1 \input texinfo @c -*-texinfo-*-
3 @setfilename ../../info/remember
4 @settitle Remember Manual
9 * Remember: (remember). Simple information manager for Emacs
15 This manual is for Remember Mode, version 1.9
17 Copyright @copyright{} 2001, 2004, 2005, 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
20 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
21 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2
22 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
23 with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover
24 Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled ``GNU
25 Free Documentation License''.
30 @title Guide to Remember Mode
31 @subtitle a simple information manager
32 @subtitle for Emacs and XEmacs
34 @c The following two commands
35 @c start the copyright page.
37 @vskip 0pt plus 1filll
41 @c So the toc is printed at the start
45 @node Top, Preface, (dir), (dir)
46 @comment node-name, next, previous, up
53 * Preface:: About the documentation.
54 * Introduction:: What is Remember Mode?
55 * Installation:: How to install Remember.
56 * Implementation:: How Remember came into existence.
57 * Quick Start:: Get started using Remember.
58 * Function Reference:: Interactive functions in remember.el.
59 * Keystrokes:: Keystrokes bound in Remember Mode.
60 * Backends:: Backends for saving notes.
61 * Copying:: The GNU General Public License gives you
62 permission to redistribute Remember on
63 certain terms; it also explains that
65 * GNU Free Documentation License:: The license for this documentation.
66 * Concept Index:: Search for terms.
69 --- The Detailed Node Listing ---
73 * Text File:: Saving to a text file.
74 * Mailbox:: Saving to a mailbox.
75 * Bibliography:: Saving to a bibliography.
76 * Planner Page:: Saving to a Planner page.
81 @node Preface, Introduction, Top, Top
82 @comment node-name, next, previous, up
85 This document describes remember-el, which was written by John Wiegley,
86 was once maintained by Sacha Chua, and is now maintained by the Emacs
89 This document is a work in progress, and your contribution will be
92 @node Introduction, Installation, Preface, Top
93 @comment node-name, next, previous, up
96 Todo lists, schedules, phone databases... everything we use databases
97 for is really just a way to extend the power of our memory, to be able
98 to remember what our conscious mind may not currently have access to.
100 There are many different databases out there---and good ones---which
101 this mode is not trying to replace. Rather, it's how that data gets
102 there that's the question. Most of the time, we just want to say
103 "Remember so-and-so's phone number, or that I have to buy dinner for the
104 cats tonight." That's the FACT. How it's stored is really the
105 computer's problem. But at this point in time, it's most definitely
106 also the user's problem, and sometimes so laboriously so that people
107 just let data slip, rather than expend the effort to record it.
109 ``Remember'' is a mode for remembering data. It uses whatever
110 back-end is appropriate to record and correlate the data, but its main
111 intention is to allow you to express as @emph{little} structure as
112 possible up front. If you later want to express more powerful
113 relationships between your data, or state assumptions that were at
114 first too implicit to be recognized, you can ``study'' the data later
115 and rearrange it. But the initial ``just remember this'' impulse
116 should be as close to simply throwing the data at Emacs as possible.
118 Have you ever noticed that having a laptop to write on doesn't
119 @emph{actually} increase the amount of quality material that you turn
120 out, in the long run? Perhaps it's because the time we save
121 electronically in one way, we're losing electronically in another; the
122 tool should never dominate one's focus. As the mystic Faridu'd-Din
123 `Attar wrote: ``Be occupied as little as possible with things of the
124 outer world but much with things of the inner world; then right action
125 will overcome inaction.''
127 If Emacs could become a more intelligent data store, where brainstorming
128 would focus on the @emph{ideas} involved---rather than the structuring
129 and format of those ideas, or having to stop your current flow of work
130 in order to record them---it would map much more closely to how the mind
131 (well, at least mine) works, and hence would eliminate that very
132 manual-ness which computers from the very beginning have been championed
133 as being able to reduce.
135 @node Installation, Implementation, Introduction, Top
136 @comment node-name, next, previous, up
137 @chapter Installation
139 Installing Remember Mode is as simple as adding the following lines to
140 your Emacs configuration file (usually @file{~/.emacs.d/init.el} or
144 (add-to-list 'load-path "/path/to/remember")
148 @node Implementation, Quick Start, Installation, Top
149 @comment node-name, next, previous, up
150 @chapter Implementation
152 Hyperbole, as a data presentation tool, always struck me as being very
153 powerful, but it seemed to require a lot of ``front-end'' work before
154 that data was really available. The problem with BBDB, or keeping up
155 a Bibl-mode file, is that you have to use different functions to
156 record the data, and it always takes time to stop what you're doing,
157 format the data in the manner expected by that particular data
158 interface, and then resume your work.
160 With ``remember'', you just hit @kbd{M-x remember} (you'd probably
161 want to bind this to an easily accessible keystroke, like @kbd{C-x
162 M-r}), slam in your text however you like, and then hit @kbd{C-c C-c}.
163 It will file the data away for later retrieval, and possibly indexing.
165 Indexing is to data what ``studying'' is in the real world. What you
166 do when you study (or lucubrate, for some of us) is to realize certain
167 relationships implicit in the data, so that you can make use of those
168 relationships. Expressing that a certain quote you remembered was a
169 religious quote, and that you want the ability to pull up all quotes
170 of a religious nature, is what studying does. This is a more labor
171 intensive task than the original remembering of the data, and it's
172 typical in real life to set aside a special period of time for doing
175 ``Remember'' works in the same way. When you enter data, either by
176 typing it into a buffer, or using the contents of the selected region,
177 it will store that data---unindexed, uninterpreted---in a data pool.
178 It will also try to remember as much context information as possible
179 (any text properties that were set, where you copied it from, when,
180 how, etc). Later, you can walk through your accumulated set of data
181 (both organized, and unorganized) and easily begin moving things
182 around, and making annotations that will express the full meaning of
183 that data, as far as you know it.
185 Obviously this latter stage is more user-interface intensive, and it
186 would be nice if ``remember'' could do it as elegantly as possible,
187 rather than requiring a billion keystrokes to reorganize your
188 hierarchy. Well, as the future arrives, hopefully experience and user
189 feedback will help to make this as intuitive a tool as possible.
191 @node Quick Start, Function Reference, Implementation, Top
192 @comment node-name, next, previous, up
198 Load @file{remember.el}.
201 Type @kbd{M-x remember}. The @samp{*Remember*} buffer should be
205 Type in what you want to remember. The first line will be treated as
206 the headline, and the rest of the buffer will contain the body of the
210 Type @kbd{C-c C-c} (@code{remember-buffer}) to save the note and close
211 the @samp{*Remember*} buffer.
214 By default, @code{remember-buffer} saves the note in @file{~/.notes}.
215 You can edit it now to see the remembered and timestamped note. You
216 can edit this file however you want. New entries will always be added
219 To remember a region of text, use the universal prefix. @kbd{C-u M-x
220 remember} displays a @samp{*Remember*} buffer with the region as the
223 As a simple beginning, you can start by using the Text File backend,
224 keeping your @file{~/.notes} file in outline-mode format, with a final
225 entry called @samp{* Raw data}. Remembered data will be added to the
226 end of the file. Every so often, you can move the data that gets
227 appended there into other files, or reorganize your document.
229 You can also store remembered data in other backends.
232 Here is one way to map the remember functions in your @file{.emacs} to
233 very accessible keystrokes facilities using the mode:
236 (autoload 'remember ``remember'' nil t)
237 (autoload 'remember-region ``remember'' nil t)
239 (define-key global-map (kbd "<f9> r") 'remember)
240 (define-key global-map (kbd "<f9> R") 'remember-region)
243 Check out the Planner package
244 (@uref{http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/PlannerMode}) for plenty
245 of annotation functions you can use with Remember. If you use Planner,
246 you can easily publish your remembered notes as HTML and RSS.
247 (@pxref{Planner Page})
249 By default, remember uses the first annotation returned by
250 @code{remember-annotation-functions}. To include all of the annotations,
251 set @code{remember-run-all-annotation-functions-flag} to non-nil.
253 @defopt remember-run-all-annotation-functions-flag
254 Non-nil means use all annotations returned by
255 @code{remember-annotation-functions}.
258 You can write custom functions that use a different set of
259 remember-annotation-functions. For example:
262 (defun my/remember-with-filename ()
263 "Always use the filename."
265 (let ((remember-annotation-functions '(buffer-file-name)))
266 (call-interactively 'remember)))
269 @node Function Reference, Keystrokes, Quick Start, Top
270 @comment node-name, next, previous, up
271 @chapter Function Reference
273 @file{remember.el} defines the following interactive functions:
275 @defun remember initial
276 Remember an arbitrary piece of data. With a prefix, it will use the
277 region as @var{initial}.
280 @defun remember-region beg end
281 If called from within the remember buffer, @var{beg} and @var{end} are
282 ignored, and the entire buffer will be remembered. If called from any
283 other buffer, that region, plus any context information specific to
284 that region, will be remembered.
287 @defun remember-clipboard
288 Remember the contents of the current clipboard. This is most useful
289 for remembering things from Netscape or other X Windows applications.
292 @defun remember-buffer
293 Remember the contents of the current buffer.
297 This enters the major mode for output from @command{remember}. This
298 buffer is used to collect data that you want remember. Just hit
299 @kbd{C-c C-c} when you're done entering, and it will go ahead and file
300 the data for latter retrieval, and possible indexing.
303 @node Keystrokes, Backends, Function Reference, Top
304 @comment node-name, next, previous, up
305 @chapter Keystroke Reference
307 @file{remember.el} defines the following keybindings by default:
311 @item C-c C-c (`remember-buffer')
312 Remember the contents of the current buffer.
314 @item C-c C-k (`remember-destroy')
315 Destroy the current *Remember* buffer.
317 @item C-x C-s (`remember-buffer')
318 Remember the contents of the current buffer.
322 @node Backends, Copying, Keystrokes, Top
323 @comment node-name, next, previous, up
326 You can save remembered notes to a variety of backends.
329 * Text File:: Saving to a text file.
330 * Mailbox:: Saving to a mailbox.
331 * Bibliography:: Saving to a bibliography.
332 * Planner Page:: Saving to a Planner page.
335 @node Text File, Mailbox, Backends, Backends
336 @section Saving to a Text File
340 This backend comes with Emacs.
343 (setq remember-handler-functions '(remember-append-to-file))
346 @defopt remember-data-file
349 @defopt remember-leader-text
352 @node Mailbox, Bibliography, Text File, Backends
353 @section Saving to a Mailbox
354 @cindex mailbox, saving to a
357 (setq remember-handler-functions '(remember-store-in-mailbox))
360 @defopt remember-mailbox
361 Name of mailbox to save messages to.
364 This backend does not come with Emacs. To get it, download the latest
365 version of Remember from @url{http://download.gna.org/remember-el/}.
367 If you want to use BBDB to associate remembered snippets with entries
368 in your contact database, use the following code snippet:
371 (require 'remember-bbdb)
372 (setq remember-handler-functions '(remember-bbdb-store-in-mailbox))
375 @node Bibliography, Planner Page, Mailbox, Backends
376 @section Saving to a Bibliography
378 This backend does not come with Emacs. To get it, download the latest
379 version of Remember from @url{http://download.gna.org/remember-el/}.
381 Bibl-mode is a major mode for maintaining bibliography files. You can
383 @uref{http://ftp.azc.uam.mx/mirrors/gnu/emacs-lisp/bosullivan-packages/bibl-mode/}.
386 (require 'remember-bibl)
390 Remember a URL in @code{bibl-mode} that is being visited with w3.
393 @defun remember-location
394 Remember a bookmark location in `bibl-mode'.
397 You can use this in addition to your normal remember backend.
399 @node Planner Page, , Bibliography, Backends
400 @comment node-name, next, previous, up
401 @section Saving to a Planner Page
402 @cindex @file{remember-planner.el}, using
403 @cindex remember-el, using with PlannerMode
405 This backend does not come with Emacs. To get it, download the latest
406 version of Remember from @url{http://download.gna.org/remember-el/}.
408 If you are using PlannerMode, depending on your configuration, notes
409 made using remember-el may actually be saved to a project and/or day
412 @file{remember-planner.el} makes the notes you save with remember have
413 more context information associated with them, in the way that
414 PlannerMode tasks do.
416 To use remember-planner, place this in your @file{.emacs}:
419 (require 'remember-planner)
420 (setq remember-handler-functions '(remember-planner-append))
423 To take advantage of PlannerMode's annotation functions, add the
424 following code as well:
427 (setq remember-annotation-functions planner-annotation-functions)
430 Then, type @kbd{M-x remember} to remember new text, @kbd{M-x
431 remember-region} to remember the current region, or @kbd{C-u M-x
432 remember} to remember the current region but have an opportunity to
433 edit it before it is saved.
435 @defopt remember-planner-xref-p
436 Non-nil means cross-reference new entries with plan pages. Plan pages
437 are useful for gathering related information. If you don't want a note
438 associated with a plan page, you can press RET to accept the default
439 (just today's page) or specify nil at the prompt.
442 @defopt remember-planner-copy-on-xref-flag
443 Non-nil means copy note text instead of moving it to the plan page. If
444 nil, move the note body to the plan page, leaving a cross-reference
445 link on the day page. This results in shorter day pages but may be
446 harder for people to read.
449 @defopt remember-planner-timestamp-format
450 Format of timestamp for remember entries.
453 @file{remember-planner.el} does not define any interactive functions
456 @node Copying, GNU Free Documentation License, Backends, Top
457 @comment node-name, next, previous, up
458 @appendix GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
461 @node GNU Free Documentation License, Concept Index, Copying, Top
462 @appendix GNU Free Documentation License
463 @include doclicense.texi
465 @node Concept Index, , GNU Free Documentation License, Top
466 @comment node-name, next, previous, up