Emacs/The Archive combo

System

This discussion was created from comments split from: [Bug] Crashing when editing in other application.

joachiedere

@mediapathic Could you tell me a bit about your Emacs/The Archive editing workflow? As for myself I am using helm-bibtexand pdf-tools to open a pdf that I want to read and take notes from. When I have the pdf on the screen, I launch org-noter to take notes. I do not read the text from beginning to end, rather I divide my reading into two or three sessions taking inspiration from Anand Iyer and Piotr Limanowski. Once done with the digital note taking, and in order to be able to also have separate note files attached to each pdf that I read, and not just one big global notes.org file, I copy the org-noter notes from my reading of a certain text into the [citekey].org file that is attached with the same [citekey].pdf through helm-bibtex (and that one can reach smoothly through pressing F8 in helm-bibtex) In this way, I have both a global notes.org file and individual notes files for each pdf.

If it is a text I really need to dig into, I print it after an initial reading and take notes/ create zettels directly on paper.

If it is a text I might as well read from the screen, I do that. But before I process into zettels, I export my org-notes to LaTeX/PDF and open the PDF by pressing C-c C-e l o and then print it to use as a basis for writing the zettels on paper.

Once I have finished witing the zettels on paper, I sort them and open The Archive and start entering them there.

What is your Emacs/The Archive workflow like?

joachiedere

@ctietze Thanks for your moderating! Sorry, I posted this in the wrong place initially.

mediapathic

I actually have a blog post/article that I've had in the works for a while now about how I do this, (yes, sorry guys). But, in answer to your specific question, I feel like our workflow needs are different enough that I'm not clear on what level you're asking specific to emacs.

The important parts are: I use deft, which I point at the same directory The Archive is. I also use @EFLS excellent zetteldeft, which adds great functionality here. I have used org-noter, but since so little of my work is academic, I'm rarely enough making notes from pdf, that I just have a deft buffer open next to the pdf and note page numbers manually. In other words, I don't touch any org files at all when working in my ZK, I only use the same markdown files that The Archive does, I just access them with emacs instead.

EFLS

Thanks for tagging me, @mediapathic.

For those interested, the package & documentation are available here: https://github.com/EFLS/zetteldeft

Do note, however, that I developed these features initially for personal use, and later decided that more people might be interested in the package.

Another important note: the zetteldeft package is meant for org files, although the basics should work with any files emacs can handle.

One of the things I hope to implement in the future (although I'm not working on it yet), is better markdown compatibility for seamless integration with The Archive (which I don't use myself, but it would certainly make zetteldeft better).

Another thing I hope to finish soonish, is an introduction to zetteldeft to lower the bar of entry for new users who might be interested in adopting this package.

@joachiedere For notes on my bibliographic references, I use a combination of the impressive org-ref and helm-bibtex. I store all references in a .bib file, and use the features of these packages to store notes in a single org file.
More on org-ref at https://github.com/jkitchin/org-ref

Only when I start doing things with the literature I read, I start adding zettels to the system. These are more 'active' engagements with the literature, rather than just notes.

mediapathic

Oh right, I should have mentioned that I've been annoying @EFLS about ways to make zetteldeft more markdown-compatible by default, and they have been very responsive and helpful . Really, the only thing I'm running into wrt to markdown compatibility is that titles are by default in the file in the org style #+title: 201905040327 test file, but I've filed an issue about that (this is not a public shaming @EFLS ).