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First published 2022-05 by Emacs-Rookie. Updated 2022-07-23, by Control-Freak.

The remember mode inspired capture in org mode and is since 2010-08 recommended for new users. I still find it mysterious and will try to solve the puzzle with two blogs of the remember author Charles Cave: (1) Remember Mode Tutorial and (2) Capture mode and Date Trees in org-mode at members.optusnet.com.au.

Capture lets you quickly store notes to a target, which usually is an org file. org’s method for capturing new items is heavily inspired by John Wiegley’s Remember package, i.e., emacs' rememeber mode.

M-x org-capture is the command to launch the capturing procedure. Figure 1 shows a form, called dispatcher, to invite the user to choose from capture templates. The default form offers the keys

t for the default template
C to create a new template
q to cancel the process.

For the default template the target is a file with its name deposited in the variable org-default-notes-file. In my version this file is set to 📂 \tilde/.notes.

If your emacs point is in an org file the t-capture will open your notes file with the following lines entered.

* Tasks
** TODO
   [2019-09-24 Tue]
   [[file:/path/2/your/file.org::*Section][Section Headline]]

The point will be one blank after the TODO keyword.

If your notes file already has a Task Section or with another M-x org-capture t a new TODO subsection is added to the Task Section.

There are three ways to escape the capture buffer

C-c C-c saves the capture file
? C-c C-w refiles the capture into another section
? C-c C-k cancels the capture process

Capture templates are customized in org-capture-templates or with M-x org-capture C. The definition of the default t template would be set as a list

(setq org-capture-templates
      '("t" "Todo" entry
        (file+headline org-default-notes-file "Tasks")
        "* TODO %?\n  %i\n  %a"))

"t" – the key for invocation of the template. With a preceeding two-element-entry you can also employ two characters for a key
"TODO" – a description which is shown in the selection form
entry – the type of the note: entry, item, checkitem, table-line, and plain
(file+headline org-default-notes-file "Tasks") – the target, a list of the target type, and one or more arguments
"* TODO %?\n %i\n %a" – the template itself with plenty of %-escapes, including specific link types. You can even set org-capture-templates-contexts to overload templates. Or reference to a template file.
not used in the example – a property list of additional options

Usually the notes are put into org files. But the capture idea also provides a target type called function, which is very flexible.

Examples: Capturing Content for Emacs 2018-05-26 anonymous blog entry at howardism.org

Mysterious Captures