Export org-mode subtrees at chapter level for LaTeX

Question

I have a DATE_TREE logbook within an org-file that I would like to export to Latex, keeping the years at a level of a chapter:

* Logbook
:PROPERTIES:
:DATE_TREE:
:END:
** 2016
*** 2016-10 October     :ignore:
**** 2016-10-13 Thursday
***** Some logged thing

I have set up the ignore tab so that the desired LaTeX export would be

\chapter{2016}
\section{2016-10-13 Thursday}
\subsection{Some logged thing}

However, the default behavior of org-mode export is to have the first level of export be a section, so I get \section{2016}.

Is there a way to change this export behavior only for this Logbook tree, and not for the entire buffer?

Answer 1

You need to use a latex_class that allows chapters, e.g. the book class, which is included in org-latex-classes by default. However, the default behavior is to use a part as the top level structure, instead of a chapter.

If you don't want parts, you can create a new element in org-latex-classes like so:

(add-to-list 'org-latex-classes
           '("book-noparts"
              "\\documentclass{book}"
              ("\\chapter{%s}" . "\\chapter*{%s}")
              ("\\section{%s}" . "\\section*{%s}")
              ("\\subsection{%s}" . "\\subsection*{%s}")
              ("\\subsubsection{%s}" . "\\subsubsection*{%s}")
              ("\\paragraph{%s}" . "\\paragraph*{%s}")
              ("\\subparagraph{%s}" . "\\subparagraph*{%s}")))

Then you can simply add #+latex_class: book-noparts to the Org file. To apply this only to a subtree, you can instead set the export_latex_class property by going to the Logbook headline and pressing C-c C-x p (org-set-property).