Best practices? Multiple .org files?

Best practices? Multiple .org files?

[Brian Wood]

I've been using orgmode for 6 months and really like it. I started with 
on monolithic work.org file.  I'm worried that at some point this file 
will get too big and bog down emacs.  I'm not sure how big it would have 
to be...?  To avoid that I'm thinking that I should break up this file 
into multiple .org files in a directory.  If I do that:

1. I would like to still see the same top-level tree that I see now when 
I shift-Tab e.g:

* Admin
* Drupal
* MacOS
* Linux
* Time Reports

So if I create drupal.org that contains the contents of "* Drupal", and 
I remove "* Drupal" from work.org, is there a way to still see my top 
level tree including "Drupal"?

2. Is there a way I can search for a string across all of my .org files 
from within orgmode?

-- 
Brian Wood
Applications Programmer
UC Berkeley IST Application Services

Re: Best practices? Multiple .org files?

[Joseph Kern]

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On Thu, Sep 1, 2011 at 1:35 PM, Brian Wood <bwood@berkeley.edu> wrote:

> I've been using orgmode for 6 months and really like it. I started with on
> monolithic work.org file.  I'm worried that at some point this file will
> get too big and bog down emacs.  I'm not sure how big it would have to
> be...?  To avoid that I'm thinking that I should break up this file into
> multiple .org files in a directory.  If I do that:
>
> 1. I would like to still see the same top-level tree that I see now when I
> shift-Tab e.g:
>
> * Admin
> * Drupal
> * MacOS
> * Linux
> * Time Reports
>
> So if I create drupal.org that contains the contents of "* Drupal", and I
> remove "* Drupal" from work.org, is there a way to still see my top level
> tree including "Drupal"?
>
> 2. Is there a way I can search for a string across all of my .org files
> from within orgmode?
>

Yes. Search view:

C-c a s

This is a special search that lets you select entries by matching a
substring or specific words using a boolean logic


http://orgmode.org/guide/Search-view.html

>
> --
> Brian Wood
> Applications Programmer
> UC Berkeley IST Application Services
>
>
>

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Re: Best practices? Multiple .org files?

[Brian Wood]

Wow, how did I miss search view. Sweet!

Brian Wood
Applications Programmer
UC Berkeley IST Application Services

Re: Best practices? Multiple .org files?

[Darlan Cavalcante Moreira]

But the original question remains. Is it better, regarding speed, to split
the content into several files (all included in the agenda) or a single
file will be faster?

In [1] you find "Should I use one big org file or multiple files?", with a
few tips for improving speed, but does not answer this.

There was a thread about org speed some time ago but I don't remember if a
conclusion about this topic was reached.

[1] http://orgmode.org/worg/org-faq.html

--
Darlan

At Thu, 01 Sep 2011 11:38:45 -0700,
Brian Wood <bwood@berkeley.edu> wrote:
> 
> Wow, how did I miss search view. Sweet!
> 
> Brian Wood
> Applications Programmer
> UC Berkeley IST Application Services
> 
> 
> 

Re: Best practices? Multiple .org files?

[suvayu ali]

On Thu, Sep 1, 2011 at 11:01 PM, Darlan Cavalcante Moreira
<darcamo@gmail.com> wrote:
> But the original question remains. Is it better, regarding speed, to split
> the content into several files (all included in the agenda) or a single
> file will be faster?
>

If you have source blocks, one big file might be slow. As far as I
recall the issue was font-lock. I personally go for several agenda
files in the root directory categorised depending on kind of tasks or
notes. I have subdirectories (not included in agenda files) for
details on various projects. These are included in the
org-agenda-text-search-extra-files, so they are included when I do C-c
a s.

I hope that helps.

-- 
Suvayu

Open source is the future. It sets us free.

Re: Best practices? Multiple .org files?

[Christian Moe]

On 9/1/11 7:35 PM, Brian Wood wrote:
> (...) I'm thinking that I should break up
> this file into multiple .org files in a directory. If I do that:
>
> 1. I would like to still see the same top-level tree that I see now
> when I shift-Tab e.g:
>
> * Admin
> * Drupal
> * MacOS
> * Linux
> * Time Reports
>
> So if I create drupal.org that contains the contents of "* Drupal",
> and I remove "* Drupal" from work.org, is there a way to still see my
> top level tree including "Drupal"?

I keep some top-level headings in my central `my.org' file after I've 
hived off the contents to other org files, just to have a convenient 
link to the file and save myself having to remember how I named it.

So I'd do something like:

* Admin
* [[file:./drupal.org][Drupal]]
* MacOS
* Linux
* Time Reports

Don't forget to add the new files to your agenda files, the agenda 
view being the chief way of pulling together all your tasks.

Yours,
Christian

Re: Best practices? Multiple .org files?

[Joseph Kern]

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Is there a way to display the contents of the file in-line?



On Fri, Sep 2, 2011 at 6:35 AM, Christian Moe <mail@christianmoe.com> wrote:

> On 9/1/11 7:35 PM, Brian Wood wrote:
>
>> (...) I'm thinking that I should break up
>>
>> this file into multiple .org files in a directory. If I do that:
>>
>> 1. I would like to still see the same top-level tree that I see now
>> when I shift-Tab e.g:
>>
>> * Admin
>> * Drupal
>> * MacOS
>> * Linux
>> * Time Reports
>>
>> So if I create drupal.org that contains the contents of "* Drupal",
>> and I remove "* Drupal" from work.org, is there a way to still see my
>> top level tree including "Drupal"?
>>
>
> I keep some top-level headings in my central `my.org' file after I've
> hived off the contents to other org files, just to have a convenient link to
> the file and save myself having to remember how I named it.
>
> So I'd do something like:
>
> * Admin
> * [[file:./drupal.org][Drupal]]
> * MacOS
> * Linux
> * Time Reports
>
> Don't forget to add the new files to your agenda files, the agenda view
> being the chief way of pulling together all your tasks.
>
> Yours,
> Christian
>
>

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Re: Best practices? Multiple .org files?

[Eric S Fraga]

Christian Moe <mail@christianmoe.com> writes:

> On 9/1/11 7:35 PM, Brian Wood wrote:
>> (...) I'm thinking that I should break up
>> this file into multiple .org files in a directory. If I do that:
>
>>
>> 1. I would like to still see the same top-level tree that I see now
>> when I shift-Tab e.g:
>>
>> * Admin
>> * Drupal
>> * MacOS
>> * Linux
>> * Time Reports
>>
>> So if I create drupal.org that contains the contents of "* Drupal",
>> and I remove "* Drupal" from work.org, is there a way to still see my
>> top level tree including "Drupal"?
>
> I keep some top-level headings in my central `my.org' file after I've
> hived off the contents to other org files, just to have a convenient
> link to the file and save myself having to remember how I named it.
>
> So I'd do something like:
>
> * Admin
> * [[file:./drupal.org][Drupal]]
> * MacOS
> * Linux
> * Time Reports
>
> Don't forget to add the new files to your agenda files, the agenda
> view being the chief way of pulling together all your tasks.
>
> Yours,
> Christian
>

This might be sacrilegious (:-) but I use Emacs bookmarks to be able to
jump easily to headings in my various org files.  Easy to set up and
very easy to use.  I bookmark a number of headings and thereafter don't
care which actual org files they reside in.

See bookmark-set, bookmark-bmenu-list and bookmark-jump.  At least in
Emacs 24.0.50.x, the bookmark package is available by default.  Probably
in earlier versions but cannot easily check...

-- 
Eric S Fraga (GnuPG: 0xC89193D8FFFCF67D)

Re: Best practices? Multiple .org files?

[Brian Wood]

> 1. I would like to still see the same top-level tree that I see now
> when I shift-Tab e.g:
Here's the closest thing I've found to show all top-level items across 
all .org files

C-c a s
{^\* }

If you use (setq org-agenda-start-with-follow-mode t), you can surf 
through this list looking at your other files.  I will have to try to 
learn enough lisp to bind the above command to a key combo maybe M-Shift 
Tab.  (If anyone wants to send me the lisp that'd be great!)

Brian Wood
Applications Programmer
UC Berkeley IST Application Services

Re: Best practices? Multiple .org files?

[Eric S Fraga]

Brian Wood <bwood@berkeley.edu> writes:

>> 1. I would like to still see the same top-level tree that I see now
>> when I shift-Tab e.g:
> Here's the closest thing I've found to show all top-level items across
> all .org files
>
> C-c a s
> {^\* }
>

[...]

You might like to define a keyboard macro with this key sequence if you
are going to do it often.  See

  info:emacs#Save Keyboard Macro

-- 
: Eric S Fraga (GnuPG: 0xC89193D8FFFCF67D) in Emacs 24.0.50.1
: using Org-mode version 7.7 (release_7.7.240.g4a863)