Org-mode is a structured editor that combines the best features of a powerful outliner and a powerful editor in one package. I’ve been fooling with org-mode a lot lately, digging into capabilities, solving issues and fine tuning, always asking the question — is org-mode the best environment for my writing? The answer is an unqualified yes.
The illustration above is a screenshot showing the outline I used to write “An Emerald Ring,” a short story I wrote at the end of last year. Org-mode uses stars to distinguish heading levels, one star for the top level, two for the next and so on. You create a new headline by pressing either the Ctrl or Alt key together with the enter key. You cycle headline visibility using the Tab key.
As I progressed, I created a new top level heading for each new draft of my story with the latest draft at the top. The first four lines in this outline are structural markups that begin with #+. The markups don’t print. They tell org-mode what to do when the file or part of the file is exported to LaTeX, html or plain text. I put the latest draft at the top of the outline so that when I highlight the structural markups and the first headline, only the latest draft will be exported.
When you’re deep into writing a story, an article or even a book, and you have ideas, where do you keep the ideas so they don’t get lost? Well, I created headings for Story outline, characters and notes lower in the outline. I didn’t lose anything and my notes are right there when I need them.
The screenshot shows the outline partially expanded. Org-mode shows three periods after any headline that has subheads or text below. Yeah you say, all this is lovely but doesn’t it get kind of messy when you want to concentrate on writing a passage of plain text in the middle of an outline? Glad you asked because org-mode has a neat trick.
I put the cursor on the headline for the 8th draft and told org-mode to narrow the focus with a simple shortcut command. Here’s the screenshot. Try that one with your word processor. Now I have an uncluttered screen where I can write with no distractions. I wrote this post with org-mode using this trick. I created a new headline, told org-mode to narrow the focus and had a clean screen with the subject line at the top. Works for me.
There’s lots more to come. I figured out how to get the old DOS MaxThink and org-mode to cooperate but that’s another subject for another time.
I wish I understood this stuff better 😦
I didn’t get into the technical, tutorial type details. I’ve been summarizing and showing results as I discover stuff. I’ll pull a real tutorial together before too long. I didn’t want to scare people off with a lot of technical jargon. It’s not all that difficult once you get into the swing of things.
John
If only you could translate it into Mac.
Ah but you can Kathleen. Aquamacs is Emacs for Mac OS X. It’s open source and free to download and install.
Thanks, John. I’lll check it out.
Again, I can only read and weep. While I can actually do some of the outlining with Word – the narrow focus you achieve never in a million years.
Writing with Word is like eating soft ice cream with a fork — it works after a fashion.
I am beginning a new one, so I am considering this approach. But then again, I need to find a mobi translator. Stinking Amazon.
Red.
mobi translator. No problem. Check out Calibre:
http://calibre-ebook.com/about
Calibre works well and costs zero.
John
Love the price. Bookmarked. Thank you, John.
Red.
Have you had a look at Scrivener? It isn’t free but gives a generous trial period to try it out. I’m not associated with it in anyway, just a bit of a fan. I think it might be my favourite piece of writing software.
I know that Scrivener is developing a Linux version. Right now, the Linux version is in beta. A free alternative is yWriter.
I’m not using either (yet) because both are too specialized for what I need. I use org-mode to organize all my posting with a separate file for the photo posts. I use it for a journal. In short, org-mode meets almost all of my writing needs. If I decide to write a novel, I might want something more like Scrivener or yWriter. Either of those programs would be overkill for short story writing.
True yes, Scrivener is very good but it’s strengths are more use on larger projects, and definitely no need for overkill.
I admire the *idea* of all of these terrific organizational tools for ordering and tracking writing work–but truthfully, I’m living the tech version of the Random-Chaotic-Piled Desk and just have all sorts of Word and NeoOffice and other text docs scattered hither and yon in every corner of my hard drive and have to hope for the best or a happy accident to lead me to what I think I’ve so cleverly stashed away for reference . . .
Very nice article!
I was looking for some program for taking notes and was very surprised to see that my old friend emacs has org mode which can be used for taking notes, implementing “getting things done” and even writing books!
Last time I used emacs was in v21 days so I had to go through “emacs bankruptcy”, i.e. throwing away my huge .emacs and starting from scratch.
I think that org mode will be the only tool for all my note taking, project management and writing.
Thanks Alex,
Org-mode is the reason I began using emacs. Remembering the commands is a pain. I reassigned eight of the function keys to make things easier (narrow and widen are two of them).
Org-mode has no equal.
Good to know that org-mode has no equal!
I already set it up on all of my computers, so far looking good. Agree that remembering commands is almost impossible, so I also started building my .emacs