Introduction (Org Mode Compact Guide)

Next: Document Structure, Previous: Top, Up: Top [Contents]

## 1 Introduction

Org is a mode for keeping notes, maintaining TODO lists, and doing project planning with a fast and effective plain-text system. It is also an authoring and publishing system, and it supports working with source code for literal programming and reproducible research.

This document is a much compressed derivative of the (org)comprehensive Org mode manual. It contains all basic features and commands, along with important hints for customization. It is intended for beginners who would shy back from a 200 pages manual because of sheer size.

### Installation

> Important: If you are using a version of Org that is part of the Emacs distribution, please skip this section and go directly to Activation.

If you have downloaded Org from the web, either as a distribution ‘`.zip`’ or ‘`.tar`’ file, or as a Git archive, it is best to run it directly from the distribution directory. You need to add the ‘`lisp/`’ subdirectories to the Emacs load path. To do this, add the following line to your Emacs init file:

    (add-to-list 'load-path "~/path/to/orgdir/lisp")
    (add-to-list 'load-path "~/path/to/orgdir/contrib/lisp" t)

If you have been using git or a tar ball to get Org, you need to run the following command to generate autoload information.

    make autoloads

### Activation

Add the following lines to your Emacs init file. The last four lines define global keys for some commands—please choose suitable keys yourself.

    ;; The following lines are always needed.  Choose your own keys.
    (global-set-key (kbd "C-l") 'org-store-link)
    (global-set-key (kbd "C-a") 'org-agenda)
    (global-set-key (kbd "C-c") 'org-capture)
    (global-set-key (kbd "C-b") 'org-switchb)

Files with extension ‘`.org`’ will be put into Org mode automatically.

### Feedback

If you find problems with Org, or if you have questions, remarks, or ideas about it, please mail to the Org mailing list emacs-orgmode@gnu.org. For information on how to submit bug reports, see the main manual.

Next: Document Structure, Previous: Top, Up: Top [Contents]