✅ Via Settings UI

1. Open VS Code Settings (C-, or s-, on Mac)

2. Search for "speed commands"

3. Toggle the checkbox for Scimax: Speed Commands > Enabled

✅ Via settings.json

Add or modify this setting in your settings.json:

{
  "scimax.speedCommands.enabled": true
}

✅ Via Command Palette

1. Open Command Palette (C-S-P or s-S-P on Mac)

2. Type "speed" and select Scimax: Toggle Speed Commands

✅ Go To Submenu Options

The g key opens a submenu with additional navigation choices:

✅ Structure Editing Notes

• Promote (left) decreases the heading level (fewer stars/hashes)

• Demote (right) increases the heading level (more stars/hashes)

• Lowercase l/r affect only the heading line

• Uppercase L/R affect the entire subtree (heading and children)

• `y' (yank) intelligently adjusts heading levels to match context

• `k' kills (cuts) the subtree, matching Emacs scimax

• `w' refiles the subtree, matching Emacs org-mode

• m and @ both mark (select) the subtree

✅ Sorting Entries (^)

The ^ speed command sorts child entries of the current heading. When invoked, it presents a menu of sorting criteria:

Sorting scope depends on cursor position:

• On a heading: Sorts direct children of that heading

• With a selection: Sorts entries within the selection

• Before first heading: Sorts all top-level entries

✅ Priority System

Org-mode uses a three-level priority system:

• [#A] - High priority (critical, urgent)

• [#B] - Medium priority (normal importance)

• [#C] - Low priority (nice to have)

Priorities appear after the TODO keyword: ** TODO [#A] Important task

✅ Timestamp Types

• SCHEDULED: When you plan to start working on the task

• DEADLINE: When the task must be completed

• Plain timestamp: Reference dates, events, notes

✅ Tags

Tags are keywords attached to headings for categorization and filtering:

** TODO Complete documentation :work:urgent:docs:

Tags are:

• Separated by colons (:)

• Can contain letters, numbers, and special chars (_@#%)

• Inherited by child headings

• Used for agenda filtering and searches

• Automatically aligned to column 77 (Emacs-style)

✅ Clocking Workflow

1. Position cursor at column 0 of a task heading

2. Press `I' to clock in - starts timer

3. Work on the task

4. Press `O' to clock out - stops timer and records duration

Clock entries are stored in a :LOGBOOK: drawer:

** TODO Write documentation
:LOGBOOK:
CLOCK: [2026-01-13 Mon 09:00]--[2026-01-13 Mon 11:30] =>  2:30
CLOCK: [2026-01-12 Fri 14:00]--[2026-01-12 Fri 15:45] =>  1:45
:END:

✅ Archive File

By default, a moves the subtree to a file named {basename}_archive.org:

• notes.org → notes_archive.org

• projects.org → projects_archive.org

The archived subtree is tagged with :ARCHIVE: and includes metadata:

* DONE Completed project :ARCHIVE:
:PROPERTIES:
:ARCHIVE_TIME: [2026-01-13 Mon 15:30]
:ARCHIVE_FILE: ~/org/projects.org
:END:

✅ Quick Task Management

1. Create heading with C-<return>

2. Move to beginning of line (`Home' or `C-a')

3. Press `t' to add TODO state

4. Press `1' to set high priority

5. Press `s' to schedule it

6. Press : to add tags

✅ Organizing Content

1. Navigate to a heading

2. Use U/D to reorder siblings

3. Use l/r to adjust hierarchy

4. Use `k' to cut and `y' to paste sections

5. Use `w' to refile sections to another location

6. Use ^ to sort child entries

7. Use `a' to archive completed work

✅ Reviewing Documents

1. Press `o' to see overview (all headings folded)

2. Use n/p to navigate between sections

3. Press `Tab' to expand interesting sections

4. Press `c' to cycle through visibility levels

✅ Next Entry (n)

Jump to the next BibTeX entry in the file.

@article{smith2020,
  title = {First Article}
}
                       <- press n here
@book{jones2021,       <- cursor moves here
  title = {Second Book}
}

✅ Previous Entry (p)

Jump to the previous BibTeX entry in the file.

✅ Jump to Entry (j)

Opens a quick pick dialog showing all entries in the file. Search by key, author, or title.

✅ Sort Fields (s)

Reorders fields in the current entry according to the standard BibLaTeX field order:

1. author, title, journaltitle/journal, booktitle

2. editor, edition, volume, number, pages

3. publisher, location/address, year, date

4. doi, url, isbn/issn

5. note, abstract, keywords

✅ Downcase Entry (d)

Converts entry type and field names to lowercase:

Before: @ARTICLE{key, AUTHOR = {Name}}
After:  @article{key, author = {Name}}

✅ Title Case (t)

Converts the article title to Title Case, preserving braced content like {DNA} or {LaTeX}.

✅ Sentence Case (S)

Converts the article title to Sentence case (only first letter capitalized), preserving braced content.

✅ Clean Entry (c)

Applies all cleaning operations:

• Normalizes whitespace

• Downcases entry type and field names

• Sorts fields

• Removes double braces

✅ Open PDF (o)

Attempts to open the PDF associated with the entry:

1. Checks the `file' field in the entry

2. Looks in the configured PDF directory

3. Offers to open DOI in browser if no PDF found

✅ Open URL/DOI (u)

Opens the URL or DOI associated with the entry:

• Prefers DOI if available

• Falls back to URL field

• Supports arXiv eprint field

✅ Open Notes (N)

Opens or creates notes for the entry. Notes are stored as org files in the configured notes directory.

✅ Google Scholar (g)

Searches Google Scholar for the entry using DOI or title.

✅ CrossRef (x)

Opens the entry in CrossRef search using the DOI.

✅ Web of Science (w)

Opens the entry in Web of Science using the DOI.

✅ Copy Key (y)

Copies the citation key to the clipboard.

✅ Copy BibTeX (b)

Copies the entire BibTeX entry to the clipboard.

✅ Kill Entry (k)

Deletes the entire entry (with confirmation). The deleted entry is copied to the clipboard for easy recovery.

✅ Generate Citation Key (K)

Generates a standardized citation key from the entry's author and year fields. Offers multiple format options:

• lastname-year (e.g., smith-2020)

• lastname-titleword-year (e.g., smith-machine-2020)

• lastname-titlewords-year (e.g., smith-machine-learning-2020)

Features:

• Extracts first author's last name from various formats ("John Smith", "Smith, John")

• Removes stop words from title (the, a, an, using, novel, etc.)

• Checks for uniqueness against all other entries in the file

• Adds suffix (a, b, c) if key already exists

• Shows quick pick menu to choose format

Example:

Before: @article{ABC123,
          author = {John Smith and Jane Doe},
          title = {Machine Learning for Science},
          year = {2020}
        }

After:  @article{smith-2020,  (or smith-machine-2020, smith-machine-learning-2020)

✅ Show Help (?)

Displays a quick pick menu with all available BibTeX speed commands. Select a command to execute it.