How do I keep Emacs org-mode from splitting windows?

Question

I'm a new emacs user using emacs for the awesome org-mode. I have links to all my org files at the top of my pages but everytime I click a link it splits my window, so I only have half of the screen estate available. How do I set it so that emacs does not split the window horizontally but rather opens up a new window for my links?

Answer 1

I'm assuming you mean you want to open the link in a new frame. (Emacs terminology is a bit different from other GUI apps, because Emacs predates X11. What would be called a "window" in other apps is called a "frame" in Emacs, because "window" already had a specific meaning in Emacs, and was used in the names of lots of functions.) What's happening now is that you have a frame containing one window, and Emacs is splitting that window to form two windows.

You need to customize org-link-frame-setup to use find-file-other-frame instead of the default find-file-other-window.

You can do this by typing M-x customize-variable <ENTER> org-link-frame-setup <ENTER>. Click the Value Menu next to find-file-other-window and select find-file-other-frame, then click Save for future sessions.