Information Organization - Emacs Org Mode
Hello to all!
For a long time I tried to find a solution to the problem of organizing various kinds of information:
Below, I have described (familiar to me) tools that can be used to solve these problems. I personally chose Emacs Org Mode for myself, so it was his description that was used for most of the text.
In short, Org Mode is the plain-text version of ToDoList (if absolutely strictly, the opposite is true), it is Emacs mode for keeping short notes, TODO lists, for planning projects, and also for organizing any information that can be represented as text. and in the form of a tree. Actually, the presentation of information in the form of a tree, its ordering, sorting is the main task of Org Mode.
Org Mode is implemented on top of outline-mode, which allows you to collapse trees and their branches. All information is presented in Org Mode in the form of trees, which are organized TODO-records and the usual headers. The title is a regular line of text with preceding asterisks (*). The number of stars is the nesting level of the header. If before the text, but after the asterisk to write TODO, this is already a TODO-record, and with it you can do an order of magnitude more things than with the usual.
')
Under the heading can be any text, other headings, links and tables. By the way, links and tables are two more separate stories! Links allow in a convenient form [[url] [title]] to create links to any elements of the file system, web resources, mailto and usenet links, as well as links to Org-elements of the current or any other file. Very convenient functionality. Personally, I ordered my e-library using links in Org Mode.
Tables - I never thought that in text mode (all Org Mode files are plain text files) you can implement such a number of functions for working with tables: automatic expansion of columns, exchange of positions for rows, columns, calculated cells, formulas - not Excel of course, but all this is done without taking your fingers off the main keyboard unit, this is Emacs!
Agenda Views . To view the scheduled for today / for the current week, or just a list of all TODOs, Org Mode contains Agenda views - you can call it the agenda of the day / week. You can customize the list of files from which Agenda will collect information. Task scheduling is actually the placement of status and timestamps for headers.
What else ... Org Mode files can be exported to HTML, LaTeX, iCalendar and Freemind files, it has scheduling support (various timestamps, deadlines, duplicate tasks, etc.), arbitrary statuses, tags and properties can be assigned to any headers, You can set arbitrary status lines (TODO - WAIT - DONE, DEVEL - TESTING - BUG - DONE, ...).
The appearance of Org Mode is a list of e-books “so-to-be-close-hand” (I wanted to insert a screenshot of the project tracker, but did not find any unclassified information :):
Here are actually comments on some of the contents of my .emacs:
(custom-set-variables
Setting variables Org Mode - a list of files for Agenda Views, the default directory for Org Mode and the default notes file:
'(org-agenda-files (quote ("p: /documents/org/fto.org")))
'(org-default-notes-file "p: / documents / notes")
'(org-directory "p: / documents / org")
)
Connection Org Mode:
(require 'org-install)
Enabling automatic switching in Org Mode when opening a file with the .org extension:
(add-to-list 'auto-mode-alist' ("\\. org \\ '". org-mode))
A few handy shortcuts to save the link to the current title and launch the org-agenda:
(global-set-key "\ C-cl" 'org-store-link)
(global-set-key "\ C-ca" 'org-agenda)
Defining keyword chains (switching between words with Shift + Right or + Left with the cursor on the title). "|" marks the border, if the header is in the status after this separator, then it is “completed”, this affects the planning and display in Agenda Views:
(setq org-todo-keywords
'((sequence "TODO" "WAIT" "|" "DONE")
Here - analysis, initial development, testing by a consultant, refinement, pol. testing, refusal to develop and transfer to the military environment :):
(sequence "ANLZ" "FDEV" "CTST" "RDEV" "UTST" "|" "CNCL" "TRNS")
)
Setting an arbitrary style for keywords:
(setq org-todo-keyword-faces
'(("TODO". (: Foreground "red": weight bold))
("WAIT". (: Foreground "orange": weight bold))
("DONE". (: Foreground "green": weight bold)))
)
Required for correct operation of Org Mode:
(global-font-lock-mode 1)
About this in the next post maybe :):
(require 'mercurial)
And this is the theme from the picture :):
(require 'color-theme)
(color-theme-initialize)
(color-theme-charcoal-black)
Now you can access your file via Mx org-my
(defun org-my ()
(interactive)
(find-file "p: /documents/org/default.org")
)
I note that maybe some settings will not work in the default version of Org Mode, in any case it is worth downloading the latest one.
Thank you for your attention, I hope that someone like me will find a lot of useful features in Org Mode. By the way, a couple more interesting links: Using Emacs org-mode for GTD , Using org-mode as a Day Planner , in English.
If you still want something simpler and with a normal GUI, and you also don’t want to start using Emacs, which at first can be painful, I suggest that as an alternative to ToDoList.
For a long time I tried to find a solution to the problem of organizing various kinds of information:
- Personal and work projects - project tracker, documentation, division into stages, structuring, priorities, risks, the state of individual stages.
- Simple TODO lists - keeping lists of cases in conditions of strong parallelization of activities. Moreover, it was necessary to be quickly, conveniently, functionally and always at hand.
- The personal library - ordering a huge number of e-books into categories (with nested) + easy access to them to be. Here, at first, I tried to just build up the folder structure, but the scales were not the same, so that you could quickly find the right book later.
Below, I have described (familiar to me) tools that can be used to solve these problems. I personally chose Emacs Org Mode for myself, so it was his description that was used for most of the text.
- Microsoft Office Project - refused this option immediately, too cumbersome and not suitable for all the tasks described. IMHO, in it normally you can only make project plans, and not only for yourself, but on corporatebot, when it is important to use the standard tool.
- ToDoList is a great thing, after the first acquaintance (I stumbled on CodeProject.Com by accident) did not stop using, being updated periodically. The program has rich organization capabilities, a graphical interface and excellent usability. This business is written on MFC, that is, Windows is its native environment. The current version (5.5 + a couple more digits) has just everything that is needed, and is also very stable (however, I have ToDoList since 4 versions never fell). There are import and export from / to a bunch of formats, including MS Project. There is a feature called “Transform tasklist” - as an example, you can save the list in html according to the selected filters. It is also possible to filter visible tasks by category, type, performance, risk, responsible, and priority. It is also worth mentioning that the program scales well to your needs - you can hide most of the fields and give it a compact look, and I do not know the tasks that would require more functionality and attributes than are available in this program. It is also completely portable, i.e. can be worn on a flash drive and freeware (source codes are available on codeproject). In general, I recommend to anyone who suddenly does not like o_O the next option.
- Emacs Org Mode - dedicated to all Emacs users! My opinion is that having Org Mode in Emacs is enough to start using it, especially if you are an adherent of the simplicity of working with plain text plain keyboard combinations. As soon as I entered the command
Mx org-modeI forgot about ToDoList (which does not make it a bad program). In Emacs versions 22 (not sure about older ones) there is, though outdated (4.67c), but quite a workable version of Org Mode. A brief description is given below, and the full manul can be found on OrgMode.Org , there you can download the latest version.
Emacs Org Mode
In short, Org Mode is the plain-text version of ToDoList (if absolutely strictly, the opposite is true), it is Emacs mode for keeping short notes, TODO lists, for planning projects, and also for organizing any information that can be represented as text. and in the form of a tree. Actually, the presentation of information in the form of a tree, its ordering, sorting is the main task of Org Mode.
Org Mode is implemented on top of outline-mode, which allows you to collapse trees and their branches. All information is presented in Org Mode in the form of trees, which are organized TODO-records and the usual headers. The title is a regular line of text with preceding asterisks (*). The number of stars is the nesting level of the header. If before the text, but after the asterisk to write TODO, this is already a TODO-record, and with it you can do an order of magnitude more things than with the usual.
')
Under the heading can be any text, other headings, links and tables. By the way, links and tables are two more separate stories! Links allow in a convenient form [[url] [title]] to create links to any elements of the file system, web resources, mailto and usenet links, as well as links to Org-elements of the current or any other file. Very convenient functionality. Personally, I ordered my e-library using links in Org Mode.
Tables - I never thought that in text mode (all Org Mode files are plain text files) you can implement such a number of functions for working with tables: automatic expansion of columns, exchange of positions for rows, columns, calculated cells, formulas - not Excel of course, but all this is done without taking your fingers off the main keyboard unit, this is Emacs!
Agenda Views . To view the scheduled for today / for the current week, or just a list of all TODOs, Org Mode contains Agenda views - you can call it the agenda of the day / week. You can customize the list of files from which Agenda will collect information. Task scheduling is actually the placement of status and timestamps for headers.
What else ... Org Mode files can be exported to HTML, LaTeX, iCalendar and Freemind files, it has scheduling support (various timestamps, deadlines, duplicate tasks, etc.), arbitrary statuses, tags and properties can be assigned to any headers, You can set arbitrary status lines (TODO - WAIT - DONE, DEVEL - TESTING - BUG - DONE, ...).
The appearance of Org Mode is a list of e-books “so-to-be-close-hand” (I wanted to insert a screenshot of the project tracker, but did not find any unclassified information :):
Org Mode Configuration Examples
Here are actually comments on some of the contents of my .emacs:
(custom-set-variables
Setting variables Org Mode - a list of files for Agenda Views, the default directory for Org Mode and the default notes file:
'(org-agenda-files (quote ("p: /documents/org/fto.org")))
'(org-default-notes-file "p: / documents / notes")
'(org-directory "p: / documents / org")
)
Connection Org Mode:
(require 'org-install)
Enabling automatic switching in Org Mode when opening a file with the .org extension:
(add-to-list 'auto-mode-alist' ("\\. org \\ '". org-mode))
A few handy shortcuts to save the link to the current title and launch the org-agenda:
(global-set-key "\ C-cl" 'org-store-link)
(global-set-key "\ C-ca" 'org-agenda)
Defining keyword chains (switching between words with Shift + Right or + Left with the cursor on the title). "|" marks the border, if the header is in the status after this separator, then it is “completed”, this affects the planning and display in Agenda Views:
(setq org-todo-keywords
'((sequence "TODO" "WAIT" "|" "DONE")
Here - analysis, initial development, testing by a consultant, refinement, pol. testing, refusal to develop and transfer to the military environment :):
(sequence "ANLZ" "FDEV" "CTST" "RDEV" "UTST" "|" "CNCL" "TRNS")
)
Setting an arbitrary style for keywords:
(setq org-todo-keyword-faces
'(("TODO". (: Foreground "red": weight bold))
("WAIT". (: Foreground "orange": weight bold))
("DONE". (: Foreground "green": weight bold)))
)
Required for correct operation of Org Mode:
(global-font-lock-mode 1)
About this in the next post maybe :):
(require 'mercurial)
And this is the theme from the picture :):
(require 'color-theme)
(color-theme-initialize)
(color-theme-charcoal-black)
Now you can access your file via Mx org-my
(defun org-my ()
(interactive)
(find-file "p: /documents/org/default.org")
)
I note that maybe some settings will not work in the default version of Org Mode, in any case it is worth downloading the latest one.
Thank you for your attention, I hope that someone like me will find a lot of useful features in Org Mode. By the way, a couple more interesting links: Using Emacs org-mode for GTD , Using org-mode as a Day Planner , in English.
If you still want something simpler and with a normal GUI, and you also don’t want to start using Emacs, which at first can be painful, I suggest that as an alternative to ToDoList.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/28098/
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