howm: note-taking tool on Emacs

howm: Write fragmentarily and read collectively.

Howm is a note-taking tool on Emacs. It is similar to emacs-wiki.el; you can enjoy hyperlinks and full-text search easily. It is not similar to emacs-wiki.el; it can be combined with any format.

Quick start, Download (snapshot: / git )
Introduction by Leah Neukirchen (thx!)
Detailed tutorial by Andrei Sukhovskii (thx!)
1-minute introduction on YouTube by Raoul Comninos (thx!)
Tips, Bug reports & discussions
old tutorial, old mailing list (may be broken. archives)

The following screenshot illustrates the Howm linking system:

screen shot

(Colorscheme: Modus themes.)

Hyperlinks

goto link: file name or keyword

      >>> ~/BabyloniaWave.txt
      >>> highway planet

come-from link: If you write
```
      <<< crystal star cluster
```
in file A, all strings 'crystal star cluster' in other files are automatically linked to A.

Full-text search

Everything is based on full-text search (grep); the above 'links' are shortcuts to grep.
Write fragmentarily and read collectively; you can concatenate all matched notes into a single buffer.

No conversion

You can keep your favorite style. :-)

text file and free format
implemented as a minor mode; can be combined with other modes.

Todo list with magic sorting

Reminder: sinks slowly.
Todo: floats slowly.
Deadline: floats rapidly when the date is approaching.

Manual installation

'./configure', 'make', and 'make install'. Files are installed to /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/howm/ and /usr/local/share/howm/.
Write below in your .emacs.
```
        (require 'howm)
      
```

If you see 'cannot open load file' error, put this before the above description.

        (add-to-list 'load-path "/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/howm/")

(Optional) When howm runs too slow, try 'M-x customize-group RET howm-efficiency RET'. In particular, the below settings will be necessary for heavy users.

        (setq howm-view-use-grep t)  ;; use external grep
        (setq howm-menu-refresh-after-save nil)
        (setq howm-menu-expiry-hours 6)  ;; cache menu N hours
        (setq howm-menu-file "0000-00-00-000000.txt")  ;; don't *search*

Customization

For customization, try 'M-x customize-group RET howm RET'.

Updates

1.5.4 to 1.5.5

Changes

In the summary buffer, "f contents RET" now performs pure filtering (it simply retains only the matched entries). The previous behavior (filter and list matching lines) is available via "G" or "f grep RET". Similarly, "f Keyword-in-contents RET" has changed; the previous behavior is now available via "f Grep-keyword RET". Also, "F" and "K" now serve as shortcuts for these pure filtering commands. thx

If you really want to restore the previous behavior, add the following after loading howm:

;; Restore the behavior of "f contents RET" etc. in the list view
;; to how it was in howm-1.5.4 or earlier
(setf (alist-get "contents" howm-view-filter-methods nil nil #'equal)
  ;; Use the old name intentionally for safety in older versions
  'howm-view-filter-by-contents)
(setf (alist-get "Keyword-in-contents" howm-view-filter-methods nil nil #'equal)
  'howm-view-filter-by-keyword-in-contents)
(define-key howm-view-summary-mode-map "K" 'howm-keyword-to-kill-ring)
(define-key howm-view-contents-mode-map "K" 'howm-keyword-to-kill-ring)

Improvements
- List view can now open in a new frame or tab, and pressing "q" closes it (Run "M-x customize-group RET howm-list-bufwin RET", then set "howm-view-window-location" and "howm-view-close-frame/tab-on-exit") thx
- Remove mistakenly registered come-from keywords using "M-x howm-keyword-remove" thx
- Extended quick-shift functionality for dates (RET on a date → "[" and "]" keys)
  - "." key jumps to today's date
  - Also supported in the menu
- The theme functionality (cf. howm-follow-theme) is now customizable via howm-auto-theme-custom-entries thx
- (Removed "cheats" from cheat-font-lock.el)
Fixes
- Org-related issues thx thx thx thx thx thx
- Fonts could be too large in the summary buffer if howm-follow-theme was enabled thx
- Notes without titles now appear in %recent and %random in the menu thx
- howm-dup now respects howm-prepend settings thx
- Prevented potential infinite loop in howm-view-dired-goto thx
- (Fixed warning "Missing lexical-binding cookie" during "make test")

1.5.3 to 1.5.4

Make getting started convenient (see "Quick start" in README.md)
- Integrate with Markdown and Org thx thx thx
- Apply theme functionality thx
- Improve the menu
  - Align items and enhance colors thx thx thx
  - Display update timestamps thx
  - Configure headers according to settings thx
  - Fix bugs and inconsistencies thx
- Update the documentation thx thx
RET on a date to switch to the previous/next day using "[]" keys thx
Use the grep command by default on Linux and Mac thx thx
Exclude backup files from the count of search results thx
Minor bug fixes

1.5.2 to 1.5.3

Minor fixes.

1.5.1 to 1.5.2

Improvements:

Added simulation for the todo list on a specific date (M-x howm-simulate-todo). ref
Added filter-by-keyword to support aliases. thx
Added a user-option to exclude certain files from the recent-note lists (howm-recent-excluded-files-regexp). thx
Improved screenshots and English documents. thx thx thx
Added a hint to avoid typical misuse of the menu. thx

Fixes:

The summary/contents buffers now inherit from text-mode. thx
Removed obsolete C-h binding. thx
Fixed broken back-scrolling by BS key in terminals. thx
Fixed unintended "M-x ..." in describe-mode. thx
Prevented double-splitting windows when display-buffer-base-action is non-nil. thx

1.5.0 to 1.5.1

The incremental search is enabled by default. See M-x customize-group RET howm-iigrep RET. This feature only works if M-x customize-variable RET howm-view-use-grep RET is set to "On".
Added links. (English & Russian tutorials, introduction video)
Fixed several minor bugs.

(older changes)

Contact

My email address is written at the beginning of source files.