
Org-Mode for Writing: Structure and Focus - pmoriarty
https://awarewriter.wordpress.com/2012/03/04/org-mode-for-writing-structure-focus/
======
sjackso
Can anyone recommend articles or guides for learning org-mode? I'm interested
in its use as an all-purpose information manager to combine TODO lists, daily
notetaking, calendar and agenda planning into a single cross-referencing
system, but I've never managed to get past the "make and navigate a simple
outline" stage.

~~~
pmoriarty
I recommend the articles of Sacha Chua (on org-mode and anything else she
writes about).

Here are some examples: [1],[2],[3]

More tutorials here: [4]

1 - [http://sachachua.com/blog/2008/01/outlining-your-notes-
with-...](http://sachachua.com/blog/2008/01/outlining-your-notes-with-org/)

2 - [http://sachachua.com/blog/2012/05/org-mode-and-
habits/](http://sachachua.com/blog/2012/05/org-mode-and-habits/)

3 - [http://sachachua.com/blog/2013/06/how-i-use-emacs-org-
mode-f...](http://sachachua.com/blog/2013/06/how-i-use-emacs-org-mode-for-my-
weekly-reviews/)

4 - [http://orgmode.org/worg/org-
tutorials/index.html](http://orgmode.org/worg/org-tutorials/index.html)

~~~
bobwaycott
Weird, but all these links 404.

~~~
pmoriarty
Please try again. They should be fixed now.

------
agentultra
I use org-mode for writing, time tracking, issue tracking, storing links,
snippets, literate programs (ie: my emacs config is an org-babel file) etc...
it's really quite flexible. I even wrote a self-published book using org-
mode[0].

[0] [https://gum.co/VjJMf](https://gum.co/VjJMf)

It's kind of the killer-feature of Emacs (besides being a decent text
editor/operating system).

~~~
blisterpeanuts
Interesting; I've been using Emacs for about 25 years but I've hardly heard of
org-mode. The article is from 2012 (the title should maybe say that); have
there been any changes since then or is the code pretty static?

~~~
luxpir
That's not surprising. I suspect HN and similar fora are self-selecting for
the type of person who would perhaps consider their own use of tech as the
pinnacle of its application. Myself included, most likely.

I just read yesterday that RMS, as of 2013, couldn't muster the effort to
'learn' org-mode. RMS!

This whole comment thread has pushed me into pressing publish on a post I've
been sitting on re: organising my work and life via plaintext files. This hype
for over-engineered solutions with steep learning curves, incompatible formats
and potentially breaking updates should be addressed.

~~~
e19293001
I've got surprised about that too. Here is the thread wherein RMS refused to
learn how to use org-mode: [https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-
devel/2013-11/msg00...](https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-
devel/2013-11/msg00988.html)

------
spatten
I used org-mode for about a year, but then switched to Vim and none of the vim
org-mode plugins looked great.

So I thought about what I used it for, and realized it was mostly cycling
items between TODO and DONE with a keystroke and text folding.

So I forked vim-markdown and added syntax highlighting for TODO and DONE on
header lines, and a mapping to cycle between TODO and DONE. Been using it for
a couple of months now and I'm reasonably happy.

If you want to give it a shot, code is here: [https://github.com/spatten/vim-
markdown](https://github.com/spatten/vim-markdown)

~~~
asb
I use taskpaper.vim for the same purpose. I can't recommend it highly enough.
[https://github.com/davidoc/taskpaper.vim](https://github.com/davidoc/taskpaper.vim)

------
sparkymat
I'd definitely recommend Spacemacs. It's a starter pack for Emacs which adds
layers (it's like a collection of modes), mnemonic key bindings, and other
things.

Link: [http://spacemacs.org/](http://spacemacs.org/)

~~~
sj4nz
For anyone unsure if they would like spacemacs from the "Vi" camp, consider
spacemacs as a super-set of Vi but now imagine that you have modal-control in
"normal" mode of quite a large bit of user-interface and applications without
degrading to an Ex-style "command line" (where you type commands for changing
editor state like ':set number' or ':set nonumber')---since spacemacs displays
the available keys with help at each level, you won't have to leave the editor
to "lookup" a command, typing the commands is one and the same. Just
considering this I learned that there is a SPC t "layer" (layer is spacemacs
terminology for a configuration between the keyboard and some feature) for
toggling numbering, whitespace, syntax checking and indentation guides.

Using spacemacs in day-to-day use is much easier for newcomers than learning
Vim _or_ Emacs alone. If you assumed just three keys (0-9A-Za-z) after the
leader (SPC) you can navigate over 195K commands. In practice spacemacs is
navigating more than that with symbols like quotes, brackets, commas and so
on.

------
nextos
Org-mode has lots of hidden jewels. For example, org-drill [1]. Spaced
repetition with all the flexibility of org-mode-made flashcards.

[1] [http://orgmode.org/worg/org-contrib/org-
drill.html](http://orgmode.org/worg/org-contrib/org-drill.html)

~~~
osener
Interesting tidbit: Anki's predecessor was also an Emacs mode
[http://ichi2.net/flashcard/](http://ichi2.net/flashcard/)

------
julienchastang
I could go on and on about the benefits of org. And the org-Babel full fledged
literate programming environment is another game changer. I used org for a
scientific conference I attended recently. From one org file, I could
provision a VM in the cloud and get various Docker containers running via
tangling with plenty of human friendly exposition. (See tramp mode too.) I
could then export that file as an extended abstract via Latex export
(conforming to the conference formatting guidelines) and also produce
attractive HTML (see ReadTheOrg). Also checkout this literate devops video:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dljNabciEGg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dljNabciEGg)

------
osener
I can vouch for awesomeness of Org mode, I've been using it for all my note-
taking needs for more than half a decade. I've created
[http://markup.rocks](http://markup.rocks) for a quick way to read my notes
stored on Dropbox when I'm out and about (it's a bit heavy and not usable on
mobile browsers since it runs Pandoc client-side).

------
jedberg
I used to use org mode when I did everything on my linux desktop, but I
stopped when I got a smartphone (and later an iPad).

I loved org mode.

Does anyone have a good solution for syncing one's org mode files to an
iDevice and then using it (or even better, editing it)?

~~~
shoover
I used MobileOrg for a while but never had much luck with the sync process.

My current system is to schedule a batch task to run org export to HTML on all
org files and sync the HTML with dropbox. It works great for viewing.

~~~
imglorp
Mobile org has rotted. Check out Orgzly for Android, at least.

[http://www.orgzly.com/help/#sec-1-3](http://www.orgzly.com/help/#sec-1-3)

~~~
ywecur
Sadly, not FOSS :(

------
ultramancool
I love org-mode, if only I could remember enough emacs to keep using it.

~~~
JupiterMoon
If your a vim person try evil mode. I hear great things.

~~~
mikekchar
I have emacs open with org-mode and evil and use it all the time. It's
fantastic. I didn't need to make any configuration changes to org-mode to use
it with evil.

Evil mode is still not set up enough like vim for me to use in my every day
work, though. There are a few gotchas that are different. So I use vim as well
as emacs. I just change windows in tmux when I want to use org mode. The only
real downside is memory usage and it is inconvenient if you want to us capture
in org mode (because you have to change windows).

I'm slowly setting up Evil to support my workflow. I don't think there is
anything I _can 't_ do, it's just a matter of implementing it. Rather
ironically, I used emacs for 20 years before I switched to vim. I have
discovered that I prefer modal editing and having a grammar to describe my
edits rather than directly editing things. You would think that I could switch
back and forth, but it completely blows me up. I seem to have learned emacs
keystrokes and vim keystrokes in different parts of my brain...

~~~
blaenk
I'm curious what things from Evil aren't "enough like vim" for you. I switched
over after nearly a decade of loving vim and I feel like it's a better vim
than vim itself, shockingly, in the sense that, for example, it's very easy to
define new operators, motions, text objects, etc., and that the more
popular/essential vim plugins had Evil implementations that worked better than
the vim originals. Very rarely did I encounter discrepancies, and when I did,
I reported it and it was resolved right away. Evil is an amazing project.

------
ftwynn
I really liked org-mode for a while. The key features for me were the plain-
text nature of it and easy outline manipulation.

That said, I got frustrated by how little else interacted with org mode, and I
eventually started keeping all my files in markdown... which gave me most of
what I needed without requiring an emacs installation on every machine I work
on (OSX, Linux, Windows, and Android).

------
felarof
I recently switched to WorkFlowy for GTD and Note taking. It seems like a more
pleasant experience.

Before that I used org mode for nearly 3 years. But unfortunately I could
never master it; the learning curve was steep and documentation/tutorials on
both elisp and org-mode were scarce. As a result, I mostly ended up borrowing
pieces from others configuration. And that never worked well for me, any small
change I would make would result in weird bugs and I would spend hours without
being able to find a fix. Overtime I became very reluctant to making changes
in my config and totally lost my love for EMACS/org mode.

Did anyone else have a similar experience? Or did I do something wrong?

To conclude, I love the customisability and the philosophy of org mode (lists
within lists) but I think it needs to put in a better package (probably
rewrite org mode in JS and make it available on web/atom?).

------
ninjakeyboard
I used org-mode for the book Learning Akka ([http://www.amazon.ca/Learning-
Akka-Jason-Goodwin/dp/17843930...](http://www.amazon.ca/Learning-Akka-Jason-
Goodwin/dp/1784393002)) which was published in print eventually. I found it
was very helpful for sketching out the structure of the paragraphs and toward
the end of the first round of editing was still helpful in being able to
handle images etc. Pandoc eventually helped me create formats more suitable
for the editors to do their thing with.

------
thesorrow
I switched to Taskwarrior to manage TODO because org-mode is hard if you want
to make API call to generate reports or sync it with a bugtracker.

I wonder why the atom org-mode package is not more popular ... The power of a
desktop js editor with org-mode capabilities would be awesome !

~~~
zeveb
> The power of a desktop js editor with org-mode capabilities would be awesome
> !

I think the power of a desktop elisp editor with org-mode's capabilities is
rather more awesome. What does JavaScript offer that elisp doesn't?

~~~
gkya
> What does JavaScript offer that elisp doesn't?

1) ===, !==

2) Memory use that'd melt my rather old daily-driver laptop.

3) A community of /cool/ people that make web pages that appear blank on my
browser (xombrero + js whitelisting).

4) Some <insert latin prefix here>pilers, e.g. CoffeeScript, TeaScript, Dart,
Soccer...

5) Minifiers, maxifiers, maybe even identifiers.

...

Elisp certainly lacks two things that are real pain points, a well-performing
vm, and proper multitasking. I'd also like to have a good way to embed
webkit/gecko into emacs, that'd give a lot of possibilities.

~~~
zeveb
Yeah, if I could embed a GUI/console browser into emacs … I don't think I'd
ever have any other program open.

~~~
bstamour
You can use the w3m console browser from inside emacs.

------
chipsy
I've been taking an interest in mind mapping/concept mapping software lately
and some of it crosses over into outlining and task management, for example
Vym[0].

For now, though, I am using these tools in a more disposable fashion for
brainstorming sessions -- I find the mind-map format very effective for
exploration. I transfer the data into other software when I'm ready to
linearize it into a document.

[0] [http://www.insilmaril.de/vym/time-
management.html](http://www.insilmaril.de/vym/time-management.html)

------
roryok
The author of this post, John McDevitt, passed away last year in March. I
found out almost by accident after clicking on the front page to see if he had
any more writing tips. Very sad.

------
agentgt
My wife and I use Asana. Asana is not so good for note taking but my wife
seems to love it (I have grown to hate it as it is a reminder how she is far
more effective at GSD than me).

------
jkitchin
Here is a plug for our tutorials on using orgmode:
[https://github.com/KitchinHUB/kitchingroup/blob/master/org-m...](https://github.com/KitchinHUB/kitchingroup/blob/master/org-
mode.org)

We use it for nearly everything.

------
mariusmg
Is there something like this for Vim ?

~~~
mikekchar
There is a nascent org-mode written in vimscript for vim. It is usable, but
barely. I usually have emacs open with org-mode in evil mode, but use vim for
programming.

