Can I edit my files with Orgro?

Yes! Orgro has support for plain-text editing, where you edit raw markup.

It also has a limited set of “structured” editing features, namely:

  • Toggling checkboxes on list items ([ ] ↔︎ [X])
  • Cycling TODO keywords on headlines (TODO → DONE → none ↩︎)

When Orgro has write permissions to the current file, it will ask if you want to save changes. Click “Always” or “Just this time” to allow saving. Orgro will auto-save a few seconds after the last change; look for the Snackbar notification.

Important: When saving, Orgro will recreate the original file from its in-memory representation. In doing so it will attempt to limit changes to only the parts you have edited, but it is possible that it may alter other parts as well. In particular, non-semantic white space may not be preserved.

You are recommended to keep backups of your files in case Orgro mangles them. Please report any issues you find.

Can Orgro access my files?

Orgro can directly open files accessible by the standard file-opening mechanisms on Android and iOS, including files within third-party apps that implement appropriate file-providing APIs. As of 2022-4-10 that includes apps like Dropbox and Google Drive.

For other apps, you should be able to send your file to Orgro with the standard “share” or “open in” feature.

Can Orgro sync with Dropbox?

Orgro doesn’t have a concept of “syncing”: you open a file to view its contents, and then you close it. No persistent data derived from the file is retained that must be kept “in sync”.

You can open files stored in Dropbox via the file picker or by sharing to Orgro from inside the Dropbox app.

How does Orgro compare to other apps like Orgzly and beorg?

Orgro is a general-purpose viewer and editor for Org Mode files with arbitrary content. Orgzly and beorg are better thought of as task/agenda managers that use Org Mode files for data import/export.

How can I use links between Org Mode files?

Requirements

Orgro v1.18.0 and later supports links between Org Mode files under certain conditions:

  1. Your files must be stored in a location that allows obtaining directory permissions. Many major third-party apps do not support this.

    Storage providers known to support directory permissions include:

    Storage providers known to not support directory permissions as of 2021-4-26 include:

    • Dropbox (all platforms)
    • Google Drive (all platforms)

    If in the directory picker’s source selector your app is grayed out (iOS) or does not appear at all (Android) then it probably does not support the required APIs.

  2. On Android support for links depends on your OS version:

    • Android 8 Oreo and later: full support
    • Android 5 Lollipop through 7 Nougat: partial support
      • Links pointing “up” the filesystem hierarchy (..) are not supported
      • Resolving relative links may be slow
    • Android 4.4 and earlier: no support

  3. The way you opened the file also matters: files opened by intent on Android do not support relative links.

Granting permissions

To allow Orgro to resolve a link to another Org Mode file, you must grant Orgro directory access permissions.

When a file contains external file links and Orgro does not yet have the right permissions, a banner will appear at the top of the document prompting you to grant access.

Tap Grant Access to open a directory picker. Choose a directory high enough in the hierarchy that it contains both 1) the file you opened and 2) the files linked to.

If all goes well, the banner will disappear and file links will open on top of the starting document.

Can I filter a document like with org-match-sparse-tree?

Orgro v1.37.0 and later support filtering a document to produce a “sparse tree”. See the Orgro manual for general information.

The query language supported by Orgro is a subset of the full language described in the Matching tags and properties section of the Org manual. In particular:

  • Regex is not supported
  • Date/time-type property values are not supported
  • Group tags are not expanded
  • Trailing TODO clauses (delimited by /) are not supported
  • Tags and properties are not inherited; in other words the matching behavior is consistent with org-use-tag-inheritance and org-use-property-inheritance both being nil