Re: Seeking advice on structuring my org-mode file

[Matt Lundin <mdl@imapmail.org>]

Marcin Borkowski <mbork@wmi.amu.edu.pl> writes:

> I have an Org-mode file with notes concerning a large project connected
> with teaching at my university.  One of the headlines is dedicated to
> one particular course, where I am part of a group developing a concept
> of this course.  So, one subheadline is devoted to that.  Yet another
> (subsub)headline is a list if my proposals of things that should be
> covered during that course, and now it needs 3 more levels down.
> Summing it up: I have 5 levels of headlines and now I need a sixth
> one.  So, my question is: what are good practices of other Org-moders?
> Do you push such a monster to an external file and just include a link
> to it?  

If a file grows to large, I simply create a new one. In this instance, I
would recommend creating a separate file for each course.

Below you'll find a very hackish helper function that I use to generate
a new file from a headline. It leaves a link to the new file in the
original location.

Best,
Matt

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
(defun my-org-file-from-headline (file)
  (interactive
   (list
    (completing-read "File: "
                     (mapcar 'file-name-nondirectory
			     (file-expand-wildcards "~/org/*.org"))
                     nil nil)))
  (unless (string-match "\\.org$" file)
    (error "Not an org file"))
  (save-excursion
    (beginning-of-line)
    (unless (org-at-heading-p)
      (error "Not on a headline")))
  (let* ((exists (file-exists-p file))
         (ftags (append
                 (list (file-name-sans-extension file))
                 (mapcar 'substring-no-properties org-file-tags)))
         (headline (nth 4 (org-heading-components)))
         (org-archive-reversed-order t)
         (org-archive-location (concat file "::"))
         (org-archive-save-context-info nil))
    (org-archive-subtree)
    (save-excursion (insert "* [[file:" file "][" file "]] - " headline "\n"))
    (find-file file)
    (goto-char (point-min))
    (save-excursion
      (if (re-search-forward "#\\+FILETAGS:\\(.*\\)$" nil t)
          (progn
            (save-match-data
              (setq ftags
                    (mapconcat 'identity
                               (org-uniquify
                                (append ftags
                                        (split-string
                                         (substring-no-properties
                                          (match-string 1))))) " ")))
            (replace-match (concat "#+FILETAGS: " ftags)))
        (insert "#+FILETAGS: " (mapconcat 'identity ftags " ") "\n"))
      (goto-char (point-min))
      (unless (re-search-forward "#\\+CATEGORY:\\(.*\\)$" nil t)
        (insert "#+CATEGORY: " (file-name-sans-extension file) "\n"))
      (goto-char (point-min))
      (when (re-search-forward "^Archived entries from file.+\n" nil t)
        (replace-match ""))))
  (write-file file))
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---