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
>
>