.org/
calebm 11y ago
I love plain text, and like the idea of having notes in one place, but I use tons of pictures when taking notes (like taking screenshots of online class whiteboards). Evernote is awesome for this kind of note taking. Is there an easy way to add images to Org Mode notes? Or would I have to manually move the image to the right directory, copy the path, and paste it into the Ord Mode note?
- groks 11y ago
  No problem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahqKXbBVjpQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahqKXbBVjpQ
pklausler 11y ago
I'm not a Luddite, but I prefer to use paper notebooks and a fountain pen to remember things and organize my thoughts. I prefer Quo Vadis notebooks with beautiful creamy unlined paper suitable for writing and sketching.
dunderdash 11y ago
Found this useful for navigating: ;; Scroll line by line (global-set-key (kbd "M-P") 'scroll-down-line) (global-set-key (kbd "M-N") 'scroll-up-line)
thanatropism 11y ago
I was beginning to learn org-mode a while back, but stumbled on this: there simply isn't a nice emacs for the iPad, which is what I have on me at all times.
morbidhawk 11y ago
I switched from using org-mode a long time ago and now I strictly use markdown. I find doing simple things like including links, referencing images, and code blocks are so much easier in markdown and I never have to look up how to do something if I stop using it for a while MARKDOWN: ```python #code ``` [Google](http://google.com) ![Image ALT text](path/to/image.png "Title Text") ORG-MODE: #+BEGIN_SRC python #code #+END_SRC [[http://google.com][Google]] #+CAPTION: Image caption [[path/to/image.png]]
fosco 11y ago
anyone familiar with a way to export to html and make it editable from say a smartphone accessing a home apache server?
johntaitorg 11y ago
I requested tag hierarchies on the mailing list back in 2011 and here it is in the release notes.
gravypod 11y ago
I would love to make the switch from an IDE to something like vim or emacs, I just don't know where to start. Is there something like oh-my-zsh for emacs? I want to be able to have all of the IDE features that I've come to know and love but for a wider range of languages. I usually use C, Asm, Python, php, bash, and a few other languages. don't know where to start.
- bolivier 11y ago
  https://github.com/bbatsov/prelude https://github.com/bbatsov/prelude or if you know/like Vim: https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs

344 points by grhmc 11y ago

I have been interesting in learning Org Mode since first finding out about it a couple years ago. I probably would have had more success if I'd started before purchasing a smartphone. Like a billion others, my smartphone as become my personal digital assistant. Now I would love to (again) have a smartphone with a full keyboard - but the market seems to have rejected that form-factor.

elliotec 11y ago
I know people really love Org Mode, but I completely fail to see the utility of it. I even used emacs (as a text editor!) for a while, and tried Org Mode multiple times, usually ending in confusion and frustration. Not for lack of trying! From my experience, our smart phones are much better personal digital assistants than Org Mode can be, as robust as it is.
- mikekchar 11y ago
  I think there are a couple of key things that people need to grasp with Org mode. First is the way it cycles visibility. You go from closed, to semi-open, to completely open, back to closed again. You can't go backwards. I know this frustrated me for a long time before I got used to it. The next biggest frustration is the way it folds empty lines. If you have a paragraph followed by an empty line, when you fold the paragraph, the trailing empty line will get folded as well. This makes it practically impossible to have empty spaces in your outline. Trying to make it work will result in madness for your average user. Just relenting on those 2 issues and allowing org mode it's own way will go a long way to making it easier to use, I've found. The main benefit I've found for using org mode is being able to write up TODO lists and then easily move everything around by folding it and cutting and pasting. Also being able to change the organization by easily changing the hierarchy is amazing. I know of no other application that allows so much ease of change. After that, the spreadsheet capabilities are really quite interesting. I've actually implemented full on XP-style planning lists with automatic velocity calculation in org mode -- complete with automatically generated burn down charts. Of course, other people use org mode for completely other uses. This is just what I end up using it for.
  - kiiski 11y ago
    > then easily move everything around by folding it and cutting and pasting. You could also use `org-cut-subtree` or `org-copy-subtree` for that. And of course `org-refile` (C-c C-w) is very useful, although you'll probably want to customize it to allow refiling to other places than just the first level headlines of the current file.
    - mikekchar 11y ago
      Sorry for the slow reply. Just got around to looking at `org-refile`. That is absolutely awesome! Thanks!!!
  - keep 11y ago
    I too found the behavior of visibility cycling via <TAB> to be a little annoying. What frustrated me was that pressing <TAB> a third time throws a tonne of text (assuming you have a reasonable amount of text) at the buffer. Recently I started using some other visibility commands like show-children (C-c <TAB>) and show-branches (C-c C-k). For example, I use org-capture+datetree when taking notes and can have months worth of information in an org buffer. I like to use '2 C-c <TAB>' when situated on a month headline to show me all of the top level headings for each day in that month. It gives me a nice overview of what I have been doing for the month. With regard to your second issue, you can control this behavior with the org-cycle-separator-lines variable. By default, leaving two blank lines will make org leave a space in your outline when folding.
- ecspike 11y ago
  I used OrgMode during graduate school for all my math/science formula heavy papers. Org lets you mix OrgMode outlining (which is very close to Markdown) and LaTeX. I generally write in org mode and then export to whatever I need to. I use it on and off for TODO list management but it is really good for writing.
PeCaN 11y ago
org-mode has an extremely low barrier to entry. I thought it seemed monstrous and magical for a while, but the learning curve is basically strictly linear (and goes on as far as you want, because Emacs). Smartphones aren't gonna replace org-mode any time soon either: if you do any work on a laptop or desktop, you'll want org-mode. It's the best way to manage ideas and projects.
- intrasight 11y ago
  The problem is that most people now work on multiple devices, including mobile/smartphones, and expect their org to be available at all times in all places. Now, once we have virtual terminals and keyboards in our VR headsets...
- pkaye 11y ago
  Can you sync org-mode between the desktop and mobile devices?
  - ecspike 11y ago
    I have several of my files in Dropbox and let it do the heavy lifting. I generally only view the file from mobile. There is a MobileOrg app but it isn't great.
    - denzil 11y ago
      There is also Orgzly for Android, which is much nicer than MobileOrg if you use Dropbox.
mark_l_watson 11y ago
I keep some org mode files in a Dropbox folder 'org' that I can edit with Emacs on all of my laptops, and with Dropbox friendly editors on my iPad and Android Note 4 phone. It is OK to edit text org files with a plain text editor.
marktd 11y ago
This is my concern as well - if I want to use Org Mode for everything, including "random thing that just occurred to me that I need to do," then what do I do if "random thing that just occurred to me that I need to do" occurs to me while I'm on my phone, not my computer? I want one unified way to organize my TODOs, and it seems like org-mode isn't great for that.
- TeMPOraL 11y ago
  There's a mobile app you can use to note stuff down straight to an org-mode file and then sync it up via Dropbox. Otherwise, I'd note it down in whatever other app you have. If you're following any kind of productivity methodology like GTD, you'll probably have a time in which you can simply retype your notes from your mobile to your org-mode system.
ashitlerferad 11y ago
You might enjoy the Neo900 or the Pyra: https://neo900.org/ https://neo900.org/ https://pyra-handheld.com/ https://pyra-handheld.com/

hashkb 11y ago

I bet org mode is one of the most posted things on HN. It has passionate users. I'm not one of them.

baddox 11y ago
I use Emacs and I really like Org mode, but its learning curve is simply too steep given how platform-locked it is.
- landr0id 11y ago
  I use it in vim and I have to say it's not really too difficult if you're used to Markdown. I was actually using it today for the first time to take notes in class and I was amazed by the beautiful documents it produces.
pzone 11y ago
My theory is that HN loves Emacs because HN loves Lisp.
- daniel-cussen 11y ago
  I'm an anecdatum that did, in fact, learn Emacs b/c of Lisp. B/c of HN. B/c of PG...and strangely enough, I've been working on my emacs skillz all day.
  - pzone 11y ago
    As a kid I took an "intro to programming" summer course based around scheme. If I hadn't felt some echo of familiarity with all the parentheses when I started with emacs, I don't know if I would have become an avid fan like I am today.

el3ctron 11y ago

a very happy org-mode user here!

tangue 11y ago

I don't know why this get in the frontpage but for those who are willing to give it a try : Org is the best software I've ever used to clock time and generate reports. And org-capture + Deft is a decent note management system (though there is place for improvement)

alphapapa 11y ago
Deft is good if you store notes in many small files, but doing that gives up many of the powerful features built-in to Org, like the Agenda. (Unless you want to add every little file to your agenda-files list...) You might find this useful: https://github.com/alphapapa/helm-org-rifle https://github.com/alphapapa/helm-org-rifle

girzel 11y ago

It's always good to see Org mode flagged up (though it gets a surprising amount of love on HN). I use Org more or less constantly, and I'll take this opportunity to note an Org-related observation that I've been mulling over for a bit. It's apropos of nothing, but then so was this submission :) The observation has to do with how new Org users get to know the system. The whole thing can seem pretty daunting, especially when you look at some of the examples of TODO setups (http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html) in the wild. Pretty crazy. My nutshell advice for new users is: in the beginning, you should emphasize learning to use Org's tools effectively, rather than spending time organizing your Org files structurally. The initial impulse is: I'm going to make this file look just like my brain (or my project). Instead, learn to use the agenda commands, so that you can make the Agenda look like your project, not the file. A couple of reasons for this: If you start out trying to make structure (and I'm also talking about very complicated TODO keyword flowcharts), you're going to get it wrong, and it's going to be a pain in the butt to fix. Learning Agenda commands, on the other hand, will always provide you with more flexibility, not less. It will give you the power to handle new situations easily, and to narrow your focus with ease. (Actually the same principle applies to Emacs usage in general.) For instance: I do a fair amount of event and conference management, little four/five day things. In the beginning, I started by making Org files where each day was a heading, and then the various events lived under the various headings. This meant that, if events got changed around, I had to go to the file and refile, which isn't terrible, but is a pain. Instead, I now have no day-based headings at all, just a pile of potential events with timestamps. The Agenda organizes things into days for me. If I need to reschedule something, the Agenda provides more than ample commands for shifting dates by hour/day, or simply entering a new date altogether. Dump everything in one file, all top-level todos. Use the built-in TODO keywords. Learn to make timestamps, and schedule/deadline cookies. After you're good at that, maybe consider using tags (but maybe don't). Spend the rest of your time learning how the Agenda commands work. Stay in the Agenda, and if you must look at a file, do it with <SPC> on the headline (followed by "o" when you're done), or, if you must, <TAB>. Resist the temptation to futz with your files at all, until some real need begins to emerge from daily usage. If you hold out until the annoyance is killing you, it should be very clear what needs to change, and how, and you're unlikely to do something that you'll regret later. (I should note that I use Org for two general types of work: one is document authoring, the other is todo/agenda management. The above basically only applies to the latter.) Learn to impose dynamic, temporary structure on your agenda, rather than imposing static, one-time structure on your files. Here endeth the (unasked-for) lesson. :)

tambourine_man 11y ago

Somewhat related, check out Vim Wiki if you are on the other side of the great editor's fence: https://github.com/vimwiki/vimwiki https://github.com/vimwiki/vimwiki Not feature for feature compatible, but sharing the same spirit

b01t 11y ago

I don't use emacs; should I still invest my time in OrgMode?

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
e19293001 11y ago
Yes. I would say it's worth learning. The best way to learn emacs is to use it everyday. When you're comfortable enough, then you can start learning org-mode. You'll be much more productive eventually after you discovered what org-mode can do.
carbonmachine 11y ago
I've used emacs solely for orgmode over the last year and I'm not sure I'd recommend it whole-heartedly. Orgmode is great, but the emacs learning curve is steep and unforgiving. It still feels as if I'm faking my way through an ancient language whenever I fumble through keyboard "shortcuts". That said, it's incredibly powerful. Wouldn't continue to torture myself if it wasn't. I like the plain text files, the authoring experience (the document feels alive somehow), and I've never been more organized. I just wish it existed outside emacs!
- egor83 11y ago
  > I just wish it existed outside emacs! "Orgmode for Sublime Text 2 and 3" (didn't try it myself though) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11311465 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11311465
Delmania 11y ago
If you're only using Emacs for OrgMode, my answer is an resolute, "No". You're far better finding a tool that fits in with your current workflow. The last time we had a post about Emacs, I wrote a rather long winded response, but the summation of it was this: the value in investing in tools like Sublime Text, Vim, Emacs, etc is when you can pile as much of your workflow into that tool is possible. The power of Emacs is that it is a completely customizable tool. It's primary purpose, of course, is to be a text editor, but you can configure it to be an email reader, web browsing client, note taking tool, it can run external commands, etc. It's powerful, and it can literally be the only application you have open. The downfall with Emacs is that integrating it in certain environments, namely Windows, is not a trivial matter. I use Visual Studio, Outlook, and Lync at work. I could configure all of that to run in Emacs, but then I'd be taked with maintaining that in addition to my own work.

SpaceCadetJones 11y ago

I haven't extended my use of org-mode outside of simple outlines for taking notes and todos, but for that it's been wonderful. Something always irked me about Microsoft Word, it didn't work quite right. I didn't like a number of other softwares I tried. Same goes for TODOs. Now I have a good place to manage both and I get to use that glorious evil-mode as well.

kevan 11y ago

I haven't seen this come up before, but skimming through the features it reminds me a lot of Engelbart's NLS [1]. Tables, lists, links, exports to other formats, all from a plaintext base, it seems like this was directly inspired by a lot of Engelbart's ideas. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mother_of_All_Demos https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mother_of_All_Demos

colah3 11y ago

I really like org-mode and used it heavily for about a year. But I found having my todo list on a single computer pretty limiting. Thankfully, there's a new generation of org-mode inspired cloud apps: * https://workflowy.com/ https://workflowy.com/ -- the most mature app * https://www.moo.do https://www.moo.do -- really nice Google Apps integration * https://checkvist.com/ https://checkvist.com/ -- extremely feature rich I'm really excited by these tools. I feel like org-mode has some really nice insights, but there's a lot of potential to improve.

mmel 11y ago
I used orgmode for a while before importing them all into Microsoft OneNote, haven't looked back
- Tomte 11y ago
  OneNote is a bit idiosyncratic and I've had problems using it "right" whenever I tried it. But then I finally read some blog posts and documentation and it clicked. I'm not looking back, either. Even though I'm Emacs-inclined (though not living in Emacs), orgmode is too unwieldy and complicated for me, and the "killer missing feature" is quick entry and editing on my mobile phone. OneNote does that very, very well.
  - MandieD 11y ago
    Mind sharing the links or names of what posts or docs helped you the most with OneNote?
    - Tomte 11y ago
      https://www.eng.vt.edu/sites/default/files/pageattachments/msonenote13.pdf https://www.eng.vt.edu/sites/default/files/pageattachments/m... was pretty helpful. I don't remember the others.
  - 392c91e8165b 11y ago
    >Even though I'm Emacs-inclined (though not living in Emacs), orgmode is too unwieldy and complicated for me I do live in Emacs, but I prefer the mouse to the keyboard for tasks that can be done both ways, and balked at learning the many dozens of keyboard shortcuts ("keys", in Emacs terminology) org mode wanted me to learn.

catnaroek 11y ago

Emacs has been my text editor of choice for quite a while already, and I'm pretty happy with it. But I've never seen the point to org-mode. What's the benefit over simply using a physical notebook to take notes and keep track of my schedule?

TeMPOraL 11y ago
That's not the question for org-mode - that's the question of using digital vs. physical for note taking. And the answer probably depends on person. For me, I went through everything. I've been switching around between paper and digital. I did GTD on paper, did Bullet Journal, and on the computer side I went through Workflowy, OneNote, using Outlook for tasks and some other things too. I eventually gravitated towards org-mode and stayed there. For me the biggest advantage of org-mode over everything else, paper and digital alike, is its speed and flexibility. I ultimately dislike physical note-taking because my handwriting sucks. And other computer tools lack the speed you get from pure keyboard interface, and the flexibility of org-mode's Agenda system.
- pzone 11y ago
  Yeah. Comparing org-mode to handwritten notes? You can grep through your notes, quickly refile, integrate with other software, use hyperlinks, and synchronize over multiple devices. But the same is true of onenote or evernote.
  - catnaroek 11y ago
    I can draw arbitrary diagrams and pictures on my notebook. I can write using arbitrarily big or small letters. I can write fancy formulas and even make up my own notations on the fly. I can use pens of different colors, and let the colors highlight the relationships between ideas. And I don't need to worry about “synchronization”, because I always carry my notebook with me. It's not all downsides for handwritten notes.
    - TeMPOraL 11y ago

preek 11y ago

I've switched to Emacs after 14 years of Vim (with the required evangelism^^). Initially it was because of Clojure, but then I tried org-mode. Now my GTD Setup (formerly Things.app), Notes for everything (formerly Evernote), Time Tracking (formerly Minco), Pomodoro Technique as well as writing slide decks (I'm a part time lecturer, so I do that a lot) are _all_ within org-mode. And not, because it's hipster, but because it's just so much better - plus it's completely platform agnostic and future proof, because it's just text. Cannot recommend it more. I started using simple outlines for meeting minutes and quickly realised that it will be easy and more efficient to migrate the aforementioned workflows into org-mode, too. A last one: Finally I can properly link between Mails, todos and notes (using mu4e for mails). That was never completely working on OS X with Evernote, Mail.app and Things and is just so important!

Uberphallus 11y ago
For anyone trying not to make the same terrible mistake, you have vim-orgmode: https://github.com/jceb/vim-orgmode https://github.com/jceb/vim-orgmode
- midgetjones 11y ago
  Or for anyone that is more open-minded, yet worried about the learning curve of switching from vim to emacs: http://spacemacs.org/ http://spacemacs.org/
  - TeMPOraL 11y ago
    Also worth checking out for anyone who (like me) thinks vim has much better keybinding philosophy than Emacs, and that switching evil-mode makes Emacs a perfect working environment.
    - sillysaurus3 11y ago
      Any vim user, try this: 1. brew install emacs, apt-get install emacs, or pkg add emacs 2. vim ~/.emacs 3. paste the following, verbatim. Don't bother reading it: (require 'package) ;; You might already have this line (add-to-list 'package-archives '("melpa" . "https://melpa.org/packages/")) (when (< emacs-major-version 24) ;; For important compatibility libraries like cl-lib (add-to-list 'package-archives '("gnu" . "http://elpa.gnu.org/packages/"))) (package-initialize) ;; You might already have this line 4. :wq 5. Open emacs 6. Press escape, then "x", then enter. Now type package-install and press enter. 7. Type evil-mode and press enter. 8. Click the "Buffers" menu at the top of the screen, then click "scratch" Now pretend like you're using Vim. It's almost identical. It's literally like using Vim. You can shift-V = to indent code, gg shift-V gG to select the whole buffer (or, y'know, command-A), etc. There were only two minor differences that annoyed me: ctrl-u no longer scrolls up, and yanking text copies to the global system clipboard. (v"+y is supposed to do that, not yanking!) To fix the scrolling issue, press escape then x and type "customize". In the search field, type "evil". You'll get a list of fancy customizations. One of them is C-u for scrolling; enable it, then click "apply and save" at the top. That should get you started. There are a bunch of fun things to do... Try escape, x, list-packages. You don't even need to know a single keybinding. You'll just get a list of packages with hyperlinks you can click on, which pops up a little info blob that usually has a link to a github repo for the package. If you try to stick with emacs, the next week or so will be "interesting." You an use escape x apropos to find info about escape x commands. (These are called "M-x" in emacs parlance. And if you use the GUI version of emacs, you can use alt-x instead of pressing escape then x. It's much easier, but doesn't seem to work in the terminal.) Personally, I stuck with it in order to learn how emacs worked: how you can design a program to be so extensible, and how extensible it truly was. Gamedevs in particular might be interested in going through this gauntlet; the way that emacs lisp exposes functionality will inform the design of the next engine you write. Check out Yegge's post about the universal design pattern as applied to gamedev.

dunderdash 11y ago

My favorite part lately - org babel for scripting in just about any language (think more flexible ipython/jupyter notebook, in org)

Tomte 11y ago

"plus it's completely platform agnostic and future proof, because it's just text" This always irks me a bit. Being text doesn't mean that there is no file format and internal semantics to it. Sure, it's easy to hack together some transformation in Perl, but "plus it's completely platform agnostic and future proof, because it's just binary" would be correct, as well. As long as the format is documented.

girzel 11y ago
Right. And an Org file that's "gone off" somehow is pretty frustrating. Totally fixable, but very frustrating.
berntb 11y ago
There is in fact a good Org Mode parser for Perl. I used this, recommended. This is recent news, CSS-style extractors: https://perlancar.wordpress.com/2016/03/23/selecting-elements-of-org-document-with-css-selector-like-syntax/ https://perlancar.wordpress.com/2016/03/23/selecting-element...
preek 11y ago
You didn't reply under my thread, but I'm glad I saw your post anyway. What I meant is this: I do have a paperless workflow and used to have thousands of Evernote notes with meeting minutes, scans of paper, etc. Whilst this is working pretty well for now on the Desktop and Mobile, there will be a time in 10-40 years when I need to go back to some of those documents. And whilst I wish Evernote all the best of luck, chances are good that they won't be around or worse. Whilst you are correct in 'as long as binary is documented' it's platform agnostic, you are also completely wrong. Have you tried to read some documents from just 15 years ago recently? Apart from reading from floppy disks, it's just hard. The internal semantics of org-mode are important to me now, when I do my actual project. In the far future, the only thing that is important is that I can full-text search and find my old legal documents. That's just a billion times more easy and realistic with a flat text file than with a hypothetical well-documented binary format.
barbs 11y ago
I think an appropriate analogy would be the difference between the source-code and the binary of an application. In theory, the binary would be agnostic and future-proof given the documentation of the format, but the source-code is much more readable by humans and compilers of other platforms, which would make it more future-proof.

sunng 11y ago

I'm org-mode beginner but quite enjoy it so far. I use emacs org-mode on my Linux desktop, and orgzly(http://www.orgzly.com/ http://www.orgzly.com/) on my Android. org files were synced via syncthing.

pqhwan 11y ago

I learned VI before Emacs, and by the time I heard about Org Mode, I had developed a way of using Vim similarly; in a nutshell, I write in a clang file (usually named control.c), and (mis)use syntax highlighting on things like switch statement, comments, TODOs and code folding to add structure (screenshot: http://imgur.com/kqrEahz http://imgur.com/kqrEahz). I did most of my coding in C in college, got into the habit of writing pseudocode into editors, and ended up with this practice. For the Org Mode aficionados: I feel that this "thing" meets my needs for the most part. I can create task items, comment them out when I'm done, add notes and TODOs, and fold everything so I can focus on the task I'm working on. What feature do you think I'll benefit the most from, if I decide to switch to Org Mode?

preek 11y ago
This is a rather neat hack, kudos! You've got the syntax highlighting and collapsing which are two important features for such a system. org-mode is a little more, though. Say, you have lots of todos with schedules and deadlines, how do you find them? Certainly you could write a regexp and put it in a separate buffer. Or use the org-mode Agenda. Say, you want to share and export your file, because it's a meeting minute document. Sure, you could write your own parser, convert the thing to markdown and use pandoc. Or use org-mode Export to everything (HTML, PDF, Slides, ...). Say, you want to track time on your tasks, because it's client work. Sure, you could write a VIM plugin, but then you realize that VIM and async jobs are hard (yeah, Neovim is coming..). Or use org-mode clocks and reports. Or something else completely - like I mentioned I really do enjoy your hack! However, when re-implementing a tool - I'd first figure out why I need a different tool before I spent working on a new one. And believe me, I tried to do what you do in VIM(; Ah, and don't be afraid of Emacs - there is a mode called 'evil-mode' that is just the perfect VIM emulation. I'm using it daily. Therefore switching is a matter of minutes. Except if you have lots of handcrafted VIM plugins to port, that is^^
ProfDreamer 11y ago
The one thing I would benefit the most from when switching from your approach to Org mode are agenda views: http://orgmode.org/manual/Agenda-Views.html http://orgmode.org/manual/Agenda-Views.html

joe563323 11y ago

This will be the major entry point for emacs for many people. Also org mode is very helpful. Simply put it is an amazing add on to human memory. Think like playing a video game on 512 mb ram with lots of lag, that default human memory and now think if the same pc has been upgraded to 32 gb ram. The game will be more fun and no lags and that what org-mode does when used rightly(awesome community will help you get it right. :) )

pholz 11y ago

The most important thing when working with text is, for me, consistent keyboard shortcuts. Just CTRL+A, CTRL+E, CTRL+K, CTRL+Y, ALT+D, CTRL-left/right alone get used so frequently in Emacs that in any other editor I immediately try to set things up the same way (thankfully, there seems to always be someone who writes an Emacs mode plugin for almost any IDE). A massive benefit of org mode, then, is that I can write my notes, meeting minutes, TODOs and even latex/pdf papers as well as track time right there in org mode, with consistent shortcuts and consistent emphasis markup. org-export takes care of producing .md, .pdf, .odt, .html or whatever so that I can communicate with other people. All my org files live in a Dropbox-synced folder. The only thing missing is a mobile app that shows you your agenda in a reasonable format...

carlesfe 11y ago

I'm always interested in orgmode, but for TODOs and tasks I need ubiquitous access, a mobile app, and the ability to delegate tasks. Is there any way to do that (e.g. using a bridge app) with org-mode?

eulji 11y ago

Disclaimer: mediocre developer here I have recently switched to emacs from TextMate. I have not been using TextMate to its full potential as I simply did not have the need to do so. It was good. It worked great out of the box. Then I realized that I needed to do much more than just use a text editor and have been glueing a lots of other utilities together. Then I doscovered emacs. A behemoth godknows how old. And decided to learn it. The learning experience is really steep but I think it's worth it. EMACS survived the test of the time along with VI(m). But sometimes I just feel it's too much and the great extensibility comes at price. I am looking forward to Atom but the performance is not that great compared to EMACS. Not yet.

atemerev 11y ago

Tried to switch to vim/Emacs repeatedly for more than 10 years, never understood the reason of cryptic commands and shortcuts, that was OK 25 years ago, but since then, keyboards got, say, _arrow keys_. Alt-F is "forward one word"? OK, can be memorized, but there is Alt-right arrow for everything else, much more intuitive. UI matters. Shortcuts and their relationships are part of the UI, and it's horrible for Emacs. It's the same as some people saying "syntax doesn't matter in programming languages", to which I say BS.

chm 11y ago
Vim and Emacs are two different beasts. My personal setup is using Spacemacs, after having my own clumsy customization on both Vim and Emacs. So now I use Emacs with Vim keybindings. Spacemacs has been suggested many many times in similar threads. I also suggest you give it a try, as its keybindings are very user friendly and documentation is good. And per your specific example: Vim has a great system to move around text. You just need to get used to it, but basically, you'll be executing "motions", where you're telling the software exactly what you want to do using very few keypresses. Anything can look cryptic if you don't take the time to learn it! Trust us, it's worth your while! You are truly limiting yourself by only using arrow keys. You'll quickly stop using them at all in Vim, while gaining productivity quickly. And if you don't like Vim per se, some software supports Vim keybindings.
- atemerev 11y ago
  I tried repeatedly for many years and still couldn't adapt. And I easily adapted to, say, blind typing.
  - chm 11y ago
    Then try again with Spacemacs. It's basically just a distribution of Emacs that comes preconfigured. I didn't even want to learn the Emacs bindings after using Vim, but this is a non-problem in Spacemacs. Just add the plugins you need to your config file, and voilà. I'm sure you could like it.
- deleted 11y ago

jyriand 11y ago

Have been using org-mode for a few years now but never reached the point where I would feel comfortable. I can't find a good way to organize my files, there are at least 20-30 files in my Dropbox, some are empty, some contain random notes.

pzone 11y ago
Have you tried org-capture? It's nice to have the files be accessible through keyboard shortcuts, but it has the additional benefit that the potential places I could drop some random note are specified in advance, forcing me to maintain some level of organization.
lemonberry 11y ago
I've been struggling with this. This comment was pretty eye opening: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11386943 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11386943

ageofwant 11y ago

I found that vim + markdown and vim folds are most of what I need. I got most what I'm currently doing from here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wh_WGWii7UE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wh_WGWii7UE

MarcScott 11y ago

Most comments here seem to focus on the notes and GTD side of org-mode. For me, org-mode is my go to markup language. So much so that I now find writing in Markdown to be almost painful. A few of my favourite features are: - Tables are amazingly easy in org-mode, with spreadsheet features thrown in as well. - Code snippets can be written in their own major mode, giving me syntax highlighting, auto completion and the ability to run the code and embed the output into the markup. - Local links autocomplete, so I don't worry about breaking them with typos. - I can export to HTML, Markdown, ODF or PDF. - GitHub supports org-mode Readmes

terhechte 11y ago
Absolutely. When I can, I write everything in Org-Mode: - Code / Project Documentation: Written in Org-Mode, then exported as PDF via Latex - Blog: My complete blog is written in Org-Mode [1] (Source: [2]). Via Source-Blocks, I can write Code-Examples directly in the document, execute them there, and make sure they work correctly and / or embed the results. I can even write multiple code blocks and then reference them within each other. This makes it easy to explain a subject by continuously revealing more snippets from a larger code example - Link Lists: I'm storing links to books, articles, papers, in Org-Mode where I can add quotes, tags, or relevant thoughts in a structured way. I actually, currently, use Org-Mode much more for writing than for organising / tasks / todos. [1] http://appventure.me http://appventure.me [2] https://github.com/terhechte/appventure-blog/blob/master/resources/posts/2015-08-20-swift-pattern-matching-in-detail.org https://github.com/terhechte/appventure-blog/blob/master/res...
Chattered 11y ago
I recently had a paper published written in org mode and I have another in review. I don't plan to write straight LaTeX again. For me, babel is the killer feature. I can write code snippets in the buffer, highlighted and indented according to the corresponding emacs mode, with paredit for lisp, and beautifully exported via pygments. A single key combo lets me evaluate my code in persistent repls associated with my buffer, and I can choose what combo of code/result I want to export. I had some of my snippets generate raw LaTeX that I could include in the document. Org links make section references trivial, and I have it hooked up to ebib so my citations are pure org. In the emacs buffer, clicking a citation link takes me straight to the bibtex entry. I don't much use the organiser, but I do use org heavily for writing cross referenced notes about other people's code.

miseg 11y ago

I can appreciate the ability it gives you to flesh out tasks and projects. Mindmapping is another nice tool to achieve this. Freemind is a useful piece of software (but doesn't have the future-proofness of plain text.)

vim-guru 11y ago

I've been using Org-mode and babel for about a month; and I'm sold! I think the way I was writing software before outlines and the literate nature of Org-mode was just wrong. The software you write when you do literate programming can be read like a book, following the data-flow chronologically. That's a really attractive trait if you are to share your code with others and of course your future self.

gexla 11y ago

OrgMode is one of the killer features of Emacs and the among my top greatest finds in the world of softwares. Don't use an Orgmode copycat on another platform. Go straight for OrgMode on Emacs. If you are a Vim user, EVIL mode has the best Vim keybindings I have ever used. You don't have to leave your other dev environments for Emacs. Use Emacs only for OrgMode if you like. My only issue with OrgMode is that it's a bit of a rabbit hole. Sometimes I clean slate my system to get rid of built up complexities, cruft, debt and other messes and I get stuck when I look at OrgMode. It's a full on project to get it to where I feel I want it to be and there is always something I an improve or change. It's never ending. Sometimes I just want something quick which handles just text and has lots of features for doing different things with that text. In this case, I reach for Acsciidoctor. Yes, I know that OrgMode could be the same, but I need the constraints to keep me from tinkering.

PeCaN 11y ago
I switched from vim to emacs a week or so ago and with evil-mode I hardly even notice. It's actually really good, pretty much a full implementation of vim inside emacs—not like other editor's vim emulation which is usually just hjkl and a few motions (coughbrackets,atom,vs codecough). The main reason I switched was to check out org-mode (I didn't even plan to fully switch for a while), and it's that good. org-mode is the killer app for emacs. gdb-mode is really good too actually, as is eshell. For web development maybe emacs isn't any better, but for C it's really really nice.

dogweather 11y ago

I find org mode hard to use — the keystrokes seem inconsistent, and I get funky visual results. I.e., sometimes the reordering does what I expect, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes a blank line gets inserted which changes the control behavior. Maybe I'm doing something wrong.

theodorewiles 11y ago

My system for remote editing: System A: get a notebook. Write down what you want to capture when you are away from your comp. When you sit down, check your notebook. System B: Run your org mode on a linode. Download Connectbot (SSH client) for your phone. You can now connect to your Org wherever you have cell service and work from one always-running emacs instance with emacs --daemon and emacsclient -c. I bought a personal blackberry (yes, I know) solely for the physical keyboard which makes throwing out a CTRL or META keypress much easier.

satyajitranjeev 11y ago

I recently read a blog post[1] describing to store dot files in org mode. It is a fantastic technique and I really don't need to worry about symlinking files. All my dot files are stored in one orgmode file. Brilliant usage of org-bable feature. This also influenced moving my init.el file to org file. [1] https://expoundite.net/guides/dotfile-management https://expoundite.net/guides/dotfile-management

Gratsby 11y ago

I am an emacs user, but my initial foray into org mode wasn't particularly successful. I was much happier in OneNote. Now that I work mostly in an OSX environment where OneNote is a stripped down shell of it's Windows counterpart, I've been searching for a replacement. I think it's time to give org-mode a try once again. I'm not big on this set of documentation though. It's great for a reference, but I would like to see something more engaging that reviewed the features and gave a brief how-to. If anyone has any links, I'd love to explore. Also... one of the things that I liked most about onenote is a canned integration with outlook - from my meeting calendar entry I could click a button and it would start a new note with the title of the meeting, the date/time, a list of attendees, etc. Does anyone do something similar in org-mode for taking meeting notes?

BooneJS 11y ago
Have you considered VoodooPad for a personal Wiki? https://plausible.coop/voodoopad/ https://plausible.coop/voodoopad/

luxpir 11y ago

Anyone turned off by the ridiculous amount of config required for a todo list, feel free to try out my plaintext productivity 'suite'. It's intended to be used in vim, but do as you please! > https://github.com/luxpir/plaintext-productivity https://github.com/luxpir/plaintext-productivity Features: todos, timestamps, tagging, calendar, kanban-in-a-text-file (vertical, not horizontal) It was a response to org-mode complexity and the cruft it encourages you to stow away and never look at again, as well as its rather insane amount of features, 95% of which I had no need for. I make some more detailed comments about org-mode in the post linked to from the repo (https://lukespear.co.uk/plaintext-productivity https://lukespear.co.uk/plaintext-productivity).

groovy2shoes 11y ago
Not to put you down or discourage you from sharing useful things, but even that much config is too much for me. My .vimrc and .gvimrc are small enough that I have them memorized, and I have no reservations about manually typing things like "TODO", date/time, tags, or check boxes. Like I said, I don't mean to discourage you, but that's my personal preference. I'm sure org-mode and the like make some people more productive, but honestly I don't think the (rather small, really) feature set justifies the bloat; and, frankly, I have a tendency to get sucked into a self-inflicted configuration hell, so I'm likely more productive without them. ETA: Looks like you're being downvoted. I have no idea why, given that this is Hacker News, after all, and you've just linked us to a hack of your own... Sometimes I hate this place.
- luxpir 11y ago
  Appreciate the response. The org-mode lot can be quote passionate, as much as the proponents of 'the other' editor I mentioned... TBH the config is not as minimalist as it could be - the autocomplete isn't necessary, nor the archive and save keymappings. Just the syntax, fold and timestamp settings would do - 5 lines? Many would have those set up already... anyway, the idea is to be editor-agnostic, even (poor) Windows 10 users could use notepad with its timestamping or Notepad++ with its folding etc. No discouragement at all - whatever works for you. Manually typing is essentially what the calendar setup I posted 'offers'. It's typically quicker than picking from a date-box to just type 12 - TASK under the correct month. Completely with you on that front. My main problem with org-mode and taskwarrior etc. is they are based on the premise that you will have an inordinate number of tasks to manage. Productivity does not that way lie, IMO. I am not into 'folding away' 400 tasks and brain dumping every useless thought I have. Nor am I into being forced to review dozens of time-wasting entries every week. Being strict with my work tasks/goals/deadlines means I run a lean list - I've run too many crufty ones before to go back there. I just want the computer to automate as much as it can and to augment my wetware, not to give me more work. Also no probs for the downvotes. The comment started with a few + but then they quickly got overruled. It happens, no big deal, I just always prefer to have both sides of a cult presented in my decision-making :)

malloryerik 11y ago

I just wish there were a decent mobile client.

lcall 11y ago

I have written an org-mode replacement that addresses some of the key challenges (hard to learn, awkward) while keeping some key benefits (efficient from keyboard, extremely flexible), and adding huge flexibility in what can be done: http://onemodel.org http://onemodel.org It is a personal organizer, and the beginning of a platform to change how individuals (or mankind) manage knowledge overall. (Now with an improved web site.) Feedback welcome!!

alphapapa 11y ago
Looks interesting, but Java is a turn-off for me. Even more of a turn-off for me is storing data in Postgres. Postgres is great, but one of the primary benefits of Org is that it stores data in plain-text. I can get data out of my Org files on any platform with any program that can view text files. To get data out of a Postgres file...is orders of magnitude more complicated. But it looks interesting. I'd recommend putting up some screenshots, because the front page of your site is a list of links without much actual information. :)
- lcall 11y ago
  Just saw your reply. The app has export (& import) features to convert anything to (or from) an indented plain-text outline. Thanks for the suggestion. There are screen shots under "about" then "what it is today" then "screen shots". I should probably put them on the top in a side frame or such. The FAQs have in them somewhere, links to a discussion of a more detailed comparison with org-mode. I could use web design input, maybe via lists or at the site.

look_lookatme 11y ago

Org Mode really is the application of emacs principles to information management. I love it and used to keep my emacs config in org. The reason I don't use it so much for GTD or capture is the lack of a usable iOS sync experience.

wangchow 11y ago

I find the "Mastering Emacs" book very helpful to learn emacs for anyone interested! https://www.masteringemacs.org/ https://www.masteringemacs.org/

calebm 11y ago

I love plain text, and like the idea of having notes in one place, but I use tons of pictures when taking notes (like taking screenshots of online class whiteboards). Evernote is awesome for this kind of note taking. Is there an easy way to add images to Org Mode notes? Or would I have to manually move the image to the right directory, copy the path, and paste it into the Ord Mode note?

groks 11y ago
No problem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahqKXbBVjpQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahqKXbBVjpQ

pklausler 11y ago

I'm not a Luddite, but I prefer to use paper notebooks and a fountain pen to remember things and organize my thoughts. I prefer Quo Vadis notebooks with beautiful creamy unlined paper suitable for writing and sketching.

dunderdash 11y ago

Found this useful for navigating: ;; Scroll line by line (global-set-key (kbd "M-P") 'scroll-down-line) (global-set-key (kbd "M-N") 'scroll-up-line)

thanatropism 11y ago

I was beginning to learn org-mode a while back, but stumbled on this: there simply isn't a nice emacs for the iPad, which is what I have on me at all times.

morbidhawk 11y ago

I switched from using org-mode a long time ago and now I strictly use markdown. I find doing simple things like including links, referencing images, and code blocks are so much easier in markdown and I never have to look up how to do something if I stop using it for a while MARKDOWN: ```python #code ``` [Google](http://google.com) ![Image ALT text](path/to/image.png "Title Text") ORG-MODE: #+BEGIN_SRC python #code #+END_SRC [[http://google.com][Google]] #+CAPTION: Image caption [[path/to/image.png]]

fosco 11y ago

anyone familiar with a way to export to html and make it editable from say a smartphone accessing a home apache server?

johntaitorg 11y ago

I requested tag hierarchies on the mailing list back in 2011 and here it is in the release notes.

gravypod 11y ago

I would love to make the switch from an IDE to something like vim or emacs, I just don't know where to start. Is there something like oh-my-zsh for emacs? I want to be able to have all of the IDE features that I've come to know and love but for a wider range of languages. I usually use C, Asm, Python, php, bash, and a few other languages. don't know where to start.

bolivier 11y ago
https://github.com/bbatsov/prelude https://github.com/bbatsov/prelude or if you know/like Vim: https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs