Re: how do scientists use org mode?

[Bodhi <bodhi@comp.nus.edu.sg>]

GMX Christoph 13 <christoph-13 <at> gmx.net> writes:

> 
> Hi
> this is my first post here and although I am evaluating org mode with great
interest, I am also asking myself
> in which way other scientists are making use of org mode. It will take a while
to get my head around how to
> accomplish certain things in org mode but for the moment I am intrigued by
*why* one would want to approach
> the problem of organizing one's research with org mode and in which way. 
> Are you putting exclusively your todos in, well, your todo file and perhaps
keep project-related things,
> such as data and progress, notes, ideas etc. somewhere else? Or do you embed
your notes and todos within
> their original context, i.e. is org mode your one-stop solution for data
management? Do you maintain a
> separate file for every major project you are responsible for or involved in
or throw everything into one
> or few humungous  files and differentiate using hierarchies and tags? 
> In the past I have hit some road blocks not so much with other softwares but
rather concepts such as GTD, which
> I think is tailored to the needs of people outside science, so I would deeply
appreciate your views and experience.
> 
> If this list is geared towards the proximate aspects of development and less
towards philosophy of usage, I apologize
> 
> Christoph
> 
> 

Hey Christoph,
Welcome to orgmode!

Well, to put it simply: you can use orgmode for everything: right from making
notes, to writing papers, to designing websites and presentations, the list goes
on and on. For example, you can write your papers and orgmode will generate
LaTeX and pdfs automatically for you. It can also generate HTML files
automatically, in case you wish to publish something on your website, but lack
the time/enthusiasm/expertise to generate a decent looking webpage. Same goes
for presentation (orgmode uses Beamer). Bottom-line: all you write is plain
text, and everything else is auto-generated, seamlessly and without the user
bothering about what is happening at the back.

For example, I was recently a part of a team of a few Engineers and a bunch of
Research Assistants, and we always used to assign tasks, maintain timesheets,
generate reports, make presentations etc. using orgmode. 

For your questions on how to organize data and files: you can use orgmode to
link between files, directories and URLs. So it is up to you to decide how you
keep your files/folders. You just need to link them, and then use orgmode to
pull it up for you.


There are a bunch of tutorials
here:http://orgmode.org/worg/org-tutorials/index.html. Please feel free to look
at them, in order to gain some perspective on how efficiently orgmode can aid
you in your day-to-day activities.

Happy "document"-hacking,
Bodhi

PS: I hope you are using Emacs, as it seamlessly renders orgmode stuff. Other
editors just can't do it as nicely.