You Should Really Learn Org Mode - It's Easy

[@PanzerTanzer1]

This was a nice introduction. I have used Emacs for 25 years, but it is only 5 years since I started using org-mode, mostly for taking notes. After I became familiar with the syntax, I just had a glance on a few of the packages in the org ecosystem, and then a few more, and now I think org-mode has taken over my life...

[@tylerdback2025]

I just switched from vim to using Emacs as of last week, and was heavily inspired by you to build out my own configuration from scratch. Org mode is honestly amazing. I even use Org Babel to write my Emacs configuration and tangle it out to my init.el file. Glad to see an upload from you again Gavin, keep up the great content!

[@GavinFreeborn]

Great to hear! Your's and everyone else's support is what keeps me going.

[@Magicman1335]

watched this while studying notes for a final that i took in org-mode, org-mode is the best

[@nigelthornbrake]

Nice video, great gentle introduction to org. You mentioned org-capture as one of the things to look into at the end, but forgot it's almost constant companion: org-refile!

[@BraxtonMeyer]

Good to see you back. Ily gav ❤

[@DbeatPR24187]

What a video bro! Can't thank you enough! Thank you so much you made life so much easier!

[@baconboi37]

you can link files in org mode which means you can make yourself a personal wiki, how cool is that

[@jcarloz0]

Great simple introduction to org mode, thanks

[@jrgomez]

Very interesting. I'll definitely will add it to my productivity toolkit. Thanks!

[@MENTOKz]

great video gavin i use org-mode on my work windows pc with evil-mode for notes and also on my main personal pc.

[@the2ndlanguage4me52]

The program works great, thanks, post more videos like this

[@noticiasdobrasiledomundo8509]

ITS REALLY WORKED LOL THANK YOU DUDE

[@CaribouDataScience]

You do realize that the expression, "going down a rabbit hole" is a nod to Alice in Wonder Land.

[@laughingvampire7555]

I'm always perplexed by people who complain something has "too many features" when nothing with more than 1 feature requires you to use those other features, is like the feel the need to dominate something or else they won't use it.

[@artyhedgehog]

05:22 I believe you have org links incorrectly: it is `[[url][desctiption]]` (as opposite to markdown `[description](url)`). I'm not sure links won't work with your way, but url-first is how they specify it in org manual and how org-store-link generates them. I've heard mnemonics of it being similar to "a" HTML tag.

[@GavinFreeborn]

Good catch mixed it up looking at the markdown one I guess 😅. Thanks for pointing this out 😀

[@ironmanlifts]

7:31 Yasnippet works fine as well. I don't see it on par with ultisnips but I think that's my lack of lisp knowledge. In ultisnips you can do choice in real time kzbin.info/www/bejne/gHu0iqqqa6mcqNE, not sure if there is a way in emacs? The work around in yasnippet you use the minibuffer with 'yas-choose-value'.

[@lawrencejones51]

Useful basics. Thanks.

[@RonaldoAlmeidaOpusMagnum]

@GavinFreeborn, what is needed to have a live preview of the org file as you type? Immediately after you finish the markup characters, they disappear and we only see the formatted word. I can do this live preview in MD editors like typora, but can't find how to do this in emacs org mode

[@bhaveshverma8629]

After a long time

[@chauthanhtri9922]

How do I install this emacs distribution and style as you have? I like it.

[@Chris-mm]

I couldn't remember the markdown links format for years, then I thought of it as the text calling the url, since the () are common syntax for calling functions in a lot of languages, and it's stuck with me since.

[@artyhedgehog]

17:53 Did you mean Orgzly? Or something else?

[@GavinFreeborn]

Indeed that is what I was referring to.

[@sirrobertdowneysenior8080]

Any elpa, melpa or elpaca package to enter dashed line like 3 stats (***) does with markdown?

[@usefulknowledge6074]

Can you comment on the "slowness" of emacs. I've heard lots of comments from people saying that because emacs is single-threaded, it freezes from time to time, for example when using the LSP.

[@GavinFreeborn]

Maybe I should. Have you experienced this yourself?

[@usefulknowledge6074]

@@GavinFreeborn I've dabbled in doom emacs but haven't done anything serious to put that into test. However, this is something I constantly hear about emacs, so wanted to ask if this is something you've experienced. I am very intrigued by emacs but afraid to leave the comfort of Lua for the strange work of elisp. For instance, I use a language called verilog-a. This language has no linter. I managed to write a parser for it in Lua that connects to the language's compiler and send diagnostics to neovim. Took me about 2h, and it's only recently that I started using Lua. Can't imagine how long it'll take me to get comfortable with elisp to accomplish such a feat. This is what's holding me back.

[@GavinFreeborn]

@@usefulknowledge6074 performance really isn't an issue in my experience. There is a reason multiple parser generators exist as elisp packages. Emacs can now compile to native code now so it can be very speedy. I can't say how long it will take you to write that code but for me I find elisp much nicer to write than Lua.

[@Bhukha]

gets installed smoothly, but when i open it, there is a error message : "sketchup quit unexpectedly"

[@encapsulatio]

What is the equivalent of Org Mode in Neovim? Also does Org Mode have feature parity with Obsidian and it's plugin ecosystem?

[@GavinFreeborn]

I believe there is a orgmode.nvim. it's pretty great. Not on par with emacs but it's got most of what I show here covered. There is a project called neorg but it makes its own syntax and lacks some features but seems to consider it's self better for whatever reason.

[@GavinFreeborn]

From my testing it's not but who knows he may just not know what org-mode can do.

[@encapsulatio]

@@GavinFreeborn He? who is "he"?

[@GavinFreeborn]

@@encapsulatio he as in the creator of neorg.

[@encapsulatio]

@@GavinFreeborn I'm an Obsidian user, why would I be interested in Org Mode as an Obsidian user?

[@alexei3366]

Is it possible to change color of some words in the org mode. E.e. all word "Attention" must be red.

[@guillermo6877]

This truly helped me thnx??

[@octavioherrera1255]

Nice man ty

[@defnlife1683]

Quality

[@davidvillafana3427]

What is "leasy fair" XD Did you mean the French phrase "laissez-faire"?

[@TURKISTONIM2]

I think it would be more helpful if you had shown the key commands in the video.

[@GavinFreeborn]

You can see every key and the command associated with it in the modelline aka the bar at the bottom of emacs

[@sentinel9651]

Can you export to PDF and EPUB?

[@GavinFreeborn]

Yes

[@matthieub3973]

How do you even install it :( I'm on Windows 10

[@张衡-t2e]

what font

[@ArneBab]

For the link: that’s [[link][name]] in org-mode.

[@passworder]

hey u talked about links twice

[@GavinFreeborn]

Aw man can't believe I missed that. My apologies

[@passworder]

@@GavinFreeborn it was still the finest org mode video ive witnessed

[@JeersNX]

I THOUGHT I LOOPED THE VID LMAO

[@FineWine-v4.0]

What about Tables ???

[@GavinFreeborn]

Coming very soon

[@thegeniusfool]

“Quite a long time” in Emacs world is 30+ years, no?

[@averagetechnologyenojyer]

Hey I am asking a stupid question but like in markdown how we paste images from clipboard using control+v, how to do that in Emacs? Also, Loved your video about org (⁠ ⁠◜⁠‿⁠◝⁠ ⁠)

[@GavinFreeborn]

Depends on where the image is from but the best package for anything related to that is org-download. It lets you drag and drop, screenshot, and paste images just like in a regular Gui

[@GavinFreeborn]

Also, that's a perfectly reasonable question

[@averagetechnologyenojyer]

@@GavinFreeborn arigatou soo much! Man emacs is what really means when users are given the power to do things. Especially thanks to people like you who work so hard at making awesome stuff 😊

[@sman1bukitkemuning389]

I recommend everything

[@CheapHomeTech]

Seems like the world is moving towards asciidoc.

[@GavinFreeborn]

Can I ask what programs you are thinking of? It's been years since I last heard people talking about it. Probably just different circles

[@CheapHomeTech]

I use vim and asciidoc. Extension adoc. I set up my makeprg to call make which calls asciidoctor as needed. Though I have keys set up for on the fly notes like :map madb :lcd:!asciidoctor -o /tmp/x.html %; brave-browser -new-window /tmp/x.html cp /tmp/x.html /tmp/%:h.html and other similar keys starting with mad. I hope this helps because I wasn't sure what exactly you were asking for. @@GavinFreeborn

[@anandk415]

Why does his facial movements look robotic to me?

[@xmurrcattx3498]

twice as nice, apparently

[@a.c3921]

i really like br?, thank you

[@kapilrakh]

Orgmode file is visually cluttered. I moved to Vimwiki.

[@CharlesHarris-r6d]

Hall Barbara Brown Mark Martin Jessica

[@StephanGelenscher]

You are not quite good at teaching - this video feels at least like... This video feels like a good first draft, to make a second, polished version . Don't show off, how much else you know, don't talk about md when you want to show org. Set up a problem and show how you solve it with org. Introducing the concepts you show here on the way.... Man...i am 7minutes in and annyoed as freak 😅😅

[@GavinFreeborn]

I assume most people are familiar with markdown, so comparing and contrasting made sense to me. I understand that may be confusing to those who are unfamiliar with markdown. I appreciate the feedback and maybe a video focused on using org-mode to solve a problem would make sense for the future. As far as showing off could you explain what you mean?

[@tree3971]

​@@GavinFreeborn I think Stephan's intention here didn't match his words. His intention was to be helpful: "I would have preferred an introduction using a real-life example, not a listing of various concepts or features". Because Stephan likely experienced an explosive inner state of frustration (that had been simmering there already previously), some other words got typed... that totally defeated his purpose to connect and be helpful. In my own case, I found this video helpful. It was my first hit on KZbin searching for org-mode and knowing Markdown already, it helped me see the parallels. Your listing of org-capture, org-agenda, etc. also helped me then search for more specific videos talking about these features. Thank you for your work. Much appreciate it.

[@NatLife]

This is not intuitive. You administer yourself to death instead of being creative. The more you plan, the more you miss targets. Targets are moving. I did most of those "tools". I ended with a mind map getting tasks on a Gannt chart. All on one page. Managed really big projects. Knowledge and information outdate between 30-60% p. a. You waste your time noting everything. Note less, take action and accept continuum change. The worst are the nerds with Vim or Emacs. This is for fanatic scientists but rarely for practical makers in agile environments. Return to life. But, you never can convince those hammering keyboard fans with their outdated crumpy screens. Like a strange love for an elusive relationship.

[@andrewiglinski148]

Ah dude I love the support inside of vim, but markdown is supported by so many other projects. You can go back and forth between latex and markdown so easily, and there's so many python and cli tools to work with markdown.

[@GavinFreeborn]

If you ever need markdown you can always export to md

[@andrewiglinski148]

@@GavinFreeborn Oh shit I might have to try this now. I love the navigation and functionality that's so quick in a terminal that seems to be missing for markdown notebooks inside of neovim but markdown is supported in the rest of my workflow so easily. I was thinking about building a plugin that adds some navigation features to latex docs and basically create a latex based version of Obsidian or the Telek? (I can never spell it) sort of workflow for the science nerds that like the math and plotting features that latex allows. If anyone's interested and sees this comment let me know! I'm going to work on it in my very limited free time, but if someone want's to partner up...

[@illegalsmirf]

No.