[Howm-eng 39] Re: Newbie...

[khi at users.sourceforge.jp (khi at users.sourceforge.jp)]

Hi, welcome :-)

At Sat, 5 Apr 2008 02:00:27 +0200,
Xavier Maillard wrote:
> 1. how can I extract a mail and turn it into a howm note with the
> note title being the mail's message ?

No way at present.  A new code is required for it.  Would you give me
a concrete example?

[related features]

(1)
snap.el supports Gnus and Wanderlust.
http://howm.sourceforge.jp/a/snap.el

(2)
When you create a new note, the selected string is inserted as its
default content if you set the following variable.

(setq howm-content-from-region t)
or
(setq howm-content-from-region 1)

In the latter case, the string is inserted as a title when the
selected region is one line.  You have to set transient-mark-mode to
use this feature in both cases.
(setq transient-mark-mode t)

> 2. how can I simply encrypt my notes ? (not all but on a note
> basis)

I think it is not easy.
(1) How can we achieve encryption and efficient search at once?
(2) It is not special to howm; an independent package for encryption
will be a better approach.

(past discussion in Japanese)
http://howm.sourceforge.jp/cgi-bin/hiki/hiki.cgi?Encryption

By the way, howm has a joke feature "rot13". :p

;; (1) mkdir ~/r13
;; (2) M-x yarot13-find-file RET ~/r13/xxx.howm RET
;; (3) Write anything, and C-c C-c to save it with rot13.
;; You can search and edit such notes seamlessly in howm.
;; Type C-c C-c to save them after modification.
(setq howm-search-path (list (howm-make-folder:rot13dir "~/r13")))
(howm-toggle-search-other-dir 1)

> 3. can I embed local-vars inside a note ? (as to achieve point 2)

Do you mean something like this?

Local variables:
make-backup-files: nil
transient-mark-mode: t
End:

Note that all howm's variables are marked as risky-local-variable by
default for safety.  You need to clear it explicitly as below if you
want to embed local variables:
(put 'howm-auto-narrow 'risky-local-variable nil)

> Latest question:
> 
> how do you use howm mode in real life ? Do you take small notes
> or big notes ? What strategy are you using to "organise" them ?
> Are there any GTD or cyberpocket user around ? How do you
> (over)use goto-link and come-from links ?

I'll show some random tips, though they are not direct answers for
your question.

Some users combine org-mode and howm.  It is possible because howm is
a minor mode.
;; from http://howm.sourceforge.jp/cgi-bin/hiki/hiki.cgi?OrgMode
(require 'org)
(add-hook 'org-mode-hook 'howm-mode)
(add-to-list 'auto-mode-alist '("\\.howm$" . org-mode))
(setq howm-view-title-header "*") ;; *BEFORE* loading howm!
(setq howm-prefix "\C-z") ;; change howm bindings from "C-c ," to "C-z"

External grep command makes howm much faster.
(setq howm-view-use-grep t)
But too many notes and too long notes are impractical anyway.

I like "one file for one day" rather than the default "one file for
one note", with an experimental feature for search-in-result.
(setq howm-file-name-format "%Y/%Y_%m_%d.rd")  ;; I use RD format.
(setq howm-view-search-in-result-correctly t)  ;; be aware of paragraph

See here for RD format.
http://lists.sourceforge.jp/mailman/archives/howm-eng/2005/000014.html

I rarely write titles for my notes; they are not necessary.

The latest beta version of howm-mode is always available at here.
http://howm.sourceforge.jp/a/howm-test.tar.gz

-- 
khi at users.sourceforge.jp