org-mode

Org-mode

Original author(s)	Carsten Dominik
Developer(s)	Carsten Dominik et al.
Stable release	8.3.4 / February 22, 2016[1]
Written in	Emacs lisp
Type	Personal information management, Notetaking, Outlining, Literate programming…
License	GPL
Website	orgmode.org

Org-mode (also: Org mode;^[2] pronounced /ɔːɡ məʊd/) is an editing and organizing mode for notes, planning, and authoring in the free software text editor Emacs. The name is used to encompass plain text files ("org files") that include simple marks to indicate levels of a hierarchy (which could be the outline of an essay, a topic list with subtopics, nested computer code, ...), and an editor with functions that can read the markup and manipulate hierarchy elements (expand/hide elements, move blocks of elements, check off to-do list items, ...).

Org-mode was created by Carsten Dominik in 2003, originally to organize his life and work,^[3] and since the first release numerous users and developers have contributed to this free software package,^[4] Emacs includes Org-mode^[5] as a major mode. Bastien Guerry is the current maintainer, in cooperation with an active development community.^[6] Since its success in EMACS, some other systems have also begun providing functions to work with org files.

System

The Org-mode home page explains that "at its core, Org-mode is a simple outliner for note-taking and list management^[7] The Org system author Carsten Dominik explains that "Org-mode does outlining, note-taking, hyperlinks, spreadsheets, TODO lists, project planning, GTD, HTML and LaTeX authoring, all with plain text files in Emacs."^[8]

The Org system is based on plain text files with a simple markup, which makes the files very portable. The Linux Information Project explains that "Plain text is supported by nearly every application program on every operating system".^[9]

The system includes a lightweight markup language for plain text files (similar in function to Markdown, reStructuredText, Textile, etc., with a different implementation), allowing lines or sections of plain text to be hierarchically divided, tagged, linked, and so on.

Functionality

This section gives some sample uses for the hierarchical display and editing of plain text.

• To-do lists often have subtasks, and so lend themselves to a hierarchical system. Org-mode facilitates this by allowing items to be given tags and properties such as priorities and deadlines, subdivided into simple steps (nested sub-to-dos and/or checklists), and given tags and properties. An agenda for the items to be done this week or day can then be automatically generated from date tags.^[10]

• Plain text outlines.^[11]

A text file showing a tree in emacs org-mode

The same org file shown in overview in emacs org-mode

• Org files as interconnected pages of a personal wiki, using the markup for links..
• Tracking bugs in a project, by storing .org files in a distributed revision control system such as Git.

Integration

Org-mode has some features to export to other formats, and other systems have some features to handle org-mode formats. Further, a full-featured text editor may have functions to handle wikis, personal contacts, email, calendars, and so on; because org-mode is simply plain text, these features could be integrated into org-mode documents as well.

From org-mode, add-on packages export to other markup format such as MediaWiki (org-export-generic, org-export), to flashcard learning systems implementing SuperMemo's algorithms (org-drill, org-learn).^[12]

Outside of org-mode editors, org markup is supported by the GitHub code repository,^[13] the JIRA issue tracker,^[14] Pandoc, and others.

Some of the systems that handle org files include:

• EMACS
• Mobile apps:^[15]
  • • MobileOrg for iOS.
    • MobileOrg for Android.
    • MobileOrgNG for Android.
    • Orgzly for Android.
• The Vim text editor, via plugins:^[16]
  • VimOrganizer - An Emacs Org-mode clone for Vim.
  • vim-orgmode - Text outlining and task management for Vim based on Emacs Org-mode.
  • VOoM - Outliner including an Org markup mode.
  • vxfold.vim - Fold cycling similar to Emacs Org-mode.
• Sublime Text editor, with Org syntax and features using its orgmode plugin.^[17]

See also

• Lightweight markup language
• Comparison of notetaking software
• Comparison of document markup languages
• List of personal information managers
• Outliner

External links

• Org mode official site, in English, French, and Japanese
• List of Org-mode text and video tutorials on the Org-mode wiki, Worg
• EmacsWiki: Org Mode
• Emacs-orgmode mailing list (browse) - General discussions on Org-mode development, bug reports and use issues
• Org-mode Questions, Stack Overflow

References

1. "Org mode for Emacs – Your Life in Plain Text". orgmode.org. OrgMode team. Retrieved 2016-02-08.
2. Gmane: Org, Org-mode, Orgmode, Org Mode - Carsten Dominik: Org, the system; Org-mode, the major mode
3. Dominik, Carsten, Emacs Org-mode: Organizing a Scientist's Life and Work (abstract and video), Max Planck Institute for Neurological Research
4. Org Mode Manual: History and acknowledgments, Free Software Foundation
5. Corbet, Jonathan (2006), "Pre-testing Emacs 22", LWN.net
6. Org mode for Emacs – Community
7. O'Toole, David, Org tutorial
8. Dominik, Carsten, Technical description in 24 words
9. The Linux Information Project: What is plain text?
10. Chavan, Abhijeet (2007), "Get Organized with Emacs Org-mode", Linux Journal
11. Chua, Sacha, Outlining Your Notes with Org
12. Org-mode Contributed Packages, and many other hierarchical or list-oriented formats.
13. GitHub Markup
14. Bao, Haojun, org-jira
15. Org mobile apps: MobileOrg for iOS, MobileOrg for Android, MobileOrgNG for Android, Orgzly for Android
16. Vim plugins for Org-mode functionality: VimOrganizer, vim-orgmode, VOoM, vxfold.vim
17. Magnusson, Daniel, orgmode

Books

• Dominik, Carsten (2010). The Org Mode 7 Reference Manual: Organize your life with GNU Emacs. With contributions by David O'Toole, Bastien Guerry, Philip Rooke, Dan Davison, Eric Schulte, and Thomas Dye. UK: Network Theory. p. 282. ISBN 978-1-906966-08-9.

Journal articles

• Schulte, Eric; Davison, Dan; Dye, Thomas; Dominik, Carsten (Jan 2012). "A Multi-Language Computing Environment for Literate Programming and Reproducible Research". Journal of Statistical Software (American Statistical Association) 46 (3): 1–24. ISSN 1548-7660.

• Schulte, E.; Davison, D. (May–June 2011). "Active Documents with Org-Mode". Computing in Science Engineering (American Institute of Physics, and IEEE Computer Society) 13 (3): 66–73. ISSN 1521-9615.