Customizing agenda line format

Customizing agenda line format

[Norbert Zeh]

Hi folks,

Is there a way to freely customize the format of lines in the weekly
agenda or todo list.  I know of the different formatting settings I can
use, but they don't do what I want.  Here's a simple use case, but more
complicated ones are possible.

I have a bunch of todo items that have a special todo state, say SPECIAL.
I don't want those included in my weekly agenda, but rather have a block
agenda where one of the blocks lists all todo items with todo state
SPECIAL.  Clearly, since this block includes only items that are
SPECIAL, listing this tag at the beginning of each entry's line is
redundant information.  So I'd like to remove the TODO state.  For
example, the org file entry

* SPECIAL Call mom

should appear simply as

Call mom

in that block of my agenda.  Can this be done?  I'm even willing to
override some fairly low-level line formatting function for this block.
I simply don't know where to start looking.  So any pointer would be
appreciated.

Cheers,
Norbert

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Re: Customizing agenda line format

[Matt Lundin]

Norbert Zeh <nzeh@cs.dal.ca> writes:

> Is there a way to freely customize the format of lines in the weekly
> agenda or todo list.  
...
> I have a bunch of todo items that have a special todo state, say SPECIAL.
> I don't want those included in my weekly agenda, but rather have a block
> agenda where one of the blocks lists all todo items with todo state
> SPECIAL.  Clearly, since this block includes only items that are
> SPECIAL, listing this tag at the beginning of each entry's line is
> redundant information.  So I'd like to remove the TODO state.  For
> example, the org file entry
>
> * SPECIAL Call mom
>
> should appear simply as
>
> Call mom
>
> in that block of my agenda.  Can this be done?  

Check out the variable org-agenda-todo-keyword-format. 

E.g.,

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
(setq org-agenda-custom-commands
      '(("x" "Special" todo "SPECIAL"
	      ((org-agenda-todo-keyword-format "")))))
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

The variable org-agenda-prefix-format might also be of interest.

Best,
Matt

Re: Customizing agenda line format

[Norbert Zeh]

Matt Lundin [2010.09.13 1512 -0400]:
> Norbert Zeh <nzeh@cs.dal.ca> writes:
> 
> > Is there a way to freely customize the format of lines in the weekly
> > agenda or todo list.  
> ...
> > I have a bunch of todo items that have a special todo state, say SPECIAL.
> > I don't want those included in my weekly agenda, but rather have a block
> > agenda where one of the blocks lists all todo items with todo state
> > SPECIAL.  Clearly, since this block includes only items that are
> > SPECIAL, listing this tag at the beginning of each entry's line is
> > redundant information.  So I'd like to remove the TODO state.  For
> > example, the org file entry
> >
> > * SPECIAL Call mom
> >
> > should appear simply as
> >
> > Call mom
> >
> > in that block of my agenda.  Can this be done?  
> 
> Check out the variable org-agenda-todo-keyword-format. 
> 
> E.g.,
> 
> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
> (setq org-agenda-custom-commands
>       '(("x" "Special" todo "SPECIAL"
> 	      ((org-agenda-todo-keyword-format "")))))
> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
> 
> The variable org-agenda-prefix-format might also be of interest.

Well, I tried setting org-agenda-todo-keyword-format to "%0s", which
didn't work, but I didn't think about the above.  So I tried this now.
It does remove the todo keyword, but it does only that.  In particular,
there is now a space at the beginning of each line, which I assume is
simply the space in the headline that succeeds the todo keyword.  Any
way of getting rid of that?  Thanks for the pointer so far.

- Norbert

Re: Customizing agenda line format

[Matt Lundin]

Norbert Zeh <nzeh@cs.dal.ca> writes:

> Matt Lundin [2010.09.13 1512 -0400]:
>> Norbert Zeh <nzeh@cs.dal.ca> writes:
>> 
>> > Is there a way to freely customize the format of lines in the weekly
>> > agenda or todo list.  
>> ...
>> > I have a bunch of todo items that have a special todo state, say SPECIAL.
>> > I don't want those included in my weekly agenda, but rather have a block
>> > agenda where one of the blocks lists all todo items with todo state
>> > SPECIAL.  Clearly, since this block includes only items that are
>> > SPECIAL, listing this tag at the beginning of each entry's line is
>> > redundant information.  So I'd like to remove the TODO state.  For
>> > example, the org file entry
>> >
>> > * SPECIAL Call mom
>> >
>> > should appear simply as
>> >
>> > Call mom
>> >
>> > in that block of my agenda.  Can this be done?  
>> 
>> Check out the variable org-agenda-todo-keyword-format. 
>> 
>> E.g.,
>> 
>> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
>> (setq org-agenda-custom-commands
>>       '(("x" "Special" todo "SPECIAL"
>> 	      ((org-agenda-todo-keyword-format "")))))
>> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
>> 
>> The variable org-agenda-prefix-format might also be of interest.
>
> Well, I tried setting org-agenda-todo-keyword-format to "%0s", which
> didn't work, but I didn't think about the above.  So I tried this now.
> It does remove the todo keyword, but it does only that.  In particular,
> there is now a space at the beginning of each line, which I assume is
> simply the space in the headline that succeeds the todo keyword.  Any
> way of getting rid of that?  Thanks for the pointer so far.
>

The information at the beginning of the line is controlled by
org-agenda-prefix-format. What is the value of org-agenda-prefix-format
on your machine?

What happens if you set org-agenda-prefix-format to "" in the command
above?

Best, 
Matt

Re: Customizing agenda line format

[Norbert Zeh]

Matt Lundin [2010.09.13 1916 -0400]:
> Norbert Zeh <nzeh@cs.dal.ca> writes:
> 
> > Matt Lundin [2010.09.13 1512 -0400]:
> >> Norbert Zeh <nzeh@cs.dal.ca> writes:
> >> 
> >> > Is there a way to freely customize the format of lines in the weekly
> >> > agenda or todo list.  
> >> ...
> >> > I have a bunch of todo items that have a special todo state, say SPECIAL.
> >> > I don't want those included in my weekly agenda, but rather have a block
> >> > agenda where one of the blocks lists all todo items with todo state
> >> > SPECIAL.  Clearly, since this block includes only items that are
> >> > SPECIAL, listing this tag at the beginning of each entry's line is
> >> > redundant information.  So I'd like to remove the TODO state.  For
> >> > example, the org file entry
> >> >
> >> > * SPECIAL Call mom
> >> >
> >> > should appear simply as
> >> >
> >> > Call mom
> >> >
> >> > in that block of my agenda.  Can this be done?  
> >> 
> >> Check out the variable org-agenda-todo-keyword-format. 
> >> 
> >> E.g.,
> >> 
> >> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
> >> (setq org-agenda-custom-commands
> >>       '(("x" "Special" todo "SPECIAL"
> >> 	      ((org-agenda-todo-keyword-format "")))))
> >> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
> >> 
> >> The variable org-agenda-prefix-format might also be of interest.
> >
> > Well, I tried setting org-agenda-todo-keyword-format to "%0s", which
> > didn't work, but I didn't think about the above.  So I tried this now.
> > It does remove the todo keyword, but it does only that.  In particular,
> > there is now a space at the beginning of each line, which I assume is
> > simply the space in the headline that succeeds the todo keyword.  Any
> > way of getting rid of that?  Thanks for the pointer so far.
> >
> 
> The information at the beginning of the line is controlled by
> org-agenda-prefix-format. What is the value of org-agenda-prefix-format
> on your machine?

It seems to be more complicated than that.  Here's what I found out by
tinkering around with settings a little.  Setting
org-agenda-prefix-format to "" (as I already did before) correctly
removes the prefix *before* the TODO keyword.  The formatting function
for everything starting with the TODO keyword, however, seems to
unconditionally insert a space between the TODO keyword and the rest of
the line.  Thus, even if the TODO keyword is empty (by setting
org-agenda-todo-keyword-format to ""), there is still a space after the
now empty TODO keyword.  Hence, the extra space at the beginning of the
line. To me it seems like there's no way around this with the standard
org mode settings.

Cheers,
Norbert

Re: Customizing agenda line format

[Matt Lundin]

Norbert Zeh <nzeh@cs.dal.ca> writes:

>  Here's what I found out by tinkering around with settings a little.
> Setting org-agenda-prefix-format to "" (as I already did before)
> correctly removes the prefix *before* the TODO keyword. The formatting
> function for everything starting with the TODO keyword, however, seems
> to unconditionally insert a space between the TODO keyword and the
> rest of the line. Thus, even if the TODO keyword is empty (by setting
> org-agenda-todo-keyword-format to ""), there is still a space after
> the now empty TODO keyword. Hence, the extra space at the beginning of
> the line. To me it seems like there's no way around this with the
> standard org mode settings.

After experimenting a bit, I've also come to conclusion that the initial
space is hard-coded.

Best,
Matt

Re: Re: Customizing agenda line format

[Carsten Dominik]

On Sep 16, 2010, at 6:52 AM, Matt Lundin wrote:

> Norbert Zeh <nzeh@cs.dal.ca> writes:
>
>> Here's what I found out by tinkering around with settings a little.
>> Setting org-agenda-prefix-format to "" (as I already did before)
>> correctly removes the prefix *before* the TODO keyword. The  
>> formatting
>> function for everything starting with the TODO keyword, however,  
>> seems
>> to unconditionally insert a space between the TODO keyword and the
>> rest of the line. Thus, even if the TODO keyword is empty (by setting
>> org-agenda-todo-keyword-format to ""), there is still a space after
>> the now empty TODO keyword. Hence, the extra space at the beginning  
>> of
>> the line. To me it seems like there's no way around this with the
>> standard org mode settings.
>
> After experimenting a bit, I've also come to conclusion that the  
> initial
> space is hard-coded.

It is also used by some day-to-day motion commands, so it should  
remain there

- Carsten

>
> Best,
> Matt
>
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- Carsten