I am an author of GNU Hyperbole so I use it all the time. Once in awhile I will start Emacs without Hyperbole loaded and it very quickly feels like it is missing many features that speed my editing and information retrieval.
A major new release of Hyperbole is now available with many advancements, so have a look at that and assume anything mentioned here pertains to this release. Things I depend on all the time: The Smart Keys are two context-sensitive mouse key (or keyboard key) bindings that execute actions based on the textual context in which they are pressed, essentially finding patterns in text that operate as hyperbuttons (called implicit buttons in Hyperbole). So instead of having 20 different bindings for 20 major and minor modes, you have one global binding that does the right thing in many different contexts. This reduces learning time and lets you just press a Smart Key in many contexts. A help key always shows you what the Smart Keys will do in any context, so you can ensure things will work as you like before activating any implicit button. Advanced examples include: displaying pathnames with Lisp or environment variables in them and having them display in external applications if desired; creating explicit button hyperlinks by dragging from a source buffer to a destination buffer; this can even create links to files on remote servers; the hyperlink is then available for immediate use, no markup required activating links to git and github files and other object types, like issues jumping to source code definitions (utilizing several different cross-reference packages) without having to know any specifics about how to do the lookup displaying bug/issue discussions in debbugs and github copying and moving structured entities, e.g. double quoted text, brace delimited sections, HTML tag pair entities, with quick mouse drags navigating through files in a package MANIFEST writing a few lines of Lisp to create a new implicit button type and being able to then immediately activate matching implicit buttons within any documents I want; for example, "RFC-822" is a built-in implicit button to Hyperbole that when pressed upon: retrieves the Internet RFC specified and makes its table of contents live so you can jump to any section you want immediately. HyRolo is an easy-to-use but advanced contact manager and record lookup tool (now with BBDB and Google Contacts support). Contacts can be spread across multiple files and use different formats if desired. Hyperbole buttons can be embedded in entries and activated from the buffer of search matches. HyRolo files are Emacs outlines, so they can be quickly collapsed and re-organized in standard ways. The Koutliner is the only Emacs outliner that has dynamic multi-level node numbering, e.g. 1.4.3.2 and a permanent hyperlink anchor for each node as well as view specifications that affect the outline view when included in hyperlinks. It is great for todo lists, brainstorming, requirement documents or anything that needs detailed structure. HyControl lets me rapidly arrange my windows and frames as I want; together with Smart Key drags, I can drag items from the buffer menu or dired to whatever window I want or swap buffers rapidly; I can move windows to new frames quickly and many other things. A great new feature is window grids that let you lay out a series of windows in rows and columns with buffers chosen from either your current buffer list, a single major mode or selected items from the buffer menu or dired; you have to try it to get a feel for it. Hyperbole is mainly about productivity and the combination of its facilities can improve your ability to get work done in Emacs dramatically. The included Hyperbole interactive DEMO covers much of this. Practice with it and see your speed with Emacs soar across your first week of use and continue to improve after that. I hope that is helpful. -- Bob
