GLT21: Emacs Org mode Features You May Not Know

Update 2021-04-16: Video link

After the COVID19-related cancellation of our local open source community conference in 2020, the organizers of the "Grazer Linuxtage" moved to an online concept for this year's event.

I submitted a talk which was inspired by Bastien's article Org-mode features You May Not Know. My talk also covers a few general Emacs features which are also very handy when using Org mode. I consider this a fair argument so that the title is not misleading at all. ;-)

You can find the conference-page about the talk here. You can find the video of the talk here.

This article covers the content of the talk, further links and notes.

This is a sub-set of bzg's page, extended by ideas of other pages. See "References" below.

• C-l recenter-top-bottom

• scroll-lock-mode
  • ScrLk or M-x scroll-lock-mode

(global-set-key (kbd "<Scroll_Lock>") 'scroll-lock-mode)	  

• M-q fill-paragraph
  • modification: my-fill-or-unfill
• changing case:
  • M-l downcase-word (downcase-dwim)
  • M-u upcase-word (upcase-dwim)
  • M-c capitalize-word (capitalize-dwim)
• C-x TAB indent-rigidly

• rectangle functions
  • C-x r t string-rectangle → inserting characters
  • C-x r k kill-rectangle → removing characters
  • C-x r y yank-rectangle
• M-x insert-char → inserting (UTF-8) characters

• view-mode
  • SPC next page
  • S-SPC or DEL previous page
  • d next half page
  • u previous half page
  • s search
• cycle spacing
  • M-SPC delete all whitespace around cursor but one
• undo in region

• artist mode

• lists
  • M-S-RET new checkbox item
  • C-u C-c C-c on a list item to make it a checklist
  • C-c * list item (with checkbox) → heading (with TODO)
    • reverse: C-c -
• agenda
  • / filter by category, tag, regular expression, …
  • < filter to current category
  • = filter by regex
  • | reset filter
  • . → today
• date/time
  • C-c . org-time-stamp
  • duration
    • entering a time-stamp twice
  • entering times:
    • +1d 10+1 → tomorrow 10:00-11:00
    • wed 3:30pm+0:30 → next Wednesday 3:30pm to 4pm
  • changing time-stamps
    • S-<left|right> → shift days
    • S-<up|down> → shift year/month/day/hour/minutes
• timer
  • C-c C-x 0 → start timer
  • C-c C-x . → insert timestamp
  • C-c C-x , → pause timer
  • C-c C-x _ → stop timer
• tables
  • S-RET → copy and increment the cell at point (numbers, dates)
• marking
  • M-h → mark (and highlight) the paragraph
    • several times → mark next elements as well
• moving things
  • M-<arrows> → moving things:
    • list items,
    • headings,
    • table rows/columns, …
• navigation
  • C-u C-u C-c c → jump to the last stored capture entry
  • org-num-mode → adds (non-persistent) numbers to headings
• crypt
  • Tag :crypt: → OpenPGP/gpg-encrypted content on saving the buffer
• searching and focus
  • C-c / / → sparse trees of regex
  • org-tree-to-indirect-buffer
    • my-org-tree-to-indirect-buffer adapted from alphapapa on reddit

• Demo: Highlight current line on misc operations:

(defun my-pulse-line (&rest _)
      "Pulse the current line."
      (pulse-momentary-highlight-one-line (point)))

(dolist (command '(recenter-top-bottom other-window ace-window my-scroll-down-half my-scroll-up-half))
  (advice-add command :after #'my-pulse-line))	  

• Demo: Hydras for personal cheat-sheets
  • my key binding strategy + use of Hydras
• Demo: Buffer management with eyebrowse

• Demo: my-org-region-to-property

• Org mode webpage → Org manual
• Org-mode features You May Not Know - bzg
• Best features for text-editing in emacs | Tech.ToryAnderson.com
• Batteries included with Emacs | Karthinks
• My Emacs configuration file → contains all mentioned functions that begin with the prefix my-

If you want to read more from my content on Org mode, please do also check out my general emacs/Org articles or my series on Using Org Mode Features.

Things that I used to create the recording:

• Debian GNU/Linux Buster
  • GNU/Emacs 28.0.50
• Xubuntu GNU/Linux 20.04.2 LTS
  • GNU/Emacs 26.3
• Org mode 9.4
  • My personal Emacs configuration file
• Displaying commands: keycast
• Screen recording: OBS Studio 23.2.1
• Video postprocessing: Pitivi 0.999-2
• Recording hardware
  • Microphone: Blue Snowball
  • Keyboard: Z-88