Org Mode - Tags are not available across agenda files

Question

In ~/.emacs I have the following:

(setq org-agenda-files (quote ("~/Documents/organize/org-mode/")))

In ~/D/o/o/ there are multiple files and I can cycle through them using C-,.

While adding content to a file, I can C-c C-q TAB, enter the first few characters and hit TAB again to autocomplete a tag. But this works ONLY for the tags in the current file. It ignores tags present in other agenda files.

How do I make tags available across agenda files?

Answer 1

Try setting the variable org-complete-tags-always-offer-all-agenda-tags to t (but maybe set it locally for capture buffers only). The doc strings says

"If non-nil, always offer completion for all tags of all agenda files. Instead of customizing this variable directly, you might want to set it locally for capture buffers, because there no list of tags in that file can be created dynamically (there are none).

(add-hook \='org-capture-mode-hook (lambda () (setq-local org-complete-tags-always-offer-all-agenda-tags t)))"

Answer 2

I don't know if there's a way to make the completion list populate itself from other files, but one way is to define the "common" tags you want in an org-mode file of its own, then include that in the others.

e.g. a file called "tags.org":

#+TAGS: firsttag(f) secondtag(s)
#+TAGS: anothertag(a) evenmore(e)

The include that org file from your others, e.g. "myfile.org":

#+SETUPFILE: "tags.org"

* Heading
Normal org-mode contents.

The has an advantage (you keep the list of suggested tags smaller, documented and more consistent across your separate org-mode files), but the disadvantage that it won't "learn" those common tags unless you add them to that common tags file.