Sync'ing from Memory

Emacs Productivity Notes For The Newbie

Packages and config about Emacs that I tend to forget, so here are my reminders

This is for the newbie, but not exactly the noobie newbie. More for those who are comfortable with Emacs but not comfortable with what features are available and how to personalize emacs.

Workspaces

Treemacs is a file layout for Emacs that supports notions of workspaces and projects. It also supports projectile projects. Workspaces group projects. They can remember (and re-load) states. These are like your virtual desktops.

File Management

Renames and Moves

dired gives you quick ways if you don't want to hack your own (you don't!). Once in the dired buffer for the appropriate directory, use bound keystrokes for your work. R stands for rename, for example. Also, dired will creating missing directories.

Powerful Completions

Swiper provides some power behavior for Emacs. It provides

  • Ivy

  • Counsel, and

  • Swiper

Counsel

Counsel provides versions of some common Emacs commands that leverage Ivy.

Swiper

Swiper is an isearch alternative that shows a nice overview of search matches.

A Shorter Path

Hydra

Hydra allows you to define a common prefix, behind which exist a host of keys that are meaningful only in that context, and those keys can execute any command bound to them. In simpler words, beyond the prefix, you now get the freedom to not use the Control/Meta keys - a nice productivity boost.

Org-mode

Quick Navigation

If you have Counsel, then it provides counsel-outline which

  • Shows you your org-mode outline

  • Uses ivy for quick search-based narrow-down.