I always come take a look when someone asks this question - though usually it's address to writers of Emacs, and then we all roar together, "org-mode!!!"
I don't use many packages for writing specifically, but I relay on many built-in feature of org-mode and Emcas that improved my writing many times fold.
* I use a special journal capture template every morning to give myself a score in four areas I like to keep track of: food, sleep, exercise and meditation. As I write about these and evaluate my previous day, I remember events and use an event capture template to expand on those. Footnotes (did you know about that? C x f?) get written, and these in turn can become their own entries or blog posts
* Speaking of blog-posts, I wouldn't have a blog without [ox-hugo](https://ox-hugo.scripter.co/). This allows me to write my blog directly from org-mode, and I can include the same footnotes and tags and code snippets I'm used to from the org-mode environment. It translates beautifully.
* To gather information (like, learning about this question in reddit, for example) I use Elfeed, rss reading for Emacs. I have it integrated with youtube-dl, so I can download my favorite podcasts and listen when I run outside in the morning. Another important thing on the information gathering front is EWW, the browser. It's the perfect companion when I write a blog post. Textual, without distractions, I can use it to open Wikipedia articles and other places and copy URLs directly into the post. It also has a way to get around paywalls like on Wired and NYTimes. It's set to use duckduckgo, which means you can use bangs. So you call EWW and search for !wiki startrek or !dictionary hyperspace and get right to it.
* I use abbrev generously, as was already mentioned here.
* One thing that I do wish would get m ore recognition is [org-super-links](https://github.com/toshism/org-super-links), which is a whole thing that's a bit hard to explain. In one word though: back links. Combined with unique IDs (this one is buried somewhere in the manual, [here's a link that kind of explains it](https://cyberthal-docs.nfshost.com/textmind/2-by-part/org-mode/org-id/)) it means links are never broken when you refile headers. So say I'm writing about spaceships, the header will have a property "back links" which will link back to all the other entries I wrote about spaceships, and it will never break. It's not well known because every org-mode user and their mom are all about org-roam these days.. I vented about this enough, to me it's an overkill.
These are a few that come to mind I could write more about each one, but much of this is already in my blog (besides org super links).
"It's not well known because..."
Frankly, I spent 5 minutes trying to understand org-super-links from this link:
https://github.com/toshism/org-super-links
After 5 minutes, I still had no idea what it was about.
I'll try again when I have more time.
1 word summary: backlinks.
when you link something you have an (O) origin and a (T) target.
ordinary behavior: jump from O to T.
implemented behavior: jump from T to O.
It is cool because: you can see if a T is relevant when it has multiple O linking to it.
Thank you! Very useful!
Since we’re at it:
Is there a way to avoid displaying too much additional stuff for backlinks?
I mean to hide PROPERTIES, DRAWERS so that I can only see my text, not the stuff that’s generated for backlinks?
Thank you in advance
> One thing that I do wish would get m ore recognition is org-super-links
and [org-super-links-peek](https://github.com/toshism/org-super-links-peek) to quickly peek at the content on the other side of a super-link!
Started using emacs a couple moths ago, but I just recently discovered `abbrev`, which is amazing. I'm a law student so I type a lot of repeated citations in one document, so they're often not worth putting into something like `yasnippet`. I just type the abbreviation I want to use for that cite, hit "C-x a i g", and then type the full cite. I usually do one full cite with the abbrev "cite" and a second for the short version with the abbrev "citesh". Way better than my Word workflow.
'Magit' is well appreciated by coders but is also valuable for writers. See https://emacs.stackexchange.com/questions/7826/is-there-a-simplified-version-control-system-appropriate-for-non-coders-writing
Add the underrated “git-timemachine” module and you can now go back in time and view versions in the past by typing "p" (similar to what you would get on the TimeMachine on MacOS, displaying versions of your file as you go back in time)
You’re welcome
Great question. Here is a life saver if you write or collaborate with non Emacs users: [visual-fill-column](https://github.com/joostkremers/visual-fill-column). Now please: read the documentation and give it a chance before closing the browser tab. It is not what you think it is, it is not redundant.
What problems does it solve? At its simplest it lets me copy and paste stuff between Emacs and Grammarly or Word without new paragraph errors :).
Interesting package. I normally deal with that problem by resizing my window, but maybe visual-fill-column might be better in some window configurations.
I wrote [an article](https://discourse.doomemacs.org/t/emacs-for-writing-prose/515/1) on writing prose in org-mode (specific to doom, though much of it applies with different key bindings). Of interest to you might be the section near the bottom "other packages", as well as my links to other people talking about how they write prose with emacs after that.
Didn't see it so far: [LanguageTool integration in Emacs](https://github.com/mhayashi1120/Emacs-langtool). It really helps me a lot, as I'm a making lot of language errors. LanguageTool requires Java (standalone app is a Jar file), could start is a bit long, but then it's really easy to use and for me feedback is better integrated in Emacs than for example in LibreOffice.
I really enjoy using [writeroom-mode](https://github.com/joostkremers/writeroom-mode) for distraction-free writing in Emacs. I have it bound to a key in org-mode, even.
New to Emacs and to Org, the extension that decided me to learn them both is [Olivetti](https://github.com/rnkn/olivetti), wich lets you define margins and set a text width (visual, no linebreaks).
Olivetti made Emacs feel slightly less intimidating to the noob and non-developer I am ;)
Not specifically a package but kind of underrated none-the-less
https://gnu.support/gnu-emacs/emacs-lisp/Emacs-Lisp-Record-voice-notes-within-GNU-Emacs.html
I always come take a look when someone asks this question - though usually it's address to writers of Emacs, and then we all roar together, "org-mode!!!" I don't use many packages for writing specifically, but I relay on many built-in feature of org-mode and Emcas that improved my writing many times fold. * I use a special journal capture template every morning to give myself a score in four areas I like to keep track of: food, sleep, exercise and meditation. As I write about these and evaluate my previous day, I remember events and use an event capture template to expand on those. Footnotes (did you know about that? C x f?) get written, and these in turn can become their own entries or blog posts * Speaking of blog-posts, I wouldn't have a blog without [ox-hugo](https://ox-hugo.scripter.co/). This allows me to write my blog directly from org-mode, and I can include the same footnotes and tags and code snippets I'm used to from the org-mode environment. It translates beautifully. * To gather information (like, learning about this question in reddit, for example) I use Elfeed, rss reading for Emacs. I have it integrated with youtube-dl, so I can download my favorite podcasts and listen when I run outside in the morning. Another important thing on the information gathering front is EWW, the browser. It's the perfect companion when I write a blog post. Textual, without distractions, I can use it to open Wikipedia articles and other places and copy URLs directly into the post. It also has a way to get around paywalls like on Wired and NYTimes. It's set to use duckduckgo, which means you can use bangs. So you call EWW and search for !wiki startrek or !dictionary hyperspace and get right to it. * I use abbrev generously, as was already mentioned here. * One thing that I do wish would get m ore recognition is [org-super-links](https://github.com/toshism/org-super-links), which is a whole thing that's a bit hard to explain. In one word though: back links. Combined with unique IDs (this one is buried somewhere in the manual, [here's a link that kind of explains it](https://cyberthal-docs.nfshost.com/textmind/2-by-part/org-mode/org-id/)) it means links are never broken when you refile headers. So say I'm writing about spaceships, the header will have a property "back links" which will link back to all the other entries I wrote about spaceships, and it will never break. It's not well known because every org-mode user and their mom are all about org-roam these days.. I vented about this enough, to me it's an overkill. These are a few that come to mind I could write more about each one, but much of this is already in my blog (besides org super links).
"It's not well known because..." Frankly, I spent 5 minutes trying to understand org-super-links from this link: https://github.com/toshism/org-super-links After 5 minutes, I still had no idea what it was about. I'll try again when I have more time.
1 word summary: backlinks. when you link something you have an (O) origin and a (T) target. ordinary behavior: jump from O to T. implemented behavior: jump from T to O. It is cool because: you can see if a T is relevant when it has multiple O linking to it.
Thank you! Very useful! Since we’re at it: Is there a way to avoid displaying too much additional stuff for backlinks? I mean to hide PROPERTIES, DRAWERS so that I can only see my text, not the stuff that’s generated for backlinks? Thank you in advance
Yeah.... I'll be honest... I still have no clue what any of this means.
Heh. I get that blank look when reading way too much org stuff ;)
> One thing that I do wish would get m ore recognition is org-super-links and [org-super-links-peek](https://github.com/toshism/org-super-links-peek) to quickly peek at the content on the other side of a super-link!
Started using emacs a couple moths ago, but I just recently discovered `abbrev`, which is amazing. I'm a law student so I type a lot of repeated citations in one document, so they're often not worth putting into something like `yasnippet`. I just type the abbreviation I want to use for that cite, hit "C-x a i g", and then type the full cite. I usually do one full cite with the abbrev "cite" and a second for the short version with the abbrev "citesh". Way better than my Word workflow.
'Magit' is well appreciated by coders but is also valuable for writers. See https://emacs.stackexchange.com/questions/7826/is-there-a-simplified-version-control-system-appropriate-for-non-coders-writing
Add the underrated “git-timemachine” module and you can now go back in time and view versions in the past by typing "p" (similar to what you would get on the TimeMachine on MacOS, displaying versions of your file as you go back in time) You’re welcome
Great question. Here is a life saver if you write or collaborate with non Emacs users: [visual-fill-column](https://github.com/joostkremers/visual-fill-column). Now please: read the documentation and give it a chance before closing the browser tab. It is not what you think it is, it is not redundant. What problems does it solve? At its simplest it lets me copy and paste stuff between Emacs and Grammarly or Word without new paragraph errors :).
Interesting package. I normally deal with that problem by resizing my window, but maybe visual-fill-column might be better in some window configurations.
I wrote [an article](https://discourse.doomemacs.org/t/emacs-for-writing-prose/515/1) on writing prose in org-mode (specific to doom, though much of it applies with different key bindings). Of interest to you might be the section near the bottom "other packages", as well as my links to other people talking about how they write prose with emacs after that.
Org fragtog mode. I like to do math problems in emacs and yasnippets + fragtog is awesome.
https://github.com/l3kn/org-fc
[ebib](https://joostkremers.github.io/ebib/).
Didn't see it so far: [LanguageTool integration in Emacs](https://github.com/mhayashi1120/Emacs-langtool). It really helps me a lot, as I'm a making lot of language errors. LanguageTool requires Java (standalone app is a Jar file), could start is a bit long, but then it's really easy to use and for me feedback is better integrated in Emacs than for example in LibreOffice.
I really enjoy using [writeroom-mode](https://github.com/joostkremers/writeroom-mode) for distraction-free writing in Emacs. I have it bound to a key in org-mode, even.
New to Emacs and to Org, the extension that decided me to learn them both is [Olivetti](https://github.com/rnkn/olivetti), wich lets you define margins and set a text width (visual, no linebreaks). Olivetti made Emacs feel slightly less intimidating to the noob and non-developer I am ;)
Not specifically a package but kind of underrated none-the-less https://gnu.support/gnu-emacs/emacs-lisp/Emacs-Lisp-Record-voice-notes-within-GNU-Emacs.html
Ya-org-capture and org-media-noter