Hello All !
I would like to present the new package org-refer-by-number.
The package allows to refer to things outside of Org, that cannot be linked to
directly.
An example would be a piece of paper, you get handed over. Within Org you write something about
it and want to refer to it in an unambiguous way. A common solution would be to simply write a
unique number on this document (e.g. 277) and to use this number within your notes in Org.
Through this reference number 277 you can later easily make a connection between your
Org-notes and the piece of paper.
This use case and others are supported by org-refer-by-number. The package makes it easy to keep
a table of such reference numbers (277, 278, ...) and allows you to look up or search those
numbers later on.
Citing the head of its documentation (which you may also find in the attached
source file):
;; Purpose:
;;
;; Refer to things by number, when direct links are not possible. This is done
by
;; keeping a table with increasing numbers in the first column and a timestamp
in the
;; second.
;;
;; These numbers may then be used to refer to things outside of Org (e.g. you
may write
;; them on a piece of paper or use them as part of a directory name). Within
Org you may
;; then refer to these things by their number (e.g. R277).
;;
;;
;; Setup:
;;
;; (require 'org-refer-by-number)
;; (setq org-refer-by-number-id 7f480c3e-312f-4b9b-b833-6a7a253d1404)
;; (global-set-key (kbd C-c C-x r) 'org-refer-by-number)
;;
;; Further reading:
;;
;; Setup: See the variable `org-refer-by-number-id'
;; Usage: See the function `org-refer-by-number'
Hope, you will find it useful.
with kind regards,
Marc-Oliver Ihm
;;; org-refer-by-number.el --- Refer by number, where linking is not possible
;; Copyright (C) 2011
;; Free Software Foundation, Inc.
;; Author: Marc-Oliver Ihm
;; Keywords: Org-mode, references
;; Version: 0.99
;;; License:
;; This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
;; it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
;; the Free Software Foundation; either version 3, or (at your option)
;; any later version.
;;
;; This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
;; but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
;; MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
;; GNU General Public License for more details.
;;
;; You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
;; along with GNU Emacs; see the file COPYING. If not, write to the
;; Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor,
;; Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
;;; Commentary:
;; Purpose:
;;
;; Refer to things by number, when direct links are not possible. This is done by
;; keeping a table with increasing numbers in the first column and a timestamp in the
;; second.
;;
;; These numbers may then be used to refer to things outside of Org (e.g. you may write
;; them on a piece of paper or use them as part of a directory name). Within Org you may
;; then refer to these things by their number (e.g. R277).
;;
;;
;; Setup:
;;
;; (require 'org-refer-by-number)
;; (setq org-refer-by-number-id 7f480c3e-312f-4b9b-b833-6a7a253d1404)
;; (global-set-key (kbd C-c C-x r) 'org-refer-by-number)
;;
;; Further reading:
;;
;; Setup: See the variable `org-refer-by-number-id'
;; Usage: See the function `org-refer-by-number'
;;
;;; Code:
(require 'org-table)
(defvar org-refer-by-number-id nil
Id of the node, that contains the table with reference numbers.
Read below on how to set up things. See the documentation of
`org-refer-by-number' for normal usage after setup.
To create the Org-mode structure for `org-refer-by-number', you
need to:
- Create an Org-mode node, anywhere, any level.
- Get or create the Org-mode id of this node with `org-id-get-create'.
- Store this Id within `org-refer-by-number-id'; within your .emacs
you may have a line like this:
(setq org-refer-by-number-id \7f480c3e-312f-4b9b-b833-6a7a253d1404\)
your id, of course, will be different. The easiest way to get
your id, is to copy it from the property drawer of your reference node.
- Within your node: Add a table, that has at least two columns: a number
and a timstamp.
- Add one initial row to your table.
As an Example, your node may look like this:
*** My node for org-refer-by-number
:PROPERTIES:
:ID: 7f480c3e-312f-4b9b-b833-6a7a253d1404
:END:
| Number | Date| Commentary |
|+-+-|
| R277 | [2011-09-03 Sa] | My first number |
Now you may invoke `org-refer-by-number' to create a new
reference number. For convenience, you might like to bind it to
a key like this:
(global-set-key (kbd \C-c C-x r\) 'org-refer-by-number)
So, putting it all together, your setup may look like this:
(require 'org-refer-by-number)
(setq org-refer-by-number-id \7f480c3e-312f-4b9b-b833-6a7a253d1404\)
