Re: things I don't understand about tables

[Nick Dokos <nicholas.dokos@hp.com>]

Jude DaShiell <jdashiel@shellworld.net> wrote:

> On Mon, 12 Nov 2012, Nick Dokos wrote:
> 
> > Jude DaShiell <jdashiel@shellworld.net> wrote:
> > 
> > > Why is it when I try putting a date in this table using the calendar I get 
> > > no date entered when in a blank field and hear the message:
> > > Before first headline at position 376 in buffer medlog.org
> > > 
> > 
> > How are you trying to insert the date?
> > 
> > This error is usually produced because some function is trying to do an
> > org-back-to-heading, i.e. the function does not expect the table to be
> > at top level. In particular, C-c C-d (org-deadline) and C-c C-s (org-schedule)
> > *want* a headline and insert the scheduling information after the headline,
> > not in the table.
> > 
> > OTOH, I tried entering a date into a table at top level with C-c .
> > which is bound to org-time-stamp, and the date gets inserted with no error
> > (and S-RET also works to increment the date in subsequent rows as
> > Michael Brand mentioned)
> > 
> > Org-mode version 7.9.2 (release_7.9.2-577-gb0a051 @ /home/nick/elisp/org-mode/lisp/)
> > 
> > Nick
> > 
> > 
> 
> First I try with c-c c-d that didn't get me into the calendar.  Next I try 
> with c-c . and that got me into the calendar and on current date.  
> Unfortunately, c-b c-b failed to move me two days back from the current 
> date.  This is with emacs 24.x on debian.
> 

When org-read-date pops up a calendar, you are not "in the calendar",
you are in the minibuffer with the prompt. You can select previous dates
by using something like -2 or you can use a set of calendar commands
that are bound to keys in the minibuffer. In particular, you can move
the cursor in the calendar to the previous day with S-<Left>. There are
similar keys for moving forward/backward through days, weeks, months and
3-month periods. All of these are documented in the manual:

   (info "(org)The date/time prompt")

AFAICT, you cannot go "into the calendar": you can switch buffers, but
even so the calendar buffer does not seem to recognize any keys. Not
entirely sure that I've got this right (and I certainly don't understand
what's going on), but it seems to be a correct description of the
behavior.

Nick