org-randomnote

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[[https://melpa.org/#/org-randomnote][file:https://melpa.org/packages/org-randomnote-badge.svg]]

~org-randomnote~ intends to provide a way to bring randomness into your Org-Mode workflow. It does so by implementing the "Random Note" functionality popularized by Tiago Forte with Evernote in Emacs Org-Mode.

Some people use Random Note functionality daily, as a way to revisit nearly-forgotten but potentially-useful notes, or to spark creative insights by bringing older subjects into mind with new subjects.

** Installation and Configuration You can now use Melpa as usual: ~M-x package-install~ and then ~org-randomnote~.

You can also use this example configuration, using John Wiegley's ~use-package~:

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp (use-package org-randomnote :ensure t :bind ("C-c r" . org-randomnote)) #+END_SRC

Then run ~eval-buffer~ on your ~.emacs~, or restart Emacs.

In Spacemacs, you can put the ~use-package~ snippet above into ~dotspacemacs/user-config~, and add ~org-randomnote~ to your ~dotspacemacs-additional-packages~:

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp dotspacemacs-additional-packages '( org-randomnote ) #+END_SRC

Then use ~SPC-f-e-R~ to synchronize your Spacemacs and load the package.

** Usage Once loaded, run the interactive command ~org-randomnote~.

You can configure which files ~org-randomnote~ selects from with the variable ~org-randomnote-candidates~. It defaults to using ~org-agenda-files~, but you can use any list of files:

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp (setq org-randomnote-candidates '("~/org/todo.org")) #+END_SRC

If you'd like to move to a random note on the current buffer only, use ~'current-buffer~.

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp (setq org-randomnote-candidates 'current-buffer) #+END_SRC

You can also configure the behavior with which ~org-randomnote~ opens files. By default, it simply moves to a random note's header. However, you can also configure it to use an indirect buffer, like so:

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp (setq org-randomnote-open-behavior 'indirect-buffer) #+END_SRC

To configure ~org-randomnote~ to use entire directories as sources, you can use this snippet:

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp (load-library "find-lisp") (setq org-randomnote-candidates (find-lisp-find-files "~/Documents/3 Resources" ".org$")) #+END_SRC

This way ~org-randomnote~ will find any org file in that folder.

However, be aware that you may see the warning ~org-randomnote: Wrong type argument: number-or-marker-p, nil~. This warning will crop up when ~org-randomnote~ brings up a file that doesn't have any actual Org headers (e.g. "* 1 Projects").

For org-randomnote's purposes, a "note" is considered a heading in an Org file. In this way, an org file is somewhat analogous to a notebook in Evernote, whereas the individual headings are notes.

This is not necessarily intuitive or perfect, but it works well enough to begin with, especially since it can still find such a file randomly.