5 HN users recommended this talk5 months2009–2024score 6
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026
HN regards it as the best introduction and advertisement for Org-mode, and many say it was enough to get them started with it.
A 2008 Google Tech Talk by the creator of Org-mode, introducing the Emacs subsystem for plain-text note-taking and project planning. It covers outlines, TODO states, tags, dates and priorities, and later shows using Org-mode as a spreadsheet.
“The best advertisement for org-mode I've seen is this long Google Tech Talk” (HN, 2011)
It's funny. I've been using Emacs as my sole editor for about 8 months now, but I still haven't been able to reach enlightenment with org-mode. I have it installed, and I occasionally use it for todo lists, but I guess I'm just not good enough with it to see its value. I think the main stumbling block is the documentation (as with most things Emacs). There needs to be some use cases or something. Even the enthusiastic bloggers never seen to give concrete examples. The best advertisement for org-mode I've seen is this long Google Tech Talk: [this video]
First, the proper way would be to use the appropriate mode for LaTeX (auctex). It has a keybinding. I don't use that mode, though, do I can't tell you how to set it up. I use org-mode, which lets you embed LaTeX formulae. I use this often, but surprisingly am not seeing anything in my Emacs config for this, so it may work out of the box. You do need some packages installed on your machine (dvipng, latex, etc). I already had them installed, so for me it was a simple matter of the keybinding: C-c C-x C-l Details from the manual: [link] Perhaps a friendlier guide: [link] If you're not familiar with org-mode, it is highly recommended. Its learning curve is quite shallow. I'm sure there are tutorials out there, but for me the Google Tech Talk was enough to get me started and convince me I should use it: [this video] Ever since I encountered org mode, I author everything with it: LaTeX, HTML, DOC files, etc.
Talk was enough to get started and convince them to use org-mode
If you're familiar with Emacs you can use Org-mode. There's actually a pretty good video from its creator that shows you the main features: [this video]
Actually you can use org-mode without that much of a learning curve (at least in its basic form). Just pick an Emacs distribution (doom, spacemacs, ...) which come with pretty handy defaults, create an org-file and that's it. I use org-mode myself and didn't take the time to "learn" Emacs. This Google talk[0] was pretty handy to get familiar with org. 0: [this video]
One good solution rather than Excel is org-mode. See the original Google talk by org-mode creator [1]. At some point 30 minutes or so, he explains how to use org-mode as a spreadsheet. Not so powerful as Excel, even though missing features might be trivially added. I haven't tried it myself but i want to really dive into it's functionality. Org-mode is really great at many things, spreadsheets might as well be one more. [1] [this video]
Creator explains using org-mode as a spreadsheet around 30 minutes in
What do you use on the iPad? On my iPod touch I use mobileOrg ( [link] ) with Dropbox sync and it works very well. And using emacs+org-mode on my Mac (or Windows or *nix) machine I have all my stuff in text files (with a backup on dropbox). And org-mode can do a lot more: Emacs Org-mode - a system for note-taking and project planning Google Tech Talks [this video]
Org-mode is a really good replacement for MediaWiki. You can manage links, tables and lists all with simple and reliable text files with .org suffix in Emacs. [this video]
I never liked all the multitude of list making apps - Evernote, Todoist, Omnifocus, etc. I prefer org-mode[1] on emacs. It's simple, flexible, distraction free and for some reason reminds me of writing on paper. You get the simplicity, while also making it as powerful as you want. 1- [this video]
Org-mode in spacemacs is my choice, though that is more of a TODO list keeper than writing down personal thoughts. But it is plain text and has timestamps. It is also very flexible and powerful. [this video]
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