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I have an org file where the majority of the text in the buffer at any one time is folded. I would like to be able to perform a search and replace on only the unfolded lines. For example, I have a file that looks like the below, where Sections A1 through A4 are parent headings to other content, which is currently folded and therefore invisible.

Before operation

* Section A
** Section A1...
** Section A2...
** Section A3...
** Section A4...

I want to be able to select, say, sections A2 and A3 and append some text to just those lines, not any of the child content of those nodes.

After operation (text expanded for illustration only)

* Section A
** Section A1...
** Section A2 <appended text>
*** Foo
** Section A3 <appended text>
*** Foo
** Section A4...

All the search and replaces methods I have tried so far also apply the replacement on the child content (the Foo lines here), which is not the behaviour I desire.

Drew
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user2567544
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  • You seem to entertain a strange definition of `visible`: in the `before the operation` view, all headlines are visible - only their bodies are invisible. Moreover, you cannot make *some* of the headlines invisible through Org mode means; although, to be sure, you *can* use lower-level methods to do that, but AFAIK there is no "point-and-click" way to say "make *this* invisible". In the absence of such a way, your stated purpose `I want to be able to select, say, sections A2 and A3 and append some text to just those lines, not any of the child content of those nodes` has nothing to do with ... – NickD Jun 05 '23 at 16:51
  • ... visibility, at least at the Org mode level. You might want to decouple your question from it: as it stands, it's conflating two issues that don't have anything to do with each other (again at the Org mode level). Alternatively, you might ask for a "point-and-click" way to make things invisible and then apply the answer below. But that's just *one* way for your problem to be solved and you probably don't want to specify *how* it should be done. – NickD Jun 05 '23 at 16:52
  • I don't really follow that tbh but I have hopefully asked a simpler question here: https://emacs.stackexchange.com/questions/77505/append-text-to-unfolded-org-mode-lines-only – user2567544 Jun 05 '23 at 19:06

1 Answers1

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As per Make isearch skip folded content in org-mode

(add-hook 'org-mode-hook
      (lambda ()
        (make-local-variable 'search-invisible)
        (setq search-invisible nil)))
my_display_name
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  • Does this take affect for all org files? I tried executing the bottom two lines only, with one org file loaded, and regexp-replace doesn't ignore the folded lines. – user2567544 Jun 05 '23 at 14:46
  • I tested this with an open org file and doing `eval` `(setq search-invisible nil)` and the `query-replace` did not change text in folded sections. I did not test `regexp-replace` as I overread. – my_display_name Jun 05 '23 at 15:14
  • OK, yes it does seem to work, but only sometimes. E.g. regexp-replace $ with foo causes foo to be appended to every line (bad). Conversely regexp-replace bar with foo works as expected. – user2567544 Jun 05 '23 at 15:44