The output of the item filtering commands looks similar to a regular Todo category, but it is not contained in any todo file and does not have a name on being created, so it is not a “real” category but a “virtual” category. Another difference is the lack of a done items section; either there are no done items in the list (when the filtered items are diary or top priority items), or these are displayed in the same list as todo items (if you filtered by regular expression and allowed done items). A further difference is that the items have an additional header, between the item’s date/time header and its text, specifying which category (and if you invoked a multifile command, also which file) the item comes from, and if you filtered by regular expression, also whether the item comes from a Todo archive.
The sequential item navigation commands n and p work the same in Todo Filtered Items mode as in Todo mode, as do the file and category jumping commands t and j; however, the sequential category navigation commands are unavailable, since virtual categories of filtered items are not ordered with respect to “real” categories. In addition, Todo Filtered Items mode provides a special navigation command:
If you type this command (todo-go-to-source-item) with point on a
filtered item, the buffer switches to the item’s source file (in Todo
mode or Todo Archive mode, as the case may be) and displays its
category, with point on the item.
Filtered items cannot be textually edited, moved to another category, marked done or archived like items in a real todo category, since these would then be out of synch with each other. But there is one type of editing command that does work in Todo Filtered Items mode: changing an item’s priority:
These commands raise, lower, or set, respectively, the current item’s priority in the virtual category.
Using these commands, you can create a cross-category (and even cross-file) prioritized list of filtered items. However, there is a restriction on these commands in Todo Filtered Items mode: you cannot change the relative priorities of items from the same real category, since that would make the filtered list inconsistent with the source todo list.