Re: Feature request [7.3]

[Eric S Fraga <e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk>]

Dave Abrahams <dave@boostpro.com> writes:

> When using Org for planning, I often find myself corrupting my Org
> files.  All kinds of things can go wrong, but the basic issue is that

I do have a couple of rules I follow to avoid problems. 

1. I usually have a blank line between the meta data (scheduled,
   properties) and any subsequent text, whether part of that entry or
   the following headline.  I accomplish this by ensuring that my
   capture templates all insert such a blank line, typically followed by
   the date of insertion.

2. I also always use the =C-c C-d=, =C-c C-s= and =C-c C-x p= sequences
   to manage the meta data so org takes care of keeping things sane.


However:

[...]

> So I'm requesting some more help from Org in maintaining proper Org
> syntax.  Could Org have a mode that prevents things from being modified
> incorrectly?  For example, it'd be awesome if dates were smart (TAB into
> one, hit return, get a smart date editor).  

This would be quite nice, even something as simple as having RET, within
a time stamp, doing the equivalent of org-time-stamp or
org-time-stamp-inactive depending on the current state of the time
stamp.

> It'd be great if there were
> a way to make the ID property read-only (or really really hard to
> change).

This is where column mode comes in quite handy?  I tend to use column
mode to edit properties and so I never come near the ID property as it
usually isn't displayed.

> I'd love it if there were a way to create a link to an org
> item that narrows the view to just that item, so I don't inadvertently
> mess anything else up.  

org-narrow-to-subtree does some of this...

HTH,
eric

-- 
: Eric S Fraga (GnuPG: 0xC89193D8FFFCF67D) in Emacs 23.2.1
: using Org-mode version 7.3 (release_7.3.223.gc6a94)