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Tags can simply be typed into the buffer at the end of a headline. After a colon, M-<TAB> offers completion on tags. There is also a special command for inserting tags:
org-set-tags-command
)org-tags-column
. When called with a C-u prefix, all
tags in the current buffer will be aligned to that column, just to make
things look nice. TAGS are automatically realigned after promotion,
demotion, and TODO state changes (see TODO basics).
org-set-tags-command
)Org supports tag insertion based on a list of tags. By
default this list is constructed dynamically, containing all tags
currently used in the buffer. You may also globally specify a hard list
of tags with the variable org-tag-alist
. Finally you can set
the default tags for a given file with lines like
#+TAGS: @work @home @tennisclub #+TAGS: laptop car pc sailboat
If you have globally defined your preferred set of tags using the
variable org-tag-alist
, but would like to use a dynamic tag list
in a specific file, add an empty TAGS option line to that file:
#+TAGS:
If you have a preferred set of tags that you would like to use in every file,
in addition to those defined on a per-file basis by TAGS option lines, then
you may specify a list of tags with the variable
org-tag-persistent-alist
. You may turn this off on a per-file basis
by adding a STARTUP option line to that file:
#+STARTUP: noptag
By default Org mode uses the standard minibuffer completion facilities for
entering tags. However, it also implements another, quicker, tag selection
method called fast tag selection. This allows you to select and
deselect tags with just a single key press. For this to work well you should
assign unique letters to most of your commonly used tags. You can do this
globally by configuring the variable org-tag-alist
in your
.emacs file. For example, you may find the need to tag many items in
different files with ‘:@home:’. In this case you can set something
like:
(setq org-tag-alist '(("@work" . ?w) ("@home" . ?h) ("laptop" . ?l)))
If the tag is only relevant to the file you are working on, then you can instead set the TAGS option line as:
#+TAGS: @work(w) @home(h) @tennisclub(t) laptop(l) pc(p)
The tags interface will show the available tags in a splash window. If you want to start a new line after a specific tag, insert ‘\n’ into the tag list
#+TAGS: @work(w) @home(h) @tennisclub(t) \n laptop(l) pc(p)
or write them in two lines:
#+TAGS: @work(w) @home(h) @tennisclub(t) #+TAGS: laptop(l) pc(p)
You can also group together tags that are mutually exclusive by using braces, as in:
#+TAGS: { @work(w) @home(h) @tennisclub(t) } laptop(l) pc(p)
you indicate that at most one of ‘@work’, ‘@home’, and ‘@tennisclub’ should be selected. Multiple such groups are allowed.
Don't forget to press C-c C-c with the cursor in one of these lines to activate any changes.
To set these mutually exclusive groups in the variable org-tag-alist
,
you must use the dummy tags :startgroup
and :endgroup
instead
of the braces. Similarly, you can use :newline
to indicate a line
break. The previous example would be set globally by the following
configuration:
(setq org-tag-alist '((:startgroup . nil) ("@work" . ?w) ("@home" . ?h) ("@tennisclub" . ?t) (:endgroup . nil) ("laptop" . ?l) ("pc" . ?p)))
If at least one tag has a selection key then pressing C-c C-c will automatically present you with a special interface, listing inherited tags, the tags of the current headline, and a list of all valid tags with corresponding keys1. In this interface, you can use the following keys:
This method lets you assign tags to a headline with very few keys. With the above setup, you could clear the current tags and set ‘@home’, ‘laptop’ and ‘pc’ tags with just the following keys: C-c C-c <SPC> h l p <RET>. Switching from ‘@home’ to ‘@work’ would be done with C-c C-c w <RET> or alternatively with C-c C-c C-c w. Adding the non-predefined tag ‘Sarah’ could be done with C-c C-c <TAB> S a r a h <RET> <RET>.
If you find that most of the time you need only a single key press to
modify your list of tags, set org-fast-tag-selection-single-key
.
Then you no longer have to press <RET> to exit fast tag selection—it
will immediately exit after the first change. If you then occasionally
need more keys, press C-c to turn off auto-exit for the current tag
selection process (in effect: start selection with C-c C-c C-c
instead of C-c C-c). If you set the variable to the value
expert
, the special window is not even shown for single-key tag
selection, it comes up only when you press an extra C-c.