Some questions about column view and org mode

Some questions about column view and org mode

[Friedericksen Hope]

Dear all,

I start to like column view. :)

But as I played around with it, a few questions came up:
- Is there some built-in timestamp property? The background is that I would like to have a column with a timestamp in it which I can set manually (but of course, I would like to have the calendar 
opened up when I press "e" on a field of this column, like on a SCHEDULED or DEADLINE column) I found the TIMESTAMP and TIMESTAMP_IA property in the manual, but I was not able to use this for my 
purpose and I also do not quite understand for what they are useful, but this is another topic. ;-)
- If there is such a thing as a timestamp column, is there a summary method which gives me the timestamp farest away or calculates the maximum difference from today to a timestamp in the past?
- Is there a way to get column view work with repeated timestamps? (I would like to have a birthday column with a DEADLINE property and of course, the birthday repeats every year.)

And two questions, not specifically related to column view:
- What is the fastest/easiest way to reload an org buffer, so that global settings get loaded (for example changes in global column definitions)? At the moment I close the buffer with C-k RET and open 
it again with C-f M-p RET but this seems a unnecessarily complicated

Thank you in advance for any suggestions/comments and also thank you, Carsten, for this wonderful tool. :-)

Greetings,
Friedericksen

Re: Some questions about column view and org mode

[Carsten Dominik]

On Mar 28, 2010, at 3:36 PM, Friedericksen Hope wrote:

> Dear all,
>
> I start to like column view. :)
>
> But as I played around with it, a few questions came up:
> - Is there some built-in timestamp property? The background is that  
> I would like to have a column with a timestamp in it which I can set  
> manually (but of course, I would like to have the calendar opened up  
> when I press "e" on a field of this column, like on a SCHEDULED or  
> DEADLINE column) I found the TIMESTAMP and TIMESTAMP_IA property in  
> the manual, but I was not able to use this for my purpose and I also  
> do not quite understand for what they are useful, but this is  
> another topic. ;-)

They are a way to access the first normal and inactive time stamps in  
an entry - but they cannot be used to set the timestamp when it does  
not already exist.

> - If there is such a thing as a timestamp column, is there a summary  
> method which gives me the timestamp farest away or calculates the  
> maximum difference from today to a timestamp in the past?

Hmm, I remember that James TD Smith implemented at some point.  Take a  
look at the @min and @max operators for column view, maybe there is  
something you can use (I don't know myself, because I have never used  
these).

> - Is there a way to get column view work with repeated timestamps?  
> (I would like to have a birthday column with a DEADLINE property and  
> of course, the birthday repeats every year.)

If the birthday is the *first* non-keyword time stamp, the TIMESTAMP  
property should access it.

>
> And two questions, not specifically related to column view:
> - What is the fastest/easiest way to reload an org buffer, so that  
> global settings get loaded (for example changes in global column  
> definitions)? At the moment I close the buffer with C-k RET and open  
> it again with C-f M-p RET but this seems a unnecessarily complicated

C-c C-c in any l#+ line.

- Carsten