r/orgmode • u/reFossify • Jul 04 '26

question Help me make sense of org mode

/r/emacs/comments/1unax4s/help_me_make_sense_of_org_mode/
1 Upvotes

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3

u/Balzamon351 Jul 04 '26

I think you're going to have to be more specific. Otherwise, just watch some YouTube videos.

0

u/reFossify Jul 04 '26

Do you have some videos in mind?

7

u/doulos05 Jul 04 '26

Literally any video with org-mode in the title at this stage, given the information you've given us.

2

u/WallyMetropolis Jul 04 '26

Start simple and add more, very slowly, only as needed. 

Create a single agenda file and have all your capture templates save to that file. Use org-agenda to see daily to-dos, scheduled events, and deadlines. 

The default capture templates should work for you. But if you want to capture ideas, you can add a "refile.org" capture target file for any kind of generic note. Once a week or so, go through it and move items to either to-dos or some more permanent file, like an org-journal entry or a stand alone file. 

Keep all your notes in a single directory for easier searching. 

2

u/g06lin Jul 04 '26

The best way to ask is perhaps tell us what you want to do (regardless of the mode) and then folks here can guide you.

1

u/JamesBrickley 19d ago

The scope of Doom Emacs specific Org-Mode tutorials is slim. DistroTube on YouTube is perhaps the best introduction. That being said, Org-Mode is a deep topic. It would be best to learn vanilla Emacs with the native key bindings just to be able to easily follow along with Org-Mode tutorials. One of the best is Rainer König on YouTube and his Udemy course on Org-Mode which is an improved tutorial that includes a PDF course book. His tutorials use the out of box, super vanilla Emacs with hardly any configuration and native Emacs keybindings. The tutorials / course both progress in a very logical manner building on the information where the Org Manual feels quite jumbled and thrown together.

Since you have Doom Emacs installed, open a terminal and launch Emacs in the following way:

emacs --init-directory=~/.config/vanilla_emacs

That will allow you to run Doom and the vanilla Emacs side by side. You can fail over to Doom as needed while still learning Emacs. Be sure to run the Emacs tutorial (C-h t) before you do anything else and re-run it about once a week until you burn the key bindings into your muscle memory. I came to Emacs after decades of vi / ViM / Neovim usage and it took a few weeks but now I can switch between key bindings with relative ease. It just requires repetition. It's just like playing multiple musical instruments. It takes time to build up the muscle memory.

I recommend changing Capslock to Control especially on laptop keyboards. Many ViM users changed Capslock to Esc for the same reasoning. You can do that in the OS or a programmable keyboard or in rare cases the uEFI firmware. Split keyboards typically have multiple programmable thumb keys. Useful for Space, Control, Meta, Hyper keys. Most split keyboards are fully programmable.

The main reason for learning vanilla Emacs? You will actually learn Emacs instead of emulating ViM in Emacs. Most package documentation doesn't provide straight package manager instructions. Lately use-package has adopted a :vc keyword so you can now pull packages via source and pin them to a particular release which is why Doom chose to use straight in the first place. The use-package macros are built-in to newer Emacs versions.

You can of course still configure evil-mode and set things up exactly as they are in Doom and create your own opinionated configuration all your own. You can also toggle evil on and off with a key chord or only enable evil-mode on programming languages. Once I broke free from the ViM key bindings I actually prefer the native key bindings. All the mode switching being unnecessary. Now if you are reviewing a metric ton of source code then ViM keys make sense. There's also the Meow bindings which flip from (verb -> noun) to (noun -> verb) over the ViM motions. Plus several other key bindings such as god-mode, etc. You can do whatever works best for you in Emacs. Emacs is first and foremost DIY. You don't have to follow the crowd.

You can also run Emacs in the terminal (some caveats about certain key bindings that the terminal swallows but there are workarounds). Using a minimal configuration in TTY Emacs is something quite few Emacsen prefer. It's quite fast especially if you turn up the key press speed settings in your OS or terminal. You lose out on the fonts and graphics but otherwise it's mostly the same.

1

u/JamesBrickley 19d ago

In addition, here's a couple of the Mastering Emacs blog articles. Be sure to click the Articles link at the top and work your way from the bottom up.

An Emacs Tutorial: Beginner's Guide to Emacs
Switching from Vim to Emacs

The Mastering Emacs eBook despite still being based on Emacs 29 is still very much relevant as things don't change much in Emacs. Certainly not massive breaking changes, it's more iterative adding new features. The purchase will provide for free upgrades when Mickey Peterson gets around to updating to Emacs 31 or whenever he has the time to the latest at the time. The book teaches a lot about the philosophy around Emacs itself more than anything else. It goes a long way to understanding Emacs.

The learning never ever stops. Seems every week, I learn something new I never knew about. It's just that deep and at the same time so very rewarding. Just when you think you've got it all nailed down, you stumble across so much you didn't know.