Use the source, Luke! — Emacs org-mode beamer export with images in figure

I just needed to tweak my org-mode to beamer-latex export to embed images I produce by a codesnippet in a figure environment. Practially speaking: I had this

#+BEGIN_SRC sh :exports results :results output raw
echo '[[./image.png]]'
#+END_SRC

which produces this latex snippet

\includegraphics[width=.9\linewidth]{./image.png}

and I needed a snippet which instead produces this:

\begin{figure}[htb]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=.9\linewidth]{./image.png}
\end{figure}

After lots of googling and documentation reading I decided to bite the bullet and just read the source. Which proved to be much easier than I had expected (warning: obscure list of commands follows. Will be explained afterwards):

C-h f org-latex-export-as-latex
C-x C-o
C-s .el C-b ENTER
C-s figure C-s C-s C-s ...

And less than a minute after starting, I saw this:

(float (let ((float (plist-get attr :float)))
     (cond ((string= float "wrap") 'wrap)
       ((string= float "multicolumn") 'multicolumn)
       ((or (string= float "figure")
            (org-element-property :caption parent))
        'figure))))

Translated: Just add this to the output of the source block:

#+attr_latex: :float figure

which makes the sh block look like this:

#+BEGIN_SRC sh :exports results :results output raw
echo '#+attr_latex: :float figure'
echo '[[./image.png]]'
#+END_SRC

And voila, the export works and the latex looks like this:

\begin{figure}[htb]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=.9\linewidth]{./image.png}
\end{figure}

Mission accomplished!

For all those who are not fluid in emacs commands, Here’s a short breakdown here’s a breakdown of my source-reading process:

C-h f org-latex-export-as-latex

Get the help (Control-h) for the function (f) org-latex-export-as-latex. I knew that org-mode calls that. If you did not know it, you could have simply used C-h k C-e (get help on the export keyboard shortcut) which would have led you to the function org-export-dispatch and the source file ox.el. But since the org-mode guides tell you to use M-x org-latex-export-as-latex, the function to search for is actually pretty obvious. Alternatively just use M-x org-latex- and then type TAB 2 times. That will show you all the export functions.

C-x C-o

Switch to the other buffer.

C-s .el C-b ENTER

Focus on the source file and open it (the canonical suffix for emacs lisp files is .el).

C-s figure C-s C-s C-s ...

Search for figure. Repeat 9 times to find the correct place in the code (in emacs that’s really easy and fast to do).

Voilà, you found the snippet which tells you that you can use the float-keyword (:float) with the argument "figure".

Using the source was actually faster than googling in this case - and if you practise it, you learn bits and pieces about the foundation of the program you use, which will enable you to adapt it even better to your needs in the future.

And with that, I conclude this text.

Enjoy your Emacs and Happy Hacking!