org: move point to beginning of an item

Question

When in org-mode, how to move point to the beginning of the current item? (in similar fashion like back-to-indentation)

Example: Imagine following org buffer content

* headline
  - [ ] Z this is an longer item | (Point) is here. And here is some more text.
  - [X] it should work with that line too!
  - and with that one also

With point at location |, in the middle of that item. .oO(or even at the beginning of that line)
How can I easily move point to right before the letter Z?

I always jump around that location before I finaly hit it (i.e C-a M-f M-b or even C-a M-f M-f M-b) this is somewhat cumbersome..

FWIW, `C-a` works for me in all three cases (the cursor is on Z - or i or a - and the point is just before it, between the space and the first letter of the item) - Org mode version 9.3.4 (release_9.3.4-211-gb694c2) — NickD, Feb 07 '20 at 15:45

score 10 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 07 '20 at 16:26

Consider to customize variable org-special-ctrl-a/e. Possibly that will ease your flow.

From the documentation. Note in particular the "item" part.

When t, ‘C-a’ will bring back the cursor to the beginning of the headline text, i.e. after the stars and after a possible TODO keyword. In an item, this will be the position after bullet and check-box, if any. When the cursor is already at that position, another ‘C-a’ will bring it to the beginning of the line.

You can also consider the other documented values for org-special-ctrl-a/e.

score 3 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 29 '20 at 09:19

The existing answer is correct. I just wanted to add for posterity (and i'm not venerable enough to add comments) that for me and some other users enabling visual-line-mode remaps the relevant keys and so prevents org-special-ctrl-a/e from having any effect.

Remapping C-a and C-e with something like:

(define-key org-mode-map "\C-a" 'org-beginning-of-line)
(define-key org-mode-map "\C-e" 'org-end-of-line)

or your preferred way of doing it, should get it going though.

Found it in this reddit post

org: move point to beginning of an item

2 Answers2