Re: Converting tags to TODO states

[Bernt Hansen <bernt@norang.ca>]

garjola@garjola.net writes:

> Hi,
>
> For my GTD implementation with org-mode, I have been using the :next:
> tag for my next actions. I would like now to use a "NEXT" TODO keyword,
> which means that I need to convert all :next: tags with "TODO" headlines
> into "NEXT" headlines without the :next: tag. 
>
> I have *a lot* of org files, so an automatic procedure is needed. Since
> I am not fluent in elisp, I was going to write a python script to do
> this, but maybe there is already a way to do this conversion with
> org-mode itself?
>
> The tricky thing I see with parsing is dealing with the ":" in the case
> of multiple tags (I know how to do this in python, but I don't in
> elisp).
>
> Thanks for any hint you can provide.
>
> Garjola

As this is a one-time change I would just use the agenda and bulk
operations to fix your entries.

If the files already contribute to your agenda (I assume they do) 
you can just run a tag match on :next:

C-c a m next RET

and mark all the entries returned with 

m (repeat for each task)

then add a NEXT todo keyword

B t NEXT RET

and mark all the tasks again

m (repeat for each task)

and remove the :next: tag

B - next RET

and save your files.

HTH,
Bernt