Tip
Transform your Emacs experience in the vibrant cities of Paris, Utrecht, Leuven, or Valencia!Unlock unparalleled productivity with my exclusive “EmacsBoost” course!
Are you ready to supercharge your productivity and become an unstoppable Emacs ninja? This is the opportunity you’ve been waiting for!
What you’ll learn:
Who should join:
This course is designed for everyone passionate about Emacs – from curious beginners to seasoned users looking to refine their skills.
Why choose my course?
Seize this exceptional opportunity to elevate your Emacs skills to new levels!
Visit https://emacsboost.com/en/ for more details, course dates and locations, and to secure your place today.
You will learn to:
This is an Org mode document, using the .org extension (supported by GitHub).
Org mode is an easy-to-write plain text formatting syntax for authoring notes, articles, LaTeX documents, books, Web pages, Beamer slide decks and much more!
This is a cheat sheet for Org mode 8 (because of some markup syntax changes since Org mode 7), using ReadTheOrg CSS.
Reading through all the documentation is highly recommended, but for the truly impatient, following are some quick steps to get started.
Title and author line:
#+TITLE: Org mode syntax examples #+AUTHOR: Fabrice Niessen My document provides...
It’s a good practice to also include an email line following the author line.
#+EMAIL: john.doe@example.com
#+DESCRIPTION: This document catalogs a set of tips and tricks for composing documents in Org mode. #+KEYWORDS: org-mode, syntax, quick reference, cheat sheet, recommended practices, latex, beamer, html #+LANGUAGE: en
#+OPTIONS: H:4
#+OPTIONS: num:nil
Set the toc attribute to activate an auto-generated table of contents (limited to its 2 first levels) at the top of document.
#+OPTIONS: toc:2
#+OPTIONS: p:t
To locally insert the TOC at some random place, use the #+TOC: headlines [n] feature; for example:
#+TOC: headlines 2
#+TOC: figures is not implemented yet in the HTML backend.
#+TOC: tables is already implemented in the HTML backend.
* Biggest heading (level 1) New chapter.
** Bigger heading (level 2) New section. *** Big heading (level 3) New sub-section. **** Heading (level 4) New sub-sub-section.
You can create numbered headings up to a certain level by setting an option:
#+OPTIONS: H:4
A single newline has no effect. This line is part of the same paragraph. But an empty line demarcates paragraphs.
By entering two consecutive backslashes, \\ you can force a line break without starting a new paragraph.
For an horizontal line, insert at least 5 dashes: this is some text above an horizontal rule ----- and some text below it.
#
#
#
One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin. He lay on his armour-like back, and if he lifted his head a little he could see his brown belly, slightly domed and divided by arches into stiff sections. The bedding was hardly able to cover it and seemed ready to slide off any moment. His many legs, pitifully thin compared with the size of the rest of him, waved about helplessly as he looked.
Text effects.
/Emphasize/ (italics), *strongly* (bold), and */very strongly/* (bold italics).
Markup elements can be nested:
This is /italic text which contains _underlined text_ within it/, whereas _this is normal underlined text_.
Markup can span across multiple lines, by default no more than 2:
*This is not bold.*
Org mode does not interpret a marker surrounded by alphanumeric characters as an emphasis marker. So, you can’t (easily) emphasize just part of a word:
Not feas*ible*.Monospace, superscript and subscript
Other elements to use sparingly are:
- monospaced typewriter font for ~inline code~
- monospaced typewriter font for =verbatim text=
- +deleted text+ (vs. _inserted text_)
- text with super^{script}, such as 2^{10}
- text with sub_{script}, such as H_{2}O
If the XXX option is specified, Org mode will produce typographically correct output, converting straight quotes to curly quotes, --- to em-dashes, -- to en-dashes, and ... to ellipses.
Org markup allows you to create bulleted or numbered lists. It allows any combination of the two list types.
Itemized lists are marked with bullets. Create them with a minus or a plus sign.
They are convenient to organize data, and make the document prettier, and easier to read.
- Item with some lengthy text wrapping hopefully across several lines. We add
a few words to really show the line wrapping.
- Bullet.
+ Bullet.
* Bullet.
- [X] Checked. - [-] Half-checked. - [ ] Not checked. - Normal list item.
Enumerated lists are marked with numbers or letters:
1. Arabic (decimal) numbered list item. We add a few words to show the line
wrapping.
A. Upper case alpha (letter) numbered list item.
a. Lower alpha.
b. Lower alpha.
B. Upper alpha.
2. Number.
You can have ordered lists with jumping numbers:
2. [@2] We start with point number 2. 3. Automatically numbered item.
Labeled, multi-line lists.
- First term to define ::
Definition of the first term. We add a few words to show the line wrapping,
to see what happens when you have long lines.
- Second term ::
Explication of the second term with *inline markup*.
In many paragraphs.
Adjacent lists sometimes like to fuse. To force the start of a new list, offset the two lists by an empty line comment:
- apples - oranges - bananas # Comment. - carrots - tomatoes - celery
Tables are one of the most refined areas of the Org mode syntax. They are very easy to create and to read.
| Cell in column 1, row 1 | Cell in column 2, row 1 | | Cell in column 1, row 2 | Cell in column 2, row 2 |
Org tables have cells of at most one line long: there is no such thing as a multi-line table cell in Org.
Columns are automatically aligned:
If you want to override the automatic alignment, use <r>, <c> or <l>.
#+caption: Table with aligned columns | <r> | <c> | <l> | | 1 | 2 | 3 | | Right | Center | Left | | xxxxxxxxxxxx | xxxxxxxxxxxx | xxxxxxxxxxxx |Table with column size adjusted
You can create tables with an header row (by using an horizontal line of dashes to separate it from the rest of the table).
#+caption: Table with an header row | Name of column 1 | Name of column 2 | Name of column 3 | |------------------+------------------+------------------| | Top left | Top middle | | | | | Right | | Bottom left | Bottom middle | |
To test “sticky table headers”…
Name of column 1 Name of column 2 Name of column 3 Top left Top middle 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Right 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 Bottom left Bottom middle#+ATTR_LATEX: :center nil | a | b | | 1 | 2 |
XXX Different from the following:
| a | b | | 1 | 2 |
Here is a table on the left side:
#+LATEX: \noindent #+ATTR_LATEX: :center nil | a | b | c | |---+---+---| | 1 | 2 | 3 | | 4 | 5 | 6 | #+LATEX: \hfill
The noindent just gets rid of the indentation of the first line of a paragraph which in this case is the table. The hfill adds infinite stretch after the table, so it pushes the table to the left.
Here is a centered table:
| a | b | c | |---+---+---| | 1 | 2 | 3 | | 4 | 5 | 6 |
And here’s a table on the right side:
#+LATEX: \hfill #+ATTR_LATEX: :center nil | a | b | c | |---+---+---| | 1 | 2 | 3 | | 4 | 5 | 6 |
Here the hfill adds infinite stretch before the table, so it pushes the table to the right.
#+ATTR_HTML: :width 100% | Cell in column 1, row 1 | Cell in column 2, row 1 | | Cell in column 1, row 2 | Cell in column 2, row 2 |
You can fill a table from a CSV file using R commands.
* Links :PROPERTIES: :CUSTOM_ID: links :END:
This document is available in plain text, HTML and PDF.
The links are delimited by double square brackets.
See http://www.pirilampo.org (automatic!) and the [[http://orgmode.org/][Org mode Web site]].
[[../README.html][Home]]
[[mailto:john.doe@example.com][email John Doe]]
To get image links, put a link to a file in the description.
Clicking on the image [[http://orgmode.org/][file:images/org-mode-unicorn.png]] leads to the Org mode home page.
Anchors are used to specify hypertext link targets.
<<anchor>> Inline anchors make arbitrary content referenceable.Internal cross references
Links generally point to an headline.
See chapter [[#links][Links]].
To add a link to a figure (e.g., “See Figure 1”), just do:
#+caption: caption #+name: fig [[file:fig.png]] See figure [[fig]].
You can also create a hypertext link to a document anchor in the current document or in another document.
See: - Location [[anchor][cross reference]]. - Section [[id:0d2b0cb2-116c-4a61-a076-4c641faf4346][Internal links]]Extensions that define new hyperlinks targets
You can insert image files of different formats to a document:
HTML PDF gif yes jpeg yes png yes bmp (depends on browser support)#+caption: Org mode logo [[file:images/org-mode-unicorn.png]]
Click to see the [[file:images/org-mode-unicorn.png][Unicorn picture]].Image alignment (using positioning)
Books usually align/float images on the right/left of the contents.
Image attributes and valuesXXX Available HTML image tags include …
Attribute Value(s):alt Alternate text :height :width User defined size in pixels :align :border :bordercolor :hspace :vspace :title User defined text
#+ATTR_LaTeX: :width 0.25\linewidth [[file:images/org-mode-unicorn.png]]
Place images side by side: XXX
To define images that will be treated as book illustrations (figures) and automatically labeled and numbered, use XXX.
Videos can’t be added directly.
Though, you can add an image with a link to the video like this:
[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnSGSiXYuOk][file:../bigblow.png]]
Admonitions (contextual backgrounds) are statements taken out of the content’s flow and labeled with a title.
Common admonitions are:
notewarningtipcautionimportant(Most themes style only note and warning specially.)
#+begin_quote [!TIP] Try doing it this way... #+end_quote
A note box is displayed as follows:
#+begin_note This is a useful note. #+end_note
A warning box is displayed as follows:
#+begin_warning Be careful! Check that you have... #+end_warning
A tip box is displayed as follows:
#+begin_tip Try doing it this way... #+end_tip
#+begin_caution Caution #+end_caution
#+begin_important Important #+end_important
#+begin_attention Attention #+end_attention
#+begin_hint Hint #+end_hint
#+begin_error Error #+end_error
#+begin_danger Danger #+end_dangerSeeAlso (Sphinx additional)
#+begin_seealso
- [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple][Apples]] ::
A kind of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruit][fruit]].
#+end_seealso
Simple box (“inline task”):
*************** TODO Do this task Description of inline task. *************** ENDDo this task Description of inline task.END or:
*************** WAIT [#B] Do also this other task :phone: *************** END
Alternatively to the inline tasks (for creating “TODO” annotations), if you want such notes not to show up in the published version, drawers may also do the job, e.g.:
…You can then control what drawers are exported with org-export-with-drawers (or per document with d OPTIONS item).
#+begin_left This text is \\ aligned to the left! #+end_left #+begin_center This text is \\ centered! #+end_center #+begin_right This text is \\ aligned to the right! #+end_right
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. #+begin_sidebar Org mode was first released by Carsten Dominik in 2004 as an outlining and project planning tool. Further development turned it into a general tool that can be used to author professional documents like LaTeX. #+end_sidebar Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Vestibulum tortor quam, feugiat vitae, ultricies eget, tempor sit amet, ante. Donec eu libero sit amet quam egestas semper. Aenean ultricies mi vitae est. Mauris placerat eleifend leo. Quisque sit amet est et sapien ullamcorper pharetra. Vestibulum erat wisi... Phasellus ut libero. Nulla in libero non enim tristique sollicitudin. Ut tempor. Phasellus pellentesque augue eget ante. Mauris malesuada. Donec sit amet diam sit amet dolor placerat blandit. Morbi enim purus, imperdiet in, molestie sit amet, pellentesque eu, mauris. In vel erat vel ipsum bibendum commodo. Curabitur accumsan. Nam sed metus. Etiam tristique bibendum justo.
You can have example blocks.
: 10/17/97 9:04 <DIR> bin : 10/16/97 14:11 <DIR> DOS : 10/16/97 14:46 <DIR> TEMP : 10/16/97 14:37 <DIR> WINNT : 10/16/97 14:25 119 AUTOEXEC.BAT : 2/13/94 6:21 54,619 COMMAND.COM
or
#+begin_example 10/17/97 9:04 <DIR> bin 10/16/97 14:11 <DIR> DOS 10/16/97 14:46 <DIR> TEMP 10/16/97 14:37 <DIR> WINNT 10/16/97 14:25 119 AUTOEXEC.BAT 2/13/94 6:21 54,619 COMMAND.COM #+end_example
Use the quote block for content that doesn’t require the preservation of line breaks.
#+begin_quote Let us change our traditional attitude to the construction of programs: Instead of imagining that our main task is to instruct a computer what to do, let us concentrate rather on explaining to human beings what we want a computer to do. The practitioner of literate programming can be regarded as an essayist, whose main concern is with exposition and excellence of style. Such an author, with thesaurus in hand, chooses the names of variables carefully and explains what each variable means. He or she strives for a program that is comprehensible because its concepts have been introduced in an order that is best for human understanding, using a mixture of formal and informal methods that reinforce each other. -- Donald Knuth #+end_quote
A short one:
#+begin_quote Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not any simpler. -- Albert Einstein #+end_quote
In a verse environment, there is an implicit line break at the end of each line, and indentation is preserved:
#+begin_verse Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not any simpler. -- Albert Einstein #+end_verse
Typically used for quoting passages of an email message:
#+begin_verse >> The meeting has been postponed to next Friday. > > Has the deadline for the report been moved too? Yes. And chekout http://www.doodle.com/ for rescheduling the meeting. In the text body, indentation is preserved. #+end_verseBlock quote with optional attribution line Block quotes with their own class attribute
Insert the Unicode character 00A0 to add a non-breaking space.
FIXME Or add/use an Org entity? Or use tilde?
It's possible to add comments in the document. # This Org comment here won't be displayed.
If you want to ignore that part only during export, but still want to use keep it active in the buffer, I suggest to use a drawer, with an appropriate `org-export-with-drawers’ value, e.g.,
#+OPTIONS: d:(not "NOEXPORT")
#+MACRO: longtext this very very long text
Insert {{{longtext}}} wherever required.
Insert {{{longtext}}} wherever required.
#+MACRO: color @@html:<span style="color: $1">$2</span>@@
{{{color(blue, This text is colored in blue.)}}}
{{{color(red, This other text is in red.)}}}
{{{color(blue, This text is colored in blue.)}}}
{{{color(red, This other text is in red.)}}}
Find more macros on GitHub.
We also use substitutions to include some of the widely used Unicode characters (like ©, converted from text characters to its typographically correct entity).
- \Agrave \Aacute
- Dash: \ndash \mdash - Marks: \iexcl \iquest - Quotations: \laquo \raquo - Miscellaneous: \para \ordf
- Property marks: \copy \reg - Currency: \cent \EUR \yen \pound
The Greek letters \alpha, \beta, and \gamma are used to denote angles.
- Science: \pm \div - Arrows: \to \rarr \larr \harr \rArr \lArr \hArr - Function names: \arccos \cos - Signs and symbols: \bull \star
- Zero-width non-joiner: \zwnj # Smilies: \smiley \sad - Suits: \clubs \spades
Reference code like ~variables~ or ~functions~ inline.
You can also evaluate code inline as follows: 1 + 1 is src_R{1 + 1}.
Code blocks (with syntax highlighting)The source code blocks support syntax highlighting:
/*
* Application that displays a "Hello" message to the standard output.
*/
int main(int arc, char **argv)
{
printf("Hello, %s!\n", (argc>1) ? argv[1] : "World");
return 0;
}
(defvar hello "Hello") (defun hello (name &optional greeting) (message "%s %s" (or greeting "Hello") name)) (setq tab-width 4)
The following language strings are currently recognized:
Awk, C, R, Asymptote, Calc, Clojure, CSS, Ditaa, Dot, Emacs Lisp, Fortran, Gnuplot, Haskell, IO, J, Java, Javascript, LaTeX, Ledger, Lilypond, Lisp, Makefile, Maxima, Matlab, Mscgen, Ocaml, Octave, Org, Perl, Pico Lisp, PlantUML, Python, Ruby, Sass, Scala, Scheme, Screen, Shell Script, Shen, Sql, Sqlite, ebnf2ps.Code block with long lines:
testing testing testing testing testing testing testing testing testing testing 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456
For PDF (LaTeX), one solution is to surround the code block such as:
print("This block is in scriptsize")
Both in example and in src snippets, you can add a -n switch to the end of the begin line to get the lines numbered:
(defun org-xor (a b) "Exclusive or."
If you use a +n switch, the numbering from the previous numbered snippet will be continued in the current one:
In literal examples, Org will interpret strings like (ref:name) as labels, and use them as targets for special hyperlinks like [[(name)]] (i.e., the reference name enclosed in single parenthesis). In HTML, hovering the mouse over such a link will remote-highlight the corresponding code line, which is kind of cool.
You can also add a -r switch which removes the labels from the source code. With the -n switch, links to these references will be labeled by the line numbers from the code listing, otherwise links will use the labels with no parentheses. Here is an example:
(save-excursion ; (ref:sc) (goto-char (point-min))) ; (ref:jump)
In line (sc), we remember the current position. Line (jump) jumps to point-min.
You can embed LaTeX math formatting in Org mode files.
For inline math expressions, use the parentheses notation \(...\):
The formula \(a^2 + b^2 = c^2\) has been discovered by Pythagoras. Let \(a=\sin(x) + \cos(x)\). Then \(a^2 = 2\sin(x)\cos(x)\) because \(\sin^2x + \cos^2x = 1\).Math expressions in display mode
For mathematical expressions which you want to make stand out, centered on their own lines, use \[...\]:
The /Euler theorem/:
\[
\int_0^\infty e^{-x^2} dx = {{\sqrt{\pi}} \over {2}}
\]
LaTeX allows to inline such ~\[...\]~ constructs (/quadratic formula/):
\[ \frac{-b \pm \sqrt{b^2 - 4 a c}}{2a} \]
\[
\left( \int_{0}^{\infty} \frac{\sin x}{\sqrt x}\,\mathrm{d}x \
right)^{2} -
\prod_{k=1}^{\infty} \frac{4k^{2}}{4k^{2}-1} +
\frac{\lambda}{2n}\sum_{k=1} ^{n} \theta_{k} ^{2} x^{n} = 0
\]
The equation may be wrong, but it’s a nice one!
Differently from $...$ and \(...\), an equation environment produces a numbered equation to which you can add a label and reference the equation by (label) name in other parts of the text. This is not possibly with unnumbered math environments ($$, …).
The /Pythagoras theorem/:
#+name: pythag
\begin{equation}
a^2 + b^2 = c^2
\end{equation}
See equation [[pythag]].
# The /sinus theorem/ can be written as the equation:
#
# \begin{equation}
# \label{eqn:sinalpha}
# \frac{\sin\alpha}{a}=\frac{\sin\beta}{b}
# \end{equation}
#
# See equation [[eqn:sinalpha]].
Only captioned equations are numbered.
Other alternatives: use
\begin{equation*} or\begin{displaymath} (= the verbose form of the \[...\] construct).M-q does not fill those.
You can include another Org file and skip its title by using the :lines argument to #+INCLUDE:
#+INCLUDE: "chapter1.org" :lines "2-"
You can include raw HTML in your Org documents and it will get kept as HTML when it’s exported.
Text can be preformatted (in a fixed-width font).
It is especially useful for more advanced stuff like images or tables where you need more control of the HTML options than Org mode actually gives you.
Similarly, you can incorporate JS or do anything else you can do in a Web page (such as importing a CSS file).
You can create named classes (to get style control from your CSS) with:
#+begin_myclass This text is wrapped in a myclass DIV... #+end_myclass
You can also add interactive elements to the HTML such as interactive R plots.
Finally, you can include an HTML file verbatim (during export) with:
#+INCLUDE: "file.html" export html
Don’t edit the exported HTML file!
You can also use raw LaTeX. XXX
Text can be preformatted (in a fixed-width font).
It is possible to define named footnotes[fn:myfootnote], or ones with automatic anchors[fn:2].
Timestamps: [2014-01-16 Thu] and <2014-01-16 Thu>.
By default, DONE actions will be collapsed.
Note that I should probably implement that default behavior only for ARCHIVE‘d items.
By default, all (active) entries will be expanded at page load, so that their contents is visible.
That can be changed by adding such a line (into your Org document):
#+HTML_HEAD: <script> var HS_STARTUP_FOLDED = true; </script>[#B] Apply GTD methodoloy
This section will be collapsed when loading the page because the entry has the value hsCollapsed for the property :HTML_CONTAINER_CLASS:.
Powerful, no?
You can add tags to any entry, and hightlight all entries having some specific tag by clicking on the buttons made accessible to you in the “Dashboard”.
Now, you can even make your weekly review in the HTML export… Press the r key to start entering the “review mode” where all but one active entry are collapsed, so that you can really focus on one item at a time!
The string fixme (in upper case) gets replaced by a “Fix Me!” image:
FIXME Delete this...
To enable the Graphviz extension, we have to add it to the extensions list in the org-babel-load-languages variable.
(add-to-list 'org-babel-load-languages '(dot . t)) (org-babel-do-load-languages 'org-babel-load-languages org-babel-load-languages)
It uses directly the dot command to process DOT language.
#+begin_src dot :file images/graph.png :cmdline -Tpng
graph foo {
"bar" -- "baz";
}
#+end_src
The output from the execution of programs, scripts or commands can be inserted in the document itself, allowing you to work in the reproducible research mindset.
To enable the Graphviz extension, we have to add it to the extensions list in the org-babel-load-languages variable.
(add-to-list 'org-babel-load-languages '(R . t)) ; Requires R and ess-mode. (org-babel-do-load-languages 'org-babel-load-languages org-babel-load-languages)
It uses directly the R command to process R language.
Data to be charted:
Month Degrees 01 3.8 02 4.1 03 6.3 04 9.0 05 11.9 06 15.1 07 17.1 08 17.4 09 15.7 10 11.8 11 7.7 12 4.8Code:
plot(data, type="b", bty="l", col=c("#ABD249"), las=1, lwd=4)
grid(nx=NULL, ny=NULL, col=c("#E8E8E8"), lwd=1)
legend("bottom", legend=c("Degrees"), col=c("#ABD249"), pch=c(19))
The resulting chart:
Cross-referenced to bibliography.
Special sections.
Index (or list of acronyms).
Note that multi-entry terms generate separate index entries.
org-latex-pdf-processThe bibliography…
Glossaries are optional. Glossaries entries are an example of definition lists.
Report issues and suggest features and improvements on the GitHub issue tracker.
I love contributions! Patches under any form are always welcome!
If you use the refcard-org-mode project and feel it is making your life better and easier, you can show your appreciation and help support future development by making a donation through PayPal. Thank you!
Regardless of the donations, refcard-org-mode will always be free both as in beer and as in speech.
Copyright (C) 2014-2025 Fabrice Niessen. All rights reserved.
Author: Fabrice Niessen
Keywords: org-mode refcard
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.
[fn:myfootnote] Extensively used in large documents.
[fn:2] Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
RetroSearch is an open source project built by @garambo | Open a GitHub Issue
Search and Browse the WWW like it's 1997 | Search results from DuckDuckGo
HTML:
3.2
| Encoding:
UTF-8
| Version:
0.7.4