2.3 Visibility cycling

Outlines make it possible to hide parts of the text in the buffer. Org-mode uses just two commands, bound to <TAB> and S-<TAB> to change the visibility in the buffer.

<TAB>

Subtree cycling: Rotate current subtree between the states

          ,-> FOLDED -> CHILDREN -> SUBTREE --.
          '-----------------------------------'
     

The cursor must be on a headline for this to work¹. When the cursor is at the beginning of the buffer and the first line is not a headline, then <TAB> actually runs global cycling (see below)². Also when called with a prefix argument (C-u <TAB>), global cycling is invoked.

S-<TAB>

C-u <TAB>

Global cycling: Rotate the entire buffer between the states

          ,-> OVERVIEW -> CONTENTS -> SHOW ALL --.
          '--------------------------------------'
     

When S-<TAB> is called with a numerical prefix N, the CONTENTS view up to headlines of level N will be shown. Note that inside tables, S-<TAB> jumps to the previous field.

C-c C-a

Show all.

C-c C-r

Reveal context around point, showing the current entry, the following heading and the hierarchy above. Useful for working near a location exposed by a sparse tree command (see Sparse trees) or an agenda command (see Agenda commands). With prefix arg show, on each level, all sibling headings.

C-c C-x b

Show the current subtree in an indirect buffer³. With numerical prefix ARG, go up to this level and then take that tree. If ARG is negative, go up that many levels. With C-u prefix, do not remove the previously used indirect buffer.

When Emacs first visits an Org-mode file, the global state is set to OVERVIEW, i.e. only the top level headlines are visible. This can be configured through the variable org-startup-folded, or on a per-file basis by adding one of the following lines anywhere in the buffer:

     #+STARTUP: overview
     #+STARTUP: content
     #+STARTUP: showall