Why do easy templates, .e.g, "< s TAB" in org 9.2 not work?

Question

Easy templates in Org 9.2 are not working for me on GNU Emacs 26.1 (build 1, x86_64-w64-mingw32) of 2018-05-30.

I have changed my elpa/ directory to smelpa/. I load emacs -q and switch to the *scratch* buffer and toggle M-x org-mode. A call to org-version returns

Org mode version 9.1.9 (release_9.1.9-65-g5e4542 @ c:/Program Files/emacs-26.1-x86_64/share/emacs/26.1/lisp/org/)

When I type <s TAB, the easy template expands as expected.

<s|<-----<press TAB here>

#+BEGIN_SRC 

#+END_SRC

Now, to upgrade to Org 9.2, I do list-packages and install org. (For some reason package-install doesn't return org). Returning to the *scratch* buffer, running org-version returns

Org mode version 9.2 (9.2-elpa @ c:/Users/%USERNAME%/.emacs.d/elpa/org-9.2/)

It seems like Org 9.2 installed correctly. The same is true if I just directly install Org 9.2 and create a new org buffer (i.e. don't load the default org first). Easy templates won't work in Org 9.2.

I looked around for a bug tracker, but I don't see anything on the official repo.

• Did I install Org 9.2 correctly?
• Is there perhaps some compiled file lingering somewhere from a bad install?
• If this is a bug, how do I submit it? With report-emacs-bug?

---

Update

To address the side questions:

Did I install Org 9.2 correctly?

Yes. Installing org via list-packages will "override" the default version. This can be seen by running org-version. Note that it may be necessary to restart Emacs (or the Emacs server).

If this is a bug, how do I submit it? With report-emacs-bug?

According to the org-mode homepage (at the bottom), use M-x org-submit-bug-report. Make sure you Ask Questions the Smart Way so as not to spam the developers! This would include checking the release notes of the new version!

Answer 1

They changed the template system in orgmode 9.2.

The new mechanism is called structured template. The command org-insert-structure-template bound to C-c C-, gives you a list of #+begin_-#+end_ pairs that narrows down while you type and you can use completion.

But, you can also get the old easy template system back, either

• by adding (require 'org-tempo) to your init file or
• by adding org-tempo to the list org-modules. You can do that by customizing org-modules.

^{Note that the answer is mostly a citation of two answers in the corresponding reddit article.}

Answer 2

Others have stated that it's C-c C-, now to insert templates.

One cool thing is that you can paste some code, then visual-select it and do C-c C-, s and it will wrap your selection inside #+begin_src and #+end_src.

Before, when it was <s TAB, I had made a function to do that but now, I can do it with the native command. All I have to do is forget about <s TAB.

Edit: I installed yasnippet and yasnippet-snippets recently and it adds the completions with <s, <q etc.

(use-package yasnippet-snippets
  :ensure t)
(use-package yasnippet
  :ensure t
  :config (yas-global-mode 1))

I am however glad that I lost those <s completions since it lead me to discover C-c C-, which is useful with a visual selection.

Answer 3

As described by Tobias, I had to (require 'org-tempo) in .emacs.

Additionally, I had to remove any customization to org-structure-template-alist or revert it to standard. Then, C-c C-, triggers Org-Select menu for structure feature selection and <s triggers the usual src block directly.

For org-version 9.3.7, emacs 26.3

Answer 4

You can get completion back by adding org-tempo to org-modules like so

(add-to-list 'org-modules 'org-tempo t)

You will need to restart emacs so when orgmode is loaded it will load org-tempo as well.

Credit to agzam

Answer 5

you can use menu bar Org => Customize => Browse Org Group to add