From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: lngndvs@gmail.com Subject: Some struggles of mine with org-mode Date: Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:16:02 -0800 Message-ID: <83mx8uxpb1.fsf@gmail.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([140.186.70.92]:41977) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1RutMD-0004jR-GP for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:17:50 -0500 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1RutMA-0002Bm-H5 for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:17:49 -0500 Received: from mail-pw0-f43.google.com ([209.85.160.43]:38287) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1RutMA-0002BX-Af for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:17:46 -0500 Received: by pbds6 with SMTP id s6so2363pbd.16 for ; Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:17:44 -0800 (PST) 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: org-mode [This post concerns what have become, for me, conflicts between the scopes of org-agenda-files and the universe I would like to search within all org files, in particular. I hope I will be forgiven for drifting substantially from that focused topic] Org-mode is well entrenched into my daily work flow, in many ways. - Miscellaneous notes - Capturing ideas and articles - On-the-fly structured captures of several kinds - Todo lists - Remembering deadlines and activities - Collecting project information from diverse sources - Exporting any of the above, just about anything at all, as clean PDF files. - The occasional Beamer presentation For all that org-mode has become my go-to tool of choice, there are a number of things I still struggle with. I want to post this message as, I suppose, too much of a blanket request. Here are some of the things I don't get: - Firefox or other browser integration - Email. Some very elegant (in complicated ways) solutions have been generated, but all I need it simple text-based email. I would be willing to install sendmail or postfix, if need be, but I don't really wish to send html based email. See the next item. - Addresses/Contacts. I like Gnus, and I like BBDB, but I've never been completely comfortable with them. I used to keep contacts in EDB, a database I designed myself, and it worked really, really well. I've posted about his subject before, and I can see it didn't strike a chord on this list. I tried org-contacts, but it seems idiosyncratic, and limited. - Setting up birthday alerts, for example. I feel intimidated every time I am about to try to put a new birthday in a list. Ideally, I would do this with a capture template. The best so far is to keep birthdays in a list in .emacs.el - Searching. One thing I really like about Org-mode is the ability to keep a large number of kinds of information straight in various ways---either in separate files, or for related topics, in different headlines of the same file. I need all of these files to be searched. The best searching seems to reside in the agenda interface. But it seems illogical, to me, to constrain searching to the same set of files as for an Agenda, except if I am only searching things I am currently keeping on todo lists. I want a large subset of *.org files open for searches, but I may want to limit the number of files processed for a daily or weekly agenda view. Am I missing something? A utility on the mailing list, org-occur-goto, searches any open files, an improvement. But the very fact I am searching for something suggests this will require a greater search universe. Ideally, that universe will include several large subtrees, even though within them, only a small number of files may be involved. For example, one would like to have a directory, at some random location in the home "~/" tree, for recipes. I want them to be kept together in an integral tree. But I want some of the files to be kept under org-mode control. Do I want these files in my agenda files? I do not wish to have all of my action dumped together in ~/org or some such. Examples subdirectories might include: - ~/HEALTH-ISSUES/ - ~/ARTICLES/tuning-the-guitar/ - ~/PROJECTS/recipes/ I have a large ~/WorkBench directory that includes all ongoing work. I may not know on any given day which existing projects I will be working on. I like to scatter my TODOs among the project files, but I need to maintain instantaneous access to them, especially through the agenda views. So, to summarize, org-agenda-files should reflect those files I need to access because they have TODOs, Deadlines, Happenings, or Reminders in them. My search Universe should be constrained enough to result in instant searches, but not so constrained as org-agenda-files that need to be processed to produce a daily agenda.