Achim Gratz <strom...@nexgo.de> writes:
> William Gardella <gardell...@gmail.com> writes:
>> I think org-mode should aim to be flexible enough to accomodate all
>> writers, writing tasks, and writing styles.
>
> With flexibility comes complexity, which runs counter to "org should be
> simple".
>
Agreed, but I'd say org is already one of the most complex projects in
Emacs. Its *apparent* simplicity for new victims--er, users--is a
feature worth keeping, of course. :)
>> Maybe for this particular issue it would be enough to give org-mode
>> an explicit way to "close" a heading--an Org-wide equivalent to
>> \end{section} in LaTeX, say.
>
> There already is: you simply start a new section for each "thought",
> preferrably wih no whitespace after the heading so it becomes a visual
> unit that just folds away when outlined. I've been doing that with
> Outline Mode and AuCTeX and it is actually much easier to do in orgmode.
> Once you get your thoughts into the proper order by sorting the
> "headlines", you can then insert, remove, edit, de- and promote the
> headings to finalize the document into something more readable. In my
> experience, there rarely is a need to change the first level structure.
> However, if you are organizing the structure of your document while the
> content is still largely absent, then (as has already been suggested) it
> is easier in orgmode to do that in a list. List items can be converted
> into headings and vice versa quite easily.
>
>
> Regards,
> Achim.
I use a workflow similar to this, using subheadings to allow for easier
reordering of paragraphs/thoughts. I guess it's good to keep in mind
that using Org as a word processor (rather like using Gnus as a
mailclient) requires some rethinking and reevaluation of how one might
otherwise do things. And maybe a change in approach is a better idea
when a technical fix might make org's markup or parser unnecessarily
complex.
--
William Gardella
J.D. Candidate
Class of 2011, University of Pittsburgh School of Law
