Hi Jay,
C-c [ and C-c ]  adds and removes the current file from the agenda list. 
I can never remember these, so I leave the menus turned on in emacs 
(makes me a wimp!).

BUT: do you really need to do this? It is the way I used to work, but my 
current book is 600+ pages and I am keeping it and all my research in a 
single file. By using the 'hoist' C-x n s for a subtree, writing is 
focussed and yet everything is where I need it.

Maybe it won't work for you but I find it very convenient.

Cheers,
Alan


On 28/04/14 08:25, Jay Dixit wrote:
> Hello friendly org-mode community,
>
> I'm using org-mode to research and write a nonfiction book. I have a 
> large amount of notes and quotes that I now need to sort into separate 
> files.
>
> I am creating separate org files, one for each chapter of my 
> book—chapter-1.org <http://chapter-1.org>, chapter-2.org 
> <http://chapter-2.org>, etc.—with org headings in each one for every 
> topic/subsection.
>
> I now want to categorize my notes, moving them from where they 
> are—i.e. in a set of long, unorganized org files with names like 
> new-research.org <http://new-research.org> and 
> more-research-and-notes.org <http://more-research-and-notes.org>—into 
> the the chapter files.
>
> 1. Am I right in thinking that org-refile is the most efficient way to 
> do this?
> 2. What's the best way to do this? Should I add all of my chapter.org 
> <http://chapter.org> files to the agenda using 
> org-agenda-file-to-front? I ask because these are not TODO headings, 
> just headings with notes and quotes, so I'm not sure if using 
> org-agenda functionality is appropriate.
> 3. I am also learning to use org-agenda, so I do have a work.org 
> <http://work.org> file that has my TODO tasks in it. Is there a way to 
> temporarily remove my work.org <http://work.org> TODO headings from 
> the refile targets for when I'm sorting my book notes? Or is there a 
> way to have different "projects" with separate sets of refile targets, 
> one set of agenda files with refile targets for when I'm refiling TODO 
> tasks, another set of agenda files for when I'm refiling book notes?
>
> Thanks in advance for any advice.
>
> Best,
> Jay
>
> ---
> Jay Dixit
> jaydixit.com <http://jaydixit.com>
> (646) 355-8001
> Facebook <http://facebook.com/jaydixit> Twitter 
> <https://twitter.com/jaydixit> The New York Writers’ Intensive 
> <http://www.newyorkwritersintensive.com>
> Jay Dixit
>
> ᐧ

-- 
Alan L Tyree                    http://www2.austlii.edu.au/~alan
Tel:  04 2748 6206              sip:typhoon@iptel.org