Loving org-mode: List Cycling
I used Emacs as an editor out of necessity when I hacked a C project and figure out Emacs’ GDB integration is sublime.
Ever since then, I never stopped using Emacs.
Although I use Emacs for a long time - there’s so much depth and I haven’t scratched the surface.
One of those surfaces I did scratch that I love: org-mode.
There’s so much to org-mode that there are books written about it, extensions on it.
Today, I want to share a thing I love about org-mode: auto-cycling
of lists by just pressing the tab
key.
Example: this is the full list in a text file.
* level one
- item on level one
- another one for level one
** level two
- item on level two
- two for level two
*** level three
- three for three
**** level four
all the way down
Change Emacs’ mode to org-mode
and the file becomes:
* level one...
The ...
indicates additional items, pressing <tab>
on the line
with * level one
and this happens:
* level one
- item on level one
- another one for level one
** level two...
What happened is that level one
expanded to the next level, level
two
.
In org-mode, *
- are level indicators, so the more, the deeper the
hierarchy.
Pressing <tab>
again expands out to the original text, as shown
above.
This expansion just keeps working at every level - so at ** level
two...
, you can just expand only level two items:
* level one
- item on level one
- another one for level one
** level two
- item on level two
- two for level two
*** level three...
and repeat on *** level three...
- and you get the original:
* level one
- item on level one
- another one for level one
** level two
- item on level two
- two for level two
*** level three
- three for three
**** level four
all the way down
This cycling feature of org-mode is something I use all the time in
creating lists. Sorting them out and creating hierarchies for
them. This is how my mind works and at the same time - I can just
<tab>
my way there!
Try this feature in org-mode - I love it. This feature just wants me to organize my thoughts more.
Additional articles on why I love org-mode:
- List cycling (this article)
- Hierarchy Manipulation
- Date Entry
- Plain Text