Auto-Fill (aka Word Wrap) of Headline Text

Auto-Fill (aka Word Wrap) of Headline Text

[Lex Fridman]

I enable auto-fill (aka word wrap) with:
(add-hook 'org-mode-hook 'turn-on-auto-fill)

Now, while editting an org file, I check the minor modes with "C-h m",
and Auto-Fill is one of them. So when I type a long line it should
automatically wrap, right? It does for regular text but NOT for when
it's a headline (line starts with one or more *'s).

I'm sorry if this is a trivial question, but I simply have not been
able to find a solution. I'm using org-mode version 7.4 in emacs
23.2.1 on Ubuntu 11.04.

Re: Auto-Fill (aka Word Wrap) of Headline Text

[Darlan Cavalcante Moreira]

I think this is the correct behaviour, since headlines cannot span multiple
lines (as far as I know).

This is also the case for the fill-paragraph command. If you try to call
fill-paragraph in a headline nothing happens.

--
Darlan

At Thu, 9 Jun 2011 17:56:02 -0400,
Lex Fridman <lexfridman@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I enable auto-fill (aka word wrap) with:
> (add-hook 'org-mode-hook 'turn-on-auto-fill)
> 
> Now, while editting an org file, I check the minor modes with "C-h m",
> and Auto-Fill is one of them. So when I type a long line it should
> automatically wrap, right? It does for regular text but NOT for when
> it's a headline (line starts with one or more *'s).
> 
> I'm sorry if this is a trivial question, but I simply have not been
> able to find a solution. I'm using org-mode version 7.4 in emacs
> 23.2.1 on Ubuntu 11.04.
> 

Re: Auto-Fill (aka Word Wrap) of Headline Text

[Lex Fridman]

So, for a to-do list, if I want to write a lengthy description for a
to-do item, do I need to start the description on the next line
without the stars (*) at the beginning?

I guess that makes sense. See, I thought of the headlines more as a
bulleted list and not just a section heading tree...

If you have any suggestions or guidance, let me know. Either way,
thanks for the sanity check.

- Lex

On Thu, Jun 9, 2011 at 11:58 PM, Darlan Cavalcante Moreira
<darcamo@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I think this is the correct behaviour, since headlines cannot span multiple
> lines (as far as I know).
>
> This is also the case for the fill-paragraph command. If you try to call
> fill-paragraph in a headline nothing happens.
>
> --
> Darlan
>
> At Thu, 9 Jun 2011 17:56:02 -0400,
> Lex Fridman <lexfridman@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> I enable auto-fill (aka word wrap) with:
>> (add-hook 'org-mode-hook 'turn-on-auto-fill)
>>
>> Now, while editting an org file, I check the minor modes with "C-h m",
>> and Auto-Fill is one of them. So when I type a long line it should
>> automatically wrap, right? It does for regular text but NOT for when
>> it's a headline (line starts with one or more *'s).
>>
>> I'm sorry if this is a trivial question, but I simply have not been
>> able to find a solution. I'm using org-mode version 7.4 in emacs
>> 23.2.1 on Ubuntu 11.04.
>>
>

Re: Auto-Fill (aka Word Wrap) of Headline Text

[Darlan Cavalcante Moreira]

Yes, the best way is to start the TODO description in the next line without
the the stars (otherwise it would be another headline). I usually try to
create short headlines, specially if that headline has a bunch of tags. For
instance
: * TODO Some TODO item
:   Some length description of that TODO item or some steps I need to do
:   to. Here I can use auto-fill without a problem,

If the reason you wanted a long TODO item is to provide enough information
in the agenda, then tags and the CATEGORY property are a better option
IMHO.

For simpler TODO items (that is, no schedule, deadlines, tags, etc) you may
prefer a list with check-boxes such as
: - [ ] This may also be used as a king of TODO item. Notice that
:   differently from headlines you can use auto-fill here without any
:   problem.
: - [X] You can toggle the state as "done" and "not done" with "C-c C-c" in
:   the first line.

I find lists with check-boxes specially useful when I have TODO items that
can be broken down into a sequence of steps. In that case I create the TODO
item and put the bullet list inside. Such as
: * TODO Some task [/]
:   - [ ] Step 1
:   - [ ] Step 2
:   - [ ] Etc.
If you put "[/]" in the TODO headline then whenever you mark one step as
done with "C-c C-c" then org will update it to "[1/3]" and so on.

Of course you can also use sub-headlines also with the TODO keyword for the
steps if that is better for you. Then you can schedule each step
separately, for instance. In that case it starts to look more like a
project then a simple task, but just do the way that fits better for you.

--
Darlan

At Fri, 10 Jun 2011 00:12:12 -0400,
Lex Fridman <lexfridman@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> So, for a to-do list, if I want to write a lengthy description for a
> to-do item, do I need to start the description on the next line
> without the stars (*) at the beginning?
> 
> I guess that makes sense. See, I thought of the headlines more as a
> bulleted list and not just a section heading tree...
> 
> If you have any suggestions or guidance, let me know. Either way,
> thanks for the sanity check.
> 
> - Lex
> 
> On Thu, Jun 9, 2011 at 11:58 PM, Darlan Cavalcante Moreira
> <darcamo@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > I think this is the correct behaviour, since headlines cannot span multiple
> > lines (as far as I know).
> >
> > This is also the case for the fill-paragraph command. If you try to call
> > fill-paragraph in a headline nothing happens.
> >
> > --
> > Darlan
> >
> > At Thu, 9 Jun 2011 17:56:02 -0400,
> > Lex Fridman <lexfridman@gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> I enable auto-fill (aka word wrap) with:
> >> (add-hook 'org-mode-hook 'turn-on-auto-fill)
> >>
> >> Now, while editting an org file, I check the minor modes with "C-h m",
> >> and Auto-Fill is one of them. So when I type a long line it should
> >> automatically wrap, right? It does for regular text but NOT for when
> >> it's a headline (line starts with one or more *'s).
> >>
> >> I'm sorry if this is a trivial question, but I simply have not been
> >> able to find a solution. I'm using org-mode version 7.4 in emacs
> >> 23.2.1 on Ubuntu 11.04.
> >>
> >

Re: Auto-Fill (aka Word Wrap) of Headline Text

[Jambunathan K]

You can turn on longlines-mode. I see that fontification of the
headlines doesn't continue on to the continuation line. Nevertheless it
would permit having long headlines while having the convenience of it
(visually) wrapped around.

Jambunathan K.


Lex Fridman <lexfridman@gmail.com> writes:

> So, for a to-do list, if I want to write a lengthy description for a
> to-do item, do I need to start the description on the next line
> without the stars (*) at the beginning?
>
> I guess that makes sense. See, I thought of the headlines more as a
> bulleted list and not just a section heading tree...
>
> If you have any suggestions or guidance, let me know. Either way,
> thanks for the sanity check.
>
> - Lex
>
> On Thu, Jun 9, 2011 at 11:58 PM, Darlan Cavalcante Moreira
> <darcamo@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> I think this is the correct behaviour, since headlines cannot span multiple
>> lines (as far as I know).
>>
>> This is also the case for the fill-paragraph command. If you try to call
>> fill-paragraph in a headline nothing happens.
>>
>> --
>> Darlan
>>
>> At Thu, 9 Jun 2011 17:56:02 -0400,
>> Lex Fridman <lexfridman@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> I enable auto-fill (aka word wrap) with:
>>> (add-hook 'org-mode-hook 'turn-on-auto-fill)
>>>
>>> Now, while editting an org file, I check the minor modes with "C-h m",
>>> and Auto-Fill is one of them. So when I type a long line it should
>>> automatically wrap, right? It does for regular text but NOT for when
>>> it's a headline (line starts with one or more *'s).
>>>
>>> I'm sorry if this is a trivial question, but I simply have not been
>>> able to find a solution. I'm using org-mode version 7.4 in emacs
>>> 23.2.1 on Ubuntu 11.04.
>>>
>>
>
>

--