link description <-- selected text?

[Scott Otterson <scotto@u.washington.edu>]

Here's a feature request:  If text is selected when the create link 
command is invoked (C-c C-l), then the selected text becomes the default 
contents for the link description mini-buffer.  If no text is selected, 
the description mini-buffer is blank, as it is now.

This would reduce substantially keystrokes for my usual style of 
editing, which is to first type in the outline text and then to go back 
and sprinkle it with links to references (to websites, bib entries, 
lines of code...).  For example, suppose I have written this sentence:

    "Implement the RLS algorithm"

And, suppose I've already stored a link to an RLS paper by typing C-l in 
in my bib file.  Then, while in the outline buffer, I'd like to be able 
to select the text "RLS algorithm", and then hit:

    C-c C-l  (creates link minibuffer)
    <enter>  (enters stored link)
    <enter>  (enters selected text as link description)

As soon as it occurred to me that this would make org-mode more 
efficient, I realized that this is how other standard programs already 
handle html references; I'd guess that many would already be familiar 
with this small change in org-mode behavior.

Thanks for all the good work,

Scott