Exporting From Org to Markdown

tldr

C-h v org-export-backends to ensure that Markdown export is available. C-c C-e m m invokes org-md-export-to-markdown. You may need to update Org, which could be a fussy process.

Let’s say that I am supposed to be writing a blog post. Not this one, another one. I have spent a lot of time learning about Org mode, and I’m not ready to leave it just yet. There’s a problem, though. The blog that I’m supposed to be contributing to looks a bit like Jekyll. Specifically, it uses Markdown formatting. That’s nice, but I really like Org mode formatting this week.

No problem!

According to the Org Markdown export page, C-c C-e opens an Export view. m m then triggers (org-md-export-to-markdown), which produces post.md from post.org.

Except that C-c C-e m m just exported the post to a FreeMind mind map. Cool, but not Markdown. org-md-export-to-markdown isn’t even available.

Problem.

Apparently I have org-mode 7.9.3f installed. The documentation on the Org Mode site is for the newest version: 8.2.6. How do I get the new version? The installation instructions suggest it can be done with package-install before you’ve loaded any org files.

package-install RET org

And now I have 8.2.6.

No problem. Except now I’m getting an error with C-c C-e m. Oh, I see the problem. There are only a few export backends enabled by default.

• ascii
• html
• icalendar
• latex

I need to set org-export-backends. The documentation specifies that I should use the Emacs customization interface. All righty.

C-h v org-export-backends

I end up with this in my .init.el

(custom-set-variables
 ;; custom-set-variables was added by Custom.
 ;; If you edit it by hand, you could mess it up, so be careful.
 ;; Your init file should contain only one such instance.
 ;; If there is more than one, they won't work right.
 '(org-export-backends (quote (ascii html icalendar latex md))))

The export interface is better, but now I get a different error.

org-refresh-category-properties: Invalid function: org-with-silent-modifications

This Markdown Export on Aquamacs post by Benjamin M. Gross was particularly helpful. He suggests you use the package manager to remove and reinstall the org package.

So I did. There was a confusing moment where the package manager didn’t seem to realize that a Org Mode was installed. Just turns out that a newer version was available. I installed the newer version and restarted emacs.

Trying C-c C-e m m one more time before I give up for now.

# Exporting From Org to Markdown

Let's say that I am supposed to be writing a blog post. Not this
one, another one. I have spent a lot of time learning about
[Org mode](http://orgmode.org), and I'm not ready to leave it just yet.
There's a problem, though. The blog that I'm supposed to be contributing
to looks a bit like [Jekyll](http://jekyllrb.com/). Specifically, it uses
[Markdown](http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/)
formatting. That's nice, but I *really* like `org-mode` formatting
this week.

See? No problem!

Now I just need to write the post. Not this one. The other one.

Added to vault 2024-01-15. Updated on 2024-02-01