Org-mode for diary writing

Org-mode for diary writing

[T o n g]

Hi,

I found people are using org-mode for diary writing in recent mlist 
archive, but wasn't able to find such tutorials. 

Anyone can enlighten me with such tutorial, which is for org-mode newbies 
and focusing on how to make most use of applicable org-mode features, and 
maybe a bonus "best-practice diary writing with org-mode"?

Thanks

-- 
Tong (remove underscore(s) to reply)
  http://xpt.sourceforge.net/techdocs/
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Re: Org-mode for diary writing

[Ian Barton]

T o n g wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I found people are using org-mode for diary writing in recent mlist 
> archive, but wasn't able to find such tutorials. 
> 
> Anyone can enlighten me with such tutorial, which is for org-mode newbies 
> and focusing on how to make most use of applicable org-mode features, and 
> maybe a bonus "best-practice diary writing with org-mode"?
> 
I am not aware of any tutorials. However, at the moment I use remember 
with the following template:

("Journal" ?j "* %^U :journal:\n\n** %^{Prompt}  %i%&\n  %!" 
"~/Documents/org/journal/journal_2009.org")

This stores entries as a headline under the date so an entry will look like:

* [2009-11-15 Sun] 
:journal:

** Ironbridge Gorge.
Your text goes here.

This doesn't attempt to avoid duplicate date entries from calling the 
template twice. If I have already created an entry for that day I simply 
  open my journal file and append stuff under that heading.

At the end of each month I create a month heading and move each day 
under it, like:

* 2009-08 August
** [2009-08-31 Mon]
  Fetched More Logs from the Wood.


I keep each year in a separate file. I could make this much more 
automated, but it's just as easy to do it manually.

You might also want to see my recent message "[Orgmode] org-datetree 
Some Suggestions". Carsten has recently introduced the datetree 
directive in remember templates, which should be very useful for 
automated diary entries.

Ian.

Re: Org-mode for diary writing

[Marcelo de Moraes Serpa]

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I use journal.el, it simply creates a new file in a specified directory with
the current date timestamp. I have modified it to create files with the .org
extension. I don't know why, but I prefer daily entries to be in separate
files.

Marcelo.

On Mon, Nov 16, 2009 at 2:27 PM, Ian Barton <lists@manor-farm.org> wrote:

> T o n g wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I found people are using org-mode for diary writing in recent mlist
>> archive, but wasn't able to find such tutorials.
>> Anyone can enlighten me with such tutorial, which is for org-mode newbies
>> and focusing on how to make most use of applicable org-mode features, and
>> maybe a bonus "best-practice diary writing with org-mode"?
>>
>>  I am not aware of any tutorials. However, at the moment I use remember
> with the following template:
>
> ("Journal" ?j "* %^U :journal:\n\n** %^{Prompt}  %i%&\n  %!"
> "~/Documents/org/journal/journal_2009.org")
>
> This stores entries as a headline under the date so an entry will look
> like:
>
> * [2009-11-15 Sun] :journal:
>
> ** Ironbridge Gorge.
> Your text goes here.
>
> This doesn't attempt to avoid duplicate date entries from calling the
> template twice. If I have already created an entry for that day I simply
>  open my journal file and append stuff under that heading.
>
> At the end of each month I create a month heading and move each day under
> it, like:
>
> * 2009-08 August
> ** [2009-08-31 Mon]
>  Fetched More Logs from the Wood.
>
>
> I keep each year in a separate file. I could make this much more automated,
> but it's just as easy to do it manually.
>
> You might also want to see my recent message "[Orgmode] org-datetree Some
> Suggestions". Carsten has recently introduced the datetree directive in
> remember templates, which should be very useful for automated diary entries.
>
> Ian.
>
>
>
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Re: Org-mode for diary writing

[Martin Pohlack]

Hi T o n g,

T o n g wrote:
> I found people are using org-mode for diary writing in recent mlist 
> archive, but wasn't able to find such tutorials. 
> 
> Anyone can enlighten me with such tutorial, which is for org-mode newbies 
> and focusing on how to make most use of applicable org-mode features, and 
> maybe a bonus "best-practice diary writing with org-mode"?

No tutorial, but this is how I write my journal:

(custom-set-variables
 '(org-remember-templates
   (quote (("Journal" 106 "* %^{Eintrag}%?%i%&" "~/Daten/Journal.org"
            return_formated_date nil)))))

With this helper function:

;;;
;;; time and date, date in international format: YYYY-MM-DD
;;;
(defun return_formated_date ()
  (let ((time (decode-time)))
    (format "%d-%02d-%02d" (nth 5 time) (nth 4 time) (nth 3 time))))

My journal looks like this:

...
* 2009-11-13
*** abc
*** def
...

Cheers,
Martin

Re: org-mode for diary writing

[Eric S Fraga]

(apologies for breaking the thread but I had already deleted all
relevant messages when I realised that I could hopefully contribute to
it)

T o n g wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I found people are using org-mode for diary writing in recent mlist 
> archive, but wasn't able to find such tutorials. 
> 
> Anyone can enlighten me with such tutorial, which is for org-mode newbies 
> and focusing on how to make most use of applicable org-mode features, and 
> maybe a bonus "best-practice diary writing with org-mode"?
> 

With the recent addition of diary functions to the agenda view mode in
org-mode, I find the easiest way of keeping a journal is to simply 'i
d' in the agenda view.  If you've set up an org-mode diary file
(org-agenda-diary-file) which differs from the Emacs diary file, then
the diary insertion commands from the agenda view create quite nicely
formatted journal type of entries.

So, instead of using remember, simply pop up the agenda view ('C-c a'
in my case) and type 'i d' for adding an entry for today.  For a
journal entry for any other day, do 'C-c a', then 'j' followed by a
date specification to jump to a particular day and finally 'i d' to
insert a diary/journal entry.

HTH,
eric