Re: Journal versus clock tables: Opposing requirements?

[Olaf Dietsche <olaf+list.orgmode@olafdietsche.de>]

Tommy Kelly <tommy.kelly@verilab.com> writes:

> I'm trying to get org-mode to provide me with two things, but haven't
> found a way to do it.
>
> 1. First, I want to be able to use it like a daily engineering or
> science journal, logging notes as they occur, in pretty much linear
> fashion chronologically. Or, more to the point, I want to be able to
> report and look at items as they occurred, in pretty much linear
> fashion chronologically. Essentially I want to be able to report on
> activity by time of occurrence, not topic.
>
> 2. But second, I want to see clock tables covering a period of time,
> which groups related items together regardless of when (within the
> given period) they happened. Essentially I want to be able to report
> on actrivity by topic, not time of occurrence.
>
> I'm using some of Bernt Hansen's excellent setup, but it still isn't
> getting me quite where I want to be.
>
> I'll note also that the agenda's log mode doesn't really give me point
> 1. It simply lists the *headlines* which have a clock entry or
> timestamp at a given time. I want to see my entire journal -- a la a
> blog. (*Ideally* I'd like to be able to control the depth to which
> that entire journal output went to, but seeing the whole shebang would
> be a good start.)

Maybe I misunderstand what you want to accomplish, but if you put your
journal into a separate file (e.g. journal.org), you could load it as
any other file into emacs and look at it. With org-cycle (C-u TAB) you
can fold everything and open selected entries (TAB on a single headline)
if you want.

You can create clock tables and select reported items by tags. So, if
you tag your journal entries, you can create clock tables made up of a
few entries only. See the org manual: "The clock table".

Regards, Olaf