2.3 Visibility cycling

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

<TAB>     (org-cycle)

Subtree cycling: Rotate current subtree among 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>     (org-global-cycle)

C-u <TAB>

Global cycling: Rotate the entire buffer among the states

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

When S-<TAB> is called with a numeric prefix argument 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-u C-u C-u <TAB>     (show-all)

Show all, including drawers.

C-c C-r     (org-reveal)

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

C-c C-k     (show-branches)

Expose all the headings of the subtree, CONTENT view for just one subtree.

C-c <TAB>     (show-children)

Expose all direct children of the subtree. With a numeric prefix argument N, expose all children down to level N.

C-c C-x b     (org-tree-to-indirect-buffer)

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

C-c C-x v     (org-copy-visible)

Copy the visible text in the region into the kill ring.

When Emacs first visits an Org 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
     #+STARTUP: showeverything

The startup visibility options are ignored when the file is open for the first time during the agenda generation: if you want the agenda to honor the startup visibility, set org-agenda-inhibit-startup to nil.

Furthermore, any entries with a ‘VISIBILITY’ property (see Properties and Columns) will get their visibility adapted accordingly. Allowed values for this property are folded, children, content, and all.

C-u C-u <TAB>     (org-set-startup-visibility)

Switch back to the startup visibility of the buffer, i.e., whatever is requested by startup options and ‘VISIBILITY’ properties in individual entries.