How do I write "Org mode"?

A super-quick intro to Org mode #

Org mode is a fantastic major mode for Emacs, and people use it for all sorts of things like keeping notes, maintaining TODO lists, writing documentation, or even blogging—like I am doing here.

Inconsistency #

Every now and then, I would see “Org mode” and related phrases written in the “wild” (like blogs, Reddit posts, tweets) as Org-mode, org-manual, org file, etc., with a mix-and-match of cases and hyphens.

So here is an attempt to familiarize more people with the documentation standard for referring to “Org” stuff. Below I am quoting the text from the official Org Documentation Standards:

• Prefer “Org mode” to “Org-mode” or “org-mode”. This is simply because it reflects an existing convention in The Emacs Manual which consistently documents mode names in this form - “Text mode”, “Outline mode”, “Mail mode”, etc.
• Likewise refer, if at all possible, to “Org file or “Org buffer” meaning with, great generality, any file or buffer which requires use of some part of Org to edit it properly.
• Org uses “org-…” to ring fence a name space for itself in the Emacs code base. This is obviously retained in code snippets.

The right way #

Only in the Elisp code, is it called org-mode, because it is a major mode, and has to be named so in code by convention, and for its separate org-* name space.

But for blogging, documentation, etc. –

Reference #

• Org mode Documentation Standard