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This article is part of a series on how to use Emacs to become more productive. If you are new to Emacs, then feel free to read any of the previous articles.
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What You See Is What You Mean
Before computers, writers used mechanical typewriters that had one font. Pictures had to be drawn or cut and pasted into the text. In the old approach, producing the content and crafting the final result were separate activities. The writer delivered the text, and the typesetter designed the book. Although mechanical typewriters have limited capabilities, they do have the advantage of keeping you focused on the text.
Modern word processors use a What You See is What You Get (WYSIWYG) approach. This means that whatever you see on the screen is what your final printed or electronic product will look like to the reader. This certainly seems like a technological step forward, but it comes at a cost.
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The problem with the WYSIWYG approach is that it merges two different tasks into one. People who use modern word processes waste time formatting documents, which distracts them from producing content. Who hasn't experienced the frustration with trying to get your Word Processor to display images where you want them?
Emacs is a plain text editor. This means that what you see on the screen is not the way the end product will look. Text editors use a What You See Is What You Mean approach. As I am typing this text in Emacs, I only see the text. My screen does not look the same as what you are reading now. My background is dark, the font is different, and the only thing on the screen is this text, free from distractions. The coloured text indicates the function of the text, such as headlines and metadata.
Text editors use markup languages to write text. This means that the words on the page are mixed with special characters to instruct the computer how to format a text when producing the final output. The most famous markup language is HTML, which drives the World Wide Web. $LaTeX$ is another popular system to write and typeset books and articles, popular with scientists. Emacs includes major modes for almost any text format to write using the WYSIWYM approach.
Writing Modes
A major mode controls how a buffer behaves. A text file could be a movie script, a to-do list, the next great novel, computer code, or however you express your creativity. In commercial software, each of these files could be a different file type that you can only read in specialised software. In Emacs, text mode is for simple text files. Fountain mode helps you write movie or theatre scripts. Org mode excels at managing your to-do lists and creative writing. Many other modes with specialised functions are available in the package repositories.
Each buffer can only have one major mode operating at a time, but it can have several minor modes. A minor mode provides optional extras, such as Flyspell for on-the-fly spell checking.
Emacs has a primary text mode that you can use to write prose in plain text. Several specialised text modes, such as Markdown or Fountain mode, exist that include additional functionality. Org mode is arguably the most versatile major mode in Emacs. A large portion of these articles describe how to use this package. Org mode is so powerful that some people, like myself, started using Emacs just to be able to use this mode.
Getting Started with Org mode
Org mode is a powerful major mode that comes with Emacs by default. This software was developed in 2003 by Carsten Dominik, professor of astronomy at the University of Amsterdam. Istat menus free. Since then, others developers have enhanced the software, and it is currently maintained by Bastien Guerry.
You can use Org mode to publish websites, articles and books, keep a diary, keep research notes, manage your actions, and much more. And on top of all that, it is intuitive to use. This section shows you the basics of writing prose in Org mode.
To start an Org file, simply create a file with a .org extension and start writing, for example, C-x C-f test.org .
This screencast from Jake B. succinctly summarises the major options within Org mode.
Document header
Each Org document starts with a header that contains metadata and settings relevant for the buffer. You need to at least provide a document title. The Org mode metadata and settings always start with #+ followed by a keyword and a colon. The example below ads a title and startup variables explained below. The document header can also contain metadata such as a subtitle or a date. Emacs packages can use this information when exporting the text.
Your chosen Emacs theme will set the size and font for the metadata. The only purpose of these decorations is to help you navigate the document. The article about publishing articles and books with Org mode shows how to control the output format.
Document Structure
Books have chapters, sections and paragraphs, articles have headings, poems have verses and so on. Almost all forms of writing have a hierarchy. A good method to start writing is to first work out your hierarchical structure and then fill it with content.
Org mode is essentially an outlining tool that helps you develop a document structure. To start a new header, simply write an asterisk as the first character, followed by a space. To create deeper levels, simply add more stars:
When you press M-enter, the following line becomes a new heading. With C-enter, the following line is added after the text in the current section.
Org mode makes it easy to move and promote or demote headings and associated text (which in Org mode is a subtree) with the ALT and arrow keys.
You can collapse or expand a heading with the TAB key. Pressing S-TAB will collapse the whole document, showing only the level one headings. Pressing S-TAB once again will show the headings, and repeating it for a second time reveals the entire buffer.
You can add numbers to the headers with the num option in the startup line in the header.
Rich Text
To change how Org Mode displays text, you surround it with special characters: /italic/, *bold*, _underline_, +striketrough+ and =verbatim=. You will see these markers in the Org mode text, but they will disappear when you export the buffer. If you like to remove the emphasis markers from your Org Mode buffer, then you can set this variable: (setq org-hide-emphasis-markers t).
Lists
Writing lists in Org mode could not be easier. Simply start a line with a dash and complete the entry with M-TAB to create the next entry. Using the TAB and left or right arrow keys changes the level of the item. You can change the list prefix with the SHIFT and left/right arrow keys.
Images
Although Emacs is a text editor, it can also manage images. In Org mode, an image is a link to an image file. You can preview the file in your buffer or export it to your preferred format. You can also add captions and set export properties for each image.
If you use the Helm completion system, you can preview the image as you select it with helm-follow-mode. When you are in the Helm selection session, toggle follow mode with C-c C-f. As you move the cursor, images will appear in anoter window.
To view the preview images in your document or remove the previews, you press C-c C-x C-v. You can also add #+startup: inlineimages to view images by default.
To add an image, press C-c C-l, which opens the link menu. Org mode understands many types of links. We want the file type, so type file:. Press enter and select the image filename in the mini buffer.
You open a link in Org mode with a mouse click or by pressing C-c C-o with your cursor on the link text.
The images in the buffer are all shown at the same width. The article about writing articles and books with Emacs and the article about creating websites with Emacs explains how to control image with and other image properties.
You can increase or decrease the size of an image with the + and - keys.
Configure Text Modes and Org Mode
Before we start writing, we need to optimise some text mode settings. You will also need to install the use-package package, which is explained article on how to configure Emacs. Alternatively, download the init.el file from the GitHub page.
The original purpose of Emacs is to develop computer code, so by default, the editor does not wrap lines at the end of the screen. While this might be great for developing software, it is a bit annoying when writing prose. The visual-line-mode function enables line-wrapping. You can run the function separately for each buffer, but ideally, you hook it to all text modes.
When you select (mark) a section of text and start typing, Emacs will not replace the selected text. To enable Emacs deleting selected text, you set the delete-selection-mode variable, as below.
One last sensible default is to enure that Emacs lets you use the page-up and page-down buttons to go to the first and last line in the buffer.
The code snippet below sets some common keyboard shortcuts for creating links, viewing the agenda and capturing note, which are explained in other articles. You will also need to install use-package, which is explained article on how to configure Emacs.
Editing Text
Org mode provides the functionality to structure and shape your text. The functionality explained in the previous section only applies to Org files. The basic functionality of Emacs helps you to edit the text. Toolbox for pages 2 2 4 download free. This functionality is available in all editable buffers.
Selecting Text
You can select text in almost all major modes, just like in most other software with the shift and arrow keys. Because the shift and arrow keys in Org mode are reserved for editing lists, you will need to use a more advanced way to select a block of text.
To select a complete paragraph or subtree, use the M-h key. When the cursor is on a header, then this function selects the whole subtree under the heading. When on a paragraph, it selects that text. Repeatedly pressing M-h will select subsequent sections. Using C-h will select all text in the buffer.
For more fine-grained selection, you first need to set a mark with C-space. You then move to the end of the section to select your text.
While this might seem a more complex method to select text, it does provide access to advanced text selection methods that are outside the scope of this article.
Copy and Paste
Emacs has advanced copying and pasting functionality and packages that further extend this capability. In Emacs terminology, copying a text is the same as saving it onto the kill-ring. The kill-ring is a buffer that keeps the history of all text that you copy or delete. The kill-ring allows you to paste bits of text that you copied previously. Emacs keeps a long history of your text edits.
Note that selecting a slab of text and deleting it is the same as moving it to the kill ring.
Emacs does not use the shortcuts common in modern software. You can enable CUA mode to use the standard keys, but the Emacs way is more versatile and useful to learn. Use the following keyboard shortcuts to copy and move the text to and from the kill ring:
Undo mistakes
The undo key is mapped to C-/. If you need to undo the undo step, then use C-g C-/.
Focusing
It is easy to get lost in a sea of words on the screen, and some simple keystrokes can help you focus your eyes. Keying C-l (recenter-top-bottom) moves the line that your cursor is on to the centre of the screen. If you repeat this keystroke, then the cursor will move to the top of the screen. If you do this three times in a row, the cursor moves to the bottom of the screen.
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Moving around
You will undoubtedly have the experience that you move from one part of a document to another and then like to jump back. In Emacs you can save the position of the cursor by pressing C-space C-space. When you are in another part of the document, jump back with C-u C-space.
Predictive Text
Emacs has an extensive ecosystem of packages that implements predictive text, which is explained in a separate article about completion.
Checking Spelling
The Emacs minor mode Flyspell provides an interface to the Hunspell spell checking software. To enable spell checking, you thus first need to ensure that Hunspell is available on your computer.
The configuration below enables Flyspell for all text modes and sets Hunspell as the default checking program. The M-F7 key checks the spelling for all words in the buffer and F7 checks the word that you cursor is standing on.
A more productive method is to use the C-; function. This function provides the most likely correction of the first spelling error before the cursor is. Emacs will show the list of possible corrections in the mini buffer. Repeatedly pressing C-; will cycle through the options until you get back to the original. This function prevents you from having to jump to your spelling mistakes.
The available English dictionaries in Hunspell are:
Checking Spelling
The Emacs minor mode Flyspell provides an interface to the Hunspell spell checking software. To enable spell checking, you thus first need to ensure that Hunspell is available on your computer.
The configuration below enables Flyspell for all text modes and sets Hunspell as the default checking program. The M-F7 key checks the spelling for all words in the buffer and F7 checks the word that you cursor is standing on.
A more productive method is to use the C-; function. This function provides the most likely correction of the first spelling error before the cursor is. Emacs will show the list of possible corrections in the mini buffer. Repeatedly pressing C-; will cycle through the options until you get back to the original. This function prevents you from having to jump to your spelling mistakes.
The available English dictionaries in Hunspell are:
en_US(American)en_CA(Canadian)en_GB(British)en_AU(Australian)
Hunspell supports a lot of other dictionaries so you can install and choose your own when English is not your first language. In Linux, you can install dictionaries with your favourite package manager. You can also install Hunspell on Windows or Chromebook.
If you are multilingual, then you can set a different language for each buffer by adding a file variable. You need to the text below as the last lines in your Org mode file, where you replace nederlands (Dutch) with your preferred language:
You can also add these lines with the add-file-local-variable function, which will ask you for a file-local variable (in this case ispell-local-dictionary) and its value.
Emacs evaluates this line when you run M-x normal-mode and the next time you open the file. This dictionary only applies to the relevant file and all other buffers remain in the default language.
Counting Words
To count the words in a buffer, or part thereof, use the count-word-region-function, which is bount to M-=. The result appears in the minibuffer.
When you place the cursor at the start of the file, this function will count all words in the text. You can also select a heading or a region of text and use that function for a partial count.
Emacs for Distraction-Free Writing
This article only discussed some of the basics of using Org Mode and Emacs to write prose. Emacs has a lot more to offer to writers, such as a thesaurus, autocompletion and much more.
The next article in this series discusses how to configure and use the Org Roam package to convert your Emacs into a personal knowledge management system.
All the configuration explained in this series of articles is available as an init file on GitHub.
Emacs is a malleable system, so everybody will have their personal preferences to undertake a task. Any article on how to be productive with Emacs is thus opinionated. If you have a different way of doing things, please share your views and leave a comment below, or complete the contact form to send me an email.
