Emacs Org-mode - a system for note-taking and project planning

Google TechTalks · 331.1K views · 2008-07-16 · 46:57

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Overview

A 2008 Google Tech Talk by the creator of Org-mode, introducing the Emacs subsystem for plain-text note-taking and project planning. It covers outlines, TODO states, tags, dates and priorities, and later shows using Org-mode as a spreadsheet.

On Hacker News

HN regards it as the best introduction and advertisement for Org-mode, and many say it was enough to get them started with it.

Recommended by 5 HN people across 5 months · HN mentions 2009–2024

Topics

Testing, debugging & developer tools Productivity & self-improvement

What people said

BeetleB · 2020-09 · Strong recommendation
First, the proper way would be to use the appropriate mode for LaTeX (auctex). It has a keybinding. I don't use that mode, though, do I can't tell you how to set it up. I use org-mode, which lets you embed LaTeX formulae. I use this often, but surprisingly am not seeing anything in my Emacs config for this, so it may work out of the box. You do need some packages installed on your machine (dvipng, latex, etc). I already had them installed, so for me it was a simple matter of the keybinding: C-c C-x C-l Details from the manual: [LINK] Perhaps a friendlier guide: [LINK] If you're not familiar with org-mode, it is highly recommended. Its learning curve is quite shallow. I'm sure there are tutorials out there, but for me the Google Tech Talk was enough to get me started and convince me I should use it: [VIDEO] Ever since I encountered org mode, I author everything with it: LaTeX, HTML, DOC files, etc.
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baddox · 2011-04 · Strong recommendation
It's funny. I've been using Emacs as my sole editor for about 8 months now, but I still haven't been able to reach enlightenment with org-mode. I have it installed, and I occasionally use it for todo lists, but I guess I'm just not good enough with it to see its value. I think the main stumbling block is the documentation (as with most things Emacs). There needs to be some use cases or something. Even the enthusiastic bloggers never seen to give concrete examples. The best advertisement for org-mode I've seen is this long Google Tech Talk: [VIDEO]
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emporas · 2024-03 · Recommendation
One good solution rather than Excel is org-mode. See the original Google talk by org-mode creator [1]. At some point 30 minutes or so, he explains how to use org-mode as a spreadsheet. Not so powerful as Excel, even though missing features might be trivially added. I haven't tried it myself but i want to really dive into it's functionality. Org-mode is really great at many things, spreadsheets might as well be one more. [1] [VIDEO]
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Sources

Video by Google TechTalks, played through YouTube.

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