I recently switched to emacs after years (prob > 15) on vi/vim. The main reason I decided to dabble in emacs is to play around with org-mode. so far I am really happy with result and though the transition has been difficult, I’m getting more comfortable as the days go by.

I like to take notes and over the years I’ve tried many different methods. Started with text notes and progress to on-line services like EverNote. I also use OneNote from MS. All are great platforms and great tools but there is usually one hiccup.

I recently started a class on Coursera and wanted equations in my notes but did not want to switch to LaTex as I’m not proficient enough to be fast and take notes in real-time. Org-mode became a good compromise. I could take notes and throw in equations:

Same goes for adding a simple table:

	AAPL	GOOG	IBM	XOM
2008/01/01	600	490	120	50
2008/01/02	601	495	121	49
2008/01/03	620	489	119	52

Or a list:

• item1
  • sub-item1
  • sub-item2
• item2

If I need to share my notes, I can easily generate a PDF or HTML directly from org-mode. And working within org-mode is really fast and functional, it offers neat features to re-order lines, throw in bold and underline, etc.

I also use to list URL and external links. Like this one to visit the main org-mode site.

I am an avid list user and like to keep track on things to do and break down larger projects in smaller tasks. I was recently turned on to https://trello.com/ for this. It has a really next web interface to manage each list item as a “card”. But as functional as Trello is, I think I am still more comfortable with plain text lists. Org Mode gives me extra features in my text lists to organize, schedule and prioritize items better.

As I mentioned, Org Mode exports HTML so it very easy to add web integration to it. The last feature I am testing today is the Org2Blog feature which allows me to write-up and manage my wordpress posts from Org Mode. The jury is still out on this as I am testing this feature with this post.

So more to come later…