From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Nick Dokos Subject: Re: plain text best practice? Date: Wed, 06 Jun 2012 00:11:33 -0400 Message-ID: <5683.1338955893@alphaville> References: <20120605223813.464454b5@tomsarchtoo> Reply-To: nicholas.dokos@hp.com Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([208.118.235.92]:38368) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Sc7eK-0001QE-Lf for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Wed, 06 Jun 2012 00:18:47 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Sc7ar-000163-Cy for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Wed, 06 Jun 2012 00:15:12 -0400 Received: from g5t0006.atlanta.hp.com ([15.192.0.43]:23371) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Sc7ar-00013j-7j for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Wed, 06 Jun 2012 00:11:37 -0400 In-Reply-To: Message from scrawler@gmail.com of "Tue, 05 Jun 2012 22:38:13 CDT." <20120605223813.464454b5@tomsarchtoo> List-Id: "General discussions about Org-mode." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sender: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org To: scrawler@gmail.com Cc: emacs-orgmode@gnu.org scrawler@gmail.com wrote: > howdy guys, > > I want to use org-mode for writing documents that don't necessarily > have very many headings or sub-headings. > > I could do: > > * Chapter One > lots of text > * Chapter Two > lots more text > > or: > > * Chapter One > - lots of text > * Chapter Two > - lots more text > > or: > > * Chapter One > ** paragraph 1 > lots of text > ** paragraph 2 > lots of text > * Chapter Two > > ...but I'm not sure which to use. It almost seems like the last format > is the best, but I don't want to type paragraph headings. Maybe the > first few words of the paragraph could be a heading after the fact, but > not as I write. > > Apologies for such a basic question, but I how can I leverage org-mode > to just write? What do you do? > Use the first form. If you feel that the chapter needs to be split up, use second level headings to split it up into sections. If a section gets too big, use third-level headings for subsections. And so on... Org-mode is not buying you much in this case: you can navigate easily between chapters and you can hide the contents of all the other chapters while leaving exposed the one you are working on. But it doesn't cost anything either. And if you ever decide to publish the thing (on paper, as a PDF on the web, as HTML on the web, etc.), you will be able to trivially do it. So just write and don't sweat it too much. Nick