Many people use Emacs to create beautiful LaTeX documents. Org is a powerful and flexible major mode for the Emacs text editor. It allows you to create multi-level hierarchies of text that can dynamically adjust depending on each text block’s context.
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This level of flexibility and control means that Org Mode comes with many features right out of the box. You often see these as keyboard shortcuts you can tap into while editing Org files. This makes Org Mode an effective tool for managing tasks and writing long-form text using the Emacs editor.
This cheatsheet will show you some of the most important Org Mode keyboard shortcuts to speed up your Org document editing sessions. Not only that, it will also highlight some of the more obscure but useful shortcuts for Org Mode.
| Shortcut | Function |
|---|---|
| Manipulating Org Headers | |
| Ctrl + Enter | Create a new Org header of the same level in a new line. |
| Alt + Enter | Create a new Org header of the same level on the current line. |
| Alt + Left Arrow | Move the current Org header one level down. |
| Alt + Right Arrow | Move the current Org header one level up. |
| Alt + Up Arrow | Swap the current Org header along with its daughters one spot up in the document. |
| Alt + Down Arrow | Swap the current Org header along with its daughters one spot down in the document. |
| Alt + Shift + Left Arrow | Move the current Org header along with its daughters one level down. |
| Alt + Shift + Right Arrow | Move the current Org header along with its daughters one level up. |
| Ctrl + C, then Ctrl + W | Move the current Org subheader along with its daughters to a different parent header. |
| Ctrl + C, then Caret (^) | Sort all the Org subheaders under the same parent header. |
| Ctrl + C, then Ctrl + X, then Alt + W | Copy the entire Org header to the Emacs clipboard. |
| Ctrl + C, then Ctrl + X, then Ctrl + W | Cut the entire Org header to the Emacs clipboard. |
| Ctrl + C, then Ctrl + X, then Ctrl + Y | Paste and format the contents of the Emacs clipboard to an appropriate Org header. |
| Manipulating Org TODO Headers | |
| Ctrl + Shift + Enter | Create a new Org header of the same level with a “TODO” attribute in a new line. |
| Alt + Shift + Enter | Create a new Org header of the same level with a “TODO” attribute on the current line. |
| Ctrl + C, then Ctrl + T | Cycle through all the states of the “TODO” header. |
| Shift + Left Arrow | Go to the succeeding “TODO” state for the current header. |
| Shift + Right Arrow | Go to the preceeding “TODO” state for the current header. |
| Ctrl + U, then Ctrl + C, then Ctrl + T | Go to the succeeding “TODO” state for the current header and prompt for a note. |
| Ctrl + C, then Comma (,) | Add a priority value to the current “TODO” header. |
| Shift + Up Arrow | Increase the priority value of the current “TODO” header. |
| Shift + Down Arrow | Decrease the priority value of the current “TODO” header. |
| Manipulating Org TODO Checkboxes | |
| Ctrl + C, then Ctrl + X, then Ctrl + B | Toggle the state of the currently selected TODO checkbox. |
| Ctrl + C, then Ctrl + X, then Ctrl + R | Convert the current TODO checkbox to a radio button and toggle its state. |
| Ctrl + C, then Ctrl + X, then Ctrl + O | Convert the current TODO checkbox to a sequential steps list and toggle its state. |
| Ctrl + C, then Pound (#) | Update all TODO checkbox statistics in the current Org header. |
| Navigating Org Headers | |
| Ctrl + C, then Ctrl + N | Move to the next Org header regardless of level in the current document. |
| Ctrl + C, then Ctrl + F | Move to the next Org header in the same level in the current document. |
| Ctrl + C, then Ctrl + P | Return to the previous Org header in the same level in the current document. |
| Ctrl + C, then Ctrl + B | Create a new Org table and open the table layout editor. |
| Ctrl + C, then Ctrl + U | Go back to a previous level of Org headers in the current document. |
| Displaying Org Headers | |
| Tab | Toggle through the different display states of the current Org header. |
| Shift + Tab | Toggle through the different display states of the entire Org document. |
| Ctrl + U, then Ctrl + U, then Tab | Reset the current display state of the Org document. |
| Ctrl + U, then Ctrl + U, then Ctrl + U, then Tab | Force Org Mode to print all headers in the current document. |
| Ctrl + C, then Ctrl + K | Display all the headers of the current Org document without showing their contents. |
| Ctrl + C, then Tab | Display all the direct daughters of the current Org header. |
| Ctrl + X, then N, then S | Hide all the other Org headers in the current document. |
| Ctrl + X, then N, then W | Show all the Org headers in the current document. |
| Ctrl + C, then Forward Slash (/) | Search and display all the Org headers of a particular type. |
| Ctrl + C, then Forward Slash (/) + R | Search and display all the Org headers that match a particular Regex. |
| Manipulating Org Tables | |
| Ctrl + C, then Bar (|) | Collapse the entire column into a single character. |
| Alt + Shift + Down Arrow | Create a new row on the current Org table. |
| Alt + Shift + Right Arrow | Create a new column on the current Org table. |
| Ctrl + C, then Enter | Create a horizontal border below the current row. |
| Ctrl + U, Ctrl + C, then Dash (-) | Create a horizontal border above the current row. |
| Ctrl + C, then Backtick (`) | Open the current cell in a separate Emacs buffer. |
| Alt + Shift + Up Arrow | Cut the entire row to the Emacs clipboard. |
| Alt + Shift + Left Arrow | Cut the entire column to the Emacs clipboard. |
| Alt + Left Arrow | Swap the entire column with the one adjacent to its left. |
| Alt + Right Arrow | Swap the entire column with the one adjacent to its right. |
| Alt + Up Arrow | Swap the entire row with the one on top of it. |
| Alt + Down Arrow | Swap the entire row with the one below it. |
| Shift + Left Arrow | Swap the current cell with the one adjacent to its left. |
| Shift + Right Arrow | Swap the current cell with the one adjacent to its right. |
| Shift + Up Arrow | Swap the current cell with the one on top of it. |
| Shift + Down Arrow | Swap the current cell with the one below it. |
| Ctrl + C, then Plus (+) | Calculate the sum of all the numerical values in the current column. |
| Navigating Org Tables | |
| Ctrl + P | Move the cursor one row up. |
| Ctrl + N | Move the cursor one row down. |
| Tab | Move the cursor one cell forward. |
| Shift + Tab | Move the cursor one cell back. |
| Alt + A | Move the cursor to the beginning of the current cell. |
| Alt + E | Move the cursor to the end of the current cell. |
| Aligning Org Tables | |
| Ctrl + C, then Ctrl + C | Align the entire table to their correct widths. |
| Ctrl + C, then Tab | Expand all collapsed columns back to their original width. |
| Ctrl + U, then Ctrl + C, then Tab | Expand a collapsed column back to its original width. |
| Ctrl + U, then Ctrl + U, then Ctrl + C, then Tab | Create a new Org link for a local resource at the cursor position. |
| Manipulating Org Links | |
| Ctrl + C, then Ctrl + L | Create a new Org link for a remote resource at the current cursor position. |
| Ctrl + U, then Ctrl + C, then Ctrl + L | Create a new Org link for a local resource at the current cursor position. |
| Ctrl + C, then Ctrl + O | Open an existing Org link using the appropriate program for it. |
| Ctrl + U, then Ctrl + C, then Ctrl + O | Open an existing Org link directly in Emacs. |
| Navigating Org Links | |
| Ctrl + C, then Ctrl + X, then Ctrl + N | Go to the next Org link in the current document. |
| Ctrl + C, then Ctrl + X, then Ctrl + P | Go back to the previous Org link in the current document. |
| Ctrl + C, then Percent (%) | Save the currently selected Org link in a temporary mark list. |
| Ctrl + C, then Ampersand (&) | Go back to the most recent saved Org link. |
| Exporting Org Documents | |
| Ctrl + C, then Ctrl + E, then Ctrl + S | Restrict the Org export process to the current heading. |
| Ctrl + C, then Ctrl + E, then Ctrl + V | Restrict the Org export process to only the visible headings. |
| Ctrl + C, then Ctrl + E, then Ctrl + B | Strip all additional metadata on the Org document before exporting. |
| Ctrl + C, then Ctrl + E, then H + H | Export the current Org document as an HTML file. |
| Ctrl + C, then Ctrl + E, then L + L | Export the current Org document as a LaTeX file. |
| Ctrl + C, then Ctrl + E, then L + P | Export the current Org document as a LaTeX PDF file. |
| Ctrl + C, then Ctrl + E, then O + O | Export the current Org document as an Open Document Text file. |
| Ctrl + C, then Ctrl + E, then T + U | Export the current Org document as a Plain Text file. |
Image credit: Unsplash (Background) Wikimedia Commons (Logo). All alterations by Ramces Red.
