Org tutorial for tables

This tutorial briefly describes the use of tables with Org. You can freely improve this tutorial by editing Worg.

Creating a table

While typing

The easiest way to create a table is to directly type the "|" character at the beginning of a line, or after any amount of white space. This will put you in the first field of an atomic table.

| This is the content of the first cell

Once you've finished editing this cell, you can jump to the next one by pressing TAB . Since the row you just started only contains one cell, the next cell is really the first cell of the next row.

| This is the content of the first cell | | < Here I am after pressing TAB |

By creating the structure and filling it

You can also create a table from scratch with C-c | . You will be asked for the structure of the table, the default being 5x2 (see org-table-default-size ), five columns and two rows:

Then you can jump from one field to another with the TAB key (jump to the next cell) or S- (jump to the previous cell). RET will jump to the to the next cell in the same colum, and create a new column if there is no such cell (or if the next row is beyond a separator line.)

By converting a region into a table

Org provides useful ways of converting a region into a table. For this, select a region and press C-c | . For example, press C-c | on this:

some, comma, separated, values

will automagically produce this:

| some | comma | separated | values |

Usually, this command should be smart enough to guess what is the field separator for the region. If each line of the active region contains a TAB or a comma, it will assume this is the separator.

• If you want to force the comma as a field separator, press C-u C-c | .
• If you want to force TAB as a field separator, press C-u C-u C-c | .
• If you want to force a specific number of spaces – say 3 – use C-u 3 C-c | .

Editing the structure of a table

Editing table with Org is pure magic.

Moving rows/columns

Let's say for example that you have this basic table:

| A | B | C | | 1 | 2 | 3 | | a | b | c |

With the cursor in the A field, pressing M- will move the A column to the right:

| B | A | C | | 2 | 1 | 3 | | b | a | c |

With the cursor in the first row, pressing M- will move the first row down:

| 1 | 2 | 3 | | A | B | C | | a | b | c |

Inserting rows/columns

Prefixed with the Shift key, these command will insert a new column or a new row, instead of moving it. For example, with the cursor initially in the B cell, S-M- will insert a new column between A and B

| A | | B | C | | 1 | | 2 | 3 | | a | | b | c |

… leaving the cursor in the newly created column.

And S-M- when cursor is in the first row will insert a new row at the beginning of the table:

| | | | | A | B | C | | 1 | 2 | 3 | | a | b | c |

Narrowing the visible part of a column

Sometimes cells can get really wide. If you want to restrict the width visible width of a cell, you need to add a new row to your table.

| | | | A very wide cell | Another very very wide cell |

Pressing C-c C-c on this table will update the display so that the first and second columns are respectively narrowed to 10 and 15 characters:

| | | | A very=> | Another very => |

When columns are narrowed, it might be useful to temporarily see the content of a cell with C-u (or C-u C-c ` ) or to edit the content in a separate window with C-c ` .

Preparing tables for export

| A | B | | 1 | 2 |

will be exported like this: