[[!sidebar content=""]] [[!meta title="Emacs journalism (or everything's a nail if you hit it with Emacs)"]] [[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2022 Alfred Zanini"]] [[!inline pages="internal(2022/info/journalism-nav)" raw="yes"]] # Emacs journalism (or everything's a nail if you hit it with Emacs) Alfred Zanini (he/they) [[!inline pages="internal(2022/info/journalism-before)" raw="yes"]] # PART I - Where I started ## Figuring out what you want out of your workflow For me, that is: - note-taking and todos for admin and work tasks - project management - setting up deadlines for each task and reminders to check in with people - a writing environment when I need to focus on script work - a way to experiment with coding and integrating that into my work - storyboarding different scenes - scheduling interviews and reachouts for interviews ## Presentation of my previous workflow Using google drive, word, storyboarder, wechat, notion # Part II - Where I ended up ## Why Emacs ? ## Org-Contacts Setting up Org-Contacts to track documentary leads and keep up with them - also in use for personal contacts ## ORG Roam Using Org-Roam to link project ideas and leads, and add summaries of interviews / transcripts to contact files. Org-Mode and Org-Contacts to schedule interviews, reaching out, check-ins. All the while writing the script for the project on the Org-Roam page, with global project questions and specific interview questions for each scheduled shoot. ## PANDOC and working with colleagues Once my first draft of the script is ready, I need to be able to share it for review. This is where the "Everything's a nail when you hit it with emacs" part comes in. Using Org-Mode for comments and for coloring with HTML tags and source blocks Not the easiest nor the most fun way to collaborate, but it is where I have ended up on. ## Other packages I use regularly for a documentary workflow Mu4e Fountain.el hledger-mode bibtex for research papers present # Conclusions ## Forever Work In Progress A lot of features to be added and kinks to be worked out but getting to a state where you can use software that you love every day is the most important point to me So let's keep modding our configs! # Discussion ## Notes - WRT Literate programming, if you've never read Knuth's Tangle/Web/Weave stuff, it's worth knowing about - Using the Calendar in conjunction with task managment and email show off the power off the holistic workflow of Emacs - CRDT-- an easy way to work with other people in emacs -- - Yes, liberal arts types. - I relate with so much of this talk so far :-P - I didn't know about :ignore: for org-mode headings. Is that set up by default? - I also use COMMENT as a todo and it is ignored too. - Ahhhhh. Good call. I use TODO in headings when I'm writing to remind me to finish sections later. - Yeah, I use :noexport: in pretty much every doc for all of my notes and throwaway scratch writing and stuff. - Huh, CRDT sounds interesting. - I export docs to Markdown, but I also use pandoc to generate DOCX files from org. Because most writers aren't using Emacs. - Thanks, I'll check that out. The writers and editors that I'm working with are frequestly looking for ways to handle change tracking and version tracking for docs. I recommend stuff like git but they need something that's easier for non-techie folks to use. - Feedback - Great talk! - Well done! - flipping great stuff. Thanks!!!!!! ## Questions and answers - Q: It'd be interesting if you explained why WeChat is a necessity for you; outside China, most people have no reason to use it at all.  Thanks. - A: I think he meant Weechat (the IRC client) not WeChat -- Chinese exigency  - The captioning did mention WeChat.  If he lives in Hong Kong, then I totally understand, so consider this question answered. - Oh nvm then - Yeah, you've (Alfred) gotten WeChat spot on.  Most people here don't care much, but I'm probably one of the only people in this country not using WeChat, and it's a major PITA to live without. - Q:Have you looked at CRDT.el for collaborative realtime editing? - A: most of my work is just versions - CRDT has great org mode support for task managent - CRDT - - - related: - Q:Sharing orgmode files is trickier than we expect. Do you do this? If yes, how do you do it? - A: Direct sharing was not successful. Exporting to docx or ODT is problematic (Latex structure).  - has tried github and gitlab, but that might require signups - is also suboptimal - Export profiles for ODT or DOCX is a better approach, or at least worked well so far - Karl Voit's notes on collaborative working with non-Org users: - - -   - -   - Export to docx via pandoc and re-import via =pandoc --track-changes=all= -     : pandoc --track-changes=all Document.docx Compare_to_original.org - - - - : an implementation of Org mode without the dependency of Emacs. It is built for mobile and desktop browsers and syncs with Dropbox, Google Drive and WebDAV. - - [2021-06-08 Tue] → discussion - Karl Voit's notes on collaborative working with Emacs users: - - 2020-05-29 -   - special emacs setup that allows collaboration on the same LAN -   - needs separate emacs config (different host or user or move config out of the way) -   - [ ] try it out myself - - [2020-08-31 Mon] + -   - unmaintained: - - [2021-11-03 Wed] -   - via Sacha Chua's EmacsConf21 Emacs news - Q:Do you use pandoc for incoming and outgoing docs? Do you find that repeated conversions lose document quality? - A: Layouts are kind of wonky, but that's possible to work through if you go into the settings and adjust basically to how you want it to look like. - And for incoming docs, so that's a bit more of a hassle. My plan for this talk was to have it a bit more ready, but I've got this integration for org-ic, org-apple-pages documents, that kind of thing. So that's often the documents that I get from my colleagues, and I found a way to transfer them into org documents. I did that kind of quickly, so I don't think I'm quite ready to share exactly how it went, but I'm planning on doing some documentation around that. But yeah, basically the gist of it is, I don't find it a huge issue. - Q: I am beginning on emacs (again) after falling off every time because of the "working in config-files" whole day. What was your moment when you really started to work in emacs instead of config-editing? - A: Had the click after finding text editor workflow. Don't be too frustrated :-) , use templates, put ideas off to a later moment.  - related: and - Q: Why is emacs recommended for journalism? -vidianos asks - A: I wouldn't say it's recommended-- a personal choice-- valuable as a tool-- can be tailored so that it's easy to transfer skills from other disciplines-- more scientific ones to journalism. Org-Roam is a game changer because it allows me to set thoughts aside and know that I can get back to it. Helps with self-control. - Q: Do you use any fancy solutions for annotation text onto particular video timestamps? - Clarification: Yes, asking about making notes on a video, when something happens  - Side Note: subd.el could be useful - A: Taking notes with org-roam and linking them to BiBTeX etc - Q: When you get stuck with an emacs problem-- is there somewhere you go to get help (nice place for non-tech people?) - Q: is it possible to use emacs bookmarks capability to literally bookmark a specific timestamp in a video clip (and by that the note taking could be done in that bookmark instance)… ? - Q: is Alfred australian? - I suspect he's Swiss - Thanks, I'll check that out. The writers and editors that I'm working with are frequestly looking for ways to handle change tracking and version tracking for docs. I recommend stuff like git but they need something that's easier for non-techie folks to use. - I did not know about org-mpv - There isn't a proper org-mpv, but there are a few functions to combine mpv.el with org-mode here: https://github.com/kljohann/mpv.el/wiki - Alfred is a very quick learner [[!inline pages="internal(2022/info/journalism-after)" raw="yes"]] [[!inline pages="internal(2022/info/journalism-nav)" raw="yes"]] [[!taglink CategoryOrgMode]] [[!taglink CategoryOrgRoam]]