[O] References: simplifying org mode usage for Bibtex files
My need is for a simple work flow/usage of Orgmode to annotate and organize existing BibTex *.bib files. I have mentioned on this list that I had found Cb2Bib to work extremely well for, so to speak, harvesting references from Google Scholar. In fact, Pere Constans, developer of Cb2Bib, recently helped me to streamline this usage to allow the use of the "Annotation" field, and I have also worked out a way to output and print a pdf with this field using Cb2Bib's bib2pdf utility. I use this as a basis for library research. However, I have a wide range of such references in each file, over dozens of topics, and I would like to incorporate by some means an ability to include org-mode subheadings with maybe tags, so enable the citations to be more easily sorted. I do not need to have automatic selection for a bibliography in the output, or automatic insertion of citations, at this point. I have asked this question on this list, and studied from time to time the solutions for using org-mode with bibtex, and visa-versa. I don't really have the time or inclination to learn these. I remember that in BibTeX documentation, was mention that almost anything outside of the individual records could serve as a comment. This is more or less what I have in mind. I would appreciate hearing from anyone who use such a simple approach. It would be most convenient if it were not necessary to change the extension of the *.bib files; I used to do this, but the extra steps for each reference was exhausting. Thank you for any ideas, Alan Davis
[O] Emacs bookmark: org-capture-last-stored
This feature has apparently crept into emacs and orgmode within the last year or so, and I've come to rely on it. I don't remember anything I may have done to make this happen, but now I can have a persistent record of my last capture. Wow! Love it. Can this feature be tweaked to list, say, the last five captures, or ten? Also, the bookmark list only shows the filename where the most recent capture was stored: is it possible to redesign this, so the heading is listed? Still loving org-capture. But except for a number of specialized captures I have been using one capture type and used tags for later sorting. Examples of my more complex usages are (1) a table insertion of temperature and humidity readings; (2) in the moment captures of lexical items when I learn them, with filling of various (band format) categories such as scientific name or english common name as they are being captured; appointments or deadlines); (3) song lyrics or tablature from the clipboard, captured into a specific file and heading; (4) specific project notes as they occur to me. So my usage is diverse enough that a list of several of the last captures, especially automatically through the bookmark facility of Emacs, would be useful. Thank you for any ideas. Alan Davis
[O] Refile: refile to any open file.
It occurs from time to time that I wish to refile to an open file, that is not one of my org-refile-targets. It doesn't make sense to use org-agenda-files for refile targets since I might have other files open for various reasons. So I thought, why not either declare that any open file is a refile target, or else write a function that will execture org-refile with org-refile-targets set to include all open files. In truth, it would be even better to include org-agenda-files in the set of target files. I have been using the function oog in org-occur-goto.el to search any open file, so somewhere in that file is a way to find open files. What remains is to use some condition from this file to declare org-refile-targets. I understand that a function can be used as a value of this variable. I could spend all night working on this, or, ask on this list. Can anyone point to a good way to declare that BOTH all open buffers/files AND org-agenda-files as org-refile-targets? A hint would help. Alan Davis
[O] ?? While taking note, capture a note with reciprocal links to/from current location
I am studying some text in an org file, some comments from a colleague on a research project. I need to do a little google search about a term (something that happens quite often). It would be convenient to produce a note elsewhere, perhaps in a different file, or perhaps under a different top-level heading in the same file, with a note to the term where the cursor is (let's say I've selected it as the region). I want to capture some notes, perhaps some quite copious notes, and when done I would like reciprocal links to bind these bits. Then I can take some good notes on the terms or the topic in my colleague's notes, and return, and so forth. I could do this, and it's not too difficult. However, it would be *very* helpful to do this with one capture event. Does a facility exist for this? Let me say that I think it does, and it relates to the %a element of a template. However, I would like permanent links, say of the current region to the note resulting from the capture event, and vise versa. I thought of footnotes, but this footnote could end up being a whole chapter, or a small section, in a report! Thank you for any suggestions. I apologize in advance, because I'm sure this is no challenge for the gurus on this list. Alan Davis
[O] Some struggles of mine with org-mode
[This post concerns what have become, for me, conflicts between the scopes of org-agenda-files and the universe I would like to search within all org files, in particular. I hope I will be forgiven for drifting substantially from that focused topic] Org-mode is well entrenched into my daily work flow, in many ways. - Miscellaneous notes - Capturing ideas and articles - On-the-fly structured captures of several kinds - Todo lists - Remembering deadlines and activities - Collecting project information from diverse sources - Exporting any of the above, just about anything at all, as clean PDF files. - The occasional Beamer presentation For all that org-mode has become my go-to tool of choice, there are a number of things I still struggle with. I want to post this message as, I suppose, too much of a blanket request. Here are some of the things I don't get: - Firefox or other browser integration - Email. Some very elegant (in complicated ways) solutions have been generated, but all I need it simple text-based email. I would be willing to install sendmail or postfix, if need be, but I don't really wish to send html based email. See the next item. - Addresses/Contacts. I like Gnus, and I like BBDB, but I've never been completely comfortable with them. I used to keep contacts in EDB, a database I designed myself, and it worked really, really well. I've posted about his subject before, and I can see it didn't strike a chord on this list. I tried org-contacts, but it seems idiosyncratic, and limited. - Setting up birthday alerts, for example. I feel intimidated every time I am about to try to put a new birthday in a list. Ideally, I would do this with a capture template. The best so far is to keep birthdays in a list in .emacs.el - Searching. One thing I really like about Org-mode is the ability to keep a large number of kinds of information straight in various ways---either in separate files, or for related topics, in different headlines of the same file. I need all of these files to be searched. The best searching seems to reside in the agenda interface. But it seems illogical, to me, to constrain searching to the same set of files as for an Agenda, except if I am only searching things I am currently keeping on todo lists. I want a large subset of *.org files open for searches, but I may want to limit the number of files processed for a daily or weekly agenda view. Am I missing something? A utility on the mailing list, org-occur-goto, searches any open files, an improvement. But the very fact I am searching for something suggests this will require a greater search universe. Ideally, that universe will include several large subtrees, even though within them, only a small number of files may be involved. For example, one would like to have a directory, at some random location in the home ~/ tree, for recipes. I want them to be kept together in an integral tree. But I want some of the files to be kept under org-mode control. Do I want these files in my agenda files? I do not wish to have all of my action dumped together in ~/org or some such. Examples subdirectories might include: - ~/HEALTH-ISSUES/ - ~/ARTICLES/tuning-the-guitar/ - ~/PROJECTS/recipes/ I have a large ~/WorkBench directory that includes all ongoing work. I may not know on any given day which existing projects I will be working on. I like to scatter my TODOs among the project files, but I need to maintain instantaneous access to them, especially through the agenda views. So, to summarize, org-agenda-files should reflect those files I need to access because they have TODOs, Deadlines, Happenings, or Reminders in them. My search Universe should be constrained enough to result in instant searches, but not so constrained as org-agenda-files that need to be processed to produce a daily agenda.
