Hi Myles,

I counter your tip with my own on capturing pdfs.

Maybe you'll find some of this stuff useful for your case.

My capture template captures a pdf file that I have to read.

It works for:

1. A pdf file in doc-view mode.

2. Any dired buffer with point on a pdf file.

What it does:

1. Create a new TODO item under gtd.org/Projects/Scientific Articles

2. The item title is "Read blah-blah by Foo", if the pdf name has

proper format, otherwise it's just "Read blah-blah".

3. The pdf is attached to the TODO item.

4. A note is added with the capture time.

Here's the code:

(setq org.d "~/Dropbox/org/")

(require 'org-attach)

(require 'org-capture)

(defun org-process-current-pdf ()

(let* ((buffer (org-capture-get :buffer))

(buffer-mode (with-current-buffer buffer major-mode))

(filename (org-capture-get :original-file)))

(when (file-directory-p filename)

(with-current-buffer (org-capture-get :original-buffer)

(setq filename (dired-get-filename))))

(when (string= (file-name-extension filename) "pdf")

(let ((org-attach-directory (concat org.d "data/"))

(name (file-name-sans-extension

(file-name-nondirectory filename))))

(org-attach-attach filename nil 'cp)

(if (string-match "\\[\$.*\$\\] \$.*\$(\$.*\$)" name)

(format "\"%s\" by %s"

(match-string 2 name)

(match-string 1 name))

name)))))

(add-to-list 'org-capture-templates

'("p" "Pdf article" entry (file+olp (concat org.d "gtd.org") "Projects" "Scientific Articles")

"* TODO Read %(org-process-current-pdf)\nAdded: %U %i\n %?\n"))

regards,

Oleh

On Mon, Oct 7, 2013 at 1:49 PM, Myles English <mylesenglish@gmail.com> wrote:

Hello,

Just thought I would share something I find useful. What the code below
does is:

1) prompts for a link to a file on the internet
2) downloads the file
3) attaches the file to the current subtree
4) inserts at the current point a link to the attachment

This is useful if (e.g.) you are scouring Google images for ideas and
want to save lots of image files.

Requirements: wget, set $TMPDIR.
TODO: integrate properly with capture template

#+here_is_some elisp
(setq org-link-abbrev-alist '(("att" . org-attach-expand-link)))

(defun my-attach-and-link-web-file (lnk)
"Download a file, attach it to our heading, insert a link"
(interactive "*sAttach and link to url: \n")
(let ((tmpdir (expand-file-name (getenv "TMPDIR")))
(fname (file-name-nondirectory lnk)))
(progn (message (concat "Downloading " lnk " to " tmpdir "/" fname))
(call-process "wget" nil '("*Messages*" t) nil "-P"
tmpdir "-d"
lnk)
(org-attach-attach (concat tmpdir "/" fname) nil 'mv)
(insert (concat "[[att:" fname "]]")))))

(define-key global-map "\C-cs" 'my-attach-and-link-web-file)
#+that_was_elisp

Myles