12.7.2 Header and sectioning structure

By default, the first three outline levels become headlines, defining a general document structure. Additional levels are exported as itemize or enumerate lists. The transition can also occur at a different level (see Export settings).

By default, the LaTeX output uses the class article.

You can change this globally by setting a different value for org-latex-default-class or locally by adding an option like #+LATEX_CLASS: myclass in your file, or with a EXPORT_LATEX_CLASS property that applies when exporting a region containing only this (sub)tree. The class must be listed in org-latex-classes. This variable defines a header template for each class¹⁴³, and allows you to define the sectioning structure for each class. You can also define your own classes there.

The LATEX_CLASS_OPTIONS keyword or EXPORT_LATEX_CLASS_OPTIONS property can specify the options for the \documentclass macro. These options have to be provided, as expected by LaTeX, within square brackets.

You can also use the LATEX_HEADER and LATEX_HEADER_EXTRA¹⁴⁴ keywords in order to add lines to the header. See the docstring of org-latex-classes for more information.

An example is shown below.

#+LATEX_CLASS: article
#+LATEX_CLASS_OPTIONS: [a4paper]
#+LATEX_HEADER: \usepackage{xyz}

* Headline 1
  some text