From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Florian Beck Subject: Using org-mode for Research and Notetaking Date: Mon, 11 Jul 2011 21:55:23 +0200 Message-ID: <87zkkktwwk.fsf_-_@sophokles.streitblatt.de> References: <81d3hi75oj.fsf@gmail.com> <818vs674t7.fsf@gmail.com> <87liw582jg.fsf@gnu.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([140.186.70.92]:45707) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1QgMa3-0003fN-Ro for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Mon, 11 Jul 2011 15:55:53 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1QgMZo-0007fg-UZ for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Mon, 11 Jul 2011 15:55:47 -0400 Received: from mo-p05-ob.rzone.de ([81.169.146.180]:56875) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1QgMZn-0007cs-Si for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Mon, 11 Jul 2011 15:55:32 -0400 Received: from flo-laptop (p54994B4E.dip.t-dialin.net [84.153.75.78]) by post.strato.de (mrclete mo53) (RZmta 26.0) with (DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA encrypted) ESMTPA id 201ba4n6BItxAZ for ; Mon, 11 Jul 2011 21:55:24 +0200 (MEST) In-Reply-To: <87liw582jg.fsf@gnu.org> (Bastien's message of "Mon, 11 Jul 2011 13:44:35 +0200") List-Id: "General discussions about Org-mode." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sender: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org To: emacs-orgmode@gnu.org [My main goal is to take research notes and write texts. I have little interest in the todo/agenda part of org-mode, which I understand is its main focus, so bear this in mind.] Previously I have been using muse-mode for publishing and a home brew system for organising my notes. Now I thought, I would give org-mode a try. I had some 3500 short notes which I converted into a 8.5M org-file with said 3500 heavily tagged entries. Also created a 500k org file from my bibtex file. These two plus a couple of shorter files are my org-agenda-files. Speed is quite ok, surprisingly. `org-columns' in the big file is a no-go, of course (overlays!). The agenda commands work fine (I have few entries with todo-keywords, but they are in every file.) So far so good. Tables, integration of latex fragments: great stuff. I like the outlining capabilities but used most of them via `org-struct-mode' already. Especially impressed with babel. Wow! A couple of questions and observations, first impressions really: 1. Publishing (I have only tested pdf) works pretty well. Obviously, or so I would have thought, I don't want to see todo-keywords and TAGs in the output. How do I get rid of them? 2. Tags are SLOW (no doubt due to my 8.5M file). Completion takes minutes. I fixed that by adding all my (hundreds of) tags to `org-tag-alist' and restricting capture to =C2=BB%g=C2=AB, checking only t= he current file. `org-id-find' is slow as well and so will be property completions, I guess. How about caching the data and update on saving an org-agenda file? 3. By default, tags cannot contain spaces or commas. I rectified that with an ugly hack in `org-set-tags-to', which replaces spaces with ?\x2008 (punctuation space), and setting it to word syntax. Also, many long tags display ugly. How about showing only the first twenty characters and show the rest via help echo? 4. muse-mode has this nice feature that it easily allows you to define your own like =E2=80=A6 or =E2=80=A6; not only for export b= ut also for fontification. Can I do something similar in org-mode? 5. According to the manual =C2=BBTODO items are an integral part of the notes file=C2=AB. I like that, but I do not find it so. TODO items are headings which I find somewhat confusing: My files are either articles to be (with the appropriate headlines) or notes where headlines usually formulate the topic the note is about. Todo items, on the other hand, would be =C2=BBclarify the paragraph=C2=AB, =C2=BBcheck what X says about = Y=C2=AB, =C2=BBadd more sources=C2=AB, etc. As it is TODOs are not integrated but stand out, breaking the structure of the file. How about allowing TODO items in comments? This would seem much more natural to me: a TODO item should not be part of your text but disappear when it is done. --=20 Florian Beck