The Org Manual

This manual is for Org version 9.7.

Copyright © 2004–2025 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with the Front-Cover Texts being “A GNU Manual,” and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled “GNU Free Documentation License.”

(a) The FSF’s Back-Cover Text is: “You have the freedom to copy and modify this GNU manual.”

Table of Contents

• 1 Introduction

  • 1.1 Summary
  • 1.2 Installation
  • 1.3 Activation
  • 1.4 Feedback
  • 1.5 Typesetting Conventions Used in this Manual

• 2 Document Structure

  • 2.1 Headlines

  • 2.2 Visibility Cycling

    • 2.2.1 Global and local cycling
    • 2.2.2 Initial visibility
    • 2.2.3 Catching invisible edits

  • 2.3 Motion

  • 2.4 Structure Editing

  • 2.5 Sparse Trees

  • 2.6 Plain Lists

  • 2.7 Drawers

  • 2.8 Blocks

• 3 Tables

  • 3.1 Built-in Table Editor

  • 3.2 Column Width and Alignment

  • 3.3 Column Groups

  • 3.4 The Orgtbl Minor Mode

  • 3.5 The Spreadsheet

    • 3.5.1 References
    • 3.5.2 Formula syntax for Calc
    • 3.5.3 Emacs Lisp forms as formulas
    • 3.5.4 Durations and time values
    • 3.5.5 Field and range formulas
    • 3.5.6 Column formulas
    • 3.5.7 Lookup functions
    • 3.5.8 Editing and debugging formulas
    • 3.5.9 Updating the table
    • 3.5.10 Advanced features

  • 3.6 Org Plot

• 4 Hyperlinks

  • 4.1 Link Format
  • 4.2 Internal Links
  • 4.3 Radio Targets
  • 4.4 External Links
  • 4.5 Handling Links
  • 4.6 Using Links Outside Org
  • 4.7 Link Abbreviations
  • 4.8 Search Options in File Links
  • 4.9 Custom Searches

• 5 TODO Items

  • 5.1 Basic TODO Functionality

  • 5.2 Extended Use of TODO Keywords

    • 5.2.1 TODO keywords as workflow states
    • 5.2.2 TODO keywords as types
    • 5.2.3 Multiple keyword sets in one file
    • 5.2.4 Fast access to TODO states
    • 5.2.5 Setting up keywords for individual files
    • 5.2.6 Faces for TODO keywords
    • 5.2.7 TODO dependencies

  • 5.3 Progress Logging

    • 5.3.1 Closing items
    • 5.3.2 Tracking TODO state changes
    • 5.3.3 Tracking your habits

  • 5.4 Priorities

  • 5.5 Breaking Down Tasks into Subtasks

  • 5.6 Checkboxes

• 6 Tags

  • 6.1 Tag Inheritance
  • 6.2 Setting Tags
  • 6.3 Tag Hierarchy
  • 6.4 Tag Searches

• 7 Properties and Columns

  • 7.1 Property Syntax

  • 7.2 Special Properties

  • 7.3 Property Searches

  • 7.4 Property Inheritance

  • 7.5 Column View

    • 7.5.1 Defining columns

      • 7.5.1.1 Scope of column definitions
      • 7.5.1.2 Column attributes

    • 7.5.2 Using column view

    • 7.5.3 Capturing column view

• 8 Dates and Times

  • 8.1 Timestamps

  • 8.2 Creating Timestamps

    • 8.2.1 The date/time prompt
    • 8.2.2 Custom time format

  • 8.3 Deadlines and Scheduling

    • 8.3.1 Inserting deadlines or schedules
    • 8.3.2 Repeated tasks

  • 8.4 Clocking Work Time

    • 8.4.1 Clocking commands
    • 8.4.2 The clock table
    • 8.4.3 Resolving idle time and continuous clocking

  • 8.5 Effort Estimates

  • 8.6 Taking Notes with a Relative Timer

• 9 Refiling and Archiving

  • 9.1 Refile and Copy

  • 9.2 Archiving

    • 9.2.1 Moving a tree to an archive file
    • 9.2.2 Internal archiving

• 10 Capture and Attachments

  • 10.1 Capture

    • 10.1.1 Setting up capture

    • 10.1.2 Using capture

    • 10.1.3 Capture templates

      • 10.1.3.1 Template elements
      • 10.1.3.2 Template expansion
      • 10.1.3.3 Templates in contexts

  • 10.2 Attachments

    • 10.2.1 Attachment defaults and dispatcher
    • 10.2.2 Attachment options
    • 10.2.3 Attachment links
    • 10.2.4 Automatic version-control with Git
    • 10.2.5 Attach from Dired

  • 10.3 RSS Feeds

• 11 Agenda Views

  • 11.1 Agenda Files

  • 11.2 The Agenda Dispatcher

  • 11.3 The Built-in Agenda Views

    • 11.3.1 Weekly/daily agenda
    • 11.3.2 The global TODO list
    • 11.3.3 Matching tags and properties
    • 11.3.4 Search view
    • 11.3.5 Stuck projects

  • 11.4 Presentation and Sorting

    • 11.4.1 Categories
    • 11.4.2 Time-of-day specifications
    • 11.4.3 Sorting of agenda items
    • 11.4.4 Filtering/limiting agenda items

  • 11.5 Commands in the Agenda Buffer

  • 11.6 Custom Agenda Views

    • 11.6.1 Storing searches
    • 11.6.2 Block agenda
    • 11.6.3 Setting options for custom commands

  • 11.7 Exporting Agenda Views

  • 11.8 Using Column View in the Agenda

• 12 Markup for Rich Contents

  • 12.1 Paragraphs

  • 12.2 Emphasis and Monospace

  • 12.3 Subscripts and Superscripts

  • 12.4 Special Symbols

  • 12.5 Embedded LaTeX

    • 12.5.1 LaTeX fragments
    • 12.5.2 Previewing LaTeX fragments
    • 12.5.3 Using CDLaTeX to enter math

  • 12.6 Literal Examples

  • 12.7 Images

  • 12.8 Captions

  • 12.9 Horizontal Rules

  • 12.10 Creating Footnotes

• 13 Exporting

  • 13.1 The Export Dispatcher

  • 13.2 Export Settings

  • 13.3 Table of Contents

  • 13.4 Include Files

  • 13.5 Macro Replacement

  • 13.6 Comment Lines

  • 13.7 ASCII/Latin-1/UTF-8 export

  • 13.8 Beamer Export

    • 13.8.1 Beamer export commands
    • 13.8.2 Beamer specific export settings
    • 13.8.3 Frames and Blocks in Beamer
    • 13.8.4 Beamer specific syntax
    • 13.8.5 Editing support
    • 13.8.6 A Beamer example

  • 13.9 HTML Export

    • 13.9.1 HTML export commands
    • 13.9.2 HTML specific export settings
    • 13.9.3 HTML doctypes
    • 13.9.4 HTML preamble and postamble
    • 13.9.5 Exporting to minimal HTML
    • 13.9.6 Quoting HTML tags
    • 13.9.7 Headlines in HTML export
    • 13.9.8 Links in HTML export
    • 13.9.9 Tables in HTML export
    • 13.9.10 Images in HTML export
    • 13.9.11 Math formatting in HTML export
    • 13.9.12 Text areas in HTML export
    • 13.9.13 CSS support
    • 13.9.14 JavaScript supported display of web pages

  • 13.10 LaTeX Export

    • 13.10.1 LaTeX/PDF export commands
    • 13.10.2 LaTeX specific export settings
    • 13.10.3 LaTeX header and sectioning structure
    • 13.10.4 Quoting LaTeX code
    • 13.10.5 Tables in LaTeX export
    • 13.10.6 Images in LaTeX export
    • 13.10.7 Plain lists in LaTeX export
    • 13.10.8 Source blocks in LaTeX export
    • 13.10.9 Example blocks in LaTeX export
    • 13.10.10 Special blocks in LaTeX export
    • 13.10.11 Horizontal rules in LaTeX export
    • 13.10.12 Verse blocks in LaTeX export
    • 13.10.13 Quote blocks in LaTeX export

  • 13.11 Markdown Export

  • 13.12 OpenDocument Text Export

    • 13.12.1 Pre-requisites for ODT export

    • 13.12.2 ODT export commands

    • 13.12.3 ODT specific export settings

    • 13.12.4 Extending ODT export

    • 13.12.5 Applying custom styles

    • 13.12.6 Links in ODT export

    • 13.12.7 Tables in ODT export

    • 13.12.8 Images in ODT export

    • 13.12.9 Math formatting in ODT export

      • 13.12.9.1 LaTeX math snippets
      • 13.12.9.2 MathML and OpenDocument formula files

    • 13.12.10 Labels and captions in ODT export

    • 13.12.11 Literal examples in ODT export

    • 13.12.12 Advanced topics in ODT export

  • 13.13 Org Export

  • 13.14 Texinfo Export

    • 13.14.1 Texinfo export commands
    • 13.14.2 Texinfo specific export settings
    • 13.14.3 Texinfo file header
    • 13.14.4 Texinfo title and copyright page
    • 13.14.5 Info directory file
    • 13.14.6 Headings and sectioning structure
    • 13.14.7 Indices
    • 13.14.8 Quoting Texinfo code
    • 13.14.9 Plain lists in Texinfo export
    • 13.14.10 Tables in Texinfo export
    • 13.14.11 Images in Texinfo export
    • 13.14.12 Quotations in Texinfo export
    • 13.14.13 Key bindings in Texinfo export
    • 13.14.14 Special blocks in Texinfo export
    • 13.14.15 A Texinfo example

  • 13.15 iCalendar Export

  • 13.16 Other Built-in Backends

  • 13.17 Advanced Export Configuration

  • 13.18 Export Region

• 14 Publishing

  • 14.1 Configuration

    • 14.1.1 The variable org-publish-project-alist
    • 14.1.2 Sources and destinations for files
    • 14.1.3 Selecting files
    • 14.1.4 Publishing action
    • 14.1.5 Options for the exporters
    • 14.1.6 Publishing links
    • 14.1.7 Generating a sitemap
    • 14.1.8 Generating an index

  • 14.2 Uploading Files

  • 14.3 Sample Configuration

    • 14.3.1 Example: simple publishing configuration
    • 14.3.2 Example: complex publishing configuration

  • 14.4 Triggering Publication

• 15 Citation handling

  • 15.1 Citations
  • 15.2 Citation export processors
  • 15.3 Bibliography printing
    • 15.3.1 Bibliography options in the ‘biblatex’ and ‘csl’ export processors

• 16 Working with Source Code

  • 16.1 Features Overview
  • 16.2 Structure of Code Blocks
  • 16.3 Using Header Arguments
  • 16.4 Environment of a Code Block
  • 16.5 Evaluating Code Blocks
  • 16.6 Results of Evaluation
  • 16.7 Exporting Code Blocks
  • 16.8 Extracting Source Code
  • 16.9 Languages
  • 16.10 Editing Source Code
  • 16.11 Noweb Reference Syntax
  • 16.12 Library of Babel
  • 16.13 Key bindings and Useful Functions
  • 16.14 Batch Execution

• 17 Miscellaneous

  • 17.1 Completion

  • 17.2 Structure Templates

  • 17.3 Speed Keys

  • 17.4 A Cleaner Outline View

    • 17.4.1 Org Indent Mode
    • 17.4.2 Hard indentation

  • 17.5 Execute commands in the active region

  • 17.6 Dynamic Headline Numbering

  • 17.7 The Very Busy C-c C-c Key

  • 17.8 Summary of In-Buffer Settings

  • 17.9 Regular Expressions

  • 17.10 Org Syntax

  • 17.11 Context Dependent Documentation

  • 17.12 Escape Character

  • 17.13 Code Evaluation and Security Issues

  • 17.14 Interaction with Other Packages

    • 17.14.1 Packages that Org cooperates with
    • 17.14.2 Packages that conflict with Org mode

  • 17.15 Using Org on a TTY

  • 17.16 Protocols for External Access

    • 17.16.1 The store-link protocol
    • 17.16.2 The capture protocol
    • 17.16.3 The open-source protocol

  • 17.17 Org Crypt

  • 17.18 Org Mobile

    • 17.18.1 Setting up the staging area
    • 17.18.2 Pushing to the mobile application
    • 17.18.3 Pulling from the mobile application

  • 17.19 Drag and Drop & yank-media

• Appendix A Hacking

  • A.1 Hooks

  • A.2 Add-on Packages

  • A.3 Adding Hyperlink Types

  • A.4 Adding Export Backends

  • A.5 Tables in Arbitrary Syntax

    • A.5.1 Radio tables
    • A.5.2 A LaTeX example of radio tables
    • A.5.3 Translator functions

  • A.6 Dynamic Blocks

  • A.7 Special Agenda Views

  • A.8 Speeding Up Your Agendas

  • A.9 Extracting Agenda Information

  • A.10 Using the Property API

  • A.11 Using the Mapping API

• Appendix B History and Acknowledgments

  • B.1 From Carsten
  • B.2 From Bastien
  • B.3 List of Contributions

• Appendix C GNU Free Documentation License

• D Main Index

• E Key Index

• F Command and Function Index

• G Variable Index