Why I use Denote

So last week I have decided to get to know to Denote package. Having lots of free time, I realized that I do not like my notes structure. Maybe Denote will help with that.

I can say that the best introduction to Denote is here - https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2022-06-18-denote-demo/. By the Denote package author himself. It is nice to use the tool that was created by the person I "know". Also the great docs here - https://protesilaos.com/emacs/denote

• Denote is nice because you can have a list of important files in one place, no matter their format, You just have to name it to have the denote way of naming
• You can tag all of your files, then search by tags.
• You can see the creation date of them right in the dired buffer
• You have all of the drenote files in the order of their creation
• You can see in which files current file is mentioned in(backlinks)
• You can import all the files to the current location that have the desired tag(denote-add-links).
• You can create files easily with denote command from anywhere in the emacs (C-c n n), it will apply the headers (filename, time created, tags etc)
• You can jump and look through the denote directory from anywhere in Emacs

This whole Denote setup has taken way more time and effort than I expected. Reinstalling Emacs to a newer version, then fixing wsl - reporting bugs to Microsoft's wslg team, remaking my linux/emacs configuration with nixos, making denote run quickier, transporting all my notes to denote style notes(is what I am doing right now, for the last couple of days)… Okay, my notes are quite valuable to me, so let's try to create a website out of them with Emacs. Now I just have to figure out how which website creation method is the best for me:

• Must use emacs, right? why build a website with emacs and not with something else
• Checking my previous blogs I have created with Emacs, their configs, content
• Looking for inspiration in other places - inspirational websites
• Try easy hugo maybe? create a blog with emacs-easy-hugo
• Ox_hugo maybe? create a website with ox hugo
• Org static blog maybe? build a website with emacs and org-static-blog
• Px-publish maybe? Build a website with emacs and ox-publish
• Finally decided how I will build it - building development notes website with Emacs

I of course had to write down all the steps I took into separate denote pages, so that we work on that knowledge base you know.

Then I also have to transfer all of my notes from various places(previous blogs, my work notes, etc..) to denote to have them all in one place, everywhere :)

So to simply use Denote I had to go over many many steps as you can see :D It's funny. Many Yaks have been shaved during this process.

Overall, I am happy with the result.