16

In org-mode, when the contents of a subtree are hidden you see something like

* Some tree
  :PROPERTIES:...

** Another One...

Is there a way to change those ... to something else? I'd like to use something shorter like a utf-8 ellipsis or a rounded arrow.

Malabarba
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3 Answers3

16

Just customise the variable org-ellipsis. Something like

(setq org-ellipsis "…")
jch
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  • Awesome, I've set it to `"⮷"`. I'm sure I'll get sick of it soon but right now it looks sweet. – Malabarba Apr 28 '15 at 13:50
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    If you want to change the appearance but not the symbol, you can set `org-ellipsis` to a face instead of a string. – erikstokes Apr 28 '15 at 22:02
  • @erikstokes Is there a way to do both (i.e. change the face and the symbol)? – ph0t0nix Nov 16 '15 at 14:56
  • @ph0t0nix Not a way as easy as just setting a variable. `org-ellipsis` only lets you customize one. You can hack the display table as in the other answers to set the face and the symbol. – erikstokes Nov 17 '15 at 03:01
9

You can change the characters more generally for selective display with:

(set-display-table-slot standard-display-table 
                        'selective-display (string-to-vector " ◦◦◦ ")) ; or whatever you like

I've been using these characters because I find them easier to see than the periods, and yet not too distracting. To each their own, though.

I got this from the EmacsWiki: look for the section on "Customizing Outline ellipsis" for more details.

Dan
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8

Personally, instead of setting it only for Org, I do it globally with:

(unless standard-display-table
  (setq standard-display-table (make-display-table)))
(when (fboundp 'make-glyph-code)
  (set-display-table-slot standard-display-table 4
                          (vector (make-glyph-code ?…)
                                  (make-glyph-code ?…))))
Stefan
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