org-mode ignore heading when exporting to latex

Question

I have a problem where I want to structure my document visually with a heading but do not want it to actually execute a \section{Fake Heading} for the latex export. I imagine this would be customizable through an org mode property that I am unaware of.

 * Normal Heading
 ** Subheading 1
    baz
 * Fake Heading
   :PROPERTIES:
   :UNKNOWN_PROPERTY_NAME: t
   :END:
 ** Appendix A
    foo
 ** Appendix B
    bar

Desired result.

 \section{Normal Heading}
 \subsection{Subheading 1}
 baz

 \subsection{Appendix A}
 foo
 \subsection{Appendix B}
 bar

Bonus: it would be nice that it would only ignore the fake heading for latex export. The reason I need the fake heading in the first place is that there is a custom command in the latex \documentclass{...} I am using that generates an appendix \makeAppendix thus it is redundant to have a \section{Appendix}

Answer 1

For others who stumble upon this question, the following is available. As hinted to by yantar92, this is included in ox-extra which is included in the org-plus-contrib elpa package.

Headers can take an :ignore: tag, which excludes the heading upon export while still including its contents.

To make it work, add the following to your emacs setup (having installed org-plus-contrib as described here):

(require 'ox-extra)
(ox-extras-activate '(ignore-headlines))

How to make this only affect LaTeX export, I don't know.

Answer 2

Add this:

#+EXCLUDE_TAGS: noexport

Then add the tag you specify:

* Fake heading :noexport:

Answer 3

I have found a workaround that satisfies all my needs. It takes advantage of how org mode exports and that in latex you can have "multiline comments" or sections that it ignores https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/87303/multi-line-block-comments-in-latex.

So I did the following and it works for me. Note that when exporting to other document formats (odt, html, markdown) it exports normally which is what I want.

#+BEGIN_EXPORT latex
\iffalse % multiline comment
#+END_EXPORT

* Fake Heading

#+BEGIN_EXPORT latex
\fi
#+END_EXPORT

** Appendix A
   foo
** Appendix B
   bar

This results in the following latex code with comments out the latex section command.

 \iffalse
 \section{Fake Heading}
 \fi
 \subsection{Appendix A}
 foo
 \subsection{Appendix B}
 bar

Answer 4

You can use org export filters for this purpose:

(defun yant/org-export-suppress-some-sections (data backend channel)
  "Do not put \\section for headlines with :NOSECEXPORT: tag."
 (when (eq backend 'latex)
  (let* ((parent (get-text-property (- (string-match "$" data) 2) :parent data))
     (headline (and parent (cadr parent)))
         (tags (and headline (plist-get headline :tags))))
    (when (member "NOSECEXPORT" tags)
      (replace-regexp-in-string "\\`.*$" "" data)))))

(add-to-list 'org-export-filter-headline-functions 'yant/org-export-suppress-some-sections)

EDIT: Just found that ox-extra from org-plus-contrib provides the similar functionality. My solution seems to fit your question better though.

Answer 5

You can retain folding by avoiding using a section at all and instead use a drawer. The contents of the drawer will still be exported but the drawer name will not.

Answer 6

Why not to simply comment out the fake heading? https://orgmode.org/manual/Comment-Lines.html