[Orgmode] Re: Switching between many contexts

[Bernt Hansen]

Hi Daniel,

<Quoted text wrapped>

Daniel Clemente <address@hidden> writes:

>   Hi. I have this scenario: I track several projects in a single file,
>   each in its own level-1 section, but each week I'm working only on
>   one project.  In my agenda (C-a a) I'm currently seeing scheduled
>   tasks from all projects, and I would like to exclude all projects
>   but one.  I recently added a CATEGORY property to each section.
>
>
>   My questions are:
>
> 1. How can I exclude a category from the agenda view?  Probably with
> key \ TAB CATEGORY="something", but I can't make it work and I'm
> confused by the many types of searches that are referred to in the
> manual.

I use tags instead of categories for filtering.  Categories for me are
only displayed in the agenda as extra information for what the task
belongs to.

Since tags are inherited you can just add a tag to the level 1 task and
then filter using that tag.

> >
> 2. How can I create an agenda view that looks like the normal agenda,
> but ignores some categories? (at least on that file).

Using tags instead of categories:

Do a normal agenda view and then limit with / TAB tag-names-goes-here or
use one of your fast key selections for tags.  (/ key)

You can use a filter to remove tasks with a specific tag

C-c a t / - TAB PROJ1 RET

will display all TODO tasks and then remove any tasks with the PROJ1
tag.  You can repeat the /- TAB tagname sequence to remove multiple
projects.

For my standard tags I have quick keys defined in my org-tag-alist so I
can just use those to filter tasks.  That works great!

> >
> 3. Do you implement this scenario in other ways? For instance, one can
> add the COMMENT keyword the unwanted projects, use different files,
> close all old tasks after each context switch, use other tags, …

I split projects into separate files and add a #+FILETAGS: at the top.
For instance my org.org file has
#+FILETAGS: ORG

and all tasks in that file get the ORG tag.

For clients I create one or more files and use a FILETAGS setting to
create a tag for that client - then I can limit the agenda to just that
client quickly.  Some clients have multiple project files (one of my
clients has client systems which I work on so each system has its own
org file but I can view everything for that client by limiting to the
client tag)

I find limiting the agenda with tag filters very quick and effective.

HTH,
Bernt