Whenever there is something important to memorize, I always want to write it down. In fact, Emacs org-mode makes the process easy, pleasant, and in an organized manner. I will use an example to explain how Emacs and org fit into my note-taking process.
I have a dedicated folder containing all my notes, and IT, as one of the most important topic, is a sub-folder. Here is the tree structure of the IT folder.
IT
|-- Acrobat
| `-- startup_script.org
|-- Emacs
| |-- debug-lisp.html
| |-- debug-lisp.org
| |-- emergency-elisp-steve-yegge.html
| |-- emergency-lisp.html
| |-- emergency-lisp.org
| |-- lisp-programming.html
| `-- lisp-programming.org
|-- Excel
| `-- group_formatting.txt
|-- Firefox
| `-- Firefox Recovery Key.html
|-- HPC
| |-- Setup_GATE_tool_chain_20100902.lnk
| |-- bashrc_setup
| | `-- bashrc_HPC
| |-- efficient-way-of-working.html
| |-- efficient-way-of-working.org
| |-- tricks.html
| |-- tricks.org
| `-- xinhua-hps-bashrc
|-- Linux_commands
| |-- cat.html
| |-- cat.org
| |-- count_files_in_dir.html
| |-- count_files_in_dir.org
| |-- find.html
| |-- find.org
| |-- find.txt
| |-- linux_commands.html
| |-- linux_commands.org
| |-- scp.txt
| |-- sed.html
| |-- sed.org
| |-- sed_commandline_editor.txt
| `-- tar.txt
|-- VBA
| `-- VBA_study_notes.org
|-- X11_cygwin
| `-- startxwin_of_Xinhua.sh
|-- c++
| |-- ACM-UNIX-Tutorial-Compiler.html
| |-- C++Quick-Ref.html
| |-- C++Std-Lib-Quick-Ref.html
| |-- Makefiles-short.html
| `-- gcc-intro.html
|-- cygwin
| `-- how_to_write_.bashrc_correctly_for_cygwin.org
|-- g++
| |-- g++compiling.txt
| |-- gcc&g++.html
| |-- gcc&g++.org
| `-- note.txt
|-- gdb
| |-- debug-tools.html
| `-- debug-tools.org
|-- latex
| |-- cygwin_latex_problem.html
| |-- cygwin_latex_problem.org
| |-- sumatrapdf-make-emacs_integration.html
| `-- sumatrapdf-make-emacs_integration.org
|-- make
| |-- note.html
| `-- note.org
|-- python
| |-- math.html
| `-- math.org
|-- shell
| |-- bashrc_and_others.htm
| |-- bashrc_and_others_files
| | |-- css_2ad809fd00fb2c1d453a0d2b83bf7b57.css
| | |-- ga.js
| | |-- gumdrop.png
| | |-- index2.jpg
| | |-- js_957ff3e13d89532193faea68e21100f9.js
| | |-- js_c59e4e9c853d32975fd97f7345ddbabe.js
| | `-- show_ads.js
| |-- notes.html
| |-- notes.org
| |-- programming.html
| `-- programming.org
`-- ssh
|-- How to set up SSH (for the beginner).pdf
|-- no_password_access.html
`-- no_password_access.org
As can be seen, almost every note has two forms: one org file, one html file. The reason that I am showing the IT folder here is to show how I organize my notes through a tree structure representing the hierarchy of related topics.
When I want to take a note, I always think first where does the topic fit into my hierarchal folder systems. Take the Linux command sed for example, I feel like it should be put in IT/Linux_commands/. Thus I enter a emacs function “notes”, which is defined in my .emacs file as
(defun notes ()
"Switch to my work dir."
(interactive)
(find-file "<PATH TO MY NOTES>")
)
This quickly bring me to my top level dir of all notes, in a dired buffer. Then I quickly follow the hierarchy to IT/Linux_commands/, where I open a file called “sed.org” via [C-x C-f sed.org]
When the file is open, I call another function “make-header”, which I customized from header2.el for my own purpose. The function will generate a file header for me automatically, here is the result for the sed.org:
#+TITLE: sed
#+AUTHOR: Da Zhang
#+OPTIONS: H:2 num:t toc:nil
#+OPTIONS: ^:nil
#+OPTIONS: <:nil todo:nil *:t ^:{} @:t ::t |:t TeX:t
#how to change image size: #+attr_html: width="40%"
Basically it will do the following:
- set the title to be the file name of the buffer, without its parent path and extension;
- set up the options for org mode
- insert a note for myself about changing the picture size in org-to-html export, which I still did not remember
Then I just start writing down the quick note about sed.
* how to use variable in a sed: use "" instead of ''
CF http://www.unix.com/shell-programming-scripting/14085-how-can-i-use-variable-sed.html
- example: note the $1 in the double quotes of the 2nd sed
ORG-LIST-END-MARKER
function sortcsvp() {
cat $1 | sed '1d' | tr -d '"' | sort -n -t, -k 1 | sed "1 i $1, , " > ./sort-by-protocol/$1;
}
In most cases I will use #+begin_src and #+end_src for enclose any code, for better appearance in the html output.
At the end, I will just press C-c C-e to export the entire buffer to html, which I will view more frequently from Firefox.
To conclude, Emacs and org-mode offered me a comfort environment for systematically taking notes, organize them, and exporting them into beautiful html pages.
————————————————————————————————————————————-
Thanks to Irreal’s comment.
Here is something more I want to add about using org to take notes:
(1) the org-html process is almost perfect if you want to include pictures (for example, taken from your smart phone) in the note. Writing a org file that links to the local picture file using the [[][]] structure is so easy and natural. With the html publication, your output note file contains not only text, but also graphics and pictures that makes the note taking more efficient and direct. I used this feature so often that I need to put the following trick into my org header:
#how to change image size: #+attr_html: width="40%"
(2) the hack of header2.el I talked about making is essentially putting the following lines in header2.el:
(defsubst header-org-mode ()
"Insert \"#+TITLE: ...\" at the beginning of org file."
(insert "#+TITLE: " (file-name-nondirectory (file-name-sans-extension (buffer-file-name))) "\n") ;; filename only, without dir or extension
(insert "#+AUTHOR: " (user-full-name) "\n")
(insert "#+OPTIONS: H:2 num:t toc:nil\n")
(insert "#+OPTIONS: ^:nil\n")
(insert "#+OPTIONS: <:nil todo:nil *:t ^:{} @:t ::t |:t TeX:t\n")
(insert "#how to change image size: #+attr_html: width=\"40%\"\n"))
Date: 2012-03-24 02:23:35 Eastern Daylight Time
Author: Da Zhang
Org version 7.8.03 with Emacs version 24
Validate XHTML 1.0
Da's recipes on Emacs, IT, and more 