Thanks for the responses!

John: Oh yes, of course. Sorry about that. inimal org file and config files are here. I had to make the org file long enough to make several pages, so the header displays. Here you go: 
https://github.com/petersalazar/org-troubleshooting

Rasmus: #+OPTIONS: num:0 is what I started from. When I do that, the resulting PDF has no Table of Contents, and the header displays the section title as "Contents." 

The same thing happens with #+LATEX: \setcounter{secnumdepth}{0}.

Richard: Your idea about 
#+LATEX_HEADER: \renewcommand{...}

sounds very promising! I'd love to know what the exact command is! 

I don't need section numbers ever, so my desire is to turn off numbering forever, but still have an intact Table of Contents and header.  

Thanks guys!


On Fri, Sep 6, 2013 at 4:30 PM, John Hendy <jw.hendy@gmail.com> wrote:
On Fri, Sep 6, 2013 at 2:43 PM, Peter Salazar <cycleofsong@gmail.com> wrote:
> I have a LaTeX template I created for use with org-mode, to export to PDF
> via LaTeX using xelatex.
>
> I don't edit LaTeX directly, I just generate from org-mode. This works
> perfectly for me except for one thing: it only works when I have heading
> numbering turned on.
>
> When I turn numbering off in org-mode, by adding this line to my org-mode
> file...
>
>     #+OPTIONS:   num:nil
>
> ...LaTeX no longer recognizes my headings as headings. This creates two
> problems:
>
> 1. The Table of Contents is blank.
> 2. The \leftmark in the heading shows up as "Contents" instead of showing up
> as the title of the section.
>
> How do I modify these org-mode preferences such that my I can turn heading
> numbering off in org-mode while still correctly generating a Table of
> Contents and adding my section title to the header?
>
> I'm sorry, but I don't know enough about LaTeX to make a minimum
> representation of this. I have no idea where the problem is.
>

At the very least, can you provide a minimal org file? This is over my
head with xelatex and all that customization, but I think people are
going to at least need:
- minimal emacs config (reproducible version that produces the
problem, not just the latex stuff)
- a .org file that produces the issue you're experiencing (even with
just a couple headlines and the words "blah blah blah" or what have
you as the text


John

> Here are the org-mode preferences in question:
> http://pastebin.com/62Nugpsg
>
> Thanks!