Re: basic org questions

[Stefan Nobis <stefan-ml@snobis.de>]

Hi.

Details about Org tables are to be found in the manual at different
places (maybe not optimal, but that's the current structure). First of
all, aspects of tables inside Emacs and Org are discussed here:

   https://orgmode.org/manual/Tables.html#Tables

But everything about exporting (generating PDF via LaTeX, HTML, etc.)
is discussed in the export sections. So details about exporting Org
tables to LaTeX can be found here:

   https://orgmode.org/manual/Tables-in-LaTeX-export.html#Tables-in-LaTeX-export

Here you can find the relevant option ":center". For example the
following Org table will be exported to LaTeX without centering and
using the booktabs package to nicely format the table:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---

#+attr_latex: :center nil :booktabs t
| My | Columns |
|----+---------|
|  1 |       2 |
|  3 |       4 |

--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---


Generally, you have the option to just let Org handle all of the LaTeX
details. In this case, in most cases you do not even need to know
anything about LaTeX - that's what some people are excited about. On
the other hand, in this case you get what Org thinks is good enough
for you. If you want to fine-tune every detail about the resulting
PDF, you have no choice but to know LaTeX and use the options and
hooks to sprinkle your fine-tuning in the document.

BTW: I'm a long-time LaTeX user and a big fan of LaTeX. If I want to
typeset a document and tune any detail of it, in most cases I use
LaTeX and not try to modify Org to generate my hand-optimized LaTeX
code. On the other hand nowadays in many cases I just do not need to
control every little aspect of my final documents or the LaTeX code.
In these cases Org helps a lot to speed up creating simple, small
documents. I customized some aspects once globally and have to type
less (but still know LaTeX and sprinkle a few fine-tunings here and
there). So sometimes I view Org as a kind of very flexible LaTeX
template engine. :)

-- 
Until the next mail...,
Stefan.