[ANN] Org mode 9.7 is out

[Ihor Radchenko <yantar92@posteo.net>]

Dear all,

Org 9.7, a major release, is out.
Org 9.7 will be a part of Emacs 30.

You can upgrade from GNU ELPA or install with M-x package-install RET org RET

Please, also re-install all the Org-related packages - some of the
changes require re-compiling packages that use Org mode APIs.

Org 9.7 added a number of new features and customizations, all listed on
<https://orgmode.org/Changes.html>.

If you enjoy using Org, please consider supporting contributors via
<https://liberapay.com/org-mode/>. Donations do help a lot.

* Some highlights of user-facing additions

- Org mode supports drag-and-drop and pasting images/files from
  clipboard (pasting from clipboard requires Emacs >=29)

  Thanks to Visuwesh for contributing these features.

- id: links support search options like [[id:my-id::*child heading]]:
  Any valid fuzzy location will work as a search option.

  Contributed by Rick Lupton.

- Org mode honors ~display-buffer-alist~ settings for window placement

- Shell code blocks support asynchronous evaluation

  Contributed by Matthew Trzcinski, the new ob-shell maintainer.

- iCalendar export now handles recurring tasks

  Contributed by Jack Kamm, the new ox-icalendar maintainer.

- Face background in folded headings and blocks can extend to the right
  margin.  This is a small, tricky, but widely requested feature.

- Moving, promoting, and demoting headings/items honors region.

  You can now conveniently select multiple headings/items and use, for
  example, =M-<down>=/=M-<up>= repeatedly without losing the selection.

* Important changes in Org parser

Library authors and Elisp hackers, please pay attention to major changes
of Org parser API:

1. Parser uses lazy evaluation by default, for speed

2. Many Org mode functions can accept parser objects (or return value of
   `org-element-at-point' as arguments)

As a result of these changes, internal representation of Org parse tree
has been changed. Please use Org element API to access element/object
internals. All the details in <https://orgmode.org/Changes.html>.

* Development updates

I would also like to welcome new maintainers of Org mode libraries:

- Daniel Kraus is maintaining ob-sql and ob-clojure
- Matthew Trzcinski is maintaining ob-shell
- Jack Kamm is maintaining ox-icalendar (in addition to ob-python that
  he has been maintaining for the last 4 years)

We are still looking for additional maintainers of individual Org
libraries, especially ox-latex and ox-html. More than half of all the
Org libraries currently do not have any dedicated maintainer. Please
consider volunteering. See
https://orgmode.org/worg/org-maintenance.html#maintainer-role for more
details. Maintaining takes less effort than one may expect (see the
link).

This release was made possible thanks to many volunteer contributors:

Ihor Radchenko, Kyle Meyer, TEC, Matthew Trzcinski, Stefan Kangas, Max
Nikulin, Jack Kamm, Stefan Monnier, Matt Trzcinski, Gerard Vermeulen,
Rudolf Adamkovič, Leo Butler, Bastien Guerry, Morgan Smith, Mattias
Engdegård, Sławomir Grochowski, Aaron L. Zeng, Ilya Chernyshov, Po Lu,
Evgenii Klimov, Bruno BARBIER, Jeremie Juste, Juan Manuel Macias,
Sébastien Miquel, Alexander Adolf, Anand Deopurkar, Daniel Kraus, Eli
Zaretskii, Jens Schmidt, Liu Hui, Nicholas Vollmer, Pedro A. Aranda,
Pedro A. Aranda Gutierrez, Rick Lupton, Ruijie Yu, Andreas Gerler, Arash
Esbati, Basil L. Contovounesios, Damien Cassou, Gautier Ponsinet, Hraban
Luyat, Jonathan Gregory, Justin Vallon, Kevin Brubeck Unhammer, Lee
Thompson, Marco Wahl, Martin Marshall, Nathaniel Nicandro, Pedro Andres
Aranda Gutierrez, Stephen J. Eglen, Tim Ruffing, Visuwesh, Xi Lu, Yuval
Langer, Aaron Madlon-Kay, Akira Kyle, Alan Schmitt, Alexander Gogl,
Alexandre Avanian, Allen Li, Andras Simonyi, Andrew Hyatt, Antero Mejr,
Cook, Malcolm, David Masterson, Detlef Steuer, Dmitry Gutov, Dmitry
Logvinenko, Elias Kueny, Emacs User, Eric S Fraga, Feraidoon Mehri, Hugo
Heagren, Hunter Jozwiak, Jakub Ječmínek, Jan Zavitski, Jim Porter, Jim
Wisniewski, Joris Caravati, Joseph Turner, José Miguel García Urrutia,
Karl Fogel, Karthik Chikmagalur, Kenny Ballou, Kris Nelson, Laurence
Warne, Lei Zhe, Marc Nieper-Wißkirchen, Martin Edström, Martin Kampas,
Nafiz Islam, Nan JunJie, Nick Dokos, Olivier Lischer, Pedro A. Aranda
Gutiérrez, PolishEmacsUser, Psionik K, Robert Pluim, Roshan Shariff,
Ross Timson, Shynur, Steven Allen, Thierry Banel, Tim Landscheidt, Tim
Visher, Tom Gillespie, Tommy Kelly, Tomohisa Kuranari, Valentin
Herrmann, Zelphir Kaltstahl, hrdl, hugcis, libreville, stardiviner

-- 
Ihor Radchenko // yantar92,
Org mode contributor,
Learn more about Org mode at <https://orgmode.org/>.
Support Org development at <https://liberapay.com/org-mode>,
or support my work at <https://liberapay.com/yantar92>