Emacs and org-mode notes

Keyboard shortcuts

File related shortcuts

Shortcut	Description
C-x C-s	Save file
C-x d	List directory contents so that we can choose which file to edit from directory listing

Editing shortcuts

Shortcut	Description
C-u <number> <command>	Repeat command that follows given number of times.
C-g	Cancel previous command. Note that we cannot use Esc and we should use C-g to cancel previous command.
C-x u C-_ C-/	Undo
C-k	Kill from cursor position to end of line
C-@ or C-<space>	Start selecting text from cursor position
C-w	Cut selected text
C-y	Paste text from clipboard to current location
M-y	This has to be used just after using C-y. This would change the pasted text to older text that was cut or killed. Emacs remembers all the different killed texts and we can paste older text by using M-y repeatedly after we have used C-y once to restore latest killed text.
C-x C++	To increase font-size
C-x C+-	To decrease font-size
M-q	To wrap paragraph properly as per set fill-width value

Org-mode shortcuts

Shortcut	Description
<pipe><hypen> followed by tab	To create a table in org mode. The same shortcut also completes a table row
M-ret	To split long text within table so that it spans multiple lines.
C-c C-q	Apply tag to given section, sub-section etc. Note that tags cannot be applied to bullets started with -
Tab (at heading)	Change detail of display of sub-headings of current heading
Shift-tab (at first heading)	Change detail of display of all sub-headings in file
C-c .	Insert active date using calendar. Calendar accepts options such as . (today), +1 (tomorrow), -1 (yesterday), etc. One can also use Shift+<arrow_keys> to change selected date in displayed calendar
C-c !	Insert inactive date
C-c . <choose_date> C-c .	Insert active date range

View related shortcuts

Shortcut	Description
C-x 0	Delete current window
C-x 1	Expand current buffer to fullscreen and hide all other buffers
C-x 2	Split current window into two sections
C-c C-o	Visit link
C-x k	kill buffer
C-x b	switch buffer (Press tab for auto-complete and suggestions)
C-x C-b	List all buffers
C-x o	Switch to other visible buffers

Help related shortcuts

Shortcut	Description
C-h k <key>	Gives help about key in a split window
C-h m	Mode help
C-h a PATTERN	Help on commands that match given pattern
C-h d PATTERN	Help on functions and variables that match given pattern
C-h b	List of current key bindings
C-h c	Displays command run by given key sequence

Commands

Generic commands

Command	Description
buffer-menu	Shows list of all buffers to choose from
ispell-buffer	Check text in current buffer for spelling errors. One should shift to flyspell-mode by using 'flyspell-mode' command before using ispell for correcting spelling errors. By defaul emacs uses hunspell and stores the private dictionary in '~/.hunspell_en_US' file.

Org-mode commands

Command	Description
org-table-delete-column	To delete column from org mode table
org-mode	To change to org mode. In case extension of file being edited is not .org, we may need to shift to org mode manually.
org-export-as- [pdf or html or ...]	Export current org file to given format. Many different formats including LaTeX are supported.
org-insert-export-options-template	Inserts options like Title, Date, etc. at top of file which help in exporting org files to other formats

Configuration

General configuration

Configuration option	Description
(setq make-backup-files nil)	Prevents emacs from creating backup files while saving
(global-visual-line-mode 1)	Enables visual-line-mode in all buffers by default
(set-fill-column 60)	To ensure lines wrap at 60 in text-modes. After this also change mode using auto-fill-mode command.
(setq-default fill-column 60) (add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'turn-on-auto-fill)	Use these two enable automated form-fill for 60 columns when emacs starts
(set-face-attribute 'default nil :height 160)	Unit is 1/10pt, so for 10pt font 100 should be used
(setq x-select-enable-clipboard t)	Make emacs copy-paste M-w, C-y work with system copy-paste
(setq auto-save-default nil)	Preventing emacs from creating auto-save files

Tips / Techniques

To do list using org mode

We can build todo lists using org-mode. For that we should create bullted list using - below a heading or a sub-heading. The hypen should be followed by [ ] empty square braces. We should also put [1/1] in front of sub-heading / heading under which we have built bulleted list. Then we can use C-c C-c shortcut to mark / unmark any item and the count gets reflected at top of list.

Pop-buffer menu using mouse click

If we use single left click while keeping control key pressed on any buffer then we get popup buffer menu for switching buffers which can be very useful to switch buffers when working on multiple files.

Linking to other files

To link to other files using org-mode syntax is:

[[URL][Title]]

where, URL can be of many different formats such as:

• http://www.sbarjatiya.com/
• images/abcd.png
• file:images/abcd.png

Tagging sections or sub-sections

To tag sections or sub-sections using org first we need to add TAGS line such as:

#+TAGS: Saurabh(b) Swetha(w) Swaroop(r) Mahesh(m) Nirmala(n)

and then use C-c C-c short-cut on TAGS line to make emacs reload the buffer. Then one can go to any section or sub-section (Note that it wont work for bulleted or numbered list) and use C-c C-q shortcut to assign a tag.

Using org-timeline=

Org can prepare a time-line for sections, sub-sections etc. which have data 'SCHEDULED:' as their body. This feature is very useful to mark events which are fixed such as weekly meetings or important appointments which cannot be rescheduled or missed unless emergency. To create a weekly recurrent schedule event one can use something like:

** TODO Friday VLEAD meetings from 11:00am to 01:00pm
   SCHEDULED: <2012-12-21 Fri 11:00-13:00 +1w>

Note that in this case once the meeting date is passed, the org-timeline will still continue to show the same old date such as 2012-12-21 in above case. To make the date point to next week (+1w) one can use C-c C-t short-cut on the section title. It would generate few extra lines which can be optionally removed.

Similarly to schedule a one-time event in a to-do list one can use something like:

** To do list for [2012-12-28 Fri]
*** Select TA(s) for Virtualization course at 03:30pm
    SCHEDULED: <2012-12-28 Fri>

All such events weekly or one-time can then be viewed in a useful manner using 'org-timeline' command.