Whitespace and outline structure...

[Daniel Pittman <daniel@rimspace.net>]

G'day.

I have found org mode incredibly good and useful so far, to my surprise,
as I usually find outlining tools in Emacs very frustrating.  This is a
really pleasant change -- and great, since it fills a gap in my task and
project management requirements.

I do have one gripe, though, that I hope someone can suggest something
to help with; the manual and google have not given me much help.


I like to lay out my large todo list nicely; visible whitespace between
sections make their relationships much clearer to me at a glance, and
the overall structure much easier to read.

This works fine with org-mode in most cases: if I put a line between
items it is swallowed by the folding, but if I put multiple lines then
it remains as a single line of visible white-space.


The problem comes when I restructure the file and when I add items
through the `remember' package: whitespace adds up, or is moved, and
generally doesn't just "do what I mean."


There are two specific problems:

I put multiple blank lines before a top level heading to get visible
whitespace, in this sort of structure:

* Some Stuff
** A first item.
** Blah Blah


* Other Stuff -- with a line even when 'Some Stuff' is folded.
** Another Item.


If I was then to move '** Blah Blah' under the 'Other Stuff' heading
using the built-in structure management tools those extra blank lines
move with it.

This means that 'Other Stuff' is now joined up, visually, to 'A First
Item', which I didn't want, and that there is visible whitespace between
'Blah Blah' and 'Another Item' as well...


The second is that the insert command from `remember' tends to end up
building up blank lines between my 'Tasks' heading (where it inserts the
items) and the new items themselves.

This one is less of an issue, and something that I am going to work on
understanding better before I complain more; at the moment I suspect my
templates or use of `remember' may be the root cause.

Regards,
        Daniel
-- 
Daniel Pittman <daniel@cybersource.com.au>           Phone: 03 9428 6922
1/130-132 Stawell St, Richmond              Web: http://www.cyber.com.au
Cybersource: Australia's Leading Linux and Open Source Solutions Company