9.1.2 Using capture

C-c c     (org-capture)

Call the command org-capture. Note that this key binding is global and not active by default: you need to install it. If you have templates defined see Capture templates, it will offer these templates for selection or use a new Org outline node as the default template. It will insert the template into the target file and switch to an indirect buffer narrowed to this new node. You may then insert the information you want.

C-c C-c     (org-capture-finalize)

Once you have finished entering information into the capture buffer, C-c C-c will return you to the window configuration before the capture process, so that you can resume your work without further distraction. When called with a prefix arg, finalize and then jump to the captured item.

C-c C-w     (org-capture-refile)

Finalize the capture process by refiling (see Refile and copy) the note to a different place. Please realize that this is a normal refiling command that will be executed—so the cursor position at the moment you run this command is important. If you have inserted a tree with a parent and children, first move the cursor back to the parent. Any prefix argument given to this command will be passed on to the org-refile command.

C-c C-k     (org-capture-kill)

Abort the capture process and return to the previous state.

You can also call org-capture in a special way from the agenda, using the k c key combination. With this access, any timestamps inserted by the selected capture template will default to the cursor date in the agenda, rather than to the current date.

To find the locations of the last stored capture, use org-capture with prefix commands:

C-u C-c c

Visit the target location of a capture template. You get to select the template in the usual way.

C-u C-u C-c c

Visit the last stored capture item in its buffer.

You can also jump to the bookmark org-capture-last-stored, which will automatically be created unless you set org-capture-bookmark to nil.

To insert the capture at point in an Org buffer, call org-capture with a C-0 prefix argument.