Template expansion
In the template itself, special “%-escapes”[1] allow dynamic insertion of content. The templates are expanded in the order given here:
‘%[FILE]’
Insert the contents of the file given by FILE.
‘%(EXP)’
Evaluate Elisp expression (EXP) and replace it with the result. The (EXP) form must return a string. Only placeholders pre-existing within the template, or introduced with ‘%[file]’, are expanded this way. Since this happens after expanding non-interactive “%-escapes”, those can be used to fill the expression. Examples: ‘%(org-id-new)’, ‘%(eval default-directory)’
‘%<FORMAT>’
The result of format-time-string on the FORMAT specification.
‘%t’
Timestamp, date only.
‘%T’
Timestamp, with date and time.
‘%u’, ‘%U’
Like ‘%t’, ‘%T’ above, but inactive timestamps.
‘%i’
Initial content, the region when capture is called while the region is active. If there is text before ‘%i’ on the same line, such as indentation, and ‘%i’ is not inside a ‘%(exp)’ form, that prefix is added before every line in the inserted text.
‘%a’
Annotation, normally the link created with org-store-link.
‘%A’
Like ‘%a’, but prompt for the description part.
‘%l’
Like ‘%a’, but only insert the literal link.
‘%L’
Like ‘%l’, but without brackets (the link content itself).
‘%c’
Current kill ring head.
‘%x’
Content of the X clipboard.
‘%k’
Title of the currently clocked task.
‘%K’
Link to the currently clocked task.
‘%n’
Username (taken from user-full-name).
‘%f’
File visited by current buffer when org-capture was called.
‘%F’
Full path of the file or directory visited by current buffer.
‘%:keyword’
Specific information for certain link types, see below.
‘%^g’
Prompt for tags, with completion on tags in target file.
‘%^G’
Prompt for tags, with completion all tags in all agenda files.
‘%^t’
Like ‘%t’, but prompt for date. Similarly, ‘%^T’, ‘%^u’, ‘%^U’. You may define a prompt like ‘%^{Birthday}t’.
‘%^C’
Interactive selection of which kill or clip to use.
‘%^L’
Like ‘%^C’, but insert as link.
‘%^{PROP}p’
Prompt the user for a value for property PROP. You may specify a default value with ‘%^{PROP|default}’.
‘%^{PROMPT}X’, X is one of g,G,t,T,u,U,C,L
Prompt the user as in ‘%^X’, but use the custom prompt string. You may specify a default value and completions with ‘%^{PROMPT|default|completion1|completion2|completion3...}X’.
‘%^{PROMPT}’
Prompt the user for a string and replace this sequence with it. You may specify a default value and a completion table with ‘%^{prompt|default|completion2|completion3...}’. The arrow keys access a prompt-specific history.
‘%\N’
Insert the text entered at the Nth ‘%^{PROMPT}’ (but not ‘%^{PROMPT}X’), where N is a number, starting from 1.
‘%\*N’
Same as ‘%\N’, but include all the prompts.
‘%?’
After completing the template, position point here.
For specific link types, the following keywords are defined[2]:
| Link type | Available keywords |
|---|---|
| bbdb | ‘%:name’, ‘%:company’ |
| irc | ‘%:server’, ‘%:port’, ‘%:nick’ |
| mh, rmail | ‘%:type’, ‘%:subject’, ‘%:message-id’ |
‘%:from’, ‘%:fromname’, ‘%:fromaddress’ | |
‘%:to’, ‘%:toname’, ‘%:toaddress’ | |
‘%:date’ (message date header field) | |
‘%:date-timestamp’ (date as active timestamp) | |
‘%:date-timestamp-inactive’ (date as inactive timestamp) | |
‘%:fromto’ (either “to NAME” or “from NAME”)[3] | |
| gnus | ‘%:group’, for messages also all email fields |
| w3, w3m | ‘%:url’ |
| info | ‘%:file’, ‘%:node’ |
| calendar | ‘%:date’ |
| org-protocol | ‘%:link’, ‘%:description’, ‘%:annotation’ |
If you need one of these sequences literally, escape the ‘
%’ with a backslash. ↩︎If you define your own link types (see Adding Hyperlink Types), any property you store with
org-link-store-propscan be accessed in capture templates in a similar way. ↩︎This is always the other, not the user. See the variable
org-link-from-user-regexp. ↩︎