DAdangom·Mar 10, 2021
As a sibling parent mentioned, you can tag an element by inserting it into it's own heading and adding the :ignore: tag.
I feel this functionality is overlooked, and it is in my opinion one of the most powerful features implemented in org, as it allows you to add "meta" groupings to your org document without any effect on the content.
Without the :ignore: tag, there is a strict semantic relation between org-mode document headings, as physically indicated by the * at the beginning of a line, and the corresponding hierarchical level of the heading's content.
With the :ignore: tag, however, you separate content from form. Headings with :ignore: work just as headings for your file.org document: you can search for headings, link to them, add IDs and properties and whatever else you can do with headings. But when you export your document, the h
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eading no longer exists and thus has no impact on the hierarchical level of its content.
Why is this interesting? Well, because if content is separated from form, we can build things where the same content assume multiple forms depending on whatever context we define.
I used this in combination with other org-mode tags, "#+exclude_tags" and "#+include" directives to build my Ph.D. thesis with org mode and have my thesis chapters be exportable both as thesis chapters as well as standalone publications. Shameless plug: https://github.com/dangom/org-thesis
It should be straightforward to extend the idea to presentations and other formats as well.