Note taking 1: Org agenda with date tree file
This is the first article in a series on quick note taking using emacs. It introduces the org agenda, its basic setup, and the file format to use.
- Org agenda with date tree file
- Notes from browser window
- Notes from elfeed entries
Org agenda
I take a lot of notes. Many things interest me, and I'd like to remember all the interesting articles I've read. The aim is to store notes as fast as I can to a place I can later quickly retrieve them. For me, the best way to do this is to store them in an emacs org file that is part of org mode agenda system.
Org mode is part of the emacs but you have to load the org agenda that is it the note taking and calendar part of it. I'll ignore the calendar functions in the minimal setup instructions below.
The key bindings are not automatically set up, but the it is customary
to use C-c a for org-agenda.
(global-set-key "\C-ca" 'org-agenda) (require 'org-agenda)
You can have several org files in a directory that hold all agenda entries. These files change rapidly so it is a good idea to keep them in Dropbox for extra protection.
(setq org-directory "~/Dropbox/org")
The org mode has a commands to store notes in time oriented hierarchical structure known as date tree format where all notes from one day are under one heading. Day headers are under the month heading that is in turn under the top level year heading. Simple and logical.
Capture templates
Capture templates automate the note taking. They create the higher
level headers when needed and place the note in the correct place.
Below I define only one template that I use for practically
everything. It adds a time stamp line to the end of the note. The key
binding for this note is C-c c n.
(global-set-key "\C-cc" 'org-capture) (setq org-capture-templates (quote ( ("n" "note" entry (file+datetree "~/Dropbox/org/reference.org") "* %?\nEntered on %U\n %i"))))
When you are finished writing the header and the body of a note, you
press C-c C-c to save it and return to previous buffer.
You could use several templates to store different topics with slightly different setup to different files, but I have found that to be an unnecessary complication. One template storing all notes to one file works best. At new year, I move all notes from the previous year to a separate file in the same directory.
Tags
To categorize notes, you can add searchable tags to notes. Tags are defined in a list of string and key pairs:
(setq org-tag-alist (quote (("BIO" . ?b) ("COMP" . ?c) ("EMACS" . ?e) ("FOOD" . ?f))))
With the cursor on the note header, hit hit C-c C-q to see the list
and select any subset of tags by pressing the shortcut keys. If none
of those tags fit, hit the tab key to enter any string.
Searching
The org agenda has several commands to find entries of interest. For
finding a note, the most common search commands are based on substring,
regexp (C-c a s), or tag (C-c a t).
Epilogue
In next posts I will explore ways of populating the note file from different sources.