From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Mikael Fornius Subject: Re: Properties and Columns Date: Fri, 07 Nov 2008 17:01:37 +0100 Message-ID: <87tzajle3i.fsf@abc.se> References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Return-path: Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1KyTmj-0005qD-Aw for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Fri, 07 Nov 2008 11:02:09 -0500 Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1KyTmg-0005pZ-PZ for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Fri, 07 Nov 2008 11:02:08 -0500 Received: from [199.232.76.173] (port=45868 helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1KyTmg-0005pW-It for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Fri, 07 Nov 2008 11:02:06 -0500 Received: from violet.abc.se ([62.80.200.155]:40519) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS-1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1KyTmf-0006hT-Ub for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Fri, 07 Nov 2008 11:02:06 -0500 In-Reply-To: (Dennis Groves's message of "Thu, 6 Nov 2008 22:28:14 +0000") List-Id: "General discussions about Org-mode." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Sender: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org To: "Dennis Groves (CISG)" Cc: "emacs-orgmode@gnu.org" "Dennis Groves (CISG)" writes: > Can anbody give me some examples of how they use the Properties and Columns > stuff - it looks like that would be way more flexible and useful than what I > did with all my spreadsheets... Say we want to collect body weight data. I would make notes of my weight in a timestamped heading with the weight as property: M-RET C-c . RET M-x org-set-property Results in entry: * <2008-11-07 fre> :PROPERTIES: :weight: 68 :END: With point on property-drawer magic key C-c C-c makes adding more or editing properties easy. Now I define what columns to show with: #+COLUMNS: %TIMESTAMP %weight now when doing C-c C-x C-c on the heading will show the data as a table row instead of a heading. Columns can be defined globally (as I did in my example) or for a subtree by setting :COLUMNS: property in root of folding tree. For more info see info page M-: (info "(org) Properties and Columns") Personally I think it is cool to be able to view headings as columns although the alignment of the columns is not in a straight line when viewing over many subtrees. It is nice that org-columns preserves the tree view you have folded, so you can limit your columns view with tag searches. At the top of the columns table there is headlines and you can tell org to sum a column and have it displayed, sum times or numbers. Thats it as far as I know. > How would you do calculations for calculated or derived data from the data > points you do gather? (for example, I do lean body mass calculations based > on a number of physical metrics I gather each day...) You can dump a org-columns view to a standard org-table with a dynamic block, then maybe apply some table formulas on it for more advanced use. I am not sure if the TABLEFM can be kept outside of the dblock? (So it is not erased when updating.) /Mikael Fornius