13.2 Export Settings

Export options can be set: globally with variables; for an individual file by making variables buffer-local with in-buffer settings (see In-buffer Settings); by setting individual keywords or specifying them in compact form with the ‘OPTIONS’ keyword; or for a tree by setting properties (see Properties and Columns). Options set at a specific level override options set at a more general level.

In-buffer settings may appear anywhere in the file, either directly or indirectly through a file included using ‘#+SETUPFILE: filename or URL’ syntax. Option keyword sets tailored to a particular back-end can be inserted from the export dispatcher (see The Export Dispatcher) using the ‘Insert template’ command by pressing #. To insert keywords individually, a good way to make sure the keyword is correct is to type ‘#+’ and then to use M-TAB¹²² for completion.

The export keywords available for every back-end, and their equivalent global variables, include:

‘AUTHOR’

The document author (user-full-name).

‘CREATOR’

Entity responsible for output generation (org-export-creator-string).

‘DATE’

A date or a time-stamp¹²³.

‘EMAIL’

The email address (user-mail-address).

‘LANGUAGE’

Language to use for translating certain strings (org-export-default-language). With ‘#+LANGUAGE: fr’, for example, Org translates ‘Table of contents’ to the French ‘Table des matières’¹²⁴.

‘SELECT_TAGS’

The default value is ‘("export")’. When a tree is tagged with ‘export’ (org-export-select-tags), Org selects that tree and its sub-trees for export. Org excludes trees with ‘noexport’ tags, see below. When selectively exporting files with ‘export’ tags set, Org does not export any text that appears before the first headline.

‘EXCLUDE_TAGS’

The default value is ‘("noexport")’. When a tree is tagged with ‘noexport’ (org-export-exclude-tags), Org excludes that tree and its sub-trees from export. Entries tagged with ‘noexport’ are unconditionally excluded from the export, even if they have an ‘export’ tag. Even if a sub-tree is not exported, Org executes any code blocks contained there.

‘TITLE’

Org displays this title. For long titles, use multiple ‘#+TITLE’ lines.

‘EXPORT_FILE_NAME’

The name of the output file to be generated. Otherwise, Org generates the file name based on the buffer name and the extension based on the back-end format.

The ‘OPTIONS’ keyword is a compact form. To configure multiple options, use several ‘OPTIONS’ lines. ‘OPTIONS’ recognizes the following arguments.

'

Toggle smart quotes (org-export-with-smart-quotes). Depending on the language used, when activated, Org treats pairs of double quotes as primary quotes, pairs of single quotes as secondary quotes, and single quote marks as apostrophes.

*

Toggle emphasized text (org-export-with-emphasize).

-

Toggle conversion of special strings (org-export-with-special-strings).

:

Toggle fixed-width sections (org-export-with-fixed-width).

<

Toggle inclusion of time/date active/inactive stamps (org-export-with-timestamps).

\n

Toggles whether to preserve line breaks (org-export-preserve-breaks).

^

Toggle TeX-like syntax for sub- and superscripts. If you write ‘^:{}’, ‘a_{b}’ is interpreted, but the simple ‘a_b’ is left as it is (org-export-with-sub-superscripts).

arch

Configure how archived trees are exported. When set to headline, the export process skips the contents and processes only the headlines (org-export-with-archived-trees).

author

Toggle inclusion of author name into exported file (org-export-with-author).

broken-links

Toggles if Org should continue exporting upon finding a broken internal link. When set to mark, Org clearly marks the problem link in the output (org-export-with-broken-links).

c

Toggle inclusion of ‘CLOCK’ keywords (org-export-with-clocks).

creator

Toggle inclusion of creator information in the exported file (org-export-with-creator).

d

Toggles inclusion of drawers, or list of drawers to include, or list of drawers to exclude (org-export-with-drawers).

date

Toggle inclusion of a date into exported file (org-export-with-date).

e

Toggle inclusion of entities (org-export-with-entities).

email

Toggle inclusion of the author’s e-mail into exported file (org-export-with-email).

f

Toggle the inclusion of footnotes (org-export-with-footnotes).

H

Set the number of headline levels for export (org-export-headline-levels). Below that level, headlines are treated differently. In most back-ends, they become list items.

inline

Toggle inclusion of inlinetasks (org-export-with-inlinetasks).

num

Toggle section-numbers (org-export-with-section-numbers). When set to number N, Org numbers only those headlines at level N or above. Set ‘UNNUMBERED’ property to non-nil to disable numbering of heading and subheadings entirely. Moreover, when the value is ‘notoc’ the headline, and all its children, do not appear in the table of contents either (see Table of Contents).

p

Toggle export of planning information (org-export-with-planning). “Planning information” comes from lines located right after the headline and contain any combination of these cookies: ‘SCHEDULED’, ‘DEADLINE’, or ‘CLOSED’.

pri

Toggle inclusion of priority cookies (org-export-with-priority).

prop

Toggle inclusion of property drawers, or list the properties to include (org-export-with-properties).

stat

Toggle inclusion of statistics cookies (org-export-with-statistics-cookies).

tags

Toggle inclusion of tags, may also be not-in-toc (org-export-with-tags).

tasks

Toggle inclusion of tasks (TODO items); or nil to remove all tasks; or todo to remove done tasks; or list the keywords to keep (org-export-with-tasks).

tex

nil does not export; t exports; verbatim keeps everything in verbatim (org-export-with-latex).

timestamp

Toggle inclusion of the creation time in the exported file (org-export-time-stamp-file).

title

Toggle inclusion of title (org-export-with-title).

toc

Toggle inclusion of the table of contents, or set the level limit (org-export-with-toc).

todo

Toggle inclusion of TODO keywords into exported text (org-export-with-todo-keywords).

|

Toggle inclusion of tables (org-export-with-tables).

When exporting sub-trees, special node properties can override the above keywords. These properties have an ‘EXPORT_’ prefix. For example, ‘DATE’ becomes, ‘EXPORT_DATE’ when used for a specific sub-tree. Except for ‘SETUPFILE’, all other keywords listed above have an ‘EXPORT_’ equivalent.

If org-export-allow-bind-keywords is non-nil, Emacs variables can become buffer-local during export by using the ‘BIND’ keyword. Its syntax is ‘#+BIND: variable value’. This is particularly useful for in-buffer settings that cannot be changed using keywords.