The power of '-'

The power of '-'

[Chris Patti]

So, this is one of those weird moments where I feel really stupid
saying this, but I can imagine others have dealt with this as well.

When I first started using org-mode, I thought you prefixed every line
with some number of *.

Then, I discovered that the *** were headings, and actual items under
those headings were prefixed with '-'.

This is a simple thing, but WOW did it make a huge difference.

* I kept wondering why exports to PDF or HTML looked like crud
* Things like beamer wouldn't render my slides properly

etc etc.

I'm going to go over the documentation and ensure I wasn't just
looking past something, but I wonder if others have had this problem.

-Chris

-- 
Christopher Patti - Geek At Large | GTalk: cpatti@gmail.com | AIM:
chrisfeohpatti | P: (260) 54PATTI
"Technology challenges art, art inspires technology." - John Lasseter, Pixar

Re: The power of '-'

[Brenda Butler]

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I'm not super advanced in org-mode, so take what I have to say as
"non-authoritative", but:

I don't think you need any prefix on lines in your org-mode file.
Lines with some number of * are headers as you noted
Lines that start with a - make a list of items.

I'm not sure what you can do with lists ... but probably that has an effect
on formatting.
So you can have a paragraph (no prefix), then a list (list items start with
-) then another paragraph ...

I haven't tried to "export" my org files so I don't know how it would
look.  I just use the files as a todo/done list/database/thing.

bjb


On Fri, Jun 24, 2016 at 12:11 PM, Chris Patti <cpatti@gmail.com> wrote:

> So, this is one of those weird moments where I feel really stupid
> saying this, but I can imagine others have dealt with this as well.
>
> When I first started using org-mode, I thought you prefixed every line
> with some number of *.
>
> Then, I discovered that the *** were headings, and actual items under
> those headings were prefixed with '-'.
>
> This is a simple thing, but WOW did it make a huge difference.
>
> * I kept wondering why exports to PDF or HTML looked like crud
> * Things like beamer wouldn't render my slides properly
>
> etc etc.
>
> I'm going to go over the documentation and ensure I wasn't just
> looking past something, but I wonder if others have had this problem.
>
> -Chris
>
> --
> Christopher Patti - Geek At Large | GTalk: cpatti@gmail.com | AIM:
> chrisfeohpatti | P: (260) 54PATTI
> "Technology challenges art, art inspires technology." - John Lasseter,
> Pixar
>
>

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Re: The power of '-'

[Chris Patti]

Export is one of org's best features IMO.

You can take your outline and make a PDF, HTML, etc etc out of it.

Very handy for when you want to type some notes or something up and
make them look REALLY polished. Impress the boss :)

-Chris

On Fri, Jun 24, 2016 at 1:24 PM, Brenda Butler <bjb@mojatatu.com> wrote:
> I'm not super advanced in org-mode, so take what I have to say as
> "non-authoritative", but:
>
> I don't think you need any prefix on lines in your org-mode file.
> Lines with some number of * are headers as you noted
> Lines that start with a - make a list of items.
>
> I'm not sure what you can do with lists ... but probably that has an effect
> on formatting.
> So you can have a paragraph (no prefix), then a list (list items start with
> -) then another paragraph ...
>
> I haven't tried to "export" my org files so I don't know how it would look.
> I just use the files as a todo/done list/database/thing.
>
> bjb
>
>
> On Fri, Jun 24, 2016 at 12:11 PM, Chris Patti <cpatti@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> So, this is one of those weird moments where I feel really stupid
>> saying this, but I can imagine others have dealt with this as well.
>>
>> When I first started using org-mode, I thought you prefixed every line
>> with some number of *.
>>
>> Then, I discovered that the *** were headings, and actual items under
>> those headings were prefixed with '-'.
>>
>> This is a simple thing, but WOW did it make a huge difference.
>>
>> * I kept wondering why exports to PDF or HTML looked like crud
>> * Things like beamer wouldn't render my slides properly
>>
>> etc etc.
>>
>> I'm going to go over the documentation and ensure I wasn't just
>> looking past something, but I wonder if others have had this problem.
>>
>> -Chris
>>
>> --
>> Christopher Patti - Geek At Large | GTalk: cpatti@gmail.com | AIM:
>> chrisfeohpatti | P: (260) 54PATTI
>> "Technology challenges art, art inspires technology." - John Lasseter,
>> Pixar
>>
>



-- 
Christopher Patti - Geek At Large | GTalk: cpatti@gmail.com | AIM:
chrisfeohpatti | P: (260) 54PATTI
"Technology challenges art, art inspires technology." - John Lasseter, Pixar

Re: The power of '-'

[Suvayu Ali]

On Fri, Jun 24, 2016 at 01:24:44PM -0400, Brenda Butler wrote:
> I'm not super advanced in org-mode, so take what I have to say as
> "non-authoritative", but:
> 
> I don't think you need any prefix on lines in your org-mode file.
> Lines with some number of * are headers as you noted
> Lines that start with a - make a list of items.
> 
> I'm not sure what you can do with lists ... but probably that has an effect
> on formatting.
> So you can have a paragraph (no prefix), then a list (list items start with
> -) then another paragraph ...

You may take a look here for an authoritative source:

  http://orgmode.org/manual/Document-structure.html#Document-structure


> I haven't tried to "export" my org files so I don't know how it would
> look.  I just use the files as a todo/done list/database/thing.

Here are some export tutorials:

  http://orgmode.org/worg/exporters/

The canonical reference is of course the manual.  You can also find a
plethora of tutorials here: http://orgmode.org/worg/org-tutorials/.
Note, some are quite outdated though.  That said, you need not go
through them all.  The central idea behind getting started with Org mode
is: explore as your need broadens.  Welcome to Org mode, and happy
exploring :)

Cheers,

-- 
Suvayu

Open source is the future. It sets us free.