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Org Mode Syntax Cheat Sheet (2017)

by nyc111 on 11/1/24, 3:02 AM with 69 comments

• by nanna on 11/1/24, 8:15 AM

  An org mode syntax I use heavily that I rarely see mentioned, including in this cheat sheet, is the obscurely named Radio Targets. Enclose any term or phrase in <<<tripple angle brackets>>>, hit C-c C-c on it, and then any previous or further instance of it in the same buffer will be automatically linked to it from then on. Incredibly useful when you're wroting notes on a long book for example and want to keep track of the instance when a term was defined. Turns an org file into its own wiki.

  https://orgmode.org/manual/Radio-Targets.html

• by canistel on 11/1/24, 4:43 AM

  If there is one tool (if I can call it that) that changed my life, it is Org Mode. I was a Vim guy who in a desperate attempt to get digitally organised was forced to give Org Mode a try and got sucked into Emacs. I now live better organised, with far less anxiety and remain unfazed at the multi-tasking demands of the corporate world, all thanks to this major mode.

• by geokon on 11/1/24, 8:11 AM

  I used Orgmode for years, but I think fundamentally tieing your markup to your editor is kind of a bad sign... I'd be curious to hear counterarguments though. I think the primary reason it's tied is because you sort of can't make standalone ELisp apps (or at least nobody does). Otherwise you'd just have an `org2html` and `org2pdf` application at the command line.

  Alternatives like Asciidoc are not perfect, esp for literate programming, b/c it's also kinda complex and so it also only has one backend (that's runnable from Clojure through JRuby!). I imagine a simpler multi-backend solution like Djot will be the future most likely. Bloated underspeced markups are on the way out.

• by ipnon on 11/1/24, 5:09 AM

  Mass availability of LLMs has made it much easier to adopt EMACS and Org Mode because you no longer need to read the docs to be a power user. I can ask an LLM how to do literally anything in EMACS and it will either tell me an existing function or show me how to write a new one. This is a feature that I haven’t seen still in the most popular editors. What would be most powerful is something like Cursor but applied to the editor config, where the editor itself gets more powerful and more suited to your needs the more you use it.

• by KarlVoit on 11/1/24, 12:51 PM

  Unfortunately, "Org-mode" (or Orgmode) means two different things: (1) the lightweight markup syntax and (2) the Elisp implementation of a PIM/PKM tool within GNU Emacs.

  This seems to be subtle but it results in many misunderstandings and unnecessary discussion issues.

  To "solve" this situation, I tried to coin the term "Orgdown" for the syntax alone: https://gitlab.com/publicvoit/orgdown/ and https://karl-voit.at/2021/11/27/orgdown/

  There are many use-cases to use Orgdown outside of Emacs and there are many tools that support Orgdown already: https://gitlab.com/publicvoit/orgdown/-/blob/master/doc/Tool...

  Although I'm using Orgdown and Org-mode for over a decade, I do think that even with an objective point of view, Orgdown does have its benefits from a syntax definition point of view in comparison to Markdown and other lightweight markup languages (LML): https://karl-voit.at/2017/09/23/orgmode-as-markup-only/

  Oh and btw, the linked cheat-sheet covers only the most basic Orgdown syntax elements. Within the Orgdown concept, I defined misc "levels" of syntax elements, starting with OD1: https://gitlab.com/publicvoit/orgdown/-/blob/master/doc/Orgd... This also serves as some sort of cheat sheet I guess.

  HTH

• by submeta on 11/1/24, 12:11 PM

  I have been using Emacs ever since I bought an Amiga in the 80s. I love Emacs and Elisp.

  Some 15 years ago I started using Orgmode heavily. But a lack of a mobile solution and it not being available ubiquitously made me go back to Markdown and Obsidian for note taking and Kanban boards in Notion for task management.

  Markdown is available everywhere. In forums, in chatgpt, in any kind of text editor.

  So although I still use Emacs, I stopped (heavy heartedly) using Orgmode.

• by SansGuidon on 11/1/24, 6:32 AM

  I like the idea of OBTF and org mode but I find the syntax quite inconvenient. I do not like Markdown also. I'm currently taking inspiration from bujo, obtf, org mode and markdown for making my own thing based on characters I'm ok to type both on mobile and desktop and which can make it easy to find information back in a huge file both for humans and programs.

• by eviks on 11/1/24, 10:22 AM

  If you're alreay spending a lot of special chars for a quote combo (hash, plus, newline), why does it have to be so verbose instead of something shorter like... a quotation mark? And for paired stuff maybe the plus sign could be replaced with some paired symbol like {?

  #+BEGIN_QUOTE

  #+END_QUOTE

• by nanna on 11/1/24, 8:23 AM

  I wish org mode had a syntax for end of line comments. Why do comments have to be their own line or in a space eating comment block? Sometimes I just want to comment something I've written without the extra space and ambiguity of breaking to a new line.

• by jl6 on 11/1/24, 11:28 AM

  Oh man, what a way to learn that Nick Higham died earlier this year.

  A titan in his niche.