Table of Contents ***************** Planner 1 Preface 2 Introduction 3 Installation 3.1 Getting the Files 3.1.1 Installing from a Source Archive 3.1.2 Installing from git 3.1.3 Installing from Debian 3.2 Creating Your Planner 3.3 Components 3.4 Advanced Installation 4 Overview 4.1 Planning Based on the Franklin-Covey Approach 4.2 Why Use Planner? 5 Getting Started 5.1 Tasks 5.2 Schedule 5.3 Notes 5.4 Hyperlinks 5.5 Example Page 5.6 Review 6 More about Planner 6.1 Starting with Day Pages 6.2 More about Tasks 6.2.1 Creating New Tasks 6.2.1.1 Creating a Task 6.2.1.2 Task Priorities 6.2.1.3 Task IDs 6.2.1.4 Cyclic Tasks 6.2.1.5 Task Detail 6.2.1.6 Deadlines 6.2.2 Organizing Your Tasks 6.2.2.1 Associating Tasks with Multiple Projects 6.2.2.2 Viewing tasks 6.2.2.3 Modifying Tasks 6.2.2.4 Carrying Over Unfinished Tasks 6.2.2.5 Task Numbering 6.2.2.6 Task Ranks 6.2.2.7 Grouping Tasks with planner-trunk.el 6.2.3 Task Reports and Overviews 6.2.3.1 Generating Daily Accomplishment Reports 6.2.3.2 Status Reports 6.2.3.3 Seeing an Overview of Tasks 6.2.3.4 tag 6.3 planner-registry 6.4 planner-zoom 6.5 More about Notes 6.5.1 Using Allout Mode 6.5.2 6.5.3 6.5.4 Note Indices 6.6 Making Files Pretty 6.7 Annotations 6.8 Interactive Lisp with planner-lisp.el 6.9 Publishing 6.9.1 Publishing Planner pages 6.9.2 Publishing Calendars 6.9.3 Authz Access Restriction 6.9.4 RSS Publication 6.9.5 iCal Publication 6.9.6 RDF Publication 6.9.6.1 Publishing with planner-rdf 6.9.6.2 planner-rdf Tags 6.9.6.3 Usage Examples 6.10 Experimental Functions 7 Managing Your Information 7.1 E-mail 7.1.1 Unix mail 7.1.2 Gnus 7.1.3 VM 7.1.4 Wanderlust 7.1.5 MH-E 7.1.6 Rmail 7.2 Scheduling and Time 7.2.1 Diary 7.2.1.1 Planner-Diary Advanced Features 7.2.2 Appointments Usage 7.2.2.1 Task-based Appointments Cyclic Entries Appointments Section 7.2.2.2 Schedule-Based Appointments Cyclical Entries 7.2.2.3 Viewing Appointments 7.2.2.4 Appointment Updating on Save 7.2.2.5 Appointment and Calendar Integration 7.2.2.6 Appointment Hooks 7.2.3 Timeclock 7.2.4 `schedule.el' 7.3 Finances 7.3.1 Ledger 7.4 Contacts and Conversations 7.4.1 BBDB 7.4.2 Emacs Relay Chat 7.5 Tracking Research and Resources 7.5.1 W3m 7.5.2 BibTeX 7.5.3 Bookmark 7.6 Tracking Development 7.6.1 Log Edit 7.6.2 PSVN 7.6.3 XTLA 7.6.4 Gnats 8 Advanced Configuration 8.1 Customizing Your Day Pages 8.2 Variables to Customize 8.3 Ideas for Other Keybindings 9 Reference Material 9.1 Keeping Track of Time 9.2 Other Interactive Functions 9.3 Planner Keybindings 9.4 Sample Configuration Files 9.4.1 File Organization 9.4.2 Bare-Bones Planning 9.4.3 Bare-Bones Planning with Plan Pages 9.4.4 Tasks on Plan Pages with Some Day Pages 9.4.5 Hierarchical Tasks 10 Getting Help 11 Acknowledgements Appendix A GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE Index Planner ******* This manual is for Planner version 3.42. Copyright (C) 2001, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc. Parts copyright (C) 2005 Jim Ottaway Parts copyright (C) 2005 Dryice Dong Liu Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU General Public License, Version 3.0 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU General Public License." 1 Preface ********* This document describes Planner, which was written by John Wiegley and is now maintained by John Sullivan (*note Acknowledgements::). This document is a work in progress, and your contribution will be greatly appreciated. Please e-mail comments and suggestions to the mailing list (*note Getting Help::). In the subject line of your e-mail, include the word `Planner'. This documentation is available in eye-pleasing formats including PDF and HTML at `http://wjsullivan.net/static/doc/planner/'. Documentation author and maintainer: John Sullivan John Sullivan (johnsu01) April 25, 2004 2 Introduction ************** Planner is an organizer and day planner for Emacs. It helps you keep track of your pending and completed tasks, daily schedule, dates to remember, notes and inspirations. It is a powerful tool not only for managing your time and productivity, but also for keeping within easy keystroke reach all of the information you need to be productive. It can even publish reports charting your work for your personal web page, your conscience, or your soon-to-be-impressed boss. In fact, because it uses as its building blocks simple plain-text files, it is an incredibly modular and flexible tool capable of shaping and handling your personal information in ways whose variety is limited only by your imagination. Because of this, Planner has a very active and generous community who regularly share their innovations with each other. Many of these modules and extensions are included in the archive that you will download. Once you get the basics down, you'll probably want to explore some of them. But as you read this manual and work with Planner, keep in mind that the basic core is actually very simple, and it might be worth spending time with just that before delving into the customizations. Because they are plain text with very few requirements, the organizer pages kept by Planner can be as basic or as detailed as you like. Your pages can be simple to-do lists with no more additional information than what you would scrawl on a napkin, or they can be a highly technical affair involving hyperlinks, embedded Lisp code, appointment schedules and RSS feeds. As with so much in Emacs, it's all up to you. To get started with Planner, you first need to download it, and possibly also the packages it depends on (*note Installation::). 3 Installation ************** Planner depends on Muse. Information for downloading and installing Muse can be found at `http://mwolson.org/static/doc/muse.html'. Planner and Muse are intended to work with version 21 or later of Emacs and XEmacs. Make sure that you use the latest Muse release. Development code might prove unstable. 3.1 Getting the Files ===================== Currently, there are three ways to obtain and install Planner. You can install it from a source archive, git, or Debian package. 3.1.1 Installing from a Source Archive -------------------------------------- You can install Planner from the source archive packaged and distributed directly by the maintainer. This archive is provided in both `.tar.gz' and `.zip' format. If you don't know where to extract these archives, create a `~/elisp' directory, and extract them there. 1. Download and unpack either `http://mwolson.org/static/dist/planner-latest.tar.gz' or `http://mwolson.org/static/dist/planner-latest.zip'. 2. Likewise for `http://mwolson.org/static/dist/muse-latest.tar.gz' or `http://mwolson.org/static/dist/muse-latest.zip'. 3. Likewise for `http://mwolson.org/static/dist/remember-latest.tar.gz' or `http://mwolson.org/static/dist/remember-latest.zip'. 4. Edit your `~/.emacs' (`_emacs' on Microsoft Windows). Replace `/path/to' with wherever you extracted the files. ;; Add the directories to your load path (add-to-list 'load-path "/path/to/muse/lisp") (add-to-list 'load-path "/path/to/planner") (add-to-list 'load-path "/path/to/remember") ;; Load planner (require 'planner) Updating Your Version --------------------- Download a new version and extract it over the old directory. Don't forget to delete any byte-compiled files (`*.elc') in the directories (which can be accomplished by running "make clean") so that the new code will be used. 3.1.2 Installing from git ------------------------- The git version control system allows you to keep up-to-date with the latest changes to the development version of Planner. It also allows you to contribute changes (via commits, if you are have developer access to the repository, or via patches, otherwise). If you would like to contribute to Muse development, it is highly recommended that you use git. Debian users can install git with `apt-get install git-core'. If you are new to git, you might find this tutorial helpful: `http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/tutorial.html'. Downloading Planner with git and staying up-to-date involves the following steps. # Retrieve Muse git clone git://repo.or.cz/muse-el.git muse # Retrieve Planner git clone git://repo.or.cz/planner-el.git planner # Retrieve Remember git clone git://repo.or.cz/remember-el.git remember # If that didn't work (due to a restrictive firewall), then try the # following instead: # # git clone http://repo.or.cz/r/muse-el.git muse # git clone http://repo.or.cz/r/planner-el.git planner # git clone http://repo.or.cz/r/remember-el.git remember Then add the following lines to your `~/.emacs': ;; Add the directories to your load path (add-to-list 'load-path "/path/to/muse/lisp") (add-to-list 'load-path "/path/to/planner") (add-to-list 'load-path "/path/to/remember") ;; Load planner (require 'planner) You can also browse Planner's git repository on the web at `http://repo.or.cz/w/planner-el.git'. Updating Your Version --------------------- To stay up-to-date using git, here are some commands that might be useful. To list upstream changes not in local copy: Do this whenever you want to see whether new changes have been committed to Planer. If you wish, you may skip this step and proceed directly to the "update" step. # Change to the source directory you are interested in. Example: cd muse/ # Fetch new changes from the repository, but don't apply them yet git fetch origin # Display log messages for the new changes git log HEAD..origin "origin" is git's name for the location where you originally got Muse from. You can change this location at any time by editing the `.git/config' file in the directory where the Planner source was placed. To update to the latest version: cd muse; git pull cd ../planner; git pull cd ../remember; git pull Don't forget to either rerun the `make' command or delete the byte-compiled files (`*.elc') in the directories, so that the new code will be used. 3.1.3 Installing from Debian ---------------------------- Debian packages for Planner, Muse, and Remember are available in Debian proper as the `planner-el', `muse-el', and `remember-el' packages, respectively. If you wish to try experimental packages, add the following lines to your `/etc/apt/sources.list' deb http://mwolson.org/debian/ ./ Then, do the following steps as root: apt-get update apt-get install muse-el apt-get install planner-el apt-get install remember-el If you get some warning about the key not being trusted, you can either ignore it or do the following. gpg --keyserver pgpkeys.mit.edu --recv-key f3a8d319 gpg -a --export f3a8d319 | sudo apt-key add - Updating Your Version --------------------- If you installed Planner from Debian, do `apt-get update; apt-get upgrade' to upgrade all packages that can be upgraded, or `apt-get update; apt-get install planner-el' to upgrade just planner-el. 3.2 Creating Your Planner ========================= Now that you have installed the files for Planner and Muse, you need to set some options to create your first planner. Muse thinks in terms of projects. Each project consists of a group of documents and certain information associated with these documents. Planner is organized as a project within Muse. So, you need to tell Muse a bit about it. Add something like the following code to your `.emacs' file. First, give your new Planner project a name. In this case, we use the name, "WikiPlanner". (setq planner-project "WikiPlanner") Next, add an entry for your project to Muse's master list of projects. Don't forget to use your own name here in place of "WikiPlanner" if you have chosen something different. (setq muse-project-alist '(("WikiPlanner" ("~/Plans" ;; where your Planner pages are located :default "TaskPool" ;; use value of `planner-default-page' :major-mode planner-mode :visit-link planner-visit-link) ;; This next part is for specifying where Planner pages ;; should be published and what Muse publishing style to ;; use. In this example, we will use the XHTML publishing ;; style. (:base "planner-xhtml" ;; where files are published to ;; (the value of `planner-publishing-directory', if ;; you have a configuration for an older version ;; of Planner) :path "~/public_html/Plans")))) This code should work fine as-is for you as long as the directories you see exist, and as long as you have no other Muse projects besides your planner. The first directory (`~/Plans') is the directory where the source files for your planner will reside. This is the directory where you will actually visit files and edit them. These files must have a ".muse" extension. The second directory (`~/public_html/Plans') is the directory where your planner files will be published by Muse as XHTML (*note Publishing::). After you have added this code, make sure to either evaluate it or restart Emacs. 3.3 Components ============== Now that you have the archive, let's look at what's in it. There should be three directories, named `planner', `muse' and `remember'. In the `planner/' directory, you'll see many files with names like `planner-gnus.el'. These are extra modules and extensions for Planner, which you can use to tailor Planner to fit your desired planning and information management habits. In the `muse/lisp' directory, you'll see many files with names like `muse-blosxom.el'. As in `planner/', these are optional modules and extensions. A minimal working installation includes just `planner/planner.el'. You need `planner.el' because it provides the core functions for handling tasks, notes, and page navigation. You need `Emacs Muse' because it provides the functions used to display your pages (both in an emacs buffer and as HTML), and for connecting them to each other. More specifically, it enables you to have hyperlinks and formatting in your emacs buffers even though the actual files you are working with are saved in plain text. These abilities are used in Planner to format your planner pages the way you like, to create links from your tasks and notes to the materials and projects they refer to, and to optionally "publish" your pages in different formats, including HTML. In the `remember/' directory are files related to RememberMode. RememberMode does not depend on Planner or Muse, but works best with Planner installed. It is not required in order to use Planner, but it is used by many Planner users to record notes and information to their planner pages. If you are curious, you can open each file in these directories and read the comments at the top, to get an idea of what each extension is used for. They are also all detailed later in this manual. 3.4 Advanced Installation ========================= Once you decide you want to keep Planner around for a while, there are two additional steps you can take to make using it easier and more efficient. These steps are optional. * You can make this document, the Planner info file, appear in the index of info files you see when you type `M-x info' or `C-h i' in Emacs. The instructions for doing this vary depending on whether you have permission to edit certain files on your system. Follow the instructions in *note Installing an Info File: (texinfo)Installing an Info File, using something like: * Planner: (path/to/planner/Planner). Organizer/day planner for Emacs. for the new entry in the info `dir' file. * You can byte-compile `planner.el', `Muse', `remember.el', or any of the optional modules you frequently use, in order to improve the speed of their execution. Basically, all you need to do is (1) change the directory for each project listed in `scripts/planner-build.el', (2) copy `Makefile.defs.default' to `Makefile.defs' and edit it as needed, and (3) run `make' from the command line. To read more detail about byte compilation, see *note Byte Compilation: (elisp)Byte Compilation. 4 Overview ********** Planner is a plain-text hyperlinked personal information manager for Emacs that helps you keep track of tasks, notes, and other information. People use Planner to support different ways of planning one's day, from Franklin-Covey and David Allen's Getting Things Done to home-brew hacks. Planner is even used to manage information not normally handled by a personal information manager, like bugtracking, time tracking, and team data. If you start by using Planner as a basic TODO and notes manager, you might find other ways it can help you improve your process. You can use Planner to keep track of your tasks, schedule, notes, and other information you want to store in hyperlinkable text files. You can get the most benefit out of a personal information manager if you use it everyday. Most people add `(plan)' to the end of their `~/.emacs' so that Planner shows today's schedule and unfinished tasks whenever Emacs starts. If you leave your Emacs running for more than 24 hours, try to get into the habit of running `plan' at least once a day. Because your time is important, Planner tries to minimize distractions, making it easier for you to jot down tasks and notes without being distracted from your work. People often make tasks based on the current buffer, so Planner tries to create hyperlinks to whatever you're looking at so that you can jump back to it easily. The *note Getting Started:: tutorial will show you how to set that up for both tasks and notes. The customizability of Planner means you can make your personal information manager truly personal. Planner strives to be as flexible as possible, and we would love to adapt Planner to fit your needs. Browse through our mailing list (*note Getting Help::) to find out how other people are using Planner, and post your feature requests and bug reports there! Planner is just a tool. It does not dictate a particular way of planning, although it supports some ways better than it supports others. If you want to take some time thinking about planning, read the following reflections for inspiration and ideas. On the other hand, if you want to hit the ground running, see *note Getting Started::. If you already have a specific way of planning in mind, check out *note Sample Configuration Files::. 4.1 Planning Based on the Franklin-Covey Approach ================================================= (This is an edited and updated version of an essay originally by John Wiegley. Read it if you want to get some insights into one way of planning. You can skip this if you want to go straight to planning your day.) What is planning? It can be a nebulous thing to define. In its essence, however, it is very simple: it's how we achieve our dreams. Our days are filled with time, and hence with actions, whether they be of a mental or physical sort. But there are two kinds of action: reactive and creative. Reactive action is a response to the environment, a reaction to stimulus. Had we enough instincts to ensure survival, we could live according to this kind of action alone. It is a mode of behavior we share with every living species. The opposite to reactivity is creativity, when we decide upon a course of action that is a wholly a product of personal choice. We then make decisions as to the steps needed to make this wish a reality. This is planning. Planning is essentially a creative endeavor at every step. First, create the idea, what you want to achieve. Very short-term ideas do not need much more than thinking about how to do it. But long-term ideas require planning, since the mind cannot contain all of the details. Second, decide how the idea maps into the circumstances you find yourself in. Some environments will assist your plan, others hinder it. But step by step, identify every barrier to the realization of your idea, and devise a countermeasure to overcome it. Once you've mapped things out from beginning to end, accounting for unknowables as best you can, you now have your plan. Third is to break the stages of the plan into parts that are not overwhelming in their complexity. It is at during this phase that a plan is turned into task items, each to be accomplished within the span of one day's time. If a task requires several days, break it up further. The smaller it is, the less your mind will recoil from attempting it. Fourth is to monitor your progress, identifying problems and correcting for them as you go. Some plans start out unachievable, and remain that way indefinitely, due to a simple lack of observation. If nothing is working for you, change it. Otherwise, your plan is merely a well-crafted wish. Fifth is just to do the work, and be patient. All good plans take a great deal of time, and *cannot* happen immediately. The groundwork must be laid for each step, or else it will rest on an insecure foundation. If you follow your plan doggedly, applying some time to it each day or week, it _will_ happen. Remember the story of the tortoise and the hare. I've even written a short essay on the necessity of gradual accomplishment, which can be found at `http://emacswiki.org/johnw/essays/node2.html'. How can this software help? Computers are ideal for manipulating information, since they allow you to change things without erasing or rewriting. And since all plans change quite a bit during their implementation, a planning program can be very helpful. Start by installing Planner and Muse (*note Installation::). Now, conceive your idea. I can't believe there's nothing you want from life. More peace, time to enjoy the world, an end to war? Everyone wants something. Search deeply, and you will find countless unhoped wishes lurking therein. Choose one for now, and think on it for a while. Then open a file (using `C-x C-f') within the directory you named in your `muse-project-alist'. Make sure the file has a `.muse' extension so that Emacs will automatically recognize it as a planner file. Name the file after your plan, such as `BetterHealth.muse'. Choose an idea you really want to accomplish. Struggle to differentiate between the things you want because others want them, and the things you want for yourself. It takes quite an effort, and may require a long time before you notice the difference. Many people want to be more healthy to be more attractive, which is an externally driven goal. Unless _you_ really want to accomplish what you envision, the odds are you will fail. Only our own wishes and dreams possess enough personal energy to see themselves to fruition. What happens to many of us is simply that we never become conscious of these dreams: what we love, what we desire most. When I talk to friends, so much of what I hear is things they want because they feel they should want them. There's just not enough energy there to pursue a good plan, because nearly all of it is negative energy. Do you know what you really want? Don't worry, many people don't. It's not a question anyone really wants us to pursue, because often we don't want what others do; it doesn't contribute to the social welfare, and all that nonsense. Somehow we always forget that what's good for the social welfare now, was someone else's crazy dream a hundred years ago. The human aversion to fundamental change is always one's greatest enemy, so don't waste any time getting bitter about it. For the sake of argument I assume you really do want to be healthier, because you've fallen in love with the ideal of purity, or you understand the connection between your physical self and the world around you, and how this can open up your spirit to desiring more. I assume. :) So you're in a Wiki file called `BetterHealth'. Start typing. Type anything related to your idea: what you think about it, your ideas on it, _and especially what the end will look like_. If you can't visualize the end, you can't plan, since planning is about drawing a line between now and then. When you've typed enough to gain a vision of your goal, start drafting what the possible intermediate steps might be. Then stop, get up, walk around, enjoy life, and come back to it. Taking a long time at the beginning is not a bad idea at all, as long as it's not forever. As you chew on your idea, it will begin to become more and more concrete. You'll have ideas about the smallest pieces, and ideas about the biggest pieces. Keep going until it starts to take shape before you, and you can see yourself in your mind's eye moving from the present into the future. Write down this progression, and the sorts of things you might encounter along the way. As you continue, you'll naturally discover discrete phases, or "milestones" as managers love to call them. These are very important, because they let you know you're making progress. I recommend having a big party with friends every time you achieve a milestone. A typical plan might have between three and ten. Between the milestones are the bigger pieces of your plan. You might find it convenient to name these pieces using MixedCase words. Try adding these lines to your `.emacs' or `_emacs' file. (require 'muse-wiki) (setq muse-wiki-allow-nonexistent-wikiword t) You'll notice that Emacs colors and underlines them for you. Like, FindGoodGym. Hit return on this highlighted word, and you'll find yourself in another, blank file. In this file, start drafting your sub-plan, just as you did with the larger plan. You should find it easier now, since the scope is smaller. As you break down further, you'll notice simple little things that need to get done. These are your tasks. Every plan is a succession of tasks. The difference from reactivity is that each task is part of the larger plan. This is what it means to be systematic: that everything you do helps further your plan. If you have tasks in your day that contribute to no plan, they are reactive. Of course, life is full of these, but don't let them take up more than 20% of your day. If you allow yourself to be dominated by reactive tasks, you'll regret it at the end of your life. I don't know this personally, but I do know that striving for one's dreams - and seeing them come to fruition - is the greatest joy a man can possess. It is the essence of freedom, of living, of creation. Reactivity is the opposite of this, and serves only to drain our energy and slacken our spirits. Now that you've thought of a simple task, type `C-c C-t'. This will ask for a brief description of the task, and when you plan to do it. If you hit at the question `When', it assumes you mean today. It will also pop up a three-month calendar at this question, so you can see where your free days are. Make sure you set the variable `mark-diary-entries-in-calendar' to `t' in your `.emacs' (or `_emacs') file. This way, you can see which days your appointments fall on. (Read about the Emacs Calendar and Diary in *note Calendar/Diary: (Emacs)Calendar/Diary.) (setq mark-diary-entries-in-calendar t) Once your task is in there, go back to your plan and keep generating more tasks. Generate them all! Fully describe--as tasks--everything necessary to bring your sub-plan to completion. Don't create tasks for the other sub-plans. You may have good idea of what they'll look like, but don't bother rendering them into tasks just yet. Things will change too much between now and then, for that to be a good use of your time. Is your sub-plan now rendered into all of the tasks necessary to reach your first milestone? Great! That is the purpose of planner.el. The rest is really up to you. If you find that you keep putting things off, and never do them, that's the surest sign you're planning for someone else's dream, and not your own. Here are some of the things planner.el can do, to help you manage and track your tasks: At the beginning of every day, type `M-x plan'. This will jump you to the top of the most recent task list before today. If you skipped a bunch of days, you'll have to open up those files on your own. Probably some of the tasks that day won't be finished - that's OK. Learning to properly estimate time is a magical, mystical art that few have mastered. Put your cursor on those undone tasks, and type `C-c C-c'. This will move them into today's task page. You can jump to today's task page at any time by typing `C-c C-n' (from a Wiki or planning page). I heartily recommend binding `C-c n', to jump you to this page from anywhere: (define-key mode-specific-map [?n] 'planner-goto-today) As you look at your task sheet each day, the first thing to do is to "clock in" to one of them. This isn't necessary, and is only helpful if you're around your computer a lot. But by typing `C-c C-i' (assuming you have `timeclock.el' on your load-path), it will log the time you spend working on your sub-plan (*note Time Intervals: (Emacs)Time Intervals.). This is helpful for viewing your progress. Type `C-c C-o' to clock out. `C-M-p' and `C-M-n' will move a task up and down in priority. Priority is represented by a letter A through C. 'A' tasks mean they must be done that day, or else your plan is compromised and you will have to replan. 'B' means they should be done that day, to further the plan, otherwise things will be delayed. 'C' means you can put off the task if you need to, although ultimately it will have to be done. For reactive tasks, the letters mean something different: 'A' means you must do it today, or somebody will roast your chestnuts over an open fire. 'B' means you should do it today, or else someone will be practicing patience at the day's end. 'C' means no one will notice if you don't do it. Again, reactive tasks are ENEMIES OF PLANNING. Really, until you see them that way, circumstances will push you around and steal your life away. We have only so many years to use, and everyone is greedy to take them. It's insidious, almost invisible. A healthy dislike of reactivity will do wonders for organizing your affairs according to their true priority. The last word that needs to be said concerns "roles". Every person stands in several positions in his life: husband, employee, manager, etc. These roles will tend to generate tasks not associated with any immediate plan, but necessary to maintain the health and functioning of the role. My suggestion is to keep this the smallest possible number, and fulfill those that remain well. How you decide to apportion your time between pursuing grand designs, and fostering deep relationships, is a personal matter. If you choose well, each will feed the other. I mention this to point that reactivity is something not exclusively associated with tasks that have no master plan, because being a father, for example, is something that rarely proceeds according to orderly plans. But the role of father itself is its own plan, whose goal is "to be the best one can", and whose component tasks are spending time on whatever comes up. It is, in a sense, an implicit plan. But reactive tasks follow no plan at all; they are parasites of time that suck the spirit away, whereas properly chose roles actually help fulfill one's own inner needs. At least, this is what I believe. -- Function: plan force-days Start your planning for the day, beginning with the last day's tasks. If `planner-carry-tasks-forward' is non-nil, find the most recent daily page with unfinished tasks and reschedule those tasks to the current day. If FORCE is non-nil, examine all past daily pages for unfinished tasks. If `planner-carry-tasks-forward' is nil, visit the most recent daily page. If a daily page for today exists, visit that instead. If FORCE-DAYS is a positive integer, scan that number of days. If FORCE-DAYS is `t', scan all days. 4.2 Why Use Planner? ==================== You can skip this essay if you just want to get started, or read it for some insights into why the previous maintainer is crazy about it. Why I Use Planner, by Sacha Chua I thought about why I liked Planner. Planner as a TODO manager isn't particularly special. Although I can assign tasks to categories and see a breakdown of what projects are taking up my time, Evolution and Microsoft Outlook provide more powerful task support. In other task managers, you can e-mail tasks, assign multiple categories and fill in all sorts of metadata. You can even synchronize your tasks with devices like a phone or PDA. So why use Planner? I realized that integration into my way of life and automatic context clues are what really make planner tasks worth it for me. I don't have to switch to another application to create a task. I can just hit a keyboard shortcut. Planner uses a minibuffer to get the task description. My windows are not rearranged in any way, and I can look at the data that's relevant to a task. Not only that, tasks automatically pick up context clues, like whom I'm talking to on IRC or the file I'm editing at the moment. This cuts down on the explicit context I need to include and makes it easier for me to bring up the task again. As a scheduler, Planner is also not particularly distinguished. Sure, it can display my `~/diary', but for that matter so can `M-x diary'. Evolution and Outlook can give me a more graphical view of my time, sync with my PDA, and coordinate my schedule with other people. Those applications support detailed schedule entries with powerful cyclic options. On the other hand, Planner gives me a personal, plain text view and (at least the way I use it) requires me to edit a separate file to add new appointments. (I've defined a few shortcut keys to deal with this.) However, it does have one advantage--my schedule is always loaded. I used to use Outlook on Windows, but having my schedule in a separate application meant that I actually looked at it very rarely, as I had turned off reminders because they got annoying. Planner's notes, however, are what really convinced me. I can hit a keyboard shortcut from anywhere and type my notes into a buffer which automatically keeps context information. After typing the note, I can then categorize it. I think that the critical thing here is that interruptions--fleeting thoughts--don't break my flow. I can just pop up a remember buffer, stow that thought away somewhere, and go back to it whenever I want. In contrast, creating a note in Outlook means switching out of my application, making a couple of keystrokes, typing the note in, and then switching back. The context switches make it hard to keep track of where I am and what I'm supposed to remember. Not only that, I need to enter context by hand. Even though I can color my notes and reorganize them in Outlook, I find the context switch too expensive. I used to keep notes in other knowledge management tools as well. Some applications allowed me to drag-and-drop links into the current note, and that was cool. But that required a manual action, and those applications didn't feel integrated into my way of working. (Note: You'll need remember.el for this.) I guess that's why I like Planner. Unlike other organizers which don't know anything about the applications I use, Planner tries its best to integrate into the way I work, and it's easy to extend. Fortunately I do almost all my work in Emacs, so I can think of my organizer as integrated into my e-mail client, Internet Relay Chat client, web browser, file editor and even games. It automatically picks up context clues from these applications and allows me to easily jump back to relevant files. It doesn't distract me. It allows me to key in data and then it gets out of my way. (That said, it's perfectly okay to use Planner even if you don't live in Emacs.) The processing that happens in the background is a bonus, and publishing my task list and notes online has greatly helped me. It gives other people a way to see what I'm working on and what I've planned for the future. Occasionally people write in with additional resources and helpful tips. (Again, this is purely optional. Many people don't publish their planner pages. Other people use really fine-grained access control.) I think the greatest feature of Planner, though, is its user community. Because Planner can be easily modified, we can experiment with a lot of new ideas quickly, and we can tailor Planner to fit our needs. I love checking my `planner-el-discuss' mail and finding out how people have tweaked Planner or would like to tweak Planner, and I've learned a lot by exchanging reflections on organizing one's life. I really wasn't an organization freak before I started using Planner. I often forgot to do my homework or answer important mail. I still procrastinate now, but at least it's all being kept track of somewhere! I also really like how Planner lets me to gradually improve how I'm doing things, and I feel I've come a long way. Please try it out! We'd love to hear how Planner can become _your_ personal information manager. 5 Getting Started ***************** At the end of this tutorial, you will be able to use Planner and related modules to keep track of your tasks, schedules and notes, all within the convenience of Emacs. There are two kinds of pages in a Planner wiki. Day pages show tasks, schedule, and notes for the day, while plan pages organize related tasks and notes into a single page. If you have not yet added planner to your `~/.emacs', add the following lines: (add-to-list 'load-path "/path/to/muse/lisp") (add-to-list 'load-path "/path/to/planner") (add-to-list 'load-path "/path/to/remember") (require 'planner) This will bring up the most recent day page with unfinished tasks or create a new day page if necessary. By default, planner pages are stored in `~/Plans' (`planner-directory'). 5.1 Tasks ========= Let us start by creating a task labelled Join http://mail.gna.org/listinfo/planner-el-discuss/ From anywhere (even this info buffer!), call `M-x planner-create-task-from-buffer' to create a new task. Fill in the description and choose a date by: * typing 1 - 31 to put the task on that day of the month, * accepting the default (today) by pressing RET, * selecting the date with mouse-1, * typing +n (where in is an integer) to schedule the task in n days time, or * typing nil to make an undated task. For now, accept the default (`today') by pressing . You will then be prompted for a plan page. Plan pages gather related tasks and notes, giving you an overview of what you've done so far. You can accept the default TaskPool, create your own plan page, or specify nil to make a task that is not associated with a plan page. For now, accept the default (`TaskPool') by pressing RET. You have created your first task. View today's page with `M-x planner-goto-today'. You will see a line of the form #B _ Join http://mail.gna.org/listinfo/planner-el-discuss/ (TaskPool) If you created the task from this page, then there will be an additional annotation: #B _ Join http://mail.gna.org/listinfo/planner-el-discuss/ : Tasks (TaskPool) The URL, `TaskPool' and `Getting Started' are hyperlinks. You can use TAB and S-TAB to navigate between them and RET to follow the link. Create more tasks using `M-x planner-create-task-from-buffer'. This is bound to `C-c C-t' in `planner-mode' pages for your convenience. For example, create the following tasks: * `Describe my current way of working and how I would like to work', for three days from now (`+3'), * `Learn how to schedule a task', an undated task (`nil') on the TaskPool page, * `Browse through the Planner info manual' for today (`.' or accept the defaults), and * `Add (plan) to the end of my [[~/.emacs]]' for today, but without a plan page (specify `nil' at the plan page prompt) Tip: I bind planner-create-task-from-buffer to "F9 t" so that I can easily call it from anywhere. You can do that with this elisp fragment: `(global-set-key (kbd " t") 'planner-create-task-from-buffer)' Next, visit the TaskPool by: * -bing or using the cursor and typing to follow the link, * `C-x C-f TaskPool RET' to use `find-file', or * `C-c C-f TaskPool RET' to use `muse-project-find-file' You can see an overview of the tasks as scheduled on different days. Unlike many personal information managers that store all of your data in one file and then perform magic in order to present different views, Planner uses plain text files. The data is duplicated and kept updated by functions. This makes it simpler and easier to modify, because what you see is (almost) what you get. On the other hand, you'll need to get used to either editing both files, or using the built-in functions for editing and updating files. If you prefer not to work with linked tasks, you can configure Planner to use only plan pages or use only day pages. The TaskPool page should list the tasks you created earlier. Go to the one named Learn how to schedule a task . Type `C-c C-c' (`planner-copy-or-move-task') to schedule the task. Type RET to accept the default (today). Go to the day page by following the link or calling `M-x planner-goto' (`C-c C-j C-d' or the menu bar); you will see the newly-created task there. You can also use `C-c C-c' (`planner-copy-or-move-task') to reschedule a task to an earlier or later date. Well, that task is done. To mark the task as completed, type `C-c C-x' (`planner-task-done'). You can also edit the status manually (change _ to X) as long as you remember to call `M-x planner-update-task' to update the link page as well. Updating relies on the task description being the same, so do not edit this manually. Quick summary of commands: * Go to today's page: `M-x plan' to carry unfinished tasks forward, or `M-x planner-goto-today' to just go to today's page. * Create a task: `C-c C-t' (`planner-create-task-from-buffer'), or type a task manually (call M-x planner-update-task if the task is linked) * Mark a task as done: `C-c C-x' (`planner-task-done'), or edit the task and call `M-x planner-update-task' * Edit a task description: `M-x planner-edit-task-description' * Reschedule a task: `C-c C-c' (`planner-copy-or-move-task') * Reschedule many tasks: Mark a region and use `M-x planner-copy-or-move-region' * Change the plan of a task: `M-x planner-replan-task', or do `C-c C-c' (`planner-copy-or-move-task') and type in a plan page rather than a date * Delete a task: `M-x planner-delete-task' * Reorder tasks: (`planner-raise-task') and (`planner-lower-task'), or normal editing commands like kill and yank * Change task priorities (`#A' > `#B' > `#C'): (`planner-raise-task-priority') and (`planner-lower-task-priority'), or edit the task and call `M-x planner-update-task'. You can save your tasks with `C-x C-s' the same way you save any other file, or Emacs will prompt you to save it when you exit. 5.2 Schedule ============ This is free-form. You can put anything you want into this, or remove it from `planner-day-page-template' entirely. Some people use it to keep track of their plans for the day with tables like this: hh:mm | hh:mm | activity hh:mm | hh:mm | activity hh:mm | hh:mm | activity Remember, Planner files are just plain text. You can add new sections or remove old ones, or use the suggested sections for entirely different activities. 5.3 Notes ========= By default, your Planner pages will have a Notes section. You can put anything you want in this section, or remove it from your `planner-day-page-template' entirely. You may be interested in `remember-planner.el', part of the Remember package (see *note remember-el: (remember-el)Top). You can download Remember at `http://gna.org/projects/remember-el/'). `remember-planner.el' makes it easy to create notes from anywhere in Emacs, and it uses the same context-sensing code that Planner uses. Notes added by `remember-planner.el' look like this: .#1 Headline 00:00 Body [[context hyperlink]] and are outlined at the H2 level in published HTML. You can easily create context-aware notes if you include the following in your `~/.emacs': (require 'remember-planner) (setq remember-handler-functions '(remember-planner-append)) (setq remember-annotation-functions planner-annotation-functions) Then `M-x remember' will open a dedicated buffer for you to write your note. If Planner recognizes your current buffer as one with context then it will include a hyperlink at the bottom of the note. The first line of the note is used as a title, so make it short and meaningful. The rest of the text will be used as the body. Try it now by creating a note, perhaps about things you'd like to remember from this tutorial. Typing `C-c C-c' after composing will prompt for a plan page to put the note on, with auto-completion. If you don't enter a page, the note will just be saved on today's page. If you do specify a plan page, the note will go on both today's page and on the specified page. Let's try specifying `TaskPool' for the note. If you look at today's page, you'll find a timestamped note that links to `TaskPool'. Likewise, `TaskPool' contains a note that links to today's page. To change the plan page of a note, use `planner-replan-note'. If you decide to edit the note on one of these pages after it has been saved, be aware that your changes will not be automatically reflected on the linked page. To update the linked page after editing a note, use `M-x planner-update-note'. 5.4 Hyperlinks ============== Planner automatically creates context-sensitive hyperlinks for your tasks and notes when you use `planner-create-task-from-buffer' and `remember'. Blue links indicate URLs and Planner pages that already exist. Red links indicate Planner pages that have not yet been created. Middle-click or type on any link to view the link in the current window. Shift-middle-click or type to view the link in another window. goes to the next link, while goes to the previous one. You can pick up hyperlinks using the `planner-annotation-as-kill' function. -- Function: planner-annotation-as-kill Create a context-sensitive hyperlink for the current buffer and copy it to the kill ring. When called with a prefix argument, prompt for the link display name. You can then paste it into any Planner buffer by using `M-x yank' or the keyboard shortcut. Alternatively, you can create hyperlinks by typing them directly, using the syntax defined by Muse. Anything inside double square brackets will be treated as a link. For example, if you type `[[GroceryList]]' in a Planner buffer, you will end up with a link to a page called `GroceryList'. *note Bare URLs WikiNames and InterWiki links: (muse)Implicit Links, for more information about Muse syntax. Hyperlinks are a powerful feature of Planner. You can use them to hyperlink to mail, news, Web pages, and even IRC connections. See the section on *note Managing Your Information:: to find out how to enable support for various parts of Emacs. Want to add a new hyperlink scheme? Check out the source code for examples or ask on the mailing list for help. 5.5 Example Page ================ An example planner file is given below. You'll notice that Planner does not have a well-defined user interface. Rather, it's free-form and open, allowing you to adapt it to your preferences. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- * Tasks #B _ Join http://mail.gna.org/listinfo/planner-el-discuss/ (TaskPool) #B _ Browse through the Planner info manual (TaskPool) #B _ Add (plan) to the end of my ~/.emacs #B X Learn how to schedule a task (TaskPool) * Schedule 18:00 | 19:00 | Learn how to use Planner * Notes Notes are free-form. You can put anything you want into this. .#1 This is note number one Notes on note number one! .#2 This weird ".#2" syntax is used for allout.el enumerated lists It makes using allout-mode very handy. 5.6 Review ========== * _Ideas for using planner more effectively:_ * Add `(plan)' to the end of your `~/.emacs' so that you are reminded about your tasks every day. * Bind useful functions to shortcut keys and get used to creating tasks and notes from anywhere. * Think about how you plan your day and look for ways to improve it. Ask the mailing list (*note Getting Help::) for tips. * Browse the rest of this manual, the source code, and other resources on the Net for tidbits you can use. * Have fun! * _Useful functions outside planner buffers:_ * `planner-create-task-from-buffer' * `remember' * `planner-goto-today' * `planner-goto' * `plan' * _Useful functions inside planner buffers:_ * `C-c C-t' (`planner-create-task-from-buffer') * `C-c C-x' (`planner-task-done') * `M-x planner-edit-task-description' * `C-c C-c' (`planner-copy-or-move-task'), `M-x planner-copy-or-move-region' * `M-x planner-replan-task' * `M-x planner-delete-task' * (`planner-raise-task') and (`planner-lower-task') * (`planner-raise-task-priority') and (`planner-lower-task-priority'), * `planner-replan-note' * `planner-update-note' That's all you need to know in order to use Planner as a basic TODO and notes manager, but there's a whole lot more. Read through this manual and our mailing list archives (*note Getting Help::) for lots of wonderful ideas about planning in Emacs! 6 More about Planner ******************** 6.1 Starting with Day Pages =========================== `planner-goto-today' opens today's page. Day pages are named `YYYY.MM.DD' and contain your notes for the day. You should see a file that looks like this: * Tasks * Schedule * Notes You can type anything you want into this file. You can add or delete sections. When you save, Emacs stores your information in `planner-directory'. Use the following commands to navigate through day pages: -- Function: plan Start planning the day. If `planner-carry-tasks-forward' is non-nil, copy the most recent unfinished tasks to today's page, else open the most recent page. -- Function: planner-goto (`C-c C-j C-d') Prompt for a date using a calendar pop-up and display the corresponding day page. You can specify dates partially. The current year and month are used if omitted from the input. For example, if today is 2004.05.05, then * `+1' is one day from now, or `2004.05.06' * `-1' is one day before now, or `2004.05.04' * `12' is equivalent to `2004.05.12' * `8.12' is equivalent to `2004.08.12' * `2005.08.12' is a full date specification In the calendar buffer, you can also left-click or press on a date to select it. -- Function: planner-goto-today (`C-c C-j C-j') Display today's page. Create the page if it does not yet exist. -- Function: planner-goto-tomorrow (`C-c C-j C-t') Goto the planner page days AFTER the currently displayed date. If DAYS is nil, go to the day immediately after the currently displayed date. If the current buffer is not a daily planner page, calculate date based on today. -- Function: planner-goto-yesterday (`C-c C-j C-y') Goto the planner page DAYS before the currently displayed date. If DAYS is nil, go to the day immediately before the currently displayed date. If the current buffer is not a daily planner page, calculate date based on today. -- Function: planner-goto-most-recent Go to the most recent day with planning info. -- Function: planner-goto-previous-daily-page Goto the last plan page before the current date. The current date is taken from the day page in the current buffer, or today if the current buffer is not a planner page. Do not create pages if they do not yet exist. -- Function: planner-goto-next-daily-page Goto the first plan page after the current date. The current date is taken from the day page in the current buffer, or today if the current buffer is not a planner page. Do not create pages if they do not yet exist. -- Function: planner-goto-plan-page page Opens PAGE in the the `planner-project' Wiki. Use `planner-goto' if you want fancy calendar completion. -- Function: planner-show date Show the plan page for DATE in another window, but don't select it. If no page for DATE exists, return nil. 6.2 More about Tasks ==================== This section is divided into three parts. In the first part, you can read about all the options, strategies and commands to help you efficiently add new tasks to your planner. In the second part, we'll go over all of the aspects of Planner that relate to organizing, editing, rescheduling and viewing the tasks you've already created. Finally, we'll cover some ways to step back and look at various reports and overviews that can be generated from your planner pages. You may also be interested in tracking time spent on tasks with *note Timeclock:: and estimating project completion time with *note Schedule:: (also see *note schedule.el::). 6.2.1 Creating New Tasks ------------------------ Planner makes it very easy to quickly add something to your list of tasks. Once you get used to the basics of `planner-create-task-from-buffer', you might want to take a closer look at some things in Planner that can help you create new tasks in a way that fits with your system. 6.2.1.1 Creating a Task ....................... You can create a task from any buffer in Emacs by invoking `M-x planner-create-task-from-buffer'. This command does more than just add an item to your list of tasks. It also connects that item to some useful context information. If you create a task while viewing any buffer other than a Planner day page, Planner will associate the task with a hyperlink to that buffer. Try it now by creating a task from this Info buffer. 1. `M-x planner-create-task-from-buffer' 2. When prompted for the task name, enter `Learn how to change a task's status' and press . 3. When prompted for the date, press to schedule the task for today. 4. When prompted for the project page, press to accept the default page of `TaskPool'. This is a page for tasks not connected to a larger plan. Planner prompts you for two pieces of information when you ask it to create a task. First, it asks you when you would like to have the task show up in your planner. If you would like it to be scheduled for today, you can just hit . If you would like it to be scheduled for some day during the current month, you can just enter the date, without the month, like `16'. If you would like it to be scheduled for some day in a future month of the current year, you can enter just the month and date, like `06.16'. If you would like to schedule something for next year, then enter the full date, like `06.16.2005'. If you do not want this task to appear on a day page at all, you can enter `nil'. The second piece of information Planner asks for is the name of the project to associate the task with. In the above example, you associated the task with the project "TaskPool", which means that you did not want to associate the task with a particular project or goal in your life. Another way to do this is to answer the project prompt by entering `nil'. But instead, you might enter `LearnPlanner' as the project. This creates a new page called "LearnPlanner" in your planner directory and places an entry for the task on that page. The task then exists in two places: once on your day page, to show how it fits into your daily work; and once on a project page, to show how it fits into your larger projects and goals. In the future you might add related tasks like, "Memorize Planner keybindings". These tasks might be scattered over weeks or months worth of day pages, but as long as you enter the same project name for each, you will have a way to look at them all together on a single project page. Planner also creates hyperlinks to enable you to easily move back and forth between the day page system and the project page system. Each task on a day page will have a hyperlink to its project page. Each task on a project page will have a hyperlink to its day page. After using Planner for a while, you may find yourself with quite a few project pages. Keep in mind that completion is enabled at the project prompt when you create a task, so hitting `SPC' or `TAB' at the prompt will show you a list of your current project pages. Once the task is created, you are returned to the buffer you were working in again, Planner gets out of your way, and you can go on about your business. Later on, when you decide to actually work on that "Memorize Planner keybindings" task, you will be able to follow the hyperlink from that task on your day or project page directly to the relevant node in the Planner info file! By default, `M-x planner-create-task-from-buffer' creates medium-priority tasks, marked with the letter `B'. But you can specify a particular priority or change the default (*note Task Priorities::). You don't have to use `planner-create-task-from-buffer' to create tasks. You can also create new tasks manually by typing them directly on your day or project page in the format Planner expects. You can even still create hyperlinks by using Muse formatting as you manually type the new task (*note Hyperlinks::). Keep in mind also that tasks do not have to be linked to any other page. For convenience, `planner-create-task-from-buffer' is bound to `C-c C-t' in Planner buffers. You can bind `planner-create-task-buffer' to a shortcut key. See the manual for your Emacs distribution to find out more about keybinding. -- Function: planner-create-task-from-buffer title date plan-page Create a new task named TITLE on DATE based on the current buffer. With a prefix, associate the task with the current planner page. If you create a task on a date page, you will be prompted for a plan page. If you create a task on a plan page, you will be prompted for a day page. If nil is specified, the task is created only on the current page. See `planner-create-task' for more information. The new task is created at the top or bottom of the first block of tasks on the scheduled day page (if any), depending on the value of `planner-add-task-at-end-flag'. -- Function: planner-create-task title date annotation plan-page Create a new task named TITLE based on the current Wiki page. If DATE is non-nil, makes a daily entry on DATE, else makes an entry in today's planner page. It's assumed that the current Wiki page is the page you're using to plan an activity. Any time accrued to this task will be applied to that page's name in the timelog file, assuming you use timeclock (*note Time Intervals: (Emacs)Time Intervals.). If ANNOTATION is non-nil, it will be used for the page annotation. If PLAN-PAGE is non-nil, the task is associated with the given page. With a prefix, associate the task with the current planner page. If you create a task on a date page, you will be prompted for a plan page. If you create a task on a plan page, you will be prompted for a day page. If nil is specified, the task is created only on the current page. You probably want to call `planner-create-task-from-buffer' instead. The new task is created at the top or bottom of the first block of tasks on the scheduled day page (if any), depending on the value of `planner-add-task-at-end-flag'. 6.2.1.2 Task Priorities ....................... You can set the priority of a task when you create it, rather than waiting to adjust it after the fact. In order to do this, call the function corresponding to the priority you want. You probably want to bind these functions to some keys if you intend to use them much. * `planner-create-high-priority-task-from-buffer' creates a task with priority `A'. * `planner-create-medium-priority-task-from-buffer' creates a task with priority `B'. * `planner-create-low-priority-task-from-buffer' creates a task with priority `C'. Or, you can change the default priority of `planner-create-task-from-buffer' by customizing PLANNER-DEFAULT-TASK-PRIORITY. You can actually use just one general priority, but using more than one color-codes your tasks and gives you a better overview of your day. 6.2.1.3 Task IDs ................ After loading `planner.el', make sure that `planner-id.el' is in your load path and add this to your `.emacs' (or `_emacs'): (require 'planner-id) This module modifies the behavior of `planner.el', adding global task IDs so that tasks can be edited and updated. Planner IDs are of the form `{{Identifier:Number}}'. Options ------- -- User Option: planner-id-add-task-id-flag Non-nil means automatically add global task IDs to newly-created tasks. If nil, use `planner-id-add-task-id' to add IDs to existing tasks, or `planner-id-add-task-id-to-all' to add to all tasks on the current page. -- User Option: planner-id-update-automatically Non-nil means automatically update linked tasks whenever a page is saved. If nil, use `planner-update-task' to update the linked task. By default, linked tasks are automatically updated. -- User Option: planner-id-tracking-file File that contains ID tracking data. This file is automatically overwritten. Functions --------- The following interactive functions are defined in `planner-id.el': -- Function: planner-id-jump-to-linked-task &optional info Display the linked task page. If INFO is specified, follow that task instead. -- Function: planner-id-add-task Add a task ID for the current task if it does not have one yet. Update the linked task page, if any. -- Function: planner-id-update-tasks-on-page &optional force Update all tasks on this page. Completed or cancelled tasks are not updated. This can be added to `write-file-functions'. If FORCE is non-nil, completed and cancelled tasks are also updated. -- Function: planner-id-add-task-id-to-all Add a task ID for all the tasks on the page. Update the linked page, if any. -- Function: planner-id-search-id id Search for all occurrences of ID. -- Function: planner-id-follow-id-at-point Display a list of all pages containing the ID at point. -- Function: planner-id-follow-id-at-mouse event Display a list of all pages containing the ID at mouse. EVENT is the mouse event. 6.2.1.4 Cyclic Tasks .................... If there are tasks that you have to do regularly, you can have Planner schedule those tasks automatically. Make sure that `planner-cyclic.el' is in your load path and add this to your `.emacs' (or `_emacs'): (require 'planner-cyclic) Create a diary file named `~/.diary.cyclic-tasks' (or the value of `planner-cyclic-diary-file'). Here is an example: Tuesday #B0 _ Study Japanese Friday #B0 _ Study Japanese (JapaneseStudies) The first will be a plain task, the second will be linked. The first line will automatically create its task every Tuesday, while the second will create it every Friday. You can schedule tasks in a variety of ways. This module uses the same syntax for specifying when tasks will be scheduled as the Emacs diary uses for appointments and events. See *note the GNU Emacs Manual: (emacs)Date Formats, and *note the GNU Emacs Lisp Reference Manual: (elisp)Sexp Diary Entries, for a full description of the possibilities. By default, planner-cyclic creates multiple tasks if you let tasks build up (that is, the next Tuesday rolls around and you _still_ haven't marked the task as done.) To turn off this behavior: (setq planner-cyclic-diary-nag nil) Functions --------- `planner-cyclic-diary' includes the following interactive functions: -- Function: planner-cyclic-create-tasks-maybe Maybe create cyclic tasks. This will only create tasks for future dates or today. 6.2.1.5 Task Detail ................... You may find your planner pages getting very full, so that you want to have one broad task entry be linked to a more specific list of sub-tasks. Or, maybe you want to have a number of notes linked to a particular task. This can be done with targets. You can have a task that is really a meta-task: #A1 _ Do things in RevelleLog#13 {{Tasks:101}} (RevelleLog) `RevelleLog#13' could then be a list of sub-tasks in the form of a note, or any kind of note. Or, instead of pointing to a particular note on `RevelleLog', you could have the whole page be tasks that you enter in manually, without linking them to another page. You can just type them in like this: #A1 _ First specific thing to do This way, the tasks will only appear on this specific project page, and not on any daily page, so you only see them when you want to look up all of the specific tasks associated with `#A1 _ Do things in RevelleLog {{Tasks:101}} (RevelleLog)'. As you can see, the ability to manually enter tasks is one of Planner's nicest features. It allows you to create tasks that are not assigned to a specific date (by manually entering them on a project page with no date) or to a specific project (by manually entering them on a day page with no project). Yet as long as you enter them using the syntax it understands, Planner will continue to recognize them as tasks. Another way to have a task not be connected to a particular date is to do `C-c C-c' (`planner-copy-or-move-task') and specify `nil' when asked for the date. If you would like to see a list of all of your unfinished scheduled tasks, do `M-x planner-list-unfinished-tasks'. It is only intended to give you an overview. Any editing you want to do, like marking tasks complete or editing their description, still needs to be done on one of the tasks' "real" planner pages. 6.2.1.6 Deadlines ................. You can use `planner-deadline.el' to automatically recalculate days to a deadline by adding `(require 'planner-deadline)' to your `~/.emacs'. With the default setup, make your tasks of the form #A0 _ Some task {{Deadline: 2004.09.12}} (Note: There must be at least one space after the colon.) After you run `planner-deadline-update' to update task descriptions, the task will be of the form #A0 _ Some task {{Deadline: 2004.09.12 - 2 days}} Options ------- -- User Option: planner-deadline-regexp Regular expression for deadline data. The special deadline string should be regexp group 1. The date (YYYY.MM.DD) should be regexp group 2. Functions --------- -- Function: planner-deadline-update Replace the text for all tasks with deadlines. Deadlines are of the form `{{Deadline: YYYY.MM.DD}}' by default. -- Function: planner-deadline-change &optional date Change the deadline of current task to DATE. If DATE is nil, remove deadline. 6.2.2 Organizing Your Tasks --------------------------- Okay, now that you've gotten the hang of creating tasks, you're probably facing a really long list of things to do. How can you organize them so that they don't overwhelm you? Planner gives you a number of strategies for dealing with large numbers of tasks. 1. Arrange your tasks in the rough order you're going to do them. 2. Use #A, #B and #C task priorities to differentiate between high-priority, normal and low-priority tasks. 3. Schedule your tasks onto different days. 4. Group your tasks into plan pages. 5. Don't schedule all your tasks. 1. _Task order_ To remind yourself to do tasks in a certain order, simply edit the lines so that they're in the order you want. You can use normal editing commands like kill, yank and transpose-line to reorder the tasks, or use (`planner-raise-task') and (`planner-lower-task') to rearrange the tasks. 2. _Task priorities_ By default, tasks are created with medium priority (`#B'). You can make a task high-priority (`#A') or low-priority (`#C') by manually editing the task and calling M-x planner-update-task to update the linked page. Alternatively, you can use (`planner-raise-task-priority') and (`planner-lower-task-priority') to modify the task and update the linked page. You can edit the priority of a task using `M-x planner-edit-task-priority', or manually edit it and call `M-x planner-update-task' to update tasks on the linked page. 3. _Schedule your tasks on different days_ You don't have to do everything today. Is this a task you would rather do tomorrow? Schedule it for then instead. You can specify `+n' or `-n' whenever you are asked for a date, where N is the number of days before or after the current file's date or today. Don't over-procrastinate things, though! 4. _Plan pages_ Plan pages let you group related tasks and notes together for easy reference. For example, you could have a plan page for each major project or goal in your life, like `GoodHealth' or `FurtherStudies'. Although plan pages start by grouping everything under a `* Tasks' header, you can organize your plan pages in different ways. For example, you can separate groups of tasks with blank lines, and Planner will sort tasks within each group. 5. _Tasks without dates_ Plan pages also allow you to have undated tasks or tasks with no particular deadlines. This keeps your daily task list small and manageable while making it easier for you to find things to do if you have free time. Make sure you check your plan pages regularly so that you don't completely forget about them. For automated scheduling of the next task on a plan page after you complete a task, see the section in `http://sacha.free.net.ph/notebook/emacs/planner-config.el' named "Schedule next undated task from same project". 6.2.2.1 Associating Tasks with Multiple Projects ................................................ You can use `planner-multi.el' to associate a task with more than one project. That way, you can easily keep GTD-style context lists as well as project-related lists. To use multiple projects, add the following to your `~/.emacs': (require 'planner-multi) Under GNU Emacs, you can specify multiple projects by separating them with a single space. For example, you can specify `planner doc' when creating a task to associate the task with those two projects. Under XEmacs, you can specify multiple projects by typing `RET' after each entry and terminating the list with another `RET'. For example, to specify `planner' and `doc', you would type `planner RET doc RET RET' at the prompt. If you want to see an overview of all of your tasks as well as project- or context-specific lists, you can set `planner-multi-copy-tasks-to-page' to your overview page(s). For example, set it to `TaskPool' to be able to see an overview of all of your unfinished tasks. You can also set this to multiple pages such as `[[TasksByProject][p]] [[TasksByContext][c]]' and use `planner-trunk.el' to sort and organize tasks for easy reference. (*note Grouping Tasks::) Options ------- -- User Option: planner-multi-copy-tasks-to-page Automatically copy newly-created tasks to the specified page. By default, tasks are removed from `planner-multi-copy-tasks-to-page' when you call `planner-task-done' or `planner-task-cancelled'. If you prefer to keep a copy of the task, remove `planner-multi-remove-task-from-pool' from `planner-mark-task-hook'. If you want to use a different separator instead of spaces, customize the `planner-multi-separator' variable. -- User Option: planner-multi-separator String that separates multiple page references. For best results, this should be something recognized by `muse-link-at-point' so that links are highlighted separately. 6.2.2.2 Viewing tasks ..................... Review the tasks scheduled for today by typing `M-x planner-goto-today'. If you created the task from the previous section in this tutorial, you should see a line that looks like #A _ Learn how to change a task's status from Tasks (TaskPool) If you have `planner-use-task-numbers' set to non-nil, you will see something like the following instead. #A0 _ Learn how to change a task's status from Tasks (TaskPool) From left to right, these are what the symbols mean: * `A' - Priority. A (high) * `0' - Priority number. It is calculated whenever you save the file or call `planner-renumber-tasks', provided that `planner-use-task-numbers' is non-nil. Tasks are numbered in ascending order according to priorities. * `_' - Status. _ (unfinished) If you click on `Tasks' or press while your cursor is in the link, Emacs will display the previous info page. If you select `TaskPool', Emacs will display the `TaskPool' plan page. Plan pages organize your tasks and notes about a project in one file. Functions --------- You can use `planner-seek-next-unfinished-task' to move to the next unfinished task on the current page. -- Function: planner-list-tasks-with-status status &optional pages Display all tasks that match the STATUS regular expression on all day pages. The PAGES argument limits the pages to be checked in this manner: * `t': check all pages * regexp: search all pages whose filenames match the regexp * list of page names: limit to those pages * alist of page/filenames: limit to those pages Called interactively, this function will search day pages by default. You can specify the start and end dates or leave them as nil to search all days. Calling this function with an interactive prefix will prompt for a regular expression to limit pages. Specify `.' or leave this blank to include all pages. This function could take a long time. -- Function: planner-list-unfinished-tasks &optional pages Display all unfinished tasks. PAGES follows planner-list-tasks-with-status. -- Function: planner-jump-to-linked-task task-info Display the task page linked to by the current task or TASK-INFO. 6.2.2.3 Modifying Tasks ....................... To select a task, move your cursor to the line containing the task. Change a task's priority (`A', `B' or `C') by editing the line. `#A' tasks are important. `#B' are medium priority. `#C' are low priority. Whenever you save the file or call `M-x planner-fix-tasks', tasks are sorted and numbered according to priority and status. Change a task's status by calling one of the following functions: * planner-task-in-progress `o' (`C-c C-z') * planner-task-done `X' (`C-c C-x') * planner-task-cancelled `C' (`C-c C-S-x') * planner-task-delegated `D' * planner-task-pending `P' * planner-task-open `_' After changing the status using a function, look at the `TaskPool' plan page. The task is also updated on the linked page. If you changed the task status manually by replacing the status with another character, you will need to call `planner-update-task' to update the linked page. To reschedule a task, call `planner-copy-or-move-task' (`C-c C-c') and choose a new date. You can mark a region and type `M-x planner-copy-or-move-region' to reschedule all the contained tasks to a different date. Enter `nil' for the date if you don't want the task or group of tasks to appear on any date page at all anymore. This is a good way to "de-schedule" a task for the time being, but still keep it linked to a plan page for possible future scheduling. To change the plan page associated with a task, call `planner-replan-task'. Enter `nil' for the plan page if you don't want the task to appear on any plan page anymore. If you precede the command with a prefix argument, the text of the original plan page will appear in the prompt for easy editing. Since the same task may exist on two or more pages, such as a date page and a plan page, it is dangerous to edit the description of the task by hand. You should not do it unless you want to make the exact same changes on all its linked pages. Instead of doing this by hand, you should use `planner-edit-task-description'. This will prompt you for the changes to the task description and then update all the other pages to which the task is linked. Or, you can just use `planner-delete-task' to remove the task from both pages, and then create it again with the new desired description. To remind yourself to do tasks in a certain order, simply edit the lines so that they're in the order you want. `planner-raise-task' and `planner-lower-task' update the priorities on linked pages automatically. You can organize tasks into groups by putting a blank line between groups of tasks. Planner will maintain the groupings and only sort the tasks within that group. Functions --------- -- Function: planner-replan-task page-name Change or assign the plan page for the current task. PAGE-NAME is the new plan page for the task. Use `planner-copy-or-move-task' if you want to change the date. With a prefix, provide the current link text for editing. -- Function: planner-raise-task-priority Change a low-priority task to a medium-priority task and a medium-priority task to a high-priority task (C to B to A). -- Function: planner-lower-task-priority Change a high-priority task to a medium-priority task and a medium-priority task to a low-priority task (A to B to C). -- Function: planner-raise-task arg Move a task up ARG steps. By default, ARG is 1. -- Function: planner-lower-task arg Move a task down ARG steps. By default, ARG is 1. -- Function: planner-edit-task-description description Change the description of the current task, updating the linked page if any. -- Function: planner-delete-task Delete this task from the current page and the linked page. -- Function: planner-update-task Update the current task's priority and status on the linked page. Tasks are considered the same if they have the same description. This function allows you to force a task to be recreated if it disappeared from the associated page. Note that the text of the task must not change. If you want to be able to update the task description, see `planner-edit-task-description' or `planner-id.el'. See `planner-install-extra-task-keybindings' for additional task-related shortcuts. 6.2.2.4 Carrying Over Unfinished Tasks ...................................... Sometimes you won't be able to cross off all the tasks on your list. Planner makes it easy for you to keep track of things you still have to do by automatically rescheduling unfinished tasks from the past few days. By default, the `plan' command searches for unfinished tasks from the last three days and reschedules them onto today. If you open Planner every day, this should cover weekends easily. It's a good idea to start Planner whenever you start Emacs. That way, Planner can help remind you about today's tasks, appointments, and other things. To automatically start Planner whenever you start up Emacs, add the following code to the end of your `~/.emacs': (plan) Now, every time you start Emacs (which should be more or less once a day), you'll see today's page. If you don't finish all the tasks today, you'll see them again tomorrow. It's a good idea to start Planner every time you start Emacs so that you get reminded about your task list. If you prefer to start Planner manually, remember to call `M-x plan' every so often to make sure that you don't forget any unfinished tasks. Safe in the knowledge that Planner tasks won't slip through the cracks (unlike little slips of paper that will invariably get mislaid), you can then get on with the rest of your life. If your increased productivity with Planner leads to a well-deserved two-week vacation, then you'll need to tell Planner to search more days for unfinished tasks. By using `M-x plan', you can automatically bring forward tasks over a given number of days or even scan all the days since time immemorial. `C-u 15 M-x plan' reschedules all unfinished tasks from the last 15 days. `C-u -1 M-x plan' checks all of your past day pages for unfinished tasks. Like everything else in Planner, you can adapt `M-x plan' to your particular way of life. For example, if you find yourself starting up Emacs and Planner every day-including weekends-because it's just so much fun, you can set the `planner-carry-tasks-forward' to 1. This can make your Emacs startup marginally faster. On the other hand, if you normally start Emacs once a week, you can set it to 7 or 8. If you're worried about tasks dropping off your radar, you can set it to 0. You can set the value of PLANNER-CARRY-TASKS-FORWARD either with , or by putting `(setq planner-carry-tasks-forward 3)' (replacing `3' with the value appropriate for what you want) in your `~/.emacs' file. On the other hand, you might prefer to reschedule tasks yourself. If you set `planner-carry-tasks-forward' to `nil', then `M-x plan' and `(plan)' will bring you to the most recent page with unfinished tasks if there is no page for today. You can then use `planner-copy-or-move-task' and `planner-copy-or-move-region' to reschedule tasks. This is probably more hassle than it's worth, though, so let Planner take care of this for you. Options ------- -- User Option: planner-carry-tasks-forward If non-nil, carry unfinished tasks forward automatically. If a positive integer, scan that number of days in the past. If 0, scan all days for unfinished tasks. If t, scan one day in the past (old behavior). If nil, do not carry unfinished tasks forward. Functions --------- -- Function: plan &optional force-days Start your planning for the day, carrying unfinished tasks forward. If FORCE-DAYS is a positive integer, search that many days in the past for unfinished tasks. If FORCE-DAYS is `0' or `t', scan all days. If FORCE-DAYS is `nil', use the value of `planner-carry-tasks-forward' instead, except t means scan only yesterday -- Function: planner-copy-or-move-task date force Reschedule the task for DATE. If FORCE is non-nil, the task is moved regardless of status. It also works for creating tasks from a Note. Use `planner-replan-task' if you want to change the plan page in order to get better completion. -- Function: planner-copy-or-move-region beg end date muffle-errors Move all tasks from BEG to END to DATE. `planner-copy-or-move-region' will copy or move all tasks from the line containing BEG to the line just before END. If MUFFLE-ERRORS is non-nil, no errors will be reported. 6.2.2.5 Task Numbering ...................... By default, tasks are numbered according to their position on the page. Task numbers allow you to refer to tasks using Muse links. For example, the `#A1' task in `2004.08.16' can be referred to as `2004.08.16#A1'. Note that task numbers change every time you re-sort and re-number tasks with `planner-fix-tasks'. As a result, they are only reliable for references to past tasks. If you find yourself not using this functionality, you can turn off task numbers by using the following option. Options ------- -- User Option: planner-use-task-numbers Non-nil means use task numbers when creating tasks. This allows you to refer to past tasks if your tasks are numbered appropriately. If you set this to nil, you can save space in your plan files. 6.2.2.6 Task Ranks .................. `planner-rank.el' models Franklin Covey's Urgency and Importance principle. When you think about a task, there are two aspects in consideration: Urgency and Importance. You may want to do the most urgent things first, like answering an email, or you may want to do the most important things first, like reading this manual. Or much better, balance Urgency and Importance and decide what to do. `planner-rank.el' can help you balance. Urgency and Importance are both measured by scores from 0-9. The higher the score, the more you want to do it first. 9 stands for "I should have done this" and 0 stands for "I can forget this". If you are using the planner *note Deadlines:: feature, the Urgency score is automatically calculated from how many days are left to meet the deadline. By default, it will score 9 if the task is overdue and 0 if the deadline is years away. Please refer to the docstring of `planner-rank-deadline-urgency-map-list' for detail. The task rank is calculated from Urgency and Importance scores. As different people balance urgency and importance differently, a number of `planner-rank-calculate-rank-*' functions are provided. The algorithms vary from a simple average to something like a weighted root mean square deviation. The aggressive versions of these functions (`planner-rank-calculate-rank-*-aggressive') will make sure if one of Urgency and Importance is high, the resulting rank will be high as well. `planner-rank-calculate-rank-weighted-*' functions weigh the Urgency and Important scores depending on `planner-rank-importance-vs-urgency-factor'. Call `planner-rank-test-algorithm' on each of the functions and check the result tables to see which one you like most, and set it to `planner-rank-rank-calculate-function'. Alternatively, accept the defaults and tweak them when you get a better feel for ranking. Once the Rank is calculated, the *note Task Priorities:: will be automatically reset. If the Rank is greater than or equal to `planner-rank-priority-A-valve', the task priority will be `A', if the Rank is between `planner-rank-priority-A-valve' and `planner-rank-priority-B-valve', the priority will be `B', else it will be `C'. After setting the task importance and deadline, you can leave it as is. As the deadline approaches, the task priority will automatically be raised and the task re-colored to catch your eyes. If you are using `planner-sort-tasks' (see *note Making Files Pretty::), you can set `planner-sort-tasks-key-function' to one of `planner-sort-tasks-by-rank', `planner-sort-tasks-by-importance', and `planner-sort-tasks-by-urgency'. Options ------- -- User Option: planner-rank-change-hook Functions to run after `planner-rank-change'. -- User Option: planner-rank-priority-A-valve Tasks with rank greater than or equal to this value will be set to priority `A'. -- User Option: planner-rank-priority-B-valve Tasks with rank greater than or equal to this value and less than `planner-rank-priority-A-valve' will be set to priority `B'. Tasks with rank less than this value will be set to priority `C'. -- User Option: planner-rank-deadline-urgency-map-list Defines how to calculate the Urgency score according to how many days are left to meet the deadline. -- User Option: planner-rank-default-importance Default importance value for newly added rank. -- User Option: planner-rank-default-urgency Default urgency value for newly added rank. -- User Option: planner-rank-importance-vs-urgency-factor How much do you think importance is more "important" than urgency. This will be used in `planner-rank-calculate-rank-weighted-*' functions. -- User Option: planner-rank-rank-calculate-function Define the function called to calculate rank. Functions --------- -- Function: planner-rank-change &optional importance urgency Set the Importance and Urgency of the current task. -- Function: planner-rank-update-current-task Recalculate rank for the current task. -- Function: planner-rank-update-all Recalculate rank for all tasks in the current page -- Function: planner-rank-update-all Recalculate rank for all tasks in the current page 6.2.2.7 Grouping Tasks with planner-trunk.el ............................................ `planner-trunk.el' helps you automatically group tasks according to a set of rules. It sorts and splits your tasks, adding a blank line between groups of tasks. For example, if today's page looks like this: * Tasks #B _ Buy milk (GroceryShopping) #B _ Learn how to use planner-trunk (PlannerMode) #B _ Buy a notebook (Bookstore) #B _ Buy cereal (GroceryShopping) #B _ Set up my own planner-trunk rules (PlannerMode) #B _ Customize my stylesheet (MuseMode) #B _ Go for a health checkup (BetterHealth) then you might want to group the tasks into: planner and muse, shopping list, and other items. If you set up the appropriate rules by customizing `planner-trunk-rule-list', `planner-trunk.el' can automatically rewrite that section line this: * Tasks #B _ Learn how to use planner-trunk (PlannerMode) #B _ Set up my own planner-trunk rules (PlannerMode) #B _ Customize my stylesheet (MuseMode) #B _ Buy milk (GroceryShopping) #B _ Buy a notebook (BookstoreShopping) #B _ Buy cereal (GroceryShopping) #B _ Go for a health checkup In this case, you would set `planner-trunk-rule-list' to `(("." nil ("PlannerMode\\|MuseMode" "Shopping")))'. You can load `planner-trunk' with `M-x load-library RET planner-trunk RET' or add `(require 'planner-trunk)'. If you're not yet comfortable with Emacs Lisp, you can use `M-x customize-variable RET planner-trunk-rule-list RET' to edit this rule using an easy-to-use interface. WARNING: Do not keep non-task information in the Tasks section. planner-trunk will delete *all* non-task lines from the Tasks section of your plan page in the process of grouping the tasks. After you set up `planner-trunk-rule-list', use `M-x planner-trunk-tasks' to try out your rules until you're satistfied. If you want to do this automatically, you can use `(add-hook 'planner-mode-hook 'planner-trunk-tasks)' to trigger it automatically whenever you open a Planner page. 6.2.3 Task Reports and Overviews -------------------------------- Planner provides a number of different ways to generate different presentations of your tasks. 6.2.3.1 Generating Daily Accomplishment Reports ............................................... You can use `planner-accomplishments.el' to get a summary of your task activity for a particular day. The report is grouped by status and plan (on day pages) or date (on plan pages). An example report follows: Link | Unfinished | In progress | Delegated | Completed | Total nil | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 7 TaskPool | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 5 Planner | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 SchoolWork | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 Total | 2 | 1 | 1 | 11 | 15 This lets you see how you balance your time between your projects. There are currently two ways to use `planner-accomplishments.el'. * Displaying a temporary buffer You can call `planner-accomplishments-show' to display a buffer containing the current page's accomplishment report. * Rewriting sections of your planner Choose this approach if you want accomplishment reports to be in their own section and you would like them to be readable in your plain text files even outside Emacs. Caveat: The accomplishment section should already exist in your template and will be rewritten when updated. To use, set `planner-accomplishments-section' to the name of the section to rewrite (default: `Accomplishments'). If you want rewriting to be automatically performed, call `planner-accomplishments-insinuate'. The accomplishments will be rewritten whenever you save a planner page. If you want rewriting to be manual, call `planner-accomplishments-update'. Options ------- -- User Option: planner-accomplishments-section Header for the accomplishments section in a plan page. Used by `planner-accomplishments-update'. -- User Option: planner-accomplishments-status-display Alist of status-label maps also defining the order of display. Used by `planner-accomplishments-format-table'. Functions --------- -- Function: planner-accomplishments-insinuate () Automatically call `planner-accomplishments-update' when saving tasks in `planner-mode' buffers. -- Function: planner-accomplishments-update () Rewrite `planner-accomplishments-section' with a summary of tasks on this page. -- Function: planner-accomplishments-show () Display a buffer with the current page's accomplishment report. 6.2.3.2 Status Reports ...................... `planner-report.el' creates a status report for a given timespan. The report itself is just another Planner page in your planner directory. Once generated, it contains tasks and notes culled from active project pages. Tasks are only shown if they are incomplete or were completed within the timespan. Notes are shown if they were created during the timespan. Tasks and notes are grouped together under a heading for their corresponding project. The idea is you have one of these status reports generated periodically (say, every couple of weeks). Perhaps you use cron to run them automatically and then mail you a reminder that they've been done. Then you can edit the page, adding verbiage where it is needed and removing irrelevant items. This editing process is as easy as editing any other Planner page. Finally, you can publish the page along with the rest of your planner using `M-x muse-project-publish'. If you use planner-authz.el, you can tell planner-report.el only to consult project pages that a given list of users (PLANNER-REPORT-AUTHZ) can access when generating the report. For example, if you're preparing a status report for your boss, add yourself and him to PLANNER-REPORT-AUTHZ. The resulting status report will only contain information the two of you are supposed to have access to, and the report itself will be similarly restricted. Getting started --------------- Add the following to your .emacs file: (require 'planner-report) Then you can use the following command to generate a status report: M-x planner-report-generate You will be prompted for a beginning and ending date, and then the status report will be generated. You can then edit it to your liking and publish it just like you would the rest of your planner. Options ------- -- User Option: planner-report-authz List of users a status report should be restricted to. When status reports are generated, only planner pages accessible by these users will be consulted, and the resulting status report will be similarly restricted. -- User Option: planner-report-pretty-print-plan-pages If non-nil, pretty print plan pages. If nil, leave page names as-is. This requires that `muse-wiki.el' be loaded to work properly. -- User Option: planner-report-remove-task-numbers Remove task numbers when generating status reports. -- User Option: planner-report-replace-note-numbers If non-nil, a string with which to replace note numbers when generating status reports. -- User Option: planner-report-unfinished-offset If non-nil, the offset in days from the current date of unfinished tasks to include in the status report. If nil, include all unfinished tasks. Functions --------- -- Function: planner-report-generate begin end Generate a status report spanning a period from BEGIN to END. BEGIN and END are in the format YYYY.MM.DD. 6.2.3.3 Seeing an Overview of Tasks ................................... You can see a list of tasks with `planner-tasks-overview.el'. Seeing how you've scheduled tasks over the next few days can help you decide when to schedule another task. Table entries will be of the form DATE | LINK | PRIORITY STATUS | TASK-DESCRIPTION Functions --------- To display the tasks between a set of day pages, use -- Function: planner-tasks-overview start end Display an overview of your tasks from START to END. If START is nil, start from the very first day page. If END is nil, include the very last day page. You can use `planner-expand-name' shortcuts here, like `+1' or `-1'. Pressing at the prompt will use today. Once in a `planner-tasks-overview' buffer, you can use the keyboard shortcut to change the overview period. You can sort the task display with the following functions: -- Function: planner-tasks-overview-sort-by-date Sort the tasks by date. Keyboard shortcut: <1> -- Function: planner-tasks-overview-sort-by-plan Sort the tasks by associated plan page. Keyboard shortcut: <2> -- Function: planner-tasks-overview-sort-by-priority Sort the tasks by priority. Keyboard shortcut: <3> -- Function: planner-tasks-overview-sort-by-status Sort the tasks by status. Keyboard shortcut: <4> You can jump to linked tasks with -- Function: planner-tasks-overview-jump other-window Display the current task. If a prefix argument is supplied, show the task in another window. Keyboard shortcut: -- Function: planner-tasks-overview-jump-other-window Display the current task in another window. Keyboard shortcut: `C-u j' You can view a summary of the tasks in your plan pages with -- Function: planner-tasks-overview-show-summary &optional file-list Count unscheduled, scheduled, and completed tasks for FILE-LIST. If called with an interactive prefix, prompt for the plan page(s) to display. Load `planner-multi.el' to be able to specify multiple pages. Keys ---- , `SHIFT-TAB' and navigate links in the usual fashion. 6.2.3.4 tag ................... `' is replaced by a report of tasks over all day pages in published pages (*note Publishing::). All incomplete tasks All completed tasks All tasks Warning: this function can be slow, as it checks all the day pages! 6.3 planner-registry ==================== The `planner-registry' module provides a way to keep track of all the URLs in your projects, and to list them depending on the current buffer. The URLs are defined in `muse-url-protocols' module from Muse. If a URL has been created by `planner-create-task-from-buffer', going to that buffer and calling `planner-registry-show' will show you where Planner put the URL. Getting started --------------- To begin using `planner-registry', add the following to your Planner configuration file. (require 'planner-registry) (planner-registry-initialize) You must put it after the place where Planner has been loaded in your configuration file. If you want the registry to be updated each time you save a Planner file, add the following to your Planner configuration. (planner-registry-insinuate) If you don't want to update the registry each time a file is written, you can do it manually with `planner-registry-update': it will update the registry for saved Planner/Muse buffers only. `planner-registry' does not define any keybindings by default. Its most useful interactive function is `planner-registry-show'. Example usage ------------- Say for example that you created a task from an e-mail. Go to that e-mail and call `planner-registry-show': it will open a new buffer displaying the files (in a muse links format) where a link to this e-mail has been added. Options ------- `planner-registry' defines the following options. -- User Option: planner-registry-file The file where `planner-registry' stores its URL registry. -- User Option: planner-registry-min-keyword-size The minimum size for keywords. -- User Option: planner-registry-max-keyword-size The maximum size for keywords. -- User Option: planner-registry-max-number-of-keywords The maximum number of keywords. -- User Option: planner-registry-ignore-keywords A list of keywords to ignore. -- User Option: planner-registry-show-level Level used by the `planner-registry-show' function. 0 means that this function shows only exact matches. 1 means that this function also shows descriptive matches. 2 (or more) means that this function also shows fuzzy matches. 6.4 planner-zoom ================ When assessing where you stand in relation to the tasks you have set out for yourself, you might want a way to survey those tasks in groups divided by time periods, like by the week or by the month. You could create all of these overview pages by hand, but if you like to have this kind of overview frequently, you might find manually creating such pages to be tedious and time consuming. `planner-zoom' is an optional module designed to make it easy to view your task information grouped by year, quarter, month, week or day. To install this module, just load it in your `.emacs' (or `_emacs'): (require 'planner-zoom) This module will recognize planner pages named according to the following scheme: year view `2006.Year' quarter view `2006.Quarter2' month view `2006.January' week view `2006.January.Week3' day view `2006.01.02' Keybindings ----------- This module also adds key bindings that you can use when looking at a Planner page to easily jump between the different time-period views. `S-up' Move to the view corresponding to the time period one step larger than the current one. For example, it moves from the weekly view to the monthly view. It calls `planner-zoom-iup'. `S-down' Move to the view corresponding to the time period one step smaller than the current one. For example, it moves from the weekly view to the daily view. It calls `planner-zoom-idown'. `S-left' Stay in the same time-period view as the current one, but move one interval earlier. For example, it moves from `2006.January.Week3' to `2006.January.Week2'. It calls `planner-zoom-iprev'. `S-right' Stay in the same time-period view as the current one, but move one interval later. For example, it moves from `2006.January.Week3' to `2006.January.Week4'. It calls `planner-zoom-inext'. Example usage ------------- Look at the page named `2006.January' and then hit `S-down' which will show `2006.January.Week1'. Then hit `S-left' and `S-right' to look at `2006.January.Week2', `2006.January.Week3', etc. Advanced tips and options ------------------------- You can use any prefix argument with `planner-zoom-iup' and `planner-zoom-idown' to have the new view display in a window other than the current one. This also works with a nonnumeric prefix argument and `planner-zoom-inext' or `planner-zoom-iprev'. For these two functions, a numeric prefix will specify the number of intervals to move. If you don't like the default patterns for naming the time-period view pages, you can change them by customizing `planner-zoom-regexps'. Some people believe weeks start with Sunday, and some believe they start with Monday. To accommodate both of these colliding worldviews, `planner-zoom-first-day-of-week' can be customized. Its default value is `1', which is Monday. If you would prefer Sunday, change it to `0'. The month to which a week belongs is the month in which the first day of the week falls. Command reference ----------------- -- Function: planner-zoom-iup name other-window Move to the next higher level in the hierarchy. With a prefix argument, show the desired page in the other window. -- Function: planner-zoom-idown name other-window Move to the next lower level in the hierarchy. If the current date is within the higher-level time range, zoom to the lower level time range that also contains today. Otherwise, just go to the first lower-level time range. With a prefix argument, show the desired page in the other window. -- Function: panner-zoom-inext name num other-window Move to the next time range at the same level in the hierarchy. With a numeric prefix argument, move by that number of time ranges. With a non-numeric prefix argument, show the desired page in the other window. -- Function: planner-zoom-iprev name num other-window Move to the previous time range at the same level in the hierarchy. With a numeric prefix argument, move by that number of time ranges. With a non-numeric prefix argument, show the desired page in the other window. 6.5 More about Notes ==================== Planner by default organizes the notes on a planner page so that the most recent note is first. Each note is numbered, with the oldest note labeled `.#1'. If you would like to reverse this behavior, look at `C-h v planner-reverse-chronological-notes'. Notes are associated with day pages, but can also be associated with plan pages when they are created. A linked note looks like this: .#1 Headline (LinkedNote#1) Text You can jump to the linked note with `planner-jump-to-linked-note'. Deleting a note can be dangerous, as the notes are automatically numbered. Removing a note could break links in other pages. Functions --------- -- Function: planner-create-note page Create a note to be remembered in PAGE (today if PAGE is nil). If `planner-reverse-chronological-notes' is non-nil, create the note at the beginning of the notes section; otherwise, add it to the end. Position point after the anchor. -- Function: planner-create-note-from-task Create a note based on the current task and update the current task to link to the note. -- Function: planner-renumber-notes Update note numbering. -- Function: planner-jump-to-linked-note note-info Display the note linked to by the current note or NOTE-INFO if non-nil. -- Function: planner-search-notes regexp limit Return a buffer with all the notes returned by the query for REGEXP. If called with a prefix argument, prompt for LIMIT and search days on or after LIMIT. The following sections include instructions for displaying, manipulating, and navigating your notes efficiently. 6.5.1 Using Allout Mode ----------------------- The format of the notes in Planner works well with Allout mode, which provides helpful commands for navigating and formatting outlines. You can, for example, hide the bodies of all the notes on a page so you can see just their headlines. You can also jump easily from headline to headline, skipping over the bodies in between. The commands for using Allout mode vary depending on which Emacs version you are using. In either case, type `M-x load-library allout ' to start. If you are using Emacs 22 or later, type `M-x allout-mode '. If you are using an earlier version of Emacs, type `M-x outline-mode '. The exact commands then available to you differ depending on your Emacs version, but you can view the commands and their keybindings by typing `C-h m'. In Emacs 22 or later, they will start with `allout-', while in previous versions, they will start with `outline-'. For more information about using Allout mode, see `C-h f allout-mode '. 6.5.2 ------------- `' is replaced by a list of note headlines when the page is published. For example, the notes tag in the following example will be replaced by the two headlines when published. (*note Publishing::) * Notes .#1 This is a headline and this is body text .#2 This is another headline and this is more body text `' is useful if you want to provide a quick summary of blog entries at the top of your page. Just add it to your `planner-day-page-template'. 6.5.3 ------------------ `' is replaced by an index of note headlines. If START is specified, it lists notes starting from that date. If DIRECTORY is specified, you can index notes in another planner directory. All the notes I've taken in 2004: 6.5.4 Note Indices ------------------ Make sure that `planner-notes-index.el' is in your load path and add this to your `.emacs' (or `_emacs'): (require 'planner-notes-index) Then you can use tags of the form: You can also use the following interactive functions: `planner-notes-index' `planner-notes-index-days' `planner-notes-index-weeks' `planner-notes-index-months' `planner-notes-index-years' (wow!) These work based on the current date (date of current buffer, or today). If a single page is specified, this page is scanned for headlines of the form: .#1 Headline The results are presented as a bulleted list. If FROM and TO are specified, all date pages between them (inclusive) are scanned. If FROM is omitted, it is assumed to be the earliest entry. If TO is omitted, it is assumed to be the latest entry. If RECENT is specified, the list includes only that many recent headlines. and the results are presented as a bulleted list. To customize presentation, you can write a function that generates the appropriate `' tags. You can also use `planner-extract-note-headlines' in your own functions. Functions --------- The following interactive functions are defined in `planner-notes-index.el': -- Function: planner-notes-index &optional from to limit Display a clickable notes index. If called from a Lisp program, display only dates between FROM and TO. With a prefix arg LIMIT, display only that number of entries. -- Function: planner-notes-index-days days Display an index of notes posted over the past few DAYS. The list ends with the day of the current buffer or `planner-today'. -- Function: planner-notes-index-weeks weeks Display an index of notes posted over the past few WEEKS. The list ends with the week of the current buffer or `planner-today'. Weeks start from Sunday. -- Function: planner-notes-index-months months Display an index of notes posted over the past few MONTHS. The list ends with the month of the current buffer or `planner-today'. -- Function: planner-notes-index-years years Display an index of notes posted over the past few YEARS. The current year is included. `planner-notes-index.el' does not define any keybindings. 6.6 Making Files Pretty ======================= By default, planner does a little bit of fancy reformatting when you save a file. Tasks are sorted by priority (ABC) and status (_oP>XC) on day pages. On plan pages, tasks are sorted by priority (ABC), status (XC), and date. Undated tasks are sorted after dated tasks. Options ------- -- User Option: planner-sort-tasks-key-function Control task sorting. Some options include `planner-sort-tasks-default-key', `planner-sort-tasks-basic', `planner-sort-tasks-by-date', and `planner-sort-tasks-by-link'. -- User Option: planner-sort-undated-tasks-equivalent This option controls the behavior of task sorting on plan pages. By default, the value `9999.99.99' causes dated tasks to be listed before undated tasks. To sort undated tasks before dated tasks, set this to a blank string. -- User Option: planner-sort-tasks-automatically Non-nil means sort tasks whenever a planner file is saved. On day pages, tasks are sorted by status. On plan pages, they are sorted by status and date. Sorting can take a while. -- User Option: planner-renumber-tasks-automatically Non-nil means renumber tasks from 1 to N whenever a planner file is saved. This allows you to refer to tasks in previous day pages using anchors like `2003.08.12#A1'. If you use this function, make sure `planner-use-task-numbers' is non-nil so that new tasks are created with task numbers. -- User Option: planner-align-tasks-automatically Non-nil means align tasks whenever a planner file is saved. This causes the status to line up in a neat column if you have less than 100 tasks. -- User Option: planner-renumber-notes-automatically Non-nil means renumber the notes. If most of your notes are only on one page, you might like seeing the notes renumbered if you delete a note in the middle. However, if you use a lot of cross-referencing, note renumbering will break those links. Functions --------- -- Function: planner-sort-tasks Sort tasks according to planner-sort-tasks-key-function. By default, sort tasks according to priority and position on day pages, and according to status, priority, date, and position on plan pages. -- Function: planner-renumber-tasks Update task numbering. -- Function: planner-align-tasks Align tasks neatly. You can add this to `write-file-functions' to have the tasks automatically lined up whenever you save. For best results, ensure `planner-align-tasks' is run after `planner-renumber-tasks'. -- Function: planner-fix-tasks Sort, renumber and align tasks. 6.7 Annotations =============== The context included when you create a task and the context included when you create a note are gained the same way. It sounds like black magic, but it turns out not to be. All that happens is, Planner has a list of functions, `planner-annotation-functions'. When you create a task from a buffer, or remember a note from a buffer, Planner goes through this list from top to bottom. The first one that returns true is the one it uses. For example, if you're in Wanderlust, and you hit the key you've bound to `planner-create-task-from-buffer', it looks at this list and does something like this. Is it an ERC buffer? No. Is it a BBDB buffer? No. Are we in w3m? No. Are we in Wanderlust? Yes. So this function succeeds. It stops searching and runs the annotation function for Wanderlust, which in this case finds out who the message is from and what the message ID of the message is. It then takes those and constructs a link back to that message, with a link title something like `Email from Joe Blogs'. So, you've read the email from Joe Blogs. He's asked you to do something and you've hit your key to add that task to your list of things to do. So what you end up with is a description of the task, and a link back to what made you create the task in the first place. The same happens with remembering notes, except that it ends up in the `* Notes' section of your page instead. Options ------- To change the behavior of annotations, customize the following options: -- User Option: planner-annotation-functions A list of functions tried in order by `planner-create-task-from-buffer' and other functions that pick up context. The first non-nil value returned is used as the annotation. To cause an item to *not* be annotated, return the empty string `""'. -- User Option: planner-annotation-strip-directory File links are usually generated with the full path to the file so that you can easily tell apart files with the same base name. If `planner-annotation-strip-directory' is non-nil, though, only the base name of the file will be displayed. For example, a link to `/foo/bar/baz' will be displayed as `baz' and hyperlinked to the file. -- User Option: planner-annotation-use-relative-file If t, always use relative filenames. `planner-annotation-use-relative-file' can also be a function that takes the filename and returns non-nil if the link should be relative. Filenames are resolved relative to the first directory of your Planner project in `muse-project-alist'. That is, the created link will be of the form `../../somefile' instead of `/absolute/path/to/file'. This can be helpful if you publish your planner files to the Net and your directory structure ensures that relative links resolve the same from your Plan pages and their respective publishing directory. 6.8 Interactive Lisp with planner-lisp.el ========================================= You can include interactive Lisp functions in your planner pages. First, you need `planner-lisp.el'. Put this in your `.emacs' (or `_emacs'): (require 'planner-lisp) Then, add a link to the Lisp function to your page, like: [[lisp:/plan][Plan]] This will be rendered as `Plan'. Selecting the link will run the `plan' function interactively. You can also execute other Lisp expressions. For example: [[lisp:/(planner-goto (planner-expand-name "+7"))][Next week]] `planner-lisp.el' does not provide any interactive functions or keybindings. 6.9 Publishing ============== You can publish your planner files to a variety of different formats. For example, you can publish your planner in HTML and put it on a normal web server. No special server support is required. This gives you an easy way to keep other people up to date on your tasks, keep a web log, or simply organize information. Published files are stored in the path specified by `muse-project-alist' for your Planner project. Just copy the contents of this directory to your web server, and you're all set! Of course, publishing is completely optional. Here are some more features related to publishing: 6.9.1 Publishing Planner pages ------------------------------ Publishing works by providing Muse with the settings and environment for Planner publishing. First, make sure that you have set up a proper `muse-project-alist' (*note Creating Your Planner::). Second, add: (require 'planner-publish) to your `.emacs' (or `_emacs'). To publish your entire Planner project, hit `C-c C-p' (`muse-project-publish'). To publish just the current buffer, hit `C-c C-t' (`muse-publish-this-file'). To automatically publish files when you save them, add the following code to your `~/.emacs' (or `_emacs'): (eval-after-load "muse-mode" (add-hook 'after-save-hook #'(lambda () (when (planner-derived-mode-p 'muse-mode) (muse-project-publish nil))) nil t)) Styles provided --------------- The following publishing styles are available. `planner-html' Publish Planner pages to HTML. `planner-xhtml' Publish Planner pages to XHTML. `planner-xml' Publish Planner pages to XML. Options provided ---------------- The following options may be customized to enhance your publishing experience. `planner-publish-markup-regexps' List of markup rules for publishing Planner pages. `planner-publish-markup-functions' Specify which function to use for publishing different kinds of markup. `planner-publish-markup-tags' A list of custom HTML-like tags to recognize when publishing. `planner-xml-markup-strings' Strings that are inserted to publish XML markup. `planner-xml-header' Header used when publishing Planner XML files. This may be text or a filename. `planner-xml-footer' Footer used when publishing Planner XML files. This may be text or a filename. `planner-html-markup-strings' Strings that are inserted to publish HTML markup. `planner-html-style-sheet' CSS stylesheet elements used in Planner HTML and XHTML files. This can also be one or more `' tags. `planner-html-header' Header used when publishing Planner HTML files. This may be text or a filename. `planner-html-footer' Footer used when publishing Planner HTML files. This may be text or a filename. `planner-xhtml-header' Header used when publishing Planner XHTML files. This may be text or a filename. `planner-xhtml-footer' Footer used when publishing Planner XHTML files. This may be text or a filename. `planner-html-inner-header' Extra header section that can be embedded within `planner-html-header' and `planner-xhtml-header'. `planner-html-inner-footer' Extra header section that can be embedded within `planner-html-footer' and `planner-xhtml-footer'. `planner-publish-prepare-regexps' List of markup rules to apply before publishing a page with Planner. `planner-publish-finalize-regexps' List of markup rules to apply after publishing a page with Planner. 6.9.2 Publishing Calendars -------------------------- To publish calendars in your day pages, it is necessary to do two steps. * Add `(require 'planner-calendar)' to your configuration. * Add a `' tag to either your header, footer, or PLANNER-DAY-PAGE-TEMPLATE, depending on where you want it to appear. To display a calendar based on a different day (given here as DAYPAGE), use `'. To get arrows to previous and next months to show up, use `'. The text in PLANNER-CALENDAR-PREV-MONTH-BUTTON and PLANNER-CALENDAR-NEXT-MONTH-BUTTON will be used for the arrows to the previous and next months, respectively. By default, Muse will not display the arrows properly, due to limitations in the special-escaping algorithm. To work around this, remove the `&' rule from MUSE-XML-MARKUP-SPECIALS, or from MUSE-HTML-MARKUP-SPECIALS if you are using the 3.02.6 version of Muse. It is also possible to create a symlink from the current day page to the page name specified by PLANNER-CALENDAR-TODAY-PAGE-NAME. To accomplish this, add the following to your configuration. (eval-after-load "muse-publish" '(add-hook 'muse-after-publish-hook 'planner-calendar-create-today-link)) Options ------- -- User Option: planner-calendar-prev-month-button HTML text used for previous month buttons. -- User Option: planner-calendar-next-month-button HTML text used for next month buttons. -- User Option: planner-calendar-day-header-chars Number of characters to use for day column header names. -- User Option: planner-calendar-today-page-name Default name for published today page link. Functions --------- -- Function: planner-calendar-create-today-link Add this function to `muse-after-publish-hook' to create a "today" soft-link to the newest published planner day page, on operating systems that support POSIX `ln'. 6.9.3 Authz Access Restriction ------------------------------ `planner-authz.el' was written by Andrew J. Korty in order to allow the easy restriction of portions of published pages. It uses the HTML::Mason module available on CPAN (`http://www.cpan.org'). Setting up HTML::Mason is outside the scope of this document. Make sure that it works before trying out `planner-authz.el'. `planner-authz.el' modifies the behavior of `muse-project-publish' so that published pages follow access modifiers. This library lets you publish your planner pages while controlling access to certain portions of them to users you specify. When you load this library, you gain access to two additional markup directives to use in your planner pages. The `' tag lets you restrict access to arbitrary content as follows: Here is a sentence everyone should see. This sentence also contains no sensitive data whatsoever. This sentence, however, talks about my predilection for that French vanilla instant coffee that comes in the little tin, and I'm embarrassed for anyone else to know about that. And here's some more perfectly innocuous content. You can use `' tags to mark up entire paragraphs, tasks, notes, and anything else. The tags are replaced with Mason code in the published pages. The `#authz' directive restricts access to an entire page. A Mason call is added to this page to generate a 403 error when someone not listed tries to access it. Any notes or tasks on a `#authz'-protected page are also wrapped in Mason code on linked pages. To add a `#authz' directive to a Muse page, place `#authz' followed by a space-delimited list of users on one line. For example: #authz ajk sacha Getting started --------------- Add the following to your .emacs file to cause `M-x muse-project-publish' to automatically use planner-authz features. (require 'planner-authz) Diary markup ------------ If your pages have a section with diary entries maintained by planner-appt.el (or by any other means), you can control access to these entries. First, customize `planner-section-tagnames' to map your diary section ("* Schedule", in this example) to a tag called "diary-section". An example follows. (add-to-list 'planner-section-tagnames '("Schedule" . "diary-section")) If the name of your diary section is "* Diary", you will not need to customize `planner-section-tagnames' by default. Then make sure the diary entries you want restricted contain a corresponding plan page name in parentheses, as in the following example. 10:00 10:30 Meeting with boss (WorkStuff) Options ------- -- User Option: planner-authz-project-default Default access list for project pages (not day pages). If a given project page doesn't contain a `#authz' tag, it will receive the access list defined here. If this variable is nil, all users will be allowed to view the page. No corresponding variable is provided for day pages because it doesn't seem like you'd ever want to control access based on what day it was. (But I will accept patches. :) Notes and tasks referencing pages without `#authz' tags will also be restricted to the users listed here. -- User Option: planner-authz-day-note-default Default access list for notes on day pages not associated with any project. There is way to set a default for notes on project pages for the reason above; they would only be associated with date pages anyway. -- User Option: planner-authz-day-task-default Same as `planner-authz-day-note-default', but for tasks. Functions --------- -- Function: planner-authz-publish-index Publish an index for the planner marked up with Mason code. Only those links to pages which the remote user is authorized to access will be shown. 6.9.4 RSS Publication --------------------- `planner-rss.el' allows you to publish your notes in the RSS 2.0 XML format for blog syndication. You will also want to customize the following variables: To manually add the current note to all the matching RSS feeds, invoke `planner-rss-add-note'. You can specify a filename with the universal prefix, like this: `C-u M-x planner-rss-add-note'. If you use the `remember-planner.el' module to create notes, you can automatically publish new notes to RSS feeds by adding the following code to your `.emacs' (or `_emacs'). (add-to-list 'remember-planner-append-hook 'planner-rss-add-note t) Options ------- -- User Option: planner-rss-base-url Base absolute URL for published blog entries. Should include trailing `/'. -- User Option: planner-rss-category-feeds Rules for automatic categorization of posts and publishing to RSS files. A blog entry is matched against each condition. If it matches the regular expression or the function returns a non-nil value, the blog entry is copied into the specified file. -- User Option: planner-rss-feed-limits A list of regular expressions that match feed filenames and the size and item limits for feeds that match. For example, you can use `(("." nil 10))' to ensure that all feeds are limited to the 10 most recent items. Functions --------- `planner-rss.el' defines the following interactive functions: -- Function: planner-rss-add-note FEED Export the current note using `planner-add-item'. If FEED is specified, add the entry to the specified file. Else, add the entry to all matching RSS feeds specified by `planner-rss-category-feeds'. 6.9.5 iCal Publication ---------------------- iC