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+<a name="Basics"></a>
+<a name="SEC9"></a>
+<table cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" border="0">
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+<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="notes-mode.html#Top" title="Cover (top) of document">Top</a>]</td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="notes-mode_toc.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents">Contents</a>]</td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="notes-mode_6.html#SEC28" title="Index">Index</a>]</td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="notes-mode_abt.html#SEC_About" title="About (help)"> ? </a>]</td>
+</tr></table>
+<h1 class="chapter"> 2. Basics </h1>
+
+<p>All you need to use notes-mode
+ in a chapter.
+(Except for installation, See section <a href="notes-mode_5.html#SEC27">Installation</a>.)
+</p>
+<table class="menu" border="0" cellspacing="0">
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#SEC10">2.1 Getting started</a></td><td> </td><td align="left" valign="top">
+</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#SEC11">2.2 A notes file</a></td><td> </td><td align="left" valign="top">
+</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#SEC12">2.3 The notes index</a></td><td> </td><td align="left" valign="top">
+</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#SEC13">2.4 The notes directories</a></td><td> </td><td align="left" valign="top">
+</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<hr size="6">
+<a name="Getting-started"></a>
+<a name="SEC10"></a>
+<table cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" border="0">
+<tr><td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="#SEC9" title="Previous section in reading order"> < </a>]</td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="#SEC11" title="Next section in reading order"> > </a>]</td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="#SEC9" title="Beginning of this chapter or previous chapter"> << </a>]</td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="#SEC9" title="Up section"> Up </a>]</td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="notes-mode_3.html#SEC14" title="Next chapter"> >> </a>]</td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="notes-mode.html#Top" title="Cover (top) of document">Top</a>]</td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="notes-mode_toc.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents">Contents</a>]</td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="notes-mode_6.html#SEC28" title="Index">Index</a>]</td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="notes-mode_abt.html#SEC_About" title="About (help)"> ? </a>]</td>
+</tr></table>
+<h2 class="section"> 2.1 Getting started </h2>
+
+<p>To get started with notes-mode,
+ read the introduction this chapter,
+ then either:
+</p>
+<ul>
+<li>
+Start emacs, do
+ <kbd>M-x</kbd> <code>load-library</code> <kbd>RET</kbd> <code>notes-mode</code> <kbd>RET</kbd>
+This approach will set up notes-mode with the default parameters.
+
+</li><li>
+OR, from the shell,
+ run the program ‘<tt>notesinit</tt>’.
+This approach will ask you some questions about how you want to configure
+ notes mode.
+
+</li></ul>
+
+<p>Either way these should set up everything notes-mode needs.
+This program will modify your environment (as described in this section),
+ or it will give you the exact commands you should run yourself.
+</p>
+<p>After you've done one of these,
+ start up emacs and note-away.
+I usually begin a
+ day of note-taking by running the command
+ <kbd>M-x</kbd> <code>notes-index-todays-link</code>
+ to jump directly to today's note.
+You may even wish to bind this to something,
+ perhaps with
+ <code>(define-key global-map "\C-cn" 'notes-index-todays-link)</code>
+ in your ‘<tt>.emacs</tt>’.
+</p>
+<p>If you want to browse your existing notes,
+ you might instead want to edit the
+ ‘<tt>~/NOTES/index</tt>’.
+(What is a notes file and the index? Hurry up and finish
+ reading this chapter.)
+</p>
+
+<hr size="6">
+<a name="A-notes-file"></a>
+<a name="SEC11"></a>
+<table cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" border="0">
+<tr><td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="#SEC10" title="Previous section in reading order"> < </a>]</td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="#SEC12" title="Next section in reading order"> > </a>]</td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="#SEC9" title="Beginning of this chapter or previous chapter"> << </a>]</td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="#SEC9" title="Up section"> Up </a>]</td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="notes-mode_3.html#SEC14" title="Next chapter"> >> </a>]</td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="notes-mode.html#Top" title="Cover (top) of document">Top</a>]</td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="notes-mode_toc.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents">Contents</a>]</td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="notes-mode_6.html#SEC28" title="Index">Index</a>]</td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="notes-mode_abt.html#SEC_About" title="About (help)"> ? </a>]</td>
+</tr></table>
+<h2 class="section"> 2.2 A notes file </h2>
+
+
+<p>The notes file is the focus of most of the activity in notes-mode,
+ it's where you take your notes.
+Notes files are mostly free-form text
+ broken up into <em>entries</em>.
+Here's an example:
+</p>
+<a name="IDX1"></a>
+
+<table><tr><td> </td><td><pre class="example">8-Jun-95 Thursday
+-----------------
+
+* Today
+-------
+prev: <none>
+next: <file:///~/NOTES/199506/950609#* Today>
+
+next week - release notes-mode
+
+
+* Environment/notes
+-------------------
+
+I explained notes mode to Ashvin and Geoff.
+...
+</pre></td></tr></table>
+
+<p>Each entry has a subject-block, (maybe) some links, and then (maybe) some text.
+</p>
+<p>The subject-block must begin with an asterisk-space (<kbd>* </kbd>)
+ at the beginning of a line, followed by the subject itself.
+Subjects must be underlined with a row of dashes
+ (if they're not exact, that's OK;
+ notes-mode will fix them periodically).
+For convenience,
+ notes-mode will automatically add the underlines when you
+ hit <kbd><RTN></kbd> (<code>notes-electric-return</code>),
+ and <kbd><TAB></kbd> on a partially completed subject will
+ invoke completion based on indexed subjects (<code>notes-complete-subject</code>).
+<a name="IDX2"></a>
+<a name="IDX3"></a>
+<a name="IDX4"></a>
+</p>
+<p>Following the subject may be links.
+(In the example, the “Today” entry has links,
+ the “Environment/notes” entry doesn't.)
+These links will be automatically updated by notes-mode
+ when your notes are re-indexed;
+ just leave a blank line when writing the note.
+<a name="IDX5"></a>
+</p>
+<p>Links are made with pseudo-URLs,
+ sort of like those in the World Wide Web.
+Any of these URLs can be followed in notes-mode files
+ by clicking <kbd>S-mouse-2</kbd> on the pseudo-URL
+ (<code>notes-w3-follow-link-mouse</code>).
+<a name="IDX6"></a>
+<a name="IDX7"></a>
+<a name="IDX8"></a>
+</p>
+<p>Finally comes the text.
+Go wild, but just don't include text that looks like a subject.
+You can embed pseudo-URLs to link notes together manually.
+</p>
+<p>The more anal of you may have noticed
+ that the lines before the first subject
+ are not part of any entry.
+These lines are
+ <em>front matter</em>.
+They're not usually used for much,
+ but they can be a good place to label the file.
+<a name="IDX9"></a>
+<a name="IDX10"></a>
+</p>
+<p>There are a number of useful conventions
+ that can be adopted to organize your notes.
+The most common is the “Today” entry.
+If you keep an entry with the same subject
+ at the beginning of each file,
+ you link all of your notes together.
+Notes-mode will help you out with some of these convetions
+ by automatically creating or copying some fields for you;
+ see see section <a href="notes-mode_3.html#SEC19">Useful conventions</a> for details.
+</p>
+<p>Finally, notes-mode can also work with outline-minor-mode
+ (thanks to Tim Carroll for pointing this out).
+Outline-mode supports hiding and revealing text and other helpful
+ features beyond the scope of this document.
+See <a href="../emacs/Outline-Mode.html#Outline-Mode">Outline Mode: (emacs)Outline Mode</a> section `Outline Mode' in <cite>The Emacs Editor</cite>, for details.
+</p>
+<hr size="6">
+<a name="The-notes-index"></a>
+<a name="SEC12"></a>
+<table cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" border="0">
+<tr><td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="#SEC11" title="Previous section in reading order"> < </a>]</td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="#SEC13" title="Next section in reading order"> > </a>]</td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="#SEC9" title="Beginning of this chapter or previous chapter"> << </a>]</td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="#SEC9" title="Up section"> Up </a>]</td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="notes-mode_3.html#SEC14" title="Next chapter"> >> </a>]</td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="notes-mode.html#Top" title="Cover (top) of document">Top</a>]</td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="notes-mode_toc.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents">Contents</a>]</td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="notes-mode_6.html#SEC28" title="Index">Index</a>]</td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="notes-mode_abt.html#SEC_About" title="About (help)"> ? </a>]</td>
+</tr></table>
+<h2 class="section"> 2.3 The notes index </h2>
+
+
+<p>The notes index lists all subjects you've kept notes about,
+ and each date of each note.
+Impress your friends,
+ show your advisor why you're worth the <em>big</em> peanuts,
+ you'll soon have the biggest index of all.
+</p>
+<p>The index has one line per subject, listing the subject
+ and each day a note was made about that subject.
+For example:
+</p>
+<table><tr><td> </td><td><pre class="example">Bicycle: 950314, 950316
+Bicycle/maintenance/books: 951028
+Bridge/hands: 951113, 951114, 951116, 951117
+Bridge/UCLA: 960222, 960409
+</pre></td></tr></table>
+
+<p>Clicking on any of the dates with <kbd>mouse-2</kbd>
+ will take you to that note
+ (<code>notes-index-mouse-follow-link</code>).
+(You can also move the point over the date and hit <kbd><RTN></kbd>
+ if you're musaphobic [<code>notes-index-follow-link</code>].)
+<a name="IDX11"></a>
+<a name="IDX12"></a>
+</p>
+<p>The notes index is automatically updated by the program ‘<tt>mkall</tt>’.
+Typically ‘<tt>mkall</tt>’ is run nightly by ‘<tt>cron</tt>’.
+On most modern versions of Unix, you can add this command to cron by
+ running ‘<tt>crontab -e</tt>’ and adding the line:
+</p>
+<table><tr><td> </td><td><pre class="example">0 4 * * * /usr/local/lib/notes-mode/mkall
+</pre></td></tr></table>
+<a name="IDX13"></a>
+<a name="IDX14"></a>
+<a name="IDX15"></a>
+
+<p>(Assuming that your notes programs are installed
+ in /usr/local/lib/notes-mode, the default location.)
+</p>
+
+<hr size="6">
+<a name="The-notes-directories"></a>
+<a name="SEC13"></a>
+<table cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" border="0">
+<tr><td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="#SEC12" title="Previous section in reading order"> < </a>]</td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="notes-mode_3.html#SEC14" title="Next section in reading order"> > </a>]</td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="#SEC9" title="Beginning of this chapter or previous chapter"> << </a>]</td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="#SEC9" title="Up section"> Up </a>]</td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="notes-mode_3.html#SEC14" title="Next chapter"> >> </a>]</td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="notes-mode.html#Top" title="Cover (top) of document">Top</a>]</td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="notes-mode_toc.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents">Contents</a>]</td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="notes-mode_6.html#SEC28" title="Index">Index</a>]</td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="notes-mode_abt.html#SEC_About" title="About (help)"> ? </a>]</td>
+</tr></table>
+<h2 class="section"> 2.4 The notes directories </h2>
+
+
+<p>The final thing needed to tie basic notes-mode together his how
+the pieces fit together.
+Since my graduate work is in file systems,
+you can bet that directories are involved.
+</p>
+<p>Notes-mode keeps its files in a two-level hierarchy:
+</p>
+<table><tr><td> </td><td><pre class="example">~/NOTES
+~/NOTES/index
+~/NOTES/rawindex
+~/NOTES/199603
+~/NOTES/199603/960329
+~/NOTES/199603/960330
+~/NOTES/199604
+~/NOTES/199604/960401
+</pre></td></tr></table>
+
+<p>The top level, ‘<tt>~/NOTES</tt>’, is the notes directory.
+It keeps all notes in one place.
+(The name of this directory is configurable, See section <a href="notes-mode_3.html#SEC21">Notes-mode configuration</a>.)
+</p>
+<p>Inside the notes directory are two files and a number of directories.
+The files are ‘<tt>index</tt>’,
+ the index of all entries (see section <a href="#SEC12">The notes index</a>),
+ and ‘<tt>rawindex</tt>’,
+ used internally.
+<a name="IDX16"></a>
+</p>
+<p>The notes directory also contains a number of subdirectories,
+ sometimes called <em>intermediate directories</em>.
+These directories group the actual notes files into manageable chunks,
+ keeping any directory from getting too large.
+Intermediate directories are named
+ by the four-digit year and the two-digit month
+ of the entries they contain.
+(The format of intermediate directories
+ is configurable, See section <a href="notes-mode_3.html#SEC21">Notes-mode configuration</a>.)
+<a name="IDX17"></a>
+</p>
+<p>Finally,
+ each intermediate directory are the notes files themselves,
+ named according to the two-digit year, month, and day-of-month.
+<a name="IDX18"></a>
+</p>
+<p>For the most part,
+ notes-mode will automatically maintain this organization of files,
+ once you create the top-level directory.
+Notes-mode will also automatically insure
+ that all files in the notes directory are unreadable by
+ anyone other than their owner.
+Notes are personal things.
+(This behavior is not currently configurable,
+ but it probably should be.)
+<a name="IDX19"></a>
+</p>
+
+
+<hr size="6">
+<table cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" border="0">
+<tr><td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="#SEC9" title="Beginning of this chapter or previous chapter"> << </a>]</td>
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+<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="notes-mode.html#Top" title="Cover (top) of document">Top</a>]</td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="notes-mode_toc.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents">Contents</a>]</td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="notes-mode_6.html#SEC28" title="Index">Index</a>]</td>
+<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="notes-mode_abt.html#SEC_About" title="About (help)"> ? </a>]</td>
+</tr></table>
+<p>
+ <font size="-1">
+ This document was generated by <em>John Heidemann</em> on <em>August, 8 2008</em> using <a href="http://www.nongnu.org/texi2html/"><em>texi2html 1.78</em></a>.
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