Migrate notes in Emacs from Deft to Denote
==========================================
Deft for Emacs
--------------
Deft for Emacs[1] is a mode for quickly browsing,
filtering, and editing directories of plain text notes.
Deft applies auto saving, so changes are committed to
disk automagically.
I have been using Deft for personal notes. All my
notes in Deft are in org mode format. Most notes are
just plain text, without links or any other fancy
stuff.
I do use two to three levels of headers, and sometimes
bullets.
Deft offers some methods to search in your notes, but I
have not used that often. Just browsing the file names
in the directory is most of the time enough to find
what I am looking for.
Deft starts with a buffer listing the notes, sorted by
last modified date. The most recent modified file is
shown on top of the list, the oldest modified file at
the bottom. This feature of Deft I like most.
Denote
------
Denote [2] advertises as "simple notes for Emacs with
an efficient file-naming scheme",
Denote comes with an extensive manual.
When creating a new note in Denote, it prompts for a
title and then for one or more tags. A new note is
created, with a file name consisting of the creation
date and time, the sluggified title and the tags, and
the file type.
When a region is active at the moment of note creation,
Denote prompts the region as the title. Just press
enter to accept the title, or change it.
Denote has reached version 2.0 and I expect it to be
quite stable now, and started to use it. Again I create
the notes in the org mode format.
Denote offers a lot of fancy features for creating
notes and to change the title or the tags, to keep the
file naming scheme consistent with those elements.
Also it offers an easy to use method to link notes and
to view back links.
Unlike Deft, Denote doesn't show the directory at start
up. The user has to use Dired for that. Dired is a
kind of file manager for Emacs, it shows directory
listings in a buffer. Denote shows the directory
listing with some color coding, so the title, and the
tags stand out.
Import existing notes into Denote
---------------------------------
The functions to change the file name are used for
importing files.
The most convenient way to import a number of files is
to use the denote-dired-rename-marked-files command.
File dates
.........
Denote uses the file-date to create the file name, so
make sure you preserve the date when you f.e,, first
copy the existing notes before importing.
An easy way to preserve the file date is to use tar to
create an archive of the current directory and extract
the tar archive in the denote directory.
The denote-dired-rename-marked-files command works also
outside the denote directory. You can rename the files
where they are and after that move them to the denote
directory. The command renames the files, so if you
want to use this on your original files, make sure you
can roll back. For example first tar the directory, to
make sure you don't loose the file dates. (Remember
that Git destroys your file dates.)
Once you have imported the files, the file date is
coded in the filename, and also is part of the front
matter of the note. So, after the import you can forget
about preserving the file date, and Git is safe to use.
Importing files
..............
How to import some files into Denote:
* Open the directory in Dired
* Mark the files (with 'm')
* Apply the command denote-dired-rename-marked-files
Denote prompts for a tag, I just used 'deft' for the
bulk import. Later I can always add one or more tags.
The renaming takes some time. After the command is
finished, the buffers have to be saved. To do this
issue the command C-x s (not C-x C-s) and then use '!'
to save all files.
Denote uses the file name for the title. Deft has saved
the notes with a lowercase slug. It you want to use the
frontmatter title, you have to come up with a solution
for that.
Filtering files with a specific tag
-----------------------------------
To list only files with a specific tag in Dired:
* Open the directory in Dired
* % m (select files based on regular expression)
* _<tag>
* t (toggle marks)
* k (kill view of marked lines)
To see the complete listing again, use 'g'
(revert-buffer).
Example to list only files with tag "gopher":
% m _gopher t k
Mimic Deft with Denote
----------------------
I have created a bookmark to the Denote directory.
To do that, just open the directory in Dired and create
a bookmark with:
C-x r m
To open a bookmark, list the bookmarks with:
C-x r l
and hit 'enter' on the right line.
To sort the files on the last modified date like in
Deft, just press 's'.
Auto save can probably be set up with the hook from
Denote, but I didn't bother.
[1]
https://jblevins.org/projects/deft/
[2]
https://github.com/protesilaos/denote
Last edited: $Date: 2023/08/02 16:21:03 $
