Gavin Freeborn has a new video on 5 Reasons I Love Emacs Orgmode. Freeborn notes up front that Org is so big and has so much functionality that it can be intimidating. Rather than try to cover everything it does, he concentrates on how he uses Org to manage his life and workflow.
As most of you know, one of my primary uses of Org is note taking and writing. Freeborn’s usage seems similar. He uses it to keeps notes on the projects he working on, share results and insights with colleagues, and capture his debugging efforts.
He also covers capturing and exporting. In a way, these are what make Org so powerful. You can write an essay or report in Org and export it to PDF to share with others. The thing about Org, though, is that you can export to pretty much any other format and if, in the unlikely even that Org doesn’t support the intended output target, you can seamlessly use Pandoc to export your document to almost any conceivable format.
The other side of Org exporting is the capture system. You can configure capture templates to capture information and turn it into an Org entry. The system is very flexible and can turn captured information into virtually any type of Org entry.
Of course, the main advantage of Org is that everything is in plain text. There’s a lightweight markup that Emacs seamlessly renders correctly but you can edit an Org file with any editor. It’s the ultimate defense against application lock in: Your data is always available and parsable regardless of what happens to Org mode and Emacs.
If you’re an experienced Org user, the video probably won’t tell you anything you don’t already know but if Org is new to you, it offers good overview of why it’s worth your while.