Objects are the inline parts of Org text: markup, links, timestamps and the like, found inside paragraphs, headings, list items, table cells and other elements.
Text markup
| Markup | Result |
|---|---|
*bold* | Bold. |
/italic/ | Italic. |
_underline_ | Underlined. |
+strike-through+ | Struck through. |
=verbatim= | Verbatim: shown as is, no objects inside. |
~code~ | Code: as verbatim, marked as code. |
A marker counts only when the character before it (PRE) is the start of a line,
whitespace, or one of - ( { ' ", and the character after the closing
marker (POST) is the end of a line, whitespace, or one of
- . , ; : ! ? ' ) } [ " \. The marked text must not start or end with
whitespace, and by default may span at most one line break
(org-emphasis-regexp-components controls this). Bold, italic, underline
and strike-through may contain other objects; verbatim and code may not.
Links
| Form | Example |
|---|---|
| Regular | [[https://orgmode.org][Org site]], [[file:notes.org]] |
| Angle | <https://orgmode.org> |
| Plain | https://orgmode.org: a known link type followed by a path, recognised in text |
| Radio | Plain text that matches a radio target <<<like this>>> anywhere in the file links to it. |
Inside a regular link, the path may be a URL or type:path;
[[#custom-id]] goes to a heading’s CUSTOM_ID,
[[*Heading]] to a heading by title, [[name]] to a
<<target>> or a #+NAME:, and a path starting
with /, ./ or ~/ is a file. Brackets and
backslashes in the path are escaped with \. Link types built into Org
include http, https, ftp,
mailto, file (with :: search options such as
line numbers), file+sys, file+emacs, id,
doi, news, shell, elisp,
help, info, man, attachment,
docview, bbdb, irc, gnus,
rmail, mhe and w3m; #+LINK:
defines abbreviations, and Emacs packages add more.
Timestamps
<2026-11-12 Thu 10:00-11:30 +1w -2d>: a date, an optional
day name (any letters, not checked), an optional time or time range, an optional
repeater and an optional warning delay.
| Form | Meaning |
|---|---|
<…> | Active: appears in the agenda. |
[…] | Inactive: a plain date that the agenda ignores. |
<…>--<…>, […]--[…] | A date range. |
<2026-11-12 Thu 10:00-11:30> | A time range on one day. |
<%%(sexp)> | A diary expression, for irregular dates. |
| Mark | Meaning |
|---|---|
+1w | Repeater, cumulative: when marked done, move on by one interval. |
++1w | Catch-up: move on by whole intervals until the date is in the future. |
.+1w | Restart: the next date is one interval after the day it was done. |
-2d | Warning delay: warn 2 days before a deadline (or delay a scheduled item). |
--2d | The same, for the first occurrence only of a repeating item. |
Units are h (hour), d (day), w (week),
m (month) and y (year). A repeater can also give a deadline
for the habit, such as .+2d/3d.
Other objects
| Object | Syntax | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Footnote reference | [fn:LABEL], [fn:LABEL:definition], [fn::definition] | A reference, an inline footnote with a label, an anonymous inline footnote. |
| Citation | [cite/style:prefix @key suffix; @key2] | Citations of bibliography keys (Org 9.5 and later); the style, such as /t or /n, is optional. |
| Entity | \alpha, \rarr{}, \nbsp | A named special character from org-entities (Greek letters, arrows, accented letters, symbols). \_ followed by spaces gives that many spaces. |
| LaTeX fragment | \(…\), \[…\], $…$, $$…$$, \command{…} | Maths and LaTeX commands. |
| Export snippet | @@html:<b>@@ | Raw text for one exporter. |
| Inline babel call | call_NAME[header](args)[header] | Runs a named block and puts its result inline. |
| Inline source block | src_python[:results value]{1+1} | Code inline, which Babel can run. |
| Line break | \\ at the end of a line | A forced line break. |
| Macro | {{{name(arg1, arg2)}}} | Replaced on export. Built in: title, author, email, date, time, modification-time, input-file, property, n (counter), keyword; others from #+MACRO:. |
| Target | <<name>> | A link target, not shown. |
| Radio target | <<<text>>> | A target that turns every occurrence of its text into a link. |
| Statistics cookie | [2/5], [40%], empty [/] or [%] | Org fills in how many child checkboxes or TODO items are done. |
| Subscript, superscript | H_2O, E=mc^2, x_{i+1} | Applied on export, unless #+OPTIONS: ^:nil or ^:{} (braces required). |
| Table cell | text between | | One cell of a table row. |