Planner

This manual is for Planner version 3.41.

Copyright © 2001, 2004, 2005, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Parts copyright © 2005 Jim Ottaway
Parts copyright © 2005 Dryice Dong Liu

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU General Public License, Version 2.0 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU General Public License."

 --- The Detailed Node Listing ---

Installation

Getting the Files

Overview

Getting Started

More about Planner

More about Tasks

Creating New Tasks

Organizing Your Tasks

Task Reports and Overviews

More about Notes

Publishing

RDF Publication

Managing Your Information

E-mail

Scheduling and Time

Diary

Usage

Finances

Contacts and Conversations

Tracking Research and Resources

Tracking Development

Advanced Configuration

Reference Material

Sample Configuration Files

1. Preface

This document describes Planner, which was written by John Wiegley and is now maintained by Michael Olson (see section Acknowledgements).

This document is a work in progress, and your contribution will be greatly appreciated. Please e-mail comments and suggestions to the mailing list (see section Getting Help). In the subject line of your e-mail, include the word `Planner'.

This documentation is available in eye-pleasing formats including PDF and HTML at http://www.mwolson.org/static/doc/.

Documentation author: John Sullivan john@wjsullivan.net

Maintainer: Michael Olson mwolson@gnu.org

John Sullivan (johnsu01)
April 25, 2004

2. Introduction

Planner is an organizer and day planner for Emacs. It helps you keep track of your pending and completed tasks, daily schedule, dates to remember, notes and inspirations. It is a powerful tool not only for managing your time and productivity, but also for keeping within easy keystroke reach all of the information you need to be productive. It can even publish reports charting your work for your personal web page, your conscience, or your soon-to-be-impressed boss.

In fact, because it uses as its building blocks simple plain-text files, it is an incredibly modular and flexible tool capable of shaping and handling your personal information in ways whose variety is limited only by your imagination. Because of this, Planner has a very active and generous community who regularly share their innovations with each other. Many of these modules and extensions are included in the archive that you will download. Once you get the basics down, you'll probably want to explore some of them. But as you read this manual and work with Planner, keep in mind that the basic core is actually very simple, and it might be worth spending time with just that before delving into the customizations.

Because they are plain text with very few requirements, the organizer pages kept by Planner can be as basic or as detailed as you like. Your pages can be simple to-do lists with no more additional information than what you would scrawl on a napkin, or they can be a highly technical affair involving hyperlinks, embedded Lisp code, appointment schedules and RSS feeds. As with so much in Emacs, it's all up to you.

To get started with Planner, you first need to download it, and possibly also the packages it depends on (see section Installation).

3. Installation

Planner depends on Muse. Information for downloading and installing Muse can be found at http://www.mwolson.org/static/doc/muse.html.

Make sure that you use the latest Muse release. Development code might prove unstable.

3.1 Getting the Files

Currently, there are three ways to obtain and install Planner. You can install it from a source archive, Arch repository, or Debian package.

3.1.1 Installing from a Source Archive

You can install Planner from the source archive packaged and distributed directly by the maintainer. This archive is provided in both `.tar.gz' and `.zip' format.

1. Download and unpack either http://www.mwolson.org/static/dist/planner-latest.tar.gz or http://www.mwolson.org/static/dist/planner-latest.zip.
2. Edit your `~/.emacs' (`_emacs' on Microsoft Windows).

   ;; Add the directories to your load path (add-to-list 'load-path "/path/to/muse/lisp") (add-to-list 'load-path "/path/to/planner") (add-to-list 'load-path "/path/to/remember") ;; Load planner (require 'planner)

3.1.1.1 Updating Your Version

Download a new version and extract it over the old directory. Don't forget to delete any byte-compiled files (`*.elc') in the directories so that the new code will be used.

3.1.2 Installing from Arch

Arch allows you to retrieve previous versions and select specific features and bugfixes. Debian users can install Arch with apt-get install tla. Users of other distributions should see http://regexps.srparish.net/www/.

To get started with Planner using Arch, you'll need to run some initial commands to register your local copy of the archive and retrieve the files.

# Register the Muse archive
tla register-archive http://www.mwolson.org/archives/2006

# Register the Planner archive
tla register-archive http://arch.gna.org/planner-el/archive-2006

# Get the Muse archive
tla get mwolson@gnu.org--2006/muse--main--1.0 muse

# Download planner module into the planner/ subdirectory
tla get mwolson@gnu.org--2006-planner-el/planner-el--devel--1.0 planner

Then add the following lines to your ~/.emacs:

;; Add the directories to your load path
(add-to-list 'load-path "/path/to/muse/lisp")
(add-to-list 'load-path "/path/to/planner")
(add-to-list 'load-path "/path/to/remember")

;; Load planner
(require 'planner)

You can also browse the Arch repository on the web at http://www.mwolson.org/cgi-bin/archzoom/archzoom.cgi/mwolson@gnu.org--2006/planner.

3.1.2.1 Updating Your Version

To stay up-to-date using Arch, here are some commands that might be useful.

To list upstream changes not in local copy:

# Change to the source directory you are interested in. Example:
cd muse/

# Display the summary of changes
tla missing --summary

To update to the latest version:

cd muse; tla replay
cd ../planner; tla replay
cd ../remember; tla replay

Don't forget to delete any byte-compiled files (`*.elc') in the directories so that the new code will be used.

3.1.3 Installing from Debian

Debian packages for Planner, Muse, and Remember are available in Debian proper as the planner-el, muse-el, and remember-el packages, respectively.

If you wish to try experimental packages, add the following lines to your `/etc/apt/sources.list'

deb http://www.mwolson.org/debian/ ./

Then, do the following steps as root:

apt-get update
apt-get install muse-el
apt-get install planner-el

3.1.3.1 Updating Your Version

If you installed Planner from Debian, do apt-get update; apt-get upgrade to upgrade all packages that can be upgraded, or apt-get update; apt-get install planner-el to upgrade just planner-el.

3.2 Creating Your Planner

Now that you have installed the files for Planner and Muse, you need to set some options to create your first planner.

Muse thinks in terms of projects. Each project consists of a group of documents and certain information associated with these documents. Planner is organized as a project within Muse. So, you need to tell Muse a bit about it.

Add something like the following code to your `.emacs' file.

First, give your new Planner project a name. In this case, we use the name, "WikiPlanner".

(setq planner-project "WikiPlanner")

Next, add an entry for your project to Muse's master list of projects. Don't forget to use your own name here in place of "WikiPlanner" if you have chosen something different.

(setq muse-project-alist
      '(("WikiPlanner"
         ("~/Plans"           ;; where your Planner pages are located
          :default "TaskPool" ;; use value of `planner-default-page'
          :major-mode planner-mode
          :visit-link planner-visit-link)

         ;; This next part is for specifying where Planner pages
         ;; should be published and what Muse publishing style to
         ;; use.  In this example, we will use the XHTML publishing
         ;; style.

         (:base "planner-xhtml"
                ;; where files are published to
                ;; (the value of `planner-publishing-directory', if
                ;;  you have a configuration for an older version
                ;;  of Planner)
                :path "~/public_html/Plans"))))

This code should work fine as-is for you as long as the directories you see exist, and as long as you have no other Muse projects besides your planner.

The first directory (`~/Plans') is the directory where the source files for your planner will reside. This is the directory where you will actually visit files and edit them. These files must have a ".muse" extension.

The second directory (`~/public_html/Plans') is the directory where your planner files will be published by Muse as XHTML.

After you have added this code, make sure to either evaluate it or restart Emacs.

3.3 Components

Now that you have the archive, let's look at what's in it.

There should be three directories, named `planner', `muse' and `remember'.

In the `planner/' directory, you'll see many files with names like `planner-gnus.el'. These are extra modules and extensions for Planner, which you can use to tailor Planner to fit your desired planning and information management habits.

In the `muse/lisp' directory, you'll see many files with names like `muse-blosxom.el'. As in `planner/', these are optional modules and extensions.

A minimal working installation includes just `planner/planner.el'.

You need `planner.el' because it provides the core functions for handling tasks, notes, and page navigation. You need `Emacs Muse' because it provides the functions used to display your pages (both in an emacs buffer and as HTML), and for connecting them to each other. More specifically, it enables you to have hyperlinks and formatting in your emacs buffers even though the actual files you are working with are saved in plain text. These abilities are used in Planner to format your planner pages the way you like, to create links from your tasks and notes to the materials and projects they refer to, and to optionally "publish" your pages in different formats, including HTML.

In the `remember/' directory are files related to RememberMode. RememberMode does not depend on Planner or Muse, but works best with Planner installed. It is not required in order to use Planner, but it is used by many Planner users to record notes and information to their planner pages.

If you are curious, you can open each file in these directories and read the comments at the top, to get an idea of what each extension is used for. They are also all detailed later in this manual.

3.4 Advanced Installation

Once you decide you want to keep Planner around for a while, there are two additional steps you can take to make using it easier and more efficient. These steps are optional.

• You can make this document, the Planner info file, appear in the index of info files you see when you type M-x info or C-h i in Emacs. The instructions for doing this vary depending on whether you have permission to edit certain files on your system. Follow the instructions in (texinfo)Installing an Info File section `Installing an Info File' in Texinfo, using something like:

  * Planner: (path/to/planner/Planner). Organizer/day planner for Emacs.

  for the new entry in the info `dir' file.

• You can byte-compile `planner.el', `Muse', `remember.el', or any of the optional modules you frequently use, in order to improve the speed of their execution. Basically, all you need to do is change to the directory of each project in `scripts/planner-build.el' and run make from the command line. To read more detail about byte compilation, see (elisp)Byte Compilation section `Byte Compilation' in Emacs Lisp Reference Manual.

4. Overview

Planner is a plain-text hyperlinked personal information manager for Emacs that helps you keep track of tasks, notes, and other information. People use Planner to support different ways of planning one's day, from Franklin-Covey and David Allen's Getting Things Done to home-brew hacks. Planner is even used to manage information not normally handled by a personal information manager, like bugtracking, time tracking, and team data. If you start by using Planner as a basic TODO and notes manager, you might find other ways it can help you improve your process.

You can use Planner to keep track of your tasks, schedule, notes, and other information you want to store in hyperlinkable text files. You can get the most benefit out of a personal information manager if you use it everyday. Most people add (plan) to the end of their `~/.emacs' so that Planner shows today's schedule and unfinished tasks whenever Emacs starts. If you leave your Emacs running for more than 24 hours, try to get into the habit of running plan at least once a day.

Because your time is important, Planner tries to minimize distractions, making it easier for you to jot down tasks and notes without being distracted from your work. People often make tasks based on the current buffer, so Planner tries to create hyperlinks to whatever you're looking at so that you can jump back to it easily. The Getting Started tutorial will show you how to set that up for both tasks and notes.

The customizability of Planner means you can make your personal information manager truly personal. Planner strives to be as flexible as possible, and we would love to adapt Planner to fit your needs. Browse through our mailing list (see section Getting Help) to find out how other people are using Planner, and post your feature requests and bug reports there!

Planner is just a tool. It does not dictate a particular way of planning, although it supports some ways better than it supports others. If you want to take some time thinking about planning, read the following reflections for inspiration and ideas. On the other hand, if you want to hit the ground running, see Getting Started. If you already have a specific way of planning in mind, check out Sample Configuration Files.

4.1 Planning Based on the Franklin-Covey Approach

This is a slightly edited and updated version of an essay by John Wiegley. Read it if you want to get some insights into one way of planning. You can skip this if you want to go straight to planning your day.

What is planning? It can be a nebulous thing to define. In its essence, however, it is very simple: it's how we achieve our dreams.

Our days are filled with time, and hence with actions, whether they be of a mental or physical sort. But there are two kinds of action: reactive and creative. Reactive action is a response to the environment, a reaction to stimulus. Had we enough instincts to ensure survival, we could live according to this kind of action alone. It is a mode of behavior we share with every living species.

The opposite to reactivity is creativity, when we decide upon a course of action that is a wholly a product of personal choice. We then make decisions as to the steps needed to make this wish a reality. This is planning. Planning is essentially a creative endeavor at every step.

First, create the idea, what you want to achieve. Very short-term ideas do not need much more than thinking about how to do it. But long-term ideas require planning, since the mind cannot contain all of the details.

Second, decide how the idea maps into the circumstances you find yourself in. Some environments will assist your plan, others hinder it. But step by step, identify every barrier to the realization of your idea, and devise a countermeasure to overcome it. Once you've mapped things out from beginning to end, accounting for unknowables as best you can, you now have your plan.

Third is to break the stages of the plan into parts that are not overwhelming in their complexity. It is at during this phase that a plan is turned into task items, each to be accomplished within the span of one day's time. If a task requires several days, break it up further. The smaller it is, the less your mind will recoil from attempting it.

Fourth is to monitor your progress, identifying problems and correcting for them as you go. Some plans start out unachievable, and remain that way indefinitely, due to a simple lack of observation. If nothing is working for you, change it. Otherwise, your plan is merely a well-crafted wish.

Fifth is just to do the work, and be patient. All good plans take a great deal of time, and *cannot* happen immediately. The groundwork must be laid for each step, or else it will rest on an unsecure foundation. If you follow your plan doggedly, applying some time to it each day or week, it will happen. Remember the story of the tortoise and the hare. I've even written a short essay on the necessity of gradual accomplishment, which can be found at http://emacswiki.org/johnw/essays/node2.html.

How can this software help? Computers are ideal for manipulating information, since they allow you to change things without erasing or rewriting. And since all plans change quite a bit during their implementation, a planning program can be very helpful.

Start by adding the following to your `.emacs' (or `_emacs'):

(load "planner")

Now, conceive your idea. I can't believe there's nothing you want from life. More peace, time to enjoy the world, an end to war? Everyone wants something. Search deeply, and you will find countless unhoped wishes lurking therein. Choose one for now, and think on it for a while.

Then open a file (using C-x C-f) within the directory named by planner-directory. Emacs will automatically recognize this file as a planner file. Name the file after your plan, such as `BetterHealth'.

Choose an idea you really want to accomplish. Struggle to differentiate between the things you want because others want them, and the things you want for yourself. It takes quite an effort, and may require a long time before you notice the difference. Many people want to be more healthy to be more attractive, which is an externally driven goal. Unless you really want to accomplish what you envision, the odds are you will fail. Only our own wishes and dreams possess enough personal energy to see themselves to fruition. What happens to many of us is simply that we never become conscious of these dreams: what we love, what we desire most. When I talk to friends, so much of what I hear is things they want because they feel they should want them. There's just not enough energy there to pursue a good plan, because nearly all of it is negative energy.

Do you know what you really want? Don't worry, many people don't. It's not a question anyone really wants us to pursue, because often we don't want what others do; it doesn't contribute to the social welfare, and all that nonsense. Somehow we always forget that what's good for the social welfare now, was someone else's crazy dream a hundred years ago. The human aversion to fundamental change is always one's greatest enemy, so don't waste any time getting bitter about it.

For the sake of argument I assume you really do want to be healthier, because you've fallen in love with the ideal of purity, or you understand the connection between your physical self and the world around you, and how this can open up your spirit to desiring more. I assume. :)

So you're in a Wiki file called `BetterHealth'. Start typing. Type anything related to your idea: what you think about it, your ideas on it, and especially what the end will look like. If you can't visualize the end, you can't plan, since planning is about drawing a line between now and then.

When you've typed enough to gain a vision of your goal, start drafting what the possible intermediate steps might be. Then stop, get up, walk around, enjoy life, and come back to it. Taking a long time at the beginning is not a bad idea at all, as long as it's not forever.

As you chew on your idea, it will begin to become more and more concrete. You'll have ideas about the smallest pieces, and ideas about the biggest pieces. Keep going until it starts to take shape before you, and you can see yourself in your mind's eye moving from the present into the future. Write down this progression, and the sorts of things you might encounter along the way.

As you continue, you'll naturally discover discrete phases, or "milestones" as managers love to call them. These are very important, because they let you know you're making progress. I recommend having a big party with friends every time you achieve a milestone. A typical plan might have between three and ten.

Between the milestones are the bigger pieces of your plan. Name these pieces using MixedCase words, and you'll notice that Emacs colors and underlines them for you. Like, FindGoodGym. Hit return on this highlighted word, and you'll find yourself in another, blank file. In this file, start drafting your sub-plan, just as you did with the larger plan. You should find it easier now, since the scope is smaller.

As you break down further, you'll notice simple little things that need to get done. These are your tasks. Every plan is a succession of tasks. The difference from reactivity is that each task is part of the larger plan. This is what it means to be systematic: that everything you do helps further your plan. If you have tasks in your day that contribute to no plan, they are reactive. Of course, life is full of these, but don't let them take up more than 20% of your day. If you allow yourself to be dominated by reactive tasks, you'll regret it at the end of your life. I don't know this personally, but I do know that striving for one's dreams - and seeing them come to fruition - is the greatest joy a man can possess. It is the essence of freedom, of living, of creation. Reactivity is the opposite of this, and serves only to drain our energy and slacken our spirits.

Now that you've thought of a simple task, type C-c C-t. This will ask for a brief description of the task, and when you plan to do it. If you hit RETURN at the question `When', it assumes you mean today. It will also pop up a three-month calendar at this question, so you can see where your free days are. Make sure you set the variable mark-diary-entries-in-calendar to `t' in your `.emacs' (or `_emacs') file. This way, you can see which days your appointments fall on. (Read about the Emacs Calendar and Diary in (Emacs)Calendar/Diary section `Calendar/Diary' in GNU Emacs Manual.)

(setq mark-diary-entries-in-calendar t)

Once your task is in there, go back to your plan and keep generating more tasks. Generate them all! Fully describe--as tasks--everything necessary to bring your sub-plan to completion. Don't create tasks for the other sub-plans. You may have good idea of what they'll look like, but don't bother rendering them into tasks just yet. Things will change too much between now and then, for that to be a good use of your time.

Is your sub-plan now rendered into all of the tasks necessary to reach your first milestone? Great! That is the purpose of planner.el. The rest is really up to you. If you find that you keep putting things off, and never do them, that's the surest sign you're planning for someone else's dream, and not your own.

Here are some of the things planner.el can do, to help you manage and track your tasks:

At the beginning of every day, type M-x plan. This will jump you to the top of the most recent task list before today. If you skipped a bunch of days, you'll have to open up those files on your own.

Probably some of the tasks that day won't be finished - that's OK. Learning to properly estimate time is a magical, mystical art that few have mastered. Put your cursor on those undone tasks, and type C-c C-c. This will move them into today's task page. You can jump to today's task page at any time by typing C-c C-n (from a Wiki or planning page). I heartily recommend binding C-c n, to jump you to this page from anywhere:

(define-key mode-specific-map [?n] 'planner-goto-today)

As you look at your task sheet each day, the first thing to do is to "clock in" to one of them. This isn't necessary, and is only helpful if you're around your computer a lot. But by typing C-c C-i (assuming you have my `timeclock.el' on your load-path), it will log the time you spend working on your sub-plan (see (Emacs)Time Intervals section `Time Intervals' in GNU Emacs Manual). This is helpful for viewing your progress. Type C-c C-o to clock out.

C-M-p and C-M-n will move a task up and down in priority. Priority is represented by a letter A through C. 'A' tasks mean they must be done that day, or else your plan is compromised and you will have to replan. 'B' means they should be done that day, to further the plan, otherwise things will be delayed. 'C' means you can put off the task if you need to, although ultimately it will have to be done.

For reactive tasks, the letters mean something different: 'A' means you must do it today, or somebody will roast your chestnuts over an open fire. 'B' means you should do it today, or else someone will be practicing patience at the day's end. 'C' means no one will notice if you don't do it.

Again, reactive tasks are ENEMIES OF PLANNING. Really, until you see them that way, circumstances will push you around and steal your life away. We have only so many years to use, and everyone is greedy to take them. It's insidious, almost invisible. A healthy dislike of reactivity will do wonders for organizing your affairs according to their true priority.

The last word that needs to be said concerns "roles". Every person stands in several positions in his life: husband, employee, manager, etc. These roles will tend to generate tasks not associated with any immediate plan, but necessary to maintain the health and functioning of the role. My suggestion is to keep this the smallest possible number, and fulfill those that remain well. How you decide to apportion your time between pursuing grand designs, and fostering deep relationships, is a personal matter. If you choose well, each will feed the other.

I mention this to point that reactivity is something not exclusively associated with tasks that have no master plan, because being a father, for example, is something that rarely proceeds according to orderly plans. But the role of father itself is its own plan, whose goal is "to be the best one can", and whose component tasks are spending time on whatever comes up. It is, in a sense, an implicit plan. But reactive tasks follow no plan at all; they are parasites of time that suck the spirit away, whereas properly chose roles actually help fulfill one's own inner needs. At least, this is what I believe.

Function: plan force-days

Start your planning for the day, beginning with the last day's tasks.

If planner-carry-tasks-forward is non-nil, find the most recent daily page with unfinished tasks and reschedule those tasks to the current day. If force is non-nil, examine all past daily pages for unfinished tasks.

If planner-carry-tasks-forward is nil, visit the most recent daily page. If a daily page for today exists, visit that instead.

If force-days is a positive integer, scan that number of days. If force-days is `t', scan all days.

4.2 Why Use Planner?

You can skip this essay if you just want to get started, or read it for some insights into why the previous maintainer is crazy about it.

Why I Use Planner, by Sacha Chua

I thought about why I liked Planner. Planner as a TODO manager isn't particularly special. Although I can assign tasks to categories and see a breakdown of what projects are taking up my time, Evolution and Microsoft Outlook provide more powerful task support. In other task managers, you can e-mail tasks, assign multiple categories and fill in all sorts of metadata. You can even synchronize your tasks with devices like a phone or PDA. So why use Planner?

I realized that integration into my way of life and automatic context clues are what really make planner tasks worth it for me. I don't have to switch to another application to create a task. I can just hit a keyboard shortcut. Planner uses a minibuffer to get the task description. My windows are not rearranged in any way, and I can look at the data that's relevant to a task. Not only that, tasks automatically pick up context clues, like whom I'm talking to on IRC or the file I'm editing at the moment. This cuts down on the explicit context I need to include and makes it easier for me to bring up the task again.

As a scheduler, Planner is also not particularly distinguished. Sure, it can display my `~/diary', but for that matter so can M-x diary. Evolution and Outlook can give me a more graphical view of my time, sync with my PDA, and coordinate my schedule with other people. Those applications support detailed schedule entries with powerful cyclic options. On the other hand, Planner gives me a personal, plain text view and (at least the way I use it) requires me to edit a separate file to add new appointments. (I've defined a few shortcut keys to deal with this.) However, it does have one advantage--my schedule is always loaded. I used to use Outlook on Windows, but having my schedule in a separate application meant that I actually looked at it very rarely, as I had turned off reminders because they got annoying.

Planner's notes, however, are what really convinced me. I can hit a keyboard shortcut from anywhere and type my notes into a buffer which automatically keeps context information. After typing the note, I can then categorize it. I think that the critical thing here is that interruptions--fleeting thoughts--don't break my flow. I can just pop up a remember buffer, stow that thought away somewhere, and go back to it whenever I want. In contrast, creating a note in Outlook means switching out of my application, making a couple of keystrokes, typing the note in, and then switching back. The context switches make it hard to keep track of where I am and what I'm supposed to remember. Not only that, I need to enter context by hand. Even though I can color my notes and reorganize them in Outlook, I find the context switch too expensive. I used to keep notes in other knowledge management tools as well. Some applications allowed me to drag-and-drop links into the current note, and that was cool. But that required a manual action, and those applications didn't feel integrated into my way of working. (Note: You'll need remember.el for this.)

I guess that's why I like Planner. Unlike other organizers which don't know anything about the applications I use, Planner tries its best to integrate into the way I work, and it's easy to extend. Fortunately I do almost all my work in Emacs, so I can think of my organizer as integrated into my e-mail client, Internet Relay Chat client, web browser, file editor and even games. It automatically picks up context clues from these applications and allows me to easily jump back to relevant files. It doesn't distract me. It allows me to key in data and then it gets out of my way.

(That said, it's perfectly okay to use Planner even if you don't live in Emacs.)

The processing that happens in the background is a bonus, and publishing my task list and notes online has greatly helped me. It gives other people a way to see what I'm working on and what I've planned for the future. Occasionally people write in with additional resources and helpful tips. (Again, this is purely optional. Many people don't publish their planner pages. Other people use really fine-grained access control.)

I think the greatest feature of Planner, though, is its user community. Because Planner can be easily modified, we can experiment with a lot of new ideas quickly, and we can tailor Planner to fit our needs. I love checking my `planner-el-discuss' mail and finding out how people have tweaked Planner or would like to tweak Planner, and I've learned a lot by exchanging reflections on organizing one's life.

I really wasn't an organization freak before I started using Planner. I often forgot to do my homework or answer important mail. I still procrastinate now, but at least it's all being kept track of somewhere! I also really like how Planner lets me to gradually improve how I'm doing things, and I feel I've come a long way.

Please try it out! We'd love to hear how Planner can become your personal information manager.

5. Getting Started

At the end of this tutorial, you will be able to use Planner and related modules to keep track of your tasks, schedules and notes, all within the convenience of Emacs.

There are two kinds of pages in a Planner wiki. Day pages show tasks, schedule, and notes for the day, while plan pages organize related tasks and notes into a single page.

If you have not yet added planner to your `~/.emacs', add the following lines:

(add-to-list 'load-path "/path/to/muse/lisp")
(add-to-list 'load-path "/path/to/planner")
(add-to-list 'load-path "/path/to/remember")
(require 'planner)

This will bring up the most recent day page with unfinished tasks or create a new day page if necessary. By default, planner pages are stored in `~/Plans' (planner-directory).

5.1 Tasks

Let us start by creating a task labelled

Join http://mail.gna.org/listinfo/planner-el-discuss/

From anywhere (even this info buffer!), call M-x planner-create-task-from-buffer to create a new task. Fill in the description and choose a date by:

• typing 1 - 31 to put the task on that day of the month,
• accepting the default (today) by pressing RET,
• selecting the date with mouse-1,
• typing +n (where in is an integer) to schedule the task in n days time, or
• typing nil to make an undated task.

For now, accept the default (`today') by pressing RET.

You will then be prompted for a plan page. Plan pages gather related tasks and notes, giving you an overview of what you've done so far. You can accept the default TaskPool, create your own plan page, or specify nil to make a task that is not associated with a plan page. For now, accept the default (`TaskPool') by pressing RET.

You have created your first task. View today's page with M-x planner-goto-today. You will see a line of the form

#B  _ Join http://mail.gna.org/listinfo/planner-el-discuss/ (TaskPool)

If you created the task from this page, then there will be an additional annotation:

#B  _ Join http://mail.gna.org/listinfo/planner-el-discuss/ : Tasks (TaskPool)

The URL, `TaskPool' and `Getting Started' are hyperlinks. You can use TAB and S-TAB to navigate between them and RET to follow the link.

Create more tasks using M-x planner-create-task-from-buffer. This is bound to C-c C-t in planner-mode pages for your convenience. For example, create the following tasks:

• `Describe my current way of working and how I would like to work', for three days from now (`+3'),
• `Learn how to schedule a task', an undated task (nil) on the TaskPool page,
• `Browse through the Planner info manual' for today (. or accept the defaults), and
• `Add (plan) to the end of my [[~/.emacs]]' for today, but without a plan page (specify nil at the plan page prompt)

Tip: I bind planner-create-task-from-buffer to "F9 t" so that I can easily call it from anywhere. You can do that with this elisp fragment: (global-set-key (kbd "<f9> t") 'planner-create-task-from-buffer)

Next, visit the TaskPool by:

• TAB-bing or using the cursor and typing RET to follow the link,
• C-x C-f TaskPool RET to use find-file, or
• C-c C-f TaskPool RET to use muse-project-find-file

You can see an overview of the tasks as scheduled on different days. Unlike many personal information managers that store all of your data in one file and then perform magic in order to present different views, Planner uses plain text files. The data is duplicated and kept updated by functions. This makes it simpler and easier to modify, because what you see is (almost) what you get. On the other hand, you'll need to get used to either editing both files, or using the built-in functions for editing and updating files. If you prefer not to work with linked tasks, you can configure Planner to use only plan pages or use only day pages.

The TaskPool page should list the tasks you created earlier. Go to the one named Learn how to schedule a task . Type C-c C-c (planner-copy-or-move-task) to schedule the task. Type RET to accept the default (today). Go to the day page by following the link or calling M-x planner-goto (C-c C-j C-d or the menu bar); you will see the newly-created task there. You can also use C-c C-c (planner-copy-or-move-task) to reschedule a task to an earlier or later date.

Well, that task is done. To mark the task as completed, type C-c C-x (planner-task-done). You can also edit the status manually (change _ to X) as long as you remember to call M-x planner-update-task to update the link page as well. Updating relies on the task description being the same, so do not edit this manually.

Quick summary of commands:

• Go to today's page: M-x plan to carry unfinished tasks forward, or M-x planner-goto-today to just go to today's page.
• Create a task: C-c C-t (planner-create-task-from-buffer), or type a task manually (call M-x planner-update-task if the task is linked)
• Mark a task as done: C-c C-x (planner-task-done), or edit the task and call M-x planner-update-task
• Edit a task description: M-x planner-edit-task-description
• Reschedule a task: C-c C-c (planner-copy-or-move-task)
• Reschedule many tasks: Mark a region and use M-x planner-copy-or-move-region
• Change the plan of a task: M-x planner-replan-task, or C-c C-c (planner-copy-or-move-task) with a plan page
• Delete a task: M-x planner-delete-task
• Reorder tasks: M-p (planner-raise-task) and M-n (planner-lower-task), or normal editing commands like kill and yank
• Change task priorities (`#A' > `#B' > `#C'): C-M-p (planner-raise-task-priority) and C-M-n (planner-lower-task-priority), or edit the task and call M-x planner-update-task.

You can save your tasks with C-x C-s the same way you save any other file, or Emacs will prompt you to save it when you exit.

5.2 Schedule

This is free-form. You can put anything you want into this, or remove it from planner-day-page-template entirely. Some people use it to keep track of their plans for the day with tables like this:

hh:mm | hh:mm | activity
hh:mm | hh:mm | activity
hh:mm | hh:mm | activity

Remember, Planner files are just plain text. You can add new sections or remove old ones, or use the suggested sections for entirely different activities.

5.3 Notes

By default, your Planner pages will have a Notes section. You can put anything you want in this section, or remove it from your planner-day-page-template entirely.

You may be interested in `remember-planner.el', part of the Remember package. remember-planner.el makes it easy to create notes from anywhere in Emacs, and it uses the same hyperlink-sensing code that Planner uses. Notes added by remember-planner.el look like this:

.#1 Headline 00:00
Body

and are outlined at the H2 level in published HTML.

If you include the following in your `~/.emacs':

(require 'remember-planner)
(setq remember-handler-functions '(remember-planner-append))
(setq remember-annotation-functions planner-annotation-functions)

you can easily create context-aware notes. M-x remember will create a dedicated buffer for you to fill in your note. If Planner recognizes the buffer as one with context then it will include a hyperlink at the bottom. The first line is used as a title, so make it short and meaningful. The rest of the text will be used as the body of the note. Try it now by creating a note, perhaps about things you'd like to remember from this tutorial.

Typing C-c C-c after composing will prompt for a plan page to put this on, with auto-completion. By default, notes will go on today's page only. If you specify a plan page, the note will go on today's page and on the plan page. Let's try specifying `TaskPool' for the note.

If you look at today's page, you'll find a timestamped note that links to `TaskPool'. Likewise, `TaskPool' contains a note that links to today's page. Because the text is copied, changes in one will not be automatically reflected in the other. To update the linked page after editing a note, use M-x planner-update-note. To change the plan page of a note, use planner-replan-note.

5.4 Hyperlinks

Planner automatically creates context-sensitive hyperlinks for your tasks and notes when you use planner-create-task-from-buffer and remember.

Blue links indicate URLs and Planner pages that already exist. Red links indicate Planner pages that have not yet been created.

Middle-click or type RET on any link to view the link in the current window. Shift-middle-click or type S-RET to view the link in another window. TAB goes to the next link, while S-TAB goes to the previous one.

You can pick up hyperlinks using the planner-annotation-as-kill function.

Function: planner-annotation-as-kill

Create a context-sensitive hyperlink for the current buffer and copy it to the kill ring. When called with a prefix argument, prompt for the link display name.

You can then paste it into any Planner buffer by using M-x yank or the keyboard shortcut.

Hyperlinks are a powerful feature of Planner. You can use them to hyperlink to mail, news, Web pages, and even IRC connections. See the section on Managing Your Information to find out how to enable support for various parts of Emacs. Want to add a new hyperlink scheme? Check out the source code for examples or ask on the mailing list for help.

5.5 Example Page

An example planner file is given below. You'll notice that Planner does not have a well-defined user interface. Rather, it's free-form and open, allowing you to adapt it to your preferences.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
* Tasks

#B  _ Join http://mail.gna.org/listinfo/planner-el-discuss/ (TaskPool)
#B  _ Browse through the Planner info manual (TaskPool)
#B  _ Add (plan) to the end of my ~/.emacs
#B  X Learn how to schedule a task (TaskPool)

* Schedule

18:00 | 19:00 | Learn how to use Planner

* Notes

Notes are free-form. You can put anything you want into this.

.#1 This is note number one

Notes on note number one!

.#2 This weird ".#2" syntax is used for allout.el enumerated lists

It makes using allout-mode very handy.

5.6 Review

• Ideas for using planner more effectively:
  • Add (plan) to the end of your `~/.emacs' so that you are reminded about your tasks every day.
  • Bind useful functions to shortcut keys and get used to creating tasks and notes from anywhere.
  • Think about how you plan your day and look for ways to improve it. Ask the mailing list (see section Getting Help) for tips.
  • Browse the rest of this manual, the source code, and other resources on the Net for tidbits you can use.
  • Have fun!
• Useful functions outside planner buffers:
  • planner-create-task-from-buffer
  • remember
  • planner-goto-today
  • planner-goto
  • plan
• Useful functions inside planner buffers:
  • C-c C-t (planner-create-task-from-buffer)
  • C-c C-x (planner-task-done)
  • M-x planner-edit-task-description
  • C-c C-c (planner-copy-or-move-task), M-x planner-copy-or-move-region
  • M-x planner-replan-task
  • M-x planner-delete-task
  • M-p (planner-raise-task) and M-n (planner-lower-task)
  • C-M-p (planner-raise-task-priority) and C-M-n (planner-lower-task-priority),
  • planner-replan-note
  • planner-update-note

That's all you need to know in order to use Planner as a basic TODO and notes manager, but there's a whole lot more. Read through this manual and our mailing list archives (see section Getting Help) for lots of wonderful ideas about planning in Emacs!

6. More about Planner

6.1 Starting with Day Pages

planner-goto-today opens today's page. Day pages are named `YYYY.MM.DD' and contain your notes for the day.

You should see a file that looks like this:

* Tasks


* Schedule

* Notes

You can type anything you want into this file. You can add or delete sections. When you save, Emacs stores your information in planner-directory.

Use the following commands to navigate through day pages:

Function: plan

Start planning the day. If planner-carry-tasks-forward is non-nil, copy the most recent unfinished tasks to today's page, else open the most recent page.

Function: planner-goto (C-c C-j C-d)

Prompt for a date using a calendar pop-up and display the corresponding day page. You can specify dates partially. The current year and month are used if omitted from the input. For example, if today is 2004.05.05, then

• +1 is one day from now, or `2004.05.06'
• -1 is one day before now, or `2004.05.04'
• 12 is equivalent to `2004.05.12'
• 8.12 is equivalent to `2004.08.12'
• 2005.08.12 is a full date specification

In the calendar buffer, you can also left-click or press RET on a date to select it.

Function: planner-goto-today (C-c C-j C-j)

Display today's page. Create the page if it does not yet exist.

Function: planner-goto-tomorrow (C-c C-j C-t)

Goto the planner page days after the currently displayed date. If days is nil, go to the day immediately after the currently displayed date. If the current buffer is not a daily planner page, calculate date based on today.

Function: planner-goto-yesterday (C-c C-j C-y)

Goto the planner page days before the currently displayed date. If days is nil, go to the day immediately before the currently displayed date. If the current buffer is not a daily planner page, calculate date based on today.

Function: planner-goto-most-recent

Go to the most recent day with planning info.

Function: planner-goto-previous-daily-page

Goto the last plan page before the current date. The current date is taken from the day page in the current buffer, or today if the current buffer is not a planner page. Do not create pages if they do not yet exist.

Function: planner-goto-next-daily-page

Goto the first plan page after the current date. The current date is taken from the day page in the current buffer, or today if the current buffer is not a planner page. Do not create pages if they do not yet exist.

Function: planner-goto-plan-page page

Opens page in the the planner-project Wiki. Use planner-goto if you want fancy calendar completion.

Function: planner-show date

Show the plan page for date in another window, but don't select it. If no page for date exists, return nil.

6.2 More about Tasks

This section is divided into three parts. In the first part, you can read about all the options, strategies and commands to help you efficiently add new tasks to your planner. In the second part, we'll go over all of the aspects of Planner that relate to organizing, editing, rescheduling and viewing the tasks you've already created. Finally, we'll cover some ways to step back and look at various reports and overviews that can be generated from your planner pages.

You may also be interested in tracking time spent on tasks with Timeclock and estimating project completion time with Schedule (also see see section `schedule.el').

6.2.1 Creating New Tasks

Planner makes it very easy to quickly add something to your list of tasks. Once you get used to the basics of planner-create-task-from-buffer, you might want to take a closer look at some things in Planner that can help you create new tasks in a way that fits with your system.

6.2.1.1 Creating a Task

You can create a task from any buffer in Emacs by invoking M-x planner-create-task-from-buffer.

This command does more than just add an item to your list of tasks. It also connects that item to some useful context information.

If you create a task while viewing any buffer other than a Planner day page, Planner will associate the task with a hyperlink to that buffer. Try it now by creating a task from this Info buffer.

1. M-x planner-create-task-from-buffer
2. When prompted for the task name, enter Learn how to change a task's status and press RET.
3. When prompted for the date, press RET to schedule the task for today.
4. When prompted for the project page, press RET to accept the default page of `TaskPool'. This is a page for tasks not connected to a larger plan.

Planner prompts you for two pieces of information when you ask it to create a task. First, it asks you when you would like to have the task show up in your planner. If you would like it to be scheduled for today, you can just hit RET. If you would like it to be scheduled for some day during the current month, you can just enter the date, without the month, like `16'. If you would like it to be scheduled for some day in a future month of the current year, you can enter just the month and date, like `06.16'. If you would like to schedule something for next year, then enter the full date, like `06.16.2005'. If you do not want this task to appear on a day page at all, you can enter `nil'.

The second piece of information Planner asks for is the name of the project to associate the task with. In the above example, you associated the task with the project "TaskPool", which means that you did not want to associate the task with a particular project or goal in your life. Another way to do this is to answer the project prompt by entering `nil'. But instead, you might enter `LearnPlanner' as the project. This creates a new page called "LearnPlanner" in your planner directory and places an entry for the task on that page.

The task then exists in two places: once on your day page, to show how it fits into your daily work; and once on a project page, to show how it fits into your larger projects and goals. In the future you might add related tasks like, "Memorize Planner keybindings". These tasks might be scattered over weeks or months worth of day pages, but as long as you enter the same project name for each, you will have a way to look at them all together on a single project page.

Planner also creates hyperlinks to enable you to easily move back and forth between the day page system and the project page system. Each task on a day page will have a hyperlink to its project page. Each task on a project page will have a hyperlink to its day page.

After using Planner for a while, you may find yourself with quite a few project pages. Keep in mind that completion is enabled at the project prompt when you create a task, so hitting SPC or TAB at the prompt will show you a list of your current project pages.

Once the task is created, you are returned to the buffer you were working in again, Planner gets out of your way, and you can go on about your business. Later on, when you decide to actually work on that "Memorize Planner keybindings" task, you will be able to follow the hyperlink from that task on your day or project page directly to the relevant node in the Planner info file!

By default, M-x planner-create-task-from-buffer creates medium-priority tasks, marked with the letter `B'. But you can specify a particular priority or change the default (see section Task Priorities).

You don't have to use planner-create-task-from-buffer to create tasks. You can also create new tasks manually by typing them directly on your day or project page in the format Planner expects. You can even still create hyperlinks by using Muse formatting as you manually type the new task. Keep in mind also that tasks do not have to be linked to any other page.

For convenience, planner-create-task-from-buffer is bound to C-c C-t in Planner buffers. You can bind planner-create-task-buffer to a shortcut key. See the manual for your Emacs distribution to find out more about keybinding.

Function: planner-create-task-from-buffer title date plan-page

Create a new task named title on date based on the current buffer.

With a prefix, associate the task with the current planner page. If you create a task on a date page, you will be prompted for a plan page. If you create a task on a plan page, you will be prompted for a day page. If nil is specified, the task is created only on the current page.

See planner-create-task for more information.

The new task is created at the top or bottom of the first block of tasks on the scheduled day page (if any), depending on the value of planner-add-task-at-end-flag.

Function: planner-create-task title date annotation plan-page

Create a new task named title based on the current Wiki page. If date is non-nil, makes a daily entry on date, else makes an entry in today's planner page. It's assumed that the current Wiki page is the page you're using to plan an activity. Any time accrued to this task will be applied to that page's name in the timelog file, assuming you use timeclock (see (Emacs)Time Intervals section `Time Intervals' in GNU Emacs Manual). If annotation is non-nil, it will be used for the page annotation. If plan-page is non-nil, the task is associated with the given page.

With a prefix, associate the task with the current planner page. If you create a task on a date page, you will be prompted for a plan page. If you create a task on a plan page, you will be prompted for a day page. If nil is specified, the task is created only on the current page.

You probably want to call planner-create-task-from-buffer instead.

The new task is created at the top or bottom of the first block of tasks on the scheduled day page (if any), depending on the value of planner-add-task-at-end-flag.

6.2.1.2 Task Priorities

You can set the priority of a task when you create it, rather than waiting to adjust it after the fact. In order to do this, call the function corresponding to the priority you want. You probably want to bind these functions to some keys if you intend to use them much.

• planner-create-high-priority-task-from-buffer creates a task with priority `A'.
• planner-create-medium-priority-task-from-buffer creates a task with priority `B'.
• planner-create-low-priority-task-from-buffer creates a task with priority `C'.

Or, you can change the default priority of planner-create-task-from-buffer by customizing planner-default-task-priority.

You can actually use just one general priority, but using more than one color-codes your tasks and gives you a better overview of your day.

6.2.1.3 Task IDs

After loading `planner.el', make sure that `planner-id.el' is in your load path and add this to your `.emacs' (or `_emacs'):

(require 'planner-id)

This module modifies the behavior of `planner.el', adding global task IDs so that tasks can be edited and updated. Planner IDs are of the form `{{Identifier:Number}}'.

Options

User Option: planner-id-add-task-id-flag

Non-nil means automatically add global task IDs to newly-created tasks. If nil, use planner-id-add-task-id to add IDs to existing tasks, or planner-id-add-task-id-to-all to add to all tasks on the current page.

User Option: planner-id-update-automatically

Non-nil means automatically update linked tasks whenever a page is saved. If nil, use planner-update-task to update the linked task. By default, linked tasks are automatically updated.

User Option: planner-id-tracking-file

File that contains ID tracking data. This file is automatically overwritten.

Functions

The following interactive functions are defined in `planner-id.el':

Function: planner-id-jump-to-linked-task &optional info

Display the linked task page. If info is specified, follow that task instead.

Function: planner-id-add-task

Add a task ID for the current task if it does not have one yet. Update the linked task page, if any.

Function: planner-id-update-tasks-on-page &optional force

Update all tasks on this page. Completed or cancelled tasks are not updated. This can be added to write-file-functions. If force is non-nil, completed and cancelled tasks are also updated.

Function: planner-id-add-task-id-to-all

Add a task ID for all the tasks on the page. Update the linked page, if any.

Function: planner-id-search-id id

Search for all occurrences of id.

Function: planner-id-follow-id-at-point

Display a list of all pages containing the ID at point.

Function: planner-id-follow-id-at-mouse event

Display a list of all pages containing the ID at mouse. event is the mouse event.

6.2.1.4 Cyclic Tasks

If there are tasks that you have to do regularly, you can have Planner schedule those tasks automatically.

Make sure that `planner-cyclic.el' is in your load path and add this to your `.emacs' (or `_emacs'):

(require 'planner-cyclic)

Create a diary file named `~/.diary.cyclic-tasks' (or the value of planner-cyclic-diary-file). Here is an example:

Tuesday #B0 _ Study Japanese
Friday #B0 _ Study Japanese (JapaneseStudies)

The first will be a plain task, the second will be linked. The first line will automatically create its task every Tuesday, while the second will create it every Friday.

You can schedule tasks in a variety of ways. This module uses the same syntax for specifying when tasks will be scheduled as the Emacs diary uses for appointments and events. See the GNU Emacs Manual: (emacs)Date Formats section `Date Formats' in the GNU Emacs Manual, and the GNU Emacs Lisp Reference Manual: (elisp)Sexp Diary Entries section `Sexp Diary Entries' in the GNU Emacs Lisp Reference Manual, for a full description of the possibilities.

By default, planner-cyclic creates multiple tasks if you let tasks build up (that is, the next Tuesday rolls around and you still haven't marked the task as done.) To turn off this behavior:

(setq planner-cyclic-diary-nag nil)

Functions

`planner-cyclic-diary' includes the following interactive functions:

Function: planner-cyclic-create-tasks-maybe

Maybe create cyclic tasks. This will only create tasks for future dates or today.

6.2.1.5 Task Detail

You may find your planner pages getting very full, so that you want to have one broad task entry be linked to a more specific list of sub-tasks. Or, maybe you want to have a number of notes linked to a particular task.

This can be done with targets. You can have a task that is really a meta-task:

#A1  _ Do things in RevelleLog#13 {{Tasks:101}} (RevelleLog)

`RevelleLog#13' could then be a list of sub-tasks in the form of a note, or any kind of note.

Or, instead of pointing to a particular note on `RevelleLog', you could have the whole page be tasks that you enter in manually, without linking them to another page. You can just type them in like this:

#A1  _ First specific thing to do

This way, the tasks will only appear on this specific project page, and not on any daily page, so you only see them when you want to look up all of the specific tasks associated with `#A1 _ Do things in RevelleLog {{Tasks:101}} (RevelleLog)'.

As you can see, the ability to manually enter tasks is one of Planner's nicest features. It allows you to create tasks that are not assigned to a specific date (by manually entering them on a project page with no date) or to a specific project (by manually entering them on a day page with no project). Yet as long as you enter them using the syntax it understands, Planner will continue to recognize them as tasks.

Another way to have a task not be connected to a particular date is to do C-c C-c (planner-copy-or-move-task) and specify `nil' when asked for the date.

If you would like to see a list of all of your unfinished tasks, do M-x planner-list-unfinished-tasks. This function only checks day plan pages, not project pages.

6.2.1.6 Deadlines

You can use `planner-deadline.el' to automatically recalculate days to a deadline by adding (require 'planner-deadline) to your `~/.emacs'. With the default setup, make your tasks of the form

#A0 _ Some task {{Deadline: 2004.09.12}}

(Note: There must be at least one space after the colon.)

After you run planner-deadline-update to update task descriptions, the task will be of the form

#A0 _ Some task {{Deadline: 2004.09.12 - 2 days}}

Options

User Option: planner-deadline-regexp

Regular expression for deadline data. The special deadline string should be regexp group 1. The date (YYYY.MM.DD) should be regexp group 2.

Functions

Function: planner-deadline-update

Replace the text for all tasks with deadlines. Deadlines are of the form `{{Deadline: YYYY.MM.DD}}' by default.

Function: planner-deadline-change &optional date

Change the deadline of current task to date. If date is nil, remove deadline.

6.2.2 Organizing Your Tasks

Okay, now that you've gotten the hang of creating tasks, you're probably facing a really long list of things to do. How can you organize them so that they don't overwhelm you? Planner gives you a number of strategies for dealing with large numbers of tasks.

1. Arrange your tasks in the rough order you're going to do them.
2. Use #A, #B and #C task priorities to differentiate between high-priority, normal and low-priority tasks.
3. Schedule your tasks onto different days.
4. Group your tasks into plan pages.
5. Don't schedule all your tasks.

1. Task order

   To remind yourself to do tasks in a certain order, simply edit the lines so that they're in the order you want. You can use normal editing commands like kill, yank and transpose-line to reorder the tasks, or use M-p (planner-raise-task) and M-n (planner-lower-task) to rearrange the tasks.

2. Task priorities

   By default, tasks are created with medium priority (`#B'). You can make a task high-priority (`#A') or low-priority (`#C') by manually editing the task and calling M-x planner-update-task to update the linked page. Alternatively, you can use C-M-p (planner-raise-task-priority) and C-M-n (planner-lower-task-priority) to modify the task and update the linked page.

   You can edit the priority of a task using M-x planner-edit-task-priority, or manually edit it and call M-x planner-update-task to update tasks on the linked page.

3. Schedule your tasks on different days

   You don't have to do everything today. Is this a task you would rather do tomorrow? Schedule it for then instead. You can specify `+n' or `-n' whenever you are asked for a date, where n is the number of days before or after the current file's date or today. Don't over-procrastinate things, though!

4. Plan pages

   Plan pages let you group related tasks and notes together for easy reference. For example, you could have a plan page for each major project or goal in your life, like `GoodHealth' or `FurtherStudies'.

   Although plan pages start by grouping everything under a `* Tasks' header, you can organize your plan pages in different ways. For example, you can separate groups of tasks with blank lines, and Planner will sort tasks within each group.

5. Tasks without dates

   Plan pages also allow you to have undated tasks or tasks with no particular deadlines. This keeps your daily task list small and manageable while making it easier for you to find things to do if you have free time. Make sure you check your plan pages regularly so that you don't completely forget about them.

   For automated scheduling of the next task on a plan page after you complete a task, see the section in http://sacha.free.net.ph/notebook/emacs/planner-config.el named "Schedule next undated task from same project".

6.2.2.1 Associating Tasks with Multiple Projects

You can use `planner-multi.el' to associate a task with more than one project. That way, you can easily keep GTD-style context lists as well as project-related lists.

To use multiple projects, add the following to your `~/.emacs':

(require 'planner-multi)

Under GNU Emacs, you can specify multiple projects by separating them with a single space. For example, you can specify planner doc when creating a task to associate the task with those two projects.

Under XEmacs, you can specify multiple projects by typing RET after each entry and terminating the list with another RET. For example, to specify planner and doc, you would type planner RET doc RET RET at the prompt.

If you want to see an overview of all of your tasks as well as project- or context-specific lists, you can set planner-multi-copy-tasks-to-page to your overview page(s). For example, set it to `TaskPool' to be able to see an overview of all of your unfinished tasks. You can also set this to multiple pages such as `[[TasksByProject][p]] [[TasksByContext][c]]' and use `planner-trunk.el' to sort and organize tasks for easy reference. (see section Grouping Tasks with planner-trunk.el)

Options

User Option: planner-multi-copy-tasks-to-page

Automatically copy newly-created tasks to the specified page.

By default, tasks are removed from planner-multi-copy-tasks-to-page when you call planner-task-done or planner-task-cancelled. If you prefer to keep a copy of the task, remove planner-multi-remove-task-from-pool from planner-mark-task-hook.

If you want to use a different separator instead of spaces, customize the planner-multi-separator variable.

User Option: planner-multi-separator

String that separates multiple page references.

For best results, this should be something recognized by muse-link-at-point so that links are highlighted separately.

6.2.2.2 Viewing tasks

Review the tasks scheduled for today by typing M-x planner-goto-today. If you created the task from the previous section in this tutorial, you should see a line that looks like

#A _ Learn how to change a task's status from Tasks (TaskPool)

If you have planner-use-task-numbers set to non-nil, you will see something like the following instead.

#A0 _ Learn how to change a task's status from Tasks (TaskPool)

From left to right, these are what the symbols mean:

• `A' - Priority. A (high)
• `0' - Priority number. It is calculated whenever you save the file or call planner-renumber-tasks, provided that planner-use-task-numbers is non-nil. Tasks are numbered in ascending order according to priorities.
• `_' - Status. _ (unfinished)

If you click on `Tasks' or press RET while your cursor is in the link, Emacs will display the previous info page.

If you select `TaskPool', Emacs will display the `TaskPool' plan page. Plan pages organize your tasks and notes about a project in one file.

Functions

You can use planner-seek-next-unfinished-task to move to the next unfinished task on the current page.

Function: planner-list-tasks-with-status status &optional pages

Display all tasks that match the STATUS regular expression on all day pages. The PAGES argument limits the pages to be checked in this manner:

• t: check all pages
• regexp: search all pages whose filenames match the regexp
• list of page names: limit to those pages
• alist of page/filenames: limit to those pages

Called interactively, this function will search day pages by default. You can specify the start and end dates or leave them as nil to search all days. Calling this function with an interactive prefix will prompt for a regular expression to limit pages. Specify `.' or leave this blank to include all pages.

This function could take a long time.

Function: planner-list-unfinished-tasks &optional pages

Display all unfinished tasks. pages follows planner-list-tasks-with-status.

Function: planner-jump-to-linked-task task-info

Display the task page linked to by the current task or task-info.

6.2.2.3 Modifying Tasks

To select a task, move your cursor to the line containing the task.

Change a task's priority (`A', `B' or `C') by editing the line. `#A' tasks are important. `#B' are medium priority. `#C' are low priority. Whenever you save the file or call M-x planner-fix-tasks, tasks are sorted and numbered according to priority and status.

Change a task's status by calling one of the following functions:

• planner-task-in-progress `o' (C-c C-z)
• planner-task-done `X' (C-c C-x)
• planner-task-cancelled `C' (C-c C-S-x)
• planner-task-delegated `D'
• planner-task-pending `P'
• planner-task-open `_'

After changing the status using a function, look at the `TaskPool' plan page. The task is also updated on the linked page. If you changed the task status manually by replacing the status with another character, you will need to call planner-update-task to update the linked page.

To reschedule a task, call planner-copy-or-move-task (C-c C-c) and choose a new date. You can mark a region and type M-x planner-copy-or-move-region to reschedule all the contained tasks to a different date. Enter `nil' for the date if you don't want the task or group of tasks to appear on any date page at all anymore. This is a good way to "de-schedule" a task for the time being, but still keep it linked to a plan page for possible future scheduling.

To change the plan page associated with a task, call planner-replan-task. Enter `nil' for the plan page if you don't want the task to appear on any plan page anymore. If you precede the command with a prefix argument, the text of the original plan page will appear in the prompt for easy editing.

Since the same task may exist on two or more pages, such as a date page and a plan page, it is dangerous to edit the description of the task by hand. You should not do it unless you want to make the exact same changes on all its linked pages.

Instead of doing this by hand, you should use planner-edit-task-description. This will prompt you for the changes to the task description and then update all the other pages to which the task is linked. Or, you can just use planner-delete-task to remove the task from both pages, and then create it again with the new desired description.

To remind yourself to do tasks in a certain order, simply edit the lines so that they're in the order you want. planner-raise-task and planner-lower-task update the priorities on linked pages automatically. You can organize tasks into groups by putting a blank line between groups of tasks. Planner will maintain the groupings and only sort the tasks within that group.

Functions

Function: planner-replan-task page-name

Change or assign the plan page for the current task. page-name is the new plan page for the task. Use planner-copy-or-move-task if you want to change the date. With a prefix, provide the current link text for editing.

Function: planner-raise-task-priority

Change a low-priority task to a medium-priority task and a medium-priority task to a high-priority task (C to B to A).

Function: planner-lower-task-priority

Change a high-priority task to a medium-priority task and a medium-priority task to a low-priority task (A to B to C).

Function: planner-raise-task arg

Move a task up arg steps. By default, arg is 1.

Function: planner-lower-task arg

Move a task down arg steps. By default, arg is 1.

Function: planner-edit-task-description description

Change the description of the current task, updating the linked page if any.

Function: planner-delete-task

Delete this task from the current page and the linked page.

Function: planner-update-task

Update the current task's priority and status on the linked page. Tasks are considered the same if they have the same description. This function allows you to force a task to be recreated if it disappeared from the associated page.

Note that the text of the task must not change. If you want to be able to update the task description, see planner-edit-task-description or `planner-id.el'.

See planner-install-extra-task-keybindings for additional task-related shortcuts.

6.2.2.4 Carrying Over Unfinished Tasks

Sometimes you won't be able to cross off all the tasks on your list. Planner makes it easy for you to keep track of things you still have to do by automatically rescheduling unfinished tasks from the past few days. By default, the plan command searches for unfinished tasks from the last three days and reschedules them onto today. If you open Planner every day, this should cover weekends easily.

It's a good idea to start Planner whenever you start Emacs. That way, Planner can help remind you about today's tasks, appointments, and other things. To automatically start Planner whenever you start up Emacs, add the following code to the end of your `~/.emacs':

(plan)

Now, every time you start Emacs (which should be more or less once a day), you'll see today's page. If you don't finish all the tasks today, you'll see them again tomorrow.

It's a good idea to start Planner every time you start Emacs so that you get reminded about your task list. If you prefer to start Planner manually, remember to call M-x plan every so often to make sure that you don't forget any unfinished tasks. Safe in the knowledge that Planner tasks won't slip through the cracks (unlike little slips of paper that will invariably get mislaid), you can then get on with the rest of your life.

If your increased productivity with Planner leads to a well-deserved two-week vacation, then you'll need to tell Planner to search more days for unfinished tasks. By using M-x plan, you can automatically bring forward tasks over a given number of days or even scan all the days since time immemorial. C-u 15 M-x plan reschedules all unfinished tasks from the last 15 days. C-u -1 M-x plan checks all of your past day pages for unfinished tasks.

Like everything else in Planner, you can adapt M-x plan to your particular way of life. For example, if you find yourself starting up Emacs and Planner every day-including weekends-because it's just so much fun, you can set the planner-carry-tasks-forward to 1. This can make your Emacs startup marginally faster. On the other hand, if you normally start Emacs once a week, you can set it to 7 or 8. If you're worried about tasks dropping off your radar, you can set it to 0. You can set the value of planner-carry-tasks-forward either with M-x customize-variable RET planner-carry-tasks-forward RET, or by putting (setq planner-carry-tasks-forward 3) (replacing 3 with the value appropriate for what you want) in your `~/.emacs' file.

On the other hand, you might prefer to reschedule tasks yourself. If you set planner-carry-tasks-forward to nil, then M-x plan and (plan) will bring you to the most recent page with unfinished tasks if there is no page for today. You can then use planner-copy-or-move-task and planner-copy-or-move-region to reschedule tasks. This is probably more hassle than it's worth, though, so let Planner take care of this for you.

Options

User Option: planner-carry-tasks-forward

If non-nil, carry unfinished tasks forward automatically. If a positive integer, scan that number of days in the past. If 0, scan all days for unfinished tasks. If t, scan one day in the past (old behavior). If nil, do not carry unfinished tasks forward.

Functions

Function: plan &optional force-days

Start your planning for the day, carrying unfinished tasks forward.

If force-days is a positive integer, search that many days in the past for unfinished tasks. If force-days is 0 or t, scan all days. If force-days is nil, use the value of planner-carry-tasks-forward instead, except t means scan only yesterday

Function: planner-copy-or-move-task date force

Reschedule the task for date. If force is non-nil, the task is moved regardless of status. It also works for creating tasks from a Note. Use planner-replan-task if you want to change the plan page in order to get better completion.

Function: planner-copy-or-move-region beg end date muffle-errors

Move all tasks from beg to end to date. planner-copy-or-move-region will copy or move all tasks from the line containing beg to the line just before end. If muffle-errors is non-nil, no errors will be reported.

6.2.2.5 Task Numbering

By default, tasks are numbered according to their position on the page. Task numbers allow you to refer to tasks using Muse links. For example, the `#A1' task in `2004.08.16' can be referred to as `2004.08.16#A1'.

Note that task numbers change every time you re-sort and re-number tasks with planner-fix-tasks. As a result, they are only reliable for references to past tasks.

If you find yourself not using this functionality, you can turn off task numbers by using the following option.

Options

User Option: planner-use-task-numbers

Non-nil means use task numbers when creating tasks. This allows you to refer to past tasks if your tasks are numbered appropriately. If you set this to nil, you can save space in your plan files.

6.2.2.6 Task Ranks

`planner-rank.el' models Franklin Covey's Urgency and Importance principle. When you think about a task, there are two aspects in consideration: Urgency and Importance. You may want to do the most urgent things first, like answering an email, or you may want to do the most important things first, like reading this manual. Or much better, balance Urgency and Importance and decide what to do.

`planner-rank.el' can help you balance.

Urgency and Importance are both measured by scores from 0-9. The higher the score, the more you want to do it first. 9 stands for "I should have done this" and 0 stands for "I can forget this".

If you are using the planner Deadlines feature, the Urgency score is automatically calculated from how many days are left to meet the deadline. By default, it will score 9 if the task is overdue and 0 if the deadline is years away. Please refer to the docstring of planner-rank-deadline-urgency-map-list for detail.

The task rank is calculated from Urgency and Importance scores. As different people balance urgency and importance differently, a number of planner-rank-calculate-rank-* functions are provided. The algorithms vary from a simple average to something like a weighted root mean square deviation.

The aggressive versions of these functions (planner-rank-calculate-rank-*-aggressive) will make sure if one of Urgency and Importance is high, the resulting rank will be high as well. planner-rank-calculate-rank-weighted-* functions weigh the Urgency and Important scores depending on planner-rank-importance-vs-urgency-factor.

Call planner-rank-test-algorithm on each of the functions and check the result tables to see which one you like most, and set it to planner-rank-rank-calculate-function. Alternatively, accept the defaults and tweak them when you get a better feel for ranking.

Once the Rank is calculated, the Task Priorities will be automatically reset. If the Rank is greater than or equal to planner-rank-priority-A-valve, the task priority will be `A', if the Rank is between planner-rank-priority-A-valve and planner-rank-priority-B-valve, the priority will be `B', else it will be `C'.

After setting the task importance and deadline, you can leave it as is. As the deadline approaches, the task priority will automatically be raised and the task re-colored to catch your eyes.

If you are using planner-sort-tasks (see see section Making Files Pretty), you can set planner-sort-tasks-key-function to one of planner-sort-tasks-by-rank, planner-sort-tasks-by-importance, and planner-sort-tasks-by-urgency.

Options

User Option: planner-rank-change-hook

Functions to run after planner-rank-change.

User Option: planner-rank-priority-A-valve

Tasks with rank greater than or equal to this value will be set to priority `A'.

User Option: planner-rank-priority-B-valve

Tasks with rank greater than or equal to this value and less than planner-rank-priority-A-valve will be set to priority `B'. Tasks with rank less than this value will be set to priority `C'.

User Option: planner-rank-deadline-urgency-map-list

Defines how to calculate the Urgency score according to how many days are left to meet the deadline.

User Option: planner-rank-default-importance

Default importance value for newly added rank.

User Option: planner-rank-default-urgency

Default urgency value for newly added rank.

User Option: planner-rank-importance-vs-urgency-factor

How much do you think importance is more "important" than urgency. This will be used in planner-rank-calculate-rank-weighted-* functions.

User Option: planner-rank-rank-calculate-function

Define the function called to calculate rank.

Functions

Function: planner-rank-change &optional importance urgency

Set the Importance and Urgency of the current task.

Function: planner-rank-update-current-task

Recalculate rank for the current task.

Function: planner-rank-update-all

Recalculate rank for all tasks in the current page

Function: planner-rank-update-all

Recalculate rank for all tasks in the current page

6.2.2.7 Grouping Tasks with planner-trunk.el

`planner-trunk.el' helps you automatically group tasks according to a set of rules. It sorts and splits your tasks, adding a blank line between groups of tasks. For example, if today's page looks like this:

* Tasks

#B   _ Buy milk (GroceryShopping)
#B   _ Learn how to use planner-trunk (PlannerMode)
#B   _ Buy a notebook (Bookstore)
#B   _ Buy cereal (GroceryShopping)
#B   _ Set up my own planner-trunk rules (PlannerMode)
#B   _ Customize my stylesheet (MuseMode)
#B   _ Go for a health checkup (BetterHealth)

then you might want to group the tasks into: planner and muse, shopping list, and other items. If you set up the appropriate rules by customizing planner-trunk-rule-list, `planner-trunk.el' can automatically rewrite that section line this:

* Tasks

#B   _ Learn how to use planner-trunk (PlannerMode)
#B   _ Set up my own planner-trunk rules (PlannerMode)
#B   _ Customize my stylesheet (MuseMode)

#B   _ Buy milk (GroceryShopping)
#B   _ Buy a notebook (BookstoreShopping)
#B   _ Buy cereal (GroceryShopping)

#B   _ Go for a health checkup

In this case, you would set planner-trunk-rule-list to (("." nil ("PlannerMode\\|MuseMode" "Shopping"))).

You can load `planner-trunk' with M-x load-library RET planner-trunk RET or add (require 'planner-trunk). If you're not yet comfortable with Emacs Lisp, you can use M-x customize-variable RET planner-trunk-rule-list RET to edit this rule using an easy-to-use interface.

WARNING: Do not keep non-task information in the Tasks section. planner-trunk will delete all non-task lines from the Tasks section of your plan page in the process of grouping the tasks.

After you set up planner-trunk-rule-list, use M-x planner-trunk-tasks to try out your rules until you're satistfied.

If you want to do this automatically, you can use (add-hook 'planner-mode-hook 'planner-trunk-tasks) to trigger it automatically whenever you open a Planner page.

6.2.3 Task Reports and Overviews

Planner provides a number of different ways to generate different presentations of your tasks.

6.2.3.1 Generating Daily Accomplishment Reports

You can use `planner-accomplishments.el' to get a summary of your task activity for a particular day. The report is grouped by status and plan (on day pages) or date (on plan pages). An example report follows:

Link        | Unfinished | In progress | Delegated | Completed | Total
nil         | 1          | 0           | 0         | 6         | 7
TaskPool    | 1          | 1           | 0         | 3         | 5
Planner     | 0          | 0           | 1         | 1         | 2
SchoolWork  | 0          | 0           | 0         | 1         | 1
Total       | 2          | 1           | 1         | 11        | 15

This lets you see how you balance your time between your projects.

• There are currently two ways to use `planner-accomplishments.el'.
• Displaying a temporary buffer

  You can call planner-accomplishments-show to display a buffer containing the current page's accomplishment report.

• Rewriting sections of your planner

  Choose this approach if you want accomplishment reports to be in their own section and you would like them to be readable in your plain text files even outside Emacs. Caveat: The accomplishment section should already exist in your template and will be rewritten when updated.

  To use, set planner-accomplishments-section to the name of the section to rewrite (default: `Accomplishments'). If you want rewriting to be automatically performed, call planner-accomplishments-insinuate. The accomplishments will be rewritten whenever you save a planner page. If you want rewriting to be manual, call planner-accomplishments-update.

Options

User Option: planner-accomplishments-section

Header for the accomplishments section in a plan page. Used by planner-accomplishments-update.

User Option: planner-accomplishments-status-display

Alist of status-label maps also defining the order of display. Used by planner-accomplishments-format-table.

Functions

Function: planner-accomplishments-insinuate ()

Automatically call planner-accomplishments-update when saving tasks in planner-mode buffers.

Function: planner-accomplishments-update ()

Rewrite planner-accomplishments-section with a summary of tasks on this page.

Function: planner-accomplishments-show ()

Display a buffer with the current page's accomplishment report.

6.2.3.2 Status Reports

`planner-report.el' creates a status report for a given timespan. The report itself is just another Planner page in your planner directory. Once generated, it contains tasks and notes culled from active project pages. Tasks are only shown if they are incomplete or were completed within the timespan. Notes are shown if they were created during the timespan. Tasks and notes are grouped together under a heading for their corresponding project.

The idea is you have one of these status reports generated periodically (say, every couple of weeks). Perhaps you use cron to run them automatically and then mail you a reminder that they've been done. Then you can edit the page, adding verbiage where it is needed and removing irrelevant items. This editing process is as easy as editing any other Planner page. Finally, you can publish the page along with the rest of your planner using M-x muse-project-publish.

If you use planner-authz.el, you can tell planner-report.el only to consult project pages that a given list of users (planner-report-authz) can access when generating the report. For example, if you're preparing a status report for your boss, add yourself and him to planner-report-authz. The resulting status report will only contain information the two of you are supposed to have access to, and the report itself will be similarly restricted.

Getting started

Add the following to your .emacs file:

(require 'planner-report)

Then you can use the following command to generate a status report:

M-x planner-report-generate

You will be prompted for a beginning and ending date, and then the status report will be generated. You can then edit it to your liking and publish it just like you would the rest of your planner.

Options

User Option: planner-report-authz

List of users a status report should be restricted to. When status reports are generated, only planner pages accessible by these users will be consulted, and the resulting status report will be similarly restricted.

User Option: planner-report-pretty-print-plan-pages

If non-nil, pretty print plan pages. If nil, leave page names as-is. This requires that `muse-wiki.el' be loaded to work properly.

User Option: planner-report-remove-task-numbers

Remove task numbers when generating status reports.

User Option: planner-report-replace-note-numbers

If non-nil, a string with which to replace note numbers when generating status reports.

User Option: planner-report-unfinished-offset

If non-nil, the offset in days from the current date of unfinished tasks to include in the status report. If nil, include all unfinished tasks.

Functions

Function: planner-report-generate begin end

Generate a status report spanning a period from begin to end. begin and end are in the format YYYY.MM.DD.

6.2.3.3 Seeing an Overview of Tasks

You can see a list of tasks with `planner-tasks-overview.el'. Seeing how you've scheduled tasks over the next few days can help you decide when to schedule another task. Table entries will be of the form

date | link | priority status | task-description

Functions

To display the tasks between a set of day pages, use

Function: planner-tasks-overview start end

Display an overview of your tasks from start to end. If start is nil, start from the very first day page. If end is nil, include the very last day page. You can use planner-expand-name shortcuts here, like +1 or -1. Pressing RET at the prompt will use today.

Once in a planner-tasks-overview buffer, you can use the keyboard shortcut o to change the overview period.

You can sort the task display with the following functions:

Function: planner-tasks-overview-sort-by-date

Sort the tasks by date. Keyboard shortcut: 1

Function: planner-tasks-overview-sort-by-plan

Sort the tasks by associated plan page. Keyboard shortcut: 2

Function: planner-tasks-overview-sort-by-priority

Sort the tasks by priority. Keyboard shortcut: 3

Function: planner-tasks-overview-sort-by-status

Sort the tasks by status. Keyboard shortcut: 4

You can jump to linked tasks with

Function: planner-tasks-overview-jump other-window

Display the current task. If a prefix argument is supplied, show the task in another window. Keyboard shortcut: j

Function: planner-tasks-overview-jump-other-window

Display the current task in another window. Keyboard shortcut: C-u j

You can view a summary of the tasks in your plan pages with

Function: planner-tasks-overview-show-summary &optional file-list

Count unscheduled, scheduled, and completed tasks for FILE-LIST. If called with an interactive prefix, prompt for the plan page(s) to display. Load `planner-multi.el' to be able to specify multiple pages.

Keys

TAB, SHIFT-TAB and RET navigate links in the usual fashion.

6.2.3.4 <tasks> tag

`<tasks>' is replaced by a report of tasks over all day pages in published pages (see section Publishing).

All incomplete tasks

<tasks status="^X">

All completed tasks

<tasks status="X">

All tasks

<tasks>

Warning: this function can be slow, as it checks all the day pages!

6.3 planner-registry

The `planner-registry' module provides a way to keep track of all the URLs in your projects, and to list them depending on the current buffer. The URLs are defined in muse-url-protocols module from Muse.

If a URL has been created by planner-create-task-from-buffer, going to that buffer and calling planner-registry-show will show you where Planner put the URL.

Getting started

To begin using `planner-registry', add the following to your Planner configuration file.

(require 'planner-registry)
(planner-registry-initialize)

You must put it after the place where Planner has been loaded in your configuration file.

If you want the registry to be updated each time you save a Planner file, add the following to your Planner configuration.

(planner-registry-insinuate)

If you don't want to update the registry each time a file is written, you can do it manually with planner-registry-update: it will update the registry for saved Planner/Muse buffers only.

`planner-registry' does not define any keybindings by default. Its most useful interactive function is planner-registry-show.

Example usage

Say for example that you created a task from an e-mail. Go to that e-mail and call planner-registry-show: it will open a new buffer displaying the files (in a muse links format) where a link to this e-mail has been added.

Options

`planner-registry' defines the following options.

User Option: planner-registry-file

The file where `planner-registry' stores its URL registry.

User Option: planner-registry-min-keyword-size

The minimum size for keywords.

User Option: planner-registry-max-keyword-size

The maximum size for keywords.

User Option: planner-registry-max-number-of-keywords

The maximum number of keywords.

User Option: planner-registry-ignore-keywords

A list of keywords to ignore.

User Option: planner-registry-show-level

Level used by the planner-registry-show function. 0 means that this function shows only exact matches. 1 means that this function also shows descriptive matches. 2 (or more) means that this function also shows fuzzy matches.

6.4 planner-zoom

When assessing where you stand in relation to the tasks you have set out for yourself, you might want a way to survey those tasks in groups divided by time periods, like by the week or by the month. You could create all of these overview pages by hand, but if you like to have this kind of overview frequently, you might find manually creating such pages to be tedious and time consuming.

`planner-zoom' is an optional module designed to make it easy to view your task information grouped by year, quarter, month, week or day.

To install this module, just load it in your `.emacs' (or `_emacs'):

(require 'planner-zoom)

This module will recognize planner pages named according to the following scheme:

year view

`2006.Year'

quarter view

`2006.Quarter2'

month view

`2006.January'

week view

`2006.January.Week3'

day view

`2006.01.02'

Keybindings

This module also adds key bindings that you can use when looking at a Planner page to easily jump between the different time-period views.

S-up

Move to the view corresponding to the time period one step larger than the current one. For example, it moves from the weekly view to the monthly view. It calls planner-zoom-iup.

S-down

Move to the view corresponding to the time period one step smaller than the current one. For example, it moves from the weekly view to the daily view. It calls planner-zoom-idown.

S-left

Stay in the same time-period view as the current one, but move one interval earlier. For example, it moves from `2006.January.Week3' to `2006.January.Week2'. It calls planner-zoom-iprev.

S-right

Stay in the same time-period view as the current one, but move one interval later. For example, it moves from `2006.January.Week3' to `2006.January.Week4'. It calls planner-zoom-inext.

Example usage

Look at the page named `2006.January' and then hit S-down which will show `2006.January.Week1'. Then hit S-left and S-right to look at `2006.January.Week2', `2006.January.Week3', etc.

Advanced tips and options

You can use any prefix argument with planner-zoom-iup and planner-zoom-idown to have the new view display in a window other than the current one. This also works with a nonnumeric prefix argument and planner-zoom-inext or planner-zoom-iprev. For these two functions, a numeric prefix will specify the number of intervals to move.

If you don't like the default patterns for naming the time-period view pages, you can change them by customizing planner-zoom-regexps.

Some people believe weeks start with Sunday, and some believe they start with Monday. To accommodate both of these colliding worldviews, planner-zoom-first-day-of-week can be customized. Its default value is `1', which is Monday. If you would prefer Sunday, change it to `0'. The month to which a week belongs is the month in which the first day of the week falls.

Command reference

Function: planner-zoom-iup name other-window

Move to the next higher level in the hierarchy. With a prefix argument, show the desired page in the other window.

Function: planner-zoom-idown name other-window

Move to the next lower level in the hierarchy. If the current date is within the higher-level time range, zoom to the lower level time range that also contains today. Otherwise, just go to the first lower-level time range. With a prefix argument, show the desired page in the other window.

Function: panner-zoom-inext name num other-window

Move to the next time range at the same level in the hierarchy. With a numeric prefix argument, move by that number of time ranges. With a non-numeric prefix argument, show the desired page in the other window.

Function: planner-zoom-iprev name num other-window

Move to the previous time range at the same level in the hierarchy. With a numeric prefix argument, move by that number of time ranges. With a non-numeric prefix argument, show the desired page in the other window.

6.5 More about Notes

Planner by default organizes the notes on a planner page so that the most recent note is first. Each note is numbered, with the oldest note labeled `.#1'. If you would like to reverse this behavior, look at C-h v planner-reverse-chronological-notes.

Notes are associated with day pages, but can also be associated with plan pages when they are created. A linked note looks like this:

.#1 Headline (LinkedNote#1)
Text

You can jump to the linked note with planner-jump-to-linked-note.

Deleting a note can be dangerous, as the notes are automatically numbered. Removing a note could break links in other pages.

Functions

Function: planner-create-note page

Create a note to be remembered in page (today if page is nil). If planner-reverse-chronological-notes is non-nil, create the note at the beginning of the notes section; otherwise, add it to the end. Position point after the anchor.

Function: planner-create-note-from-task

Create a note based on the current task and update the current task to link to the note.

Function: planner-renumber-notes

Update note numbering.

Function: planner-jump-to-linked-note note-info

Display the note linked to by the current note or note-info if non-nil.

Function: planner-search-notes regexp limit

Return a buffer with all the notes returned by the query for regexp. If called with a prefix argument, prompt for limit and search days on or after limit.

The following sections include instructions for displaying, manipulating, and navigating your notes efficiently.

6.5.1 Using Allout Mode

The format of the notes in Planner works well with Allout mode, which provides helpful commands for navigating and formatting outlines. You can, for example, hide the bodies of all the notes on a page so you can see just their headlines. You can also jump easily from headline to headline, skipping over the bodies in between.

The commands for using Allout mode vary depending on which Emacs version you are using. In either case, type M-x load-library RET allout RET to start. If you are using CVS Emacs, type M-x allout-mode RET. If you are using an earlier version of Emacs, type M-x outline-mode RET.

The exact commands then available to you differ depending on your Emacs version, but you can view the commands and their keybindings by typing C-h m. In CVS Emacs, they will start with allout-, while in previous versions, they will start with outline-.

6.5.2 <notes>

`<notes>' is replaced by a list of note headlines when the page is published. For example, the notes tag in the following example will be replaced by the two headlines when published. (see section Publishing)

<notes>

* Notes

.#1 This is a headline

and this is body text

.#2 This is another headline

and this is more body text

`<notes>' is useful if you want to provide a quick summary of blog entries at the top of your page. Just add it to your planner-day-page-template.

6.5.3 <past-notes>

`<past-notes>' is replaced by an index of note headlines. If start is specified, it lists notes starting from that date. If directory is specified, you can index notes in another planner directory.

All the notes I've taken in 2004:

<past-notes start="2004.01.01" end="2004.12.31">

6.5.4 Note Indices

Make sure that `planner-notes-index.el' is in your load path and add this to your `.emacs' (or `_emacs'):

(require 'planner-notes-index)

Then you can use tags of the form:

<planner-notes-index page="2004.03.02">
<planner-notes-index from="2004.03.01" to="2004.03.31">
<planner-notes-index limit="10">
<planner-notes-index page="PlanPage">
<planner-notes-index-month-table month="2004.03" limit="5">
<planner-notes-index-month-table month="2004.03">

You can also use the following interactive functions:

planner-notes-index planner-notes-index-days planner-notes-index-weeks planner-notes-index-months planner-notes-index-years (wow!)

These work based on the current date (date of current buffer, or today).

If a single page is specified, this page is scanned for headlines of the form:

 .#1 Headline

The results are presented as a bulleted list.

If from and to are specified, all date pages between them (inclusive) are scanned. If from is omitted, it is assumed to be the earliest entry. If to is omitted, it is assumed to be the latest entry.

If recent is specified, the list includes only that many recent headlines. and the results are presented as a bulleted list.

To customize presentation, you can write a function that generates the appropriate <planner-notes-index> tags. You can also use planner-extract-note-headlines in your own functions.

Functions

The following interactive functions are defined in `planner-notes-index.el':

Function: planner-notes-index &optional from to limit

Display a clickable notes index. If called from a Lisp program, display only dates between from and to. With a prefix arg limit, display only that number of entries.

Function: planner-notes-index-days days

Display an index of notes posted over the past few days. The list ends with the day of the current buffer or planner-today.

Function: planner-notes-index-weeks weeks

Display an index of notes posted over the past few weeks. The list ends with the week of the current buffer or planner-today. Weeks start from Sunday.

Function: planner-notes-index-months months

Display an index of notes posted over the past few months. The list ends with the month of the current buffer or planner-today.

Function: planner-notes-index-years years

Display an index of notes posted over the past few years. The current year is included.

`planner-notes-index.el' does not define any keybindings.

6.6 Making Files Pretty

By default, planner does a little bit of fancy reformatting when you save a file. Tasks are sorted by priority (ABC) and status (_oP>XC) on day pages. On plan pages, tasks are sorted by priority (ABC), status (XC), and date. Undated tasks are sorted after dated tasks.

Options

User Option: planner-sort-tasks-key-function

Control task sorting. Some options include planner-sort-tasks-default-key, planner-sort-tasks-basic, planner-sort-tasks-by-date, and planner-sort-tasks-by-link.

User Option: planner-sort-undated-tasks-equivalent

This option controls the behavior of task sorting on plan pages. By default, the value `9999.99.99' causes dated tasks to be listed before undated tasks. To sort undated tasks before dated tasks, set this to a blank string.

User Option: planner-sort-tasks-automatically

Non-nil means sort tasks whenever a planner file is saved. On day pages, tasks are sorted by status. On plan pages, they are sorted by status and date. Sorting can take a while.

User Option: planner-renumber-tasks-automatically

Non-nil means renumber tasks from 1 to N whenever a planner file is saved. This allows you to refer to tasks in previous day pages using anchors like `2003.08.12#A1'. If you use this function, make sure planner-use-task-numbers is non-nil so that new tasks are created with task numbers.

User Option: planner-align-tasks-automatically

Non-nil means align tasks whenever a planner file is saved. This causes the status to line up in a neat column if you have less than 100 tasks.

User Option: planner-renumber-notes-automatically

Non-nil means renumber the notes. If most of your notes are only on one page, you might like seeing the notes renumbered if you delete a note in the middle. However, if you use a lot of cross-referencing, note renumbering will break those links.

Functions

Function: planner-sort-tasks

Sort tasks according to planner-sort-tasks-key-function. By default, sort tasks according to priority and position on day pages, and according to status, priority, date, and position on plan pages.

Function: planner-renumber-tasks

Update task numbering.

Function: planner-align-tasks

Align tasks neatly. You can add this to write-file-functions to have the tasks automatically lined up whenever you save. For best results, ensure planner-align-tasks is run after planner-renumber-tasks.

Function: planner-fix-tasks

Sort, renumber and align tasks.

6.7 Annotations

The context included when you create a task and the context included when you create a note are gained the same way. It sounds like black magic, but it turns out not to be.

All that happens is, Planner has a list of functions, planner-annotation-functions. When you create a task from a buffer, or remember a note from a buffer, Planner goes through this list from top to bottom. The first one that returns true is the one it uses.

For example, if you're in Wanderlust, and you hit the key you've bound to planner-create-task-from-buffer, it looks at this list and does something like this. Is it an ERC buffer? No. Is it a BBDB buffer? No. Are we in w3m? No. Are we in Wanderlust? Yes. So this function succeeds. It stops searching and runs the annotation function for Wanderlust, which in this case finds out who the message is from and what the message ID of the message is. It then takes those and constructs a link back to that message, with a link title something like `Email from Joe Blogs'.

So, you've read the email from Joe Blogs. He's asked you to do something and you've hit your key to add that task to your list of things to do. So what you end up with is a description of the task, and a link back to what made you create the task in the first place.

The same happens with remembering notes, except that it ends up in the `* Notes' section of your page instead.

By default, `planner.el' can annotate tasks and notes based on the current filename.

Options

To change the behavior of annotations, customize the following options:

User Option: planner-annotation-functions

A list of functions tried in order by planner-create-task-from-buffer and other functions that pick up context. The first non-nil value returned is used as the annotation. To cause an item to not be annotated, return the empty string `""'.

User Option: planner-annotation-strip-directory

File links are usually generated with the full path to the file so that you can easily tell apart files with the same base name. If planner-annotation-strip-directory is non-nil, though, only the base name of the file will be displayed. For example, a link to `/foo/bar/baz' will be displayed as `baz' and hyperlinked to the file.

User Option: planner-annotation-use-relative-file

If t, always use relative filenames. planner-annotation-use-relative-file can also be a function that takes the filename and returns non-nil if the link should be relative. Filenames are resolved relative to the first directory of your Planner project in muse-project-alist. That is, the created link will be of the form `../../somefile' instead of `/absolute/path/to/file'. This can be helpful if you publish your planner files to the Net and your directory structure ensures that relative links resolve the same from your Plan pages and their respective publishing directory.

6.8 Interactive Lisp with planner-lisp.el

You can include interactive Lisp functions in your planner pages.

First, you need `planner-lisp.el'. Put this in your `.emacs' (or `_emacs'):

(require 'planner-lisp)

Then, add a link to the Lisp function to your page, like:

[[lisp:/plan][Plan]]

This will be rendered as `Plan'. Selecting the link will run the plan function interactively.

You can also execute other Lisp expressions. For example:

[[lisp:/(planner-goto (planner-expand-name "+7"))][Next week]]

`planner-lisp.el' does not provide any interactive functions or keybindings.

6.9 Publishing

You can publish your planner files to HTML and put them on a normal web server-no special server support required. This gives you an easy way to keep other people up to date on your tasks, keep a web log, or simply organize information.

Publish your planner wiki with C-c C-p (muse-project-publish). You can publish individual files with C-c C-t (muse-publish-this-file). To automatically publish files when you save them, add the following code to your `~/.emacs':

(eval-after-load "muse-mode"
  (add-hook 'after-save-hook
            #'(lambda ()
                (when (planner-derived-mode-p 'muse-mode)
                  (muse-project-publish nil)))
            nil t))

Published files are stored in the path specified by muse-project-alist for your Planner project. Just copy the contents of this directory to your webserver, and you're all set! Of course, publishing is completely optional.

Here are some more features related to publishing:

6.9.1 Publishing Planner pages

The task of publishing Planner pages is handled by `planner-publish.el'. It is loaded by default when Planner is loaded. To publish an entire Planner project, set up muse-project-alist (see section Creating Your Planner) and hit C-c C-p. To publish an individual page, hit C-c C-t.

Publishing works by providing Muse with the settings and environment for Planner publishing.

Styles provided

The following publishing styles are available.

planner-html

Publish Planner pages to HTML.

planner-xhtml

Publish Planner pages to XHTML.

planner-xml

Publish Planner pages to XML.

Options provided

The following options may be customized to enhance your publishing experience.

planner-publish-markup-regexps

List of markup rules for publishing Planner pages.

planner-publish-markup-functions

Specify which function to use for publishing different kinds of markup.

planner-publish-markup-tags

A list of custom HTML-like tags to recognize when publishing.

planner-xml-markup-strings

Strings that are inserted to publish XML markup.

planner-xml-header

Header used when publishing Planner XML files. This may be text or a filename.

planner-xml-footer

Footer used when publishing Planner XML files. This may be text or a filename.

planner-html-markup-strings

Strings that are inserted to publish HTML markup.

planner-html-style-sheet

CSS stylesheet elements used in Planner HTML and XHTML files. This can also be one or more `<link>' tags.

planner-html-header

Header used when publishing Planner HTML files. This may be text or a filename.

planner-html-footer

Footer used when publishing Planner HTML files. This may be text or a filename.

planner-xhtml-header

Header used when publishing Planner XHTML files. This may be text or a filename.

planner-xhtml-footer

Footer used when publishing Planner XHTML files. This may be text or a filename.

planner-html-inner-header

Extra header section that can be embedded within planner-html-header and planner-xhtml-header.

planner-html-inner-footer

Extra header section that can be embedded within planner-html-footer and planner-xhtml-footer.

planner-publish-prepare-regexps

List of markup rules to apply before publishing a page with Planner.

planner-publish-finalize-regexps

List of markup rules to apply after publishing a page with Planner.

6.9.2 Publishing Calendars

To publish calendars in your day pages, it is necessary to do two steps.

• Add (require 'planner-calendar) to your configuration.
• Add a `<calendar>' tag to either your header, footer, or planner-day-page-template, depending on where you want it to appear.

To display a calendar based on a different day (given here as DAYPAGE), use <calendar page="DAYPAGE">.

To get arrows to previous and next months to show up, use <calendar arrows="t">. The text in planner-calendar-prev-month-button and planner-calendar-next-month-button will be used for the arrows to the previous and next months, respectively.

By default, Muse will not display the arrows properly, due to limitations in the special-escaping algorithm. To work around this, remove the `&' rule from muse-xml-markup-specials, or from muse-html-markup-specials if you are using the 3.02.6 version of Muse.

It is also possible to create a symlink from the current day page to the page name specified by planner-calendar-today-page-name. To accomplish this, add the following to your configuration.

(eval-after-load "muse-publish"
  '(add-hook 'muse-after-publish-hook
             'planner-calendar-create-today-link))

Options

User Option: planner-calendar-prev-month-button

HTML text used for previous month buttons.

User Option: planner-calendar-next-month-button

HTML text used for next month buttons.

User Option: planner-calendar-day-header-chars

Number of characters to use for day column header names.

User Option: planner-calendar-today-page-name

Default name for published today page link.

Functions

Function: planner-calendar-create-today-link

Add this function to muse-after-publish-hook to create a "today" soft-link to the newest published planner day page, on operating systems that support POSIX ln.

6.9.3 Authz Access Restriction

`planner-authz.el' was written by Andrew J. Korty in order to allow the easy restriction of portions of published pages. It uses the HTML::Mason module available on CPAN (http://www.cpan.org). Setting up HTML::Mason is outside the scope of this document. Make sure that it works before trying out `planner-authz.el'.

`planner-authz.el' modifies the behavior of muse-project-publish so that published pages follow access modifiers.

This library lets you publish your planner pages while controlling access to certain portions of them to users you specify. When you load this library, you gain access to two additional markup directives to use in your planner pages. The `<authz>' tag lets you restrict access to arbitrary content as follows:

Here is a sentence everyone should see.  This sentence also
contains no sensitive data whatsoever.  <authz users="ajk">This
sentence, however, talks about my predilection for that French
vanilla instant coffee that comes in the little tin, and I'm
embarrassed for anyone else to know about that.</authz> And
here's some more perfectly innocuous content.

You can use `<authz>' tags to mark up entire paragraphs, tasks, notes, and anything else. The tags are replaced with Mason code in the published pages.

The `#authz' directive restricts access to an entire page. A Mason call is added to this page to generate a 403 error when someone not listed tries to access it. Any notes or tasks on a `#authz'-protected page are also wrapped in Mason code on linked pages. To add a `#authz' directive to a Muse page, place `#authz' followed by a space-delimited list of users on one line. For example:

#authz ajk sacha

Getting started

Add the following to your .emacs file to cause M-x muse-project-publish to automatically use planner-authz features.

(require 'planner-authz)

Diary markup

If your pages have a section with diary entries maintained by planner-appt.el (or by any other means), you can control access to these entries. First, customize planner-section-tagnames to map your diary section ("* Schedule", in this example) to a tag called "diary-section". An example follows.

(add-to-list 'planner-section-tagnames '("Schedule" . "diary-section"))

If the name of your diary section is "* Diary", you will not need to customize planner-section-tagnames by default.

Then make sure the diary entries you want restricted contain a corresponding plan page name in parentheses, as in the following example.

10:00 10:30 Meeting with boss (WorkStuff)

Options

User Option: planner-authz-project-default

Default access list for project pages (not day pages). If a given project page doesn't contain a `#authz' tag, it will receive the access list defined here. If this variable is nil, all users will be allowed to view the page. No corresponding variable is provided for day pages because it doesn't seem like you'd ever want to control access based on what day it was. (But I will accept patches. :) Notes and tasks referencing pages without `#authz' tags will also be restricted to the users listed here.

User Option: planner-authz-day-note-default

Default access list for notes on day pages not associated with any project. There is way to set a default for notes on project pages for the reason above; they would only be associated with date pages anyway.

User Option: planner-authz-day-task-default

Same as planner-authz-day-note-default, but for tasks.

Functions

Function: planner-authz-publish-index

Publish an index for the planner marked up with Mason code. Only those links to pages which the remote user is authorized to access will be shown.

6.9.4 RSS Publication

`planner-rss.el' allows you to publish your notes in the RSS 2.0 XML format for blog syndication. You will also want to customize the following variables:

To manually add the current note to all the matching RSS feeds, invoke planner-rss-add-note. You can specify a filename with the universal prefix, like this: C-u M-x planner-rss-add-note.

If you use the `remember-planner.el' module to create notes, you can automatically publish new notes to RSS feeds by adding the following code to your `.emacs' (or `_emacs').

(add-to-list 'remember-planner-append-hook 'planner-rss-add-note t)

Options

User Option: planner-rss-base-url

Base absolute URL for published blog entries. Should include trailing `/'.

User Option: planner-rss-category-feeds

Rules for automatic categorization of posts and publishing to RSS files. A blog entry is matched against each condition. If it matches the regular expression or the function returns a non-nil value, the blog entry is copied into the specified file.

User Option: planner-rss-feed-limits

A list of regular expressions that match feed filenames and the size and item limits for feeds that match. For example, you can use `(("." nil 10))' to ensure that all feeds are limited to the 10 most recent items.

Functions

`planner-rss.el' defines the following interactive functions:

Function: planner-rss-add-note feed

Export the current note using planner-add-item. If feed is specified, add the entry to the specified file. Else, add the entry to all matching RSS feeds specified by planner-rss-category-feeds.

6.9.5 iCal Publication

iCal is an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standard for calendaring and scheduling. http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2445.txt

You can export your tasks to the iCal format using `planner-ical'. Add (require 'planner-ical) to your `~/.emacs'. Then you can use M-x planner-ical-export-page to display the iCal equivalent of tasks on a page, which you can then save to a file.

To export today's tasks to a file in your publishing directory, add the following to your `~/.emacs'.

(planner-ical-export-file
 (planner-today)
 (expand-file-name
   "tasks.ics"
   (muse-style-element :path (car (cddr (muse-project planner-project))))))

Functions

Function: planner-ical-export-page page &optional file

Export PAGE's tasks in the iCal format. If FILE is non-nil, results are saved to that file. If FILE is nil, results are displayed in a `planner-ical-export-buffer'.

Function: planner-ical-export-this-page

Display the tasks on the current page in iCal format.

6.9.6 RDF Publication

Put planner-rdf.el in a directory that is in your Emacs load-path and the following into your ~/.emacs file:

(require 'planner-rdf)
(eval-after-load "muse-publish"
  '(progn
     (add-hook 'muse-after-publish-hook
               'planner-rdf-publish-file)
     (add-hook 'muse-after-publish-hook
               'planner-rdf-publish-index)))

6.9.6.1 Publishing with planner-rdf

Planner-rdf is now included in the normal Planner publishing process. Pressing C-p will create a .owl and a .rdf file for every planner file. Additionally it creates an index, `index.rdf'.

By default all generated files will be stored in the normal Planner publishing directory, where the HTML files end up. If you would ike to change that, set the variable planner-rdf-directory to the desired location.

The generated files:

• `index.rdf' - a collection with pointers to the `<plan-page>.rdf' files.
• `<plan-page>.rdf' - contains Dublin Core metadata about the files related to the current Planner page. Currently it contains metadata about the source file, the Emacs plan page, the generated HTML page, and the generated OWL file.
• `<plan-page>.owl' - contains task and note data from the Planner file. Task information is stored completely. For notes, the note headline is stored.

6.9.6.2 planner-rdf Tags

Besides the factual information, e.g. the task status or description, planner-rdf extracts links (in the format `[[...][...]]' or `[[...]]') and tags (`{{...:...'}}) from tasks and notes (including the notes text). Links and tags provide context for the plan elements and so are stored and linked with the containing elements.

Links point to locations that can be used to enrich the information in the Planner pages (e.g, by retrieving data from them and adding it), tags - like the one for the task ids `{{Tasks:198}}' - can be used to express abstract qualities. Some examples:

• an `{{audience:myteam}}' tag, can be used to restrict publishing of items to a certain user group;
• a `{{lang:de}}' tag, signifying the language of the text;
• a `{{location:Hamburg}}' tag, can be used to make geographic reference to an entity that is not stored in your address book, bbdb.

What tags to use is up to the user. Planner-rdf makes no assumptions about them, it just extracts and stores them. Only the applications using the data know what to do with them.

6.9.6.3 Usage Examples

Report generation with OpenOffice

The Perl file `this-week.pl' (http://www.rainervolz.de/planner-rdf/this-week.pl) creates a simple report for the current week. The script extracts task and note information from the generated OWL files and inserts it into a simple OpenOffice Writer document. Nothing fancy, just a proof of concept, to show how planner-rdf can be used to integrate Planner Mode with other applications.

Besides Perl and OpenOffice you'll need the Redland RDF Application Framework (http://www.redland.opensource.ac.uk/). It is used to process the RDF data. Redland is small, but powerful, and available for many platforms and languages.

As an example the application loads the RDF data each time it is run. In the real world you probably would use Redland to store the Planner data in a database, to save the loading step each time you access the data.

Importing Planner data into Protege

Protege is a popular ontology editor and knowledge management application. A simple way to import data into it, is to provide a OWL file that contains the data as well as the schema. To do this:

• Use `planner2protege.pl' (http://www.rainervolz.de/planner-rdf/planner2protege.pl) to combine all OWL files into a single one.
• Use CWM (http://www.w3.org/2000/10/swap/doc/cwm.html) to combine schema and data, with python cmw --rdf planner-rdf.owl planner-data.owl --think --rdf >planner2.owl

Not the most straightforward process, but it works. The resulting file, here planner2.owl, can then be loaded into Protege.

6.10 Experimental Functions

These functions are experimental. This means that they may not do exactly what you expect them to do, so keep backups, be careful, and don't blame us.

To use these functions, make sure that `planner-experimental.el' is in your load path, and add this to your `.emacs' (or `_emacs'):

(require 'planner-experimental)

Functions

`planner-experimental.el' defines the following interactive functions:

Function: planner-search-notes-next-match

Jump to the next matching entry. Call after planner-search-notes.

Function: planner-search-notes-previous-match

Jump to the previous matching entry. Call after planner-search-notes.

Function: planner-remove-duplicates

Remove duplicate tasks.

`planner-experimental.el' does not define any keybindings.

7. Managing Your Information

Planner can be integrated with other Emacs and even some non-Emacs programs by loading additional modules. You can pick and choose from these modules, choosing those that work with programs you use and that produce information you want to have included in your Planner pages.

7.1 E-mail

Planner can work together with several different Emacs e-mail clients. If you load the appropriate module for the e-mail client you use, then your notes and tasks can be annotated with information pointing to the specific e-mail message you were reading when you created that note or task. When you are looking at the note or task, you will be able to jump straight to that message.

7.1.1 Unix mail

This module supports links from any kind of Unix mailbox (mbox). To use this module, make sure that `planner-unix-mail.el' is in your load path and add this to your `.emacs' (or `_emacs'):

(require 'planner-unix-mail)

Unix mail URLs are of the form:

;; mail://PATH/TO/INBOX/message-id

Annotations will be of the form:

[[mail://PATH/TO/INBOX/E1AyTpt-0000JR-LU%40sacha.ateneo.edu][E-mail from Sacha Chua]]

`planner-unix-mail.el' does not define any interactive functions or create any new keybindings.

7.1.2 Gnus

To use this module, make sure that it is in your load path and put this in your `.emacs' (or `_emacs'):

(require 'planner-gnus)
(planner-gnus-insinuate)

With this module loaded, when you create tasks from Gnus summary or message buffers, the tasks will be annotated with information from the message you were looking at when you created each task. A link will also be created on your planner page that you can select in order to return to the message.

So, the created task will look something like this:

#A34 _ Send writing to publishme.com from
[[gnus://alt.books.beatgeneration/<Ifo5c.24632$F9.9567@nwrddc01.gnilink.net>][E-Mail
from editor@verizon.net]] {{Tasks:71}} ([[Writing]])

This module also binds C-c C-t in the Gnus summary and article views to the command to create a new task.

`planner-gnus.el' does not define any interactive functions.

For more information about Gnus, see See The Gnus Newsreader: (gnus)Top.

7.1.3 VM

To use this module, make sure that `planner-vm.el' is in your load path and add this to your `.emacs' (or `_emacs'):

(require 'planner-vm)

VM URLs are of the form:

vm://path/to/inbox/message-id

Annotations will be of the form:

[[vm://home/test/INBOX/<E1AyTpt-0000JR-LU@sacha.ateneo.edu>][E-mail from Sacha Chua]]

`planner-vm.el' does not define any interactive functions or keybindings.

7.1.4 Wanderlust

To use this module, make sure that `planner-wl.el' is in your load path and add this to your `.emacs' (or `_emacs'):

(require 'planner-wl)

Then, when you call M-x planner-create-task-from-buffer from Wanderlust summary or message buffers, the task will be created with the correct annotation.

`planner-wl' does not define any interactive functions.

Keys

To add keybindings to Wanderlust, call:

(planner-wl-insinuate)

This binds F to planner-create-task-from-buffer.

7.1.5 MH-E

To use this module, make sure that `planner-mhe.el' is in your load path and add this to your `.emacs' (or `_emacs'):

(require 'planner-mhe)

Then, when you call M-x planner-create-task-from-buffer from MH-E summary or message buffers, the task will be created with the correct annotation.

`planner-mhe' does not define any interactive functions.

7.1.6 Rmail

To use this module, make sure that `planner-rmail.el' is in your load path and add this to your `.emacs' (or `_emacs'):

(require 'planner-rmail)

Rmail URLs are of the form:

rmail://message-id

Annotations will be of the form:

[[rmail://<E1AyTpt-0000JR-LU@sacha.ateneo.edu>][E-mail from Sacha Chua]]

`planner-rmail.el' does not define any interactive functions or create any new keybindings.

For more information about Rmail, see See Reading Mail With Rmail: (Emacs)Rmail.

7.2 Scheduling and Time

7.2.1 Diary

If you use Emacs's diary feature, Planner-Diary could be helpful for you. It puts all diary entries for the current day in the `* Diary' section of your day plan page. This section is updated every time you display the file in Emacs. By default the diary section of past pages is not updated; it's pretty unlikely that you want to add new diary entries for the past. (see (Emacs)Diary section `Diary' in GNU Emacs Manual)

If you want to use `planner-diary.el', make sure the file is in your load path and add this to your `.emacs' (or `_emacs'):

(require 'planner-diary)

`planner-diary.el' needs fancy-diary-display. To use fancy-diary-display, add this to your `.emacs' (or `_emacs'):

(add-hook 'diary-display-hook 'fancy-diary-display)

You can use Planner-Diary in two different ways:

1. If you want the saved files to contain your entries and not just a line of Lisp, add the following lines to your `.emacs' (or `_emacs'):

   (setq planner-diary-use-diary t) (planner-diary-insinuate)

   You should also customize or set planner-day-page-template to include a `* Diary':

   (setq planner-day-page-template "* Tasks\n\n\n* Schedule\n\n\n* Diary\n\n\n* Notes")

2. (GNU EMACS ONLY) You can put the following line of Lisp code in your day plan pages to display your diary entries:

   <lisp>(planner-diary-entries-here)</lisp>

   You can do this automatically for all day plan pages:

   (setq planner-day-page-template "* Tasks\n\n\n* Diary\n\n<lisp>(planner-diary-entries-here)</lisp> \n* Notes")

   When you open a day plan page outside Emacs, you will see the line of Lisp code and not your diary entries.

If you want to see your diary entries for more than just one day, set planner-diary-number-of-days accordingly. This works for either of the two approaches.

C-c C-e updates the diary sections. C-u C-c C-e forces an update--it inserts the diary section for the day, even if the day is in the past or if there is no `Diary' section in the buffer.

If you want to use the Cal-Desk package, simply follow the instructions in `cal-desk.el'. If you get the Cal-Desk layout from the Calendar buffer, you get it in the day plan buffer, too.

If you use Planner-Diary, you might consider using the Calendar support of Planner. (see (Emacs)Calendar/Diary section `Calendar/Diary' in GNU Emacs Manual) To get Calendar integration, add this to your `.emacs' (or `_emacs'):

(planner-insinuate-calendar)

If planner-diary-create-section-flag is non-nil, sections are always inserted if necessary.

If you want to import Planner entries into your Diary file, the `planner2diary.py' script will accomplish this for you. To use it, execute planner2diary.py on the command line, specifying your planner directory as the first and only argument.

Options

User Option: planner-diary-create-section-flag

Non-nil means create the requested diary sections if they do not exist. By default, planner-diary tries to create the section. If you want more control over your pages, you can set this to nil. Trying to write a diary section to a page that does not have it yet will then result in an error.

By default, planner-diary lists only the appointments you have on that day. If you want the date headers included even when showing the diary entries for a single day, set planner-diary-include-all-output to non-nil.

User Option: planner-diary-include-all-output-flag

Non-nil means don't omit any data when copying diary entries into day pages.

Functions

`planner-diary.el' defines the following interactive functions:

Function: planner-diary-add-entry date time text

Prompt for a diary entry to add to diary-file on date. Uses planner-annotation-functions to make hyperlinks. time and text are used in the description."

Function: planner-diary-insert-diary force

Insert the fancy diary for the day into the day plan file. If force is non-nil, insert a diary section even if there is no planner-diary-string in the buffer.

Function: planner-diary-insert-diary-maybe force

Maybe insert the fancy diary for the day into the day plan file. If the current day is in the past and force is nil, don't do anything. If force is non-nil, insert a diary section even if there is no planner-diary-string in the buffer.

Function: planner-diary-insert-appts force

Insert the diary appointments for the day into the day plan file. If force is non-nil, insert a diary appointments section even if there is no planner-diary-appts-string in the buffer.

Function: planner-diary-insert-appts-maybe force

Maybe insert the diary appointments for the day into the day plan file. If the current day is in the past and force is nil, don't do anything. If force is non-nil, insert a diary appointments section even if there is no planner-diary-appts-string in the buffer.

Function: planner-diary-insert-cal-desk force

Insert the cal-desk diary for the day into the day plan file. If force is non-nil, insert a cal-desk diary section even if there is no planner-diary-cal-desk-string in the buffer.

Function: planner-diary-insert-cal-desk-maybe force

Maybe insert the cal-desk diary for the day into the day plan file. If the current day is in the past and force is nil, don't do anything. If force is non-nil, insert a cal-desk appointments section even if there is no planner-diary-cal-desk-string in the buffer.

Function: planner-diary-insert-public force

Insert the public diary for the day into the day plan file. If force is non-nil, insert a public diary section even if there is no planner-diary-public-string in the buffer.

Function: planner-diary-insert-public-maybe force

Maybe insert the public diary for the day into the day plan file. If the current day is in the past and force is nil, don't do anything. If force is non-nil, insert a public appointments section even if there is no planner-diary-public-string in the buffer.

Function: planner-diary-insert-private force

Insert the private diary for the day into the day plan file. If force is non-nil, insert a private diary section even if there is no planner-diary-private-string in the buffer.

Function: planner-diary-insert-private-maybe force

Maybe insert the private diary for the day into the day plan file. If the current day is in the past and force is nil, don't do anything. If force is non-nil, insert a private appointments section even if there is no planner-diary-private-string in the buffer.

Function: planner-diary-insert-all-diaries force

Update all diary sections in a day plan file. If force is non-nil, insert a diary section even if there is no section header. It only inserts diaries if the corresponding planner-diary-use-* variable is `t'.

Function: planner-diary-insert-all-diaries-maybe force

Update all diary sections in a day plan file. If the current day is in the past and force is nil, don't do anything. If force is non-nil, insert a diary section even if there is no section header. It only inserts diaries if the corresponding planner-diary-use-* variable is `t'.

Function: planner-diary-show-day-plan-or-diary

Show the day plan or diary entries for the date under point in calendar. Add this to calendar-move-hook if you want to use it. In that case, you should also remove-hook `planner-calendar-show' from calendar-move-hook.

Keys

`planner-diary.el' adds the following keybinding to Planner, if planner-diary-insinuate is in your `.emacs' (or `_emacs'):

• C-c C-e updates the diary sections.

7.2.1.1 Planner-Diary Advanced Features

The features described here are part of the development version. They are subject to change without notice. They may be buggy. The documentation may be inaccurate. Use at your own risk.

There is a lot of code redundancy in the development version. This is intentional and makes it easier to change the code for one type of diary section without breaking others.

Diary views

Currently Planner-Diary supports six different views of your diary entries:

1. Ordinary fancy diary display (what you get by pressing d in the calendar buffer with fancy-diary-display switched on)
2. Schedule/Appointments (all entries from 1 that have a time assigned to them
3. Diary without appts (1 without 2)
4. cal-desk display (appts on top, non appts entries at bottom)
5. A private diary (same as 1, but uses a different diary-file)
6. A public diary (same as 1, but uses a different diary-file)

Put the following line of Lisp code in your day plan pages to display your diary entries:

<lisp>(planner-diary-entries-here)</lisp>

The function planner-diary-entries-here takes two optional arguments--the diary file you want to use and the number of days you want to display.

Exporting Planner-specific Diary files

If you would like to export diary entries from your Planner pages to separate Diary files, add (require 'planner-export-diary) to your config. The following steps describe the usage of the functions and options contained in this file.

1. Customize planner-export-diary-file. The default value is "~/diary.planner".
2. Add the following line to your main Diary file (default: "~/diary").

   #include ~/diary.planner

3. Then, call M-x planner-export-diary-future whenever you want future diary entries published. You can automatically publish entries by adding either of the following to your .emacs.
   • (planner-export-diary-future) Publish future entries on startup.
   • (add-hook 'planner-mode-hook 'planner-export-diary-setup) Publish future entries whenever you save a Planner file.

7.2.2 Appointments

If you would like to use planner for your appointment alerts instead of using the diary system, you might like to try `planner-appt'.

According to your preferences, you may choose from two different approaches. Appointments in task descriptions on today's plan page are like this:

#A   _ @12:45 Do something (TaskPool)

and appointments in today's schedule section are like this:

* Schedule

  9:00 | 12:00 | Read Simmel's Philosophy of Money
@12:45 |       | Do Something Else
@13:00 | 14:00 | lunch

You can even use both at the same time if you like.

Usage

In the file where you configure Planner, add one of the following.

• For task-based appointments: (planner-appt-use-tasks)
• For schedule-based appointments: (planner-appt-use-schedule)
• For both task- and schedule-based appointments: (planner-appt-use-tasks-and-schedule)

And finally if you want everything to be updated automatically add:

(planner-appt-insinuate)

If you don't want to do the insinuation then you can call:

M-x planner-appt-update

after editing appointments on the page (note that this is not necessary if you use tasks for the appointments and you don't edit the task descriptions outside of planner-edit-task-description).

Try both methods; if you find that you prefer one over the other, use one of the specific planner-appt-use- functions, as there are some performance gains when using one method exclusively.

7.2.2.1 Task-based Appointments

A task has an appointment if it looks like this:

#A   _ @12:45 Do something (TaskPool)

i.e., if it has @ followed by a time at the beginning. This means the task is a regular appointment, and will not be carried forward at the start of a new day.

Alternatively, it may have a !, like this:

#A   _ !12:45 Do something else (TaskPool)

This makes it a "nagging" appointment, which will be carried forward. It will, however, lose the appointment time in the process.

This may seem like a strange feature, but here is Henrik's reasoning:

Sometimes I have a task that I want to do at a certain time, so I make it an appointment. If I don't get around to doing it anyway, I want it to be carried forward. Basically, I sometimes use appointments on tasks to annoy me until I get them done. :)

You can edit, move and delete tasks with the usual functions, and appointments will be updated automatically.

You can update all task appointments on your page with

M-x planner-appt-update

Cyclic Entries

If you have `planner-cyclic' (see section Cyclic Tasks) loaded, entries in your cyclical tasks file such as

Friday #A _ @12:45 staff meeting

will appear every Friday and there will be an appointment alert set up.

Appointments Section

You can have all task-based appointments copied to a separate section, providing an overview of your appointments.

To do this, add

(setq planner-appt-task-use-appointments-section-flag t)

to your configuration, or use M-x customize-variable.

The variable planner-appt-task-appointments-section is the name of the section where the appointments will be copied. By default, it is set to "Schedule", which means that task appointments will be intermingled with schedule entries.

It is also a good idea to add the section you wish to use to planner-day-page-template in order to control where that section will appear on the page (otherwise it will appear at the top).

The format of the appointments follows that of a schedule; if you don't like the way it looks, you can write something different and set planner-appt-format-appt-section-line-function appropriately. See the documentation for planner-appt-format-appt-section-line-function for details. It should be fairly easy to see what needs to be done if you look at the source for the default function (which is planner-appt-format-appt-section-line).

If the section specified in planner-appt-task-appointments-section is the same as the schedule section specified in planner-appt-schedule-section (by default "Schedule"), the default formatting function adds a `#' to the description so that one can visually distinguish appointments from the task list from those that have been added to the schedule.

7.2.2.2 Schedule-Based Appointments

Some scheduled tasks require reminders, others don't. In this schedule:

* Schedule

9:00   | 12:00 | Read Simmel's Philosophy of Money
@12:45          Do Something Else
@13:00 | 14:00 | lunch
@14:30 |       | Meet jrs to discuss his dissertation
@16:00           Test Society seminar
18:00            go home

those that have an @ prefix will be added to the appointment reminder list; the others will not. The formats that are recognized are fairly flexible, as you can see from the example.

If you change your schedule, you can update the appointment list with

M-x planner-appt-update

You can also have the schedule sorted as part of the update, if you have this in your configuration:

(setq planner-appt-sort-schedule-on-update-flag t)

Cyclical Entries

You can also have cyclical schedule entries(see section Cyclic Tasks) if you add

(planner-appt-schedule-cyclic-insinuate)

to your configuration.

If you put an entry in your cyclical task file like this

Friday @12:45 | 13:45 | Staff Meeting

then it will appear in your schedule every Friday, and an appointment alert will be set up.

7.2.2.3 Viewing Appointments

The command planner-appt-show-alerts will show all appointment alerts currently scheduled.

Functions

There are two commands that show appointments in the future; the one displays them in a pop-up buffer, the other puts the information into the current day page.

Command: planner-appt-forthcoming-display &optional days

Display a buffer of appointments for today and the next days. Optional prefix argument days is the number of days ahead to look. Its default value is defined by planner-appt-forthcoming-days.

Command: planner-appt-forthcoming-update-section &optional days

In today's plan page, add or update a list of forthcoming appointments. Optional prefix argument days is the number of days ahead to look. Its default value is defined by planner-appt-forthcoming-days. The section heading to use is defined by planner-appt-forthcoming-appt-section.

Options

User Option: planner-appt-forthcoming-days

The number of days to look ahead for forthcoming appointments. The default value is seven days.

User Option: planner-appt-forthcoming-appt-section

The name of the section to use for inserting a list of forthcoming appts. The default value is "Forthcoming Appointments".

User Option: planner-appt-forthcoming-show-day-names-flag

When non-nil (the default), day names will be shown in forthcoming appointments.

User Option: planner-appt-forthcoming-repeat-date-string

String to insert for repeated dates.

When there are multiple appointments for a date, the date is inserted in the first appointment and the others have this string in their date cell.

If the string consists of anything other than whitespace, then a link to the day page for the appoinment is created.

User Option: planner-appt-forthcoming-look-at-cyclic-flag

When non-nil, find forthcoming appointments in the cyclic diary file (see section Cyclic Tasks) as well as in plan pages. Default is `t'.

7.2.2.4 Appointment Updating on Save

Options

User Option: planner-appt-update-appts-on-save-flag

When non-nil, update appointment reminders whenever today's plan page is saved. Default value is `nil'.

7.2.2.5 Appointment and Calendar Integration

Not strictly part of appointment handling, but if one isn't using the diary, marking dates with plan pages seems to make sense.

Functions

Function: planner-appt-calendar-insinuate

Add a hook to diary display so that dates in the calendar that have day pages are highlighted

7.2.2.6 Appointment Hooks

Options

Hook: planner-appt-update-hook

Hook run after planner-appt-update has updated the appointment list.

7.2.3 Timeclock

This module allows you to clock in and clock out of your projects (see (Emacs)Time Intervals section `Time Intervals' in GNU Emacs Manual). You can also generate reports with the <timeclock-report> tag. You may want to read the Keeping Track of Time page to see how you can use planner-timeclock to produce detailed reports.

`timeclock.el' is part of GNU Emacs. If you are using XEmacs, please use the version of `timeclock.el' the comes with Planner in the `contrib' directory.

With `planner-timeclock.el' loaded, planner-task-in-progress clocks in a task. To clock out, use planner-task-done or timeclock-out.

`planner-timeclock.el' defines the following keybindings:

• C-c C-i: planner-task-in-progress.
• C-c C-o: timeclock-out.
• C-c C-T C-i: planner-timeclock-in. (XEmacs)
• C-c C-T C-o: timeclock-out. (XEmacs)
• C-c C-S-t C-i: planner-timeclock-in. (GNU Emacs)
• C-c C-S-t C-o: timeclock-out. (GNU Emacs)

If you use timeclock a lot, you may also be interested in Dryice Liu's `planner-timeclock-summary.el', which produces timeclock reports for planner files.

Here is a sample report:

Project               |     Time| Ratio| Task
PlannerMaintenance    |  0:03:58|  1.1%| Merge doc patch
                      |  0:17:09|  5.0%| Track down subdirectories
                      |  0:18:11|  5.3%| Merge planner-timeclock-summary-proj.el
               Total: |  0:39:18| 11.4%|
JapanCaseStudy        |  2:37:56| 45.6%| Prototype search result page
                      |  0:31:50|  9.2%| Update design documents
               Total: |  3:09:46| 54.8%|
ChristmasLetter       |  1:46:37| 30.8%| Write and send my Christmas letters
               Total: |  1:46:37| 30.8%|
LinuxPeople           |  0:10:29|  3.0%| Send questions for Linux in Education
               Total: |  0:10:29|  3.0%|

If you add (require 'planner-timeclock-summary) to your `~/.emacs', you can then use it in two ways.

• Display a temporary buffer

  Call planner-timeclock-summary-show and Emacs will ask you which day's summary do you want. Choose the date as anywhere else of Emacs planner, and a tempory buffer will be displayed with the timeclock summary of that day.

  To review tasks over a date range, use planner-timeclock-summary-show-range. You can use a regexp or a function to filter tasks by calling planner-timeclock-summary-show-range-filter.

• Rewrite sections of your planner

  Choose this approach if you want timeclock summary to be in their own section and you would like them to be readable in your plain text files even outside Emacs. Caveat: The timeclock summary section should already exist in your template and will be rewritten when updated. Tip: Add planner-timeclock-summary-section (default: `"Timeclock"') to your planner-day-page-template.

  To use, call planner-timeclock-summary-update in the planner day page to update the section. If you want rewriting to be automatically performed, call planner-timeclock-summary-insinuate in your `.emacs' file.

`planner-timeclock-summary-proj.el' produces task / time breakdowns on plan pages. Reports are of the form:

TASK 0 | duration
TASK 1 | duration
 TOTAL | duration.

To use, add (require 'planner-timeclock-summary) to your `~/.emacs'. Call planner-timeclock-summary-proj-current from a project page. The report is inserted at the current position in the buffer. The function planner-timeclock-summary-proj-section does the same but the report is inserted inside a section called `* Report'.

7.2.4 `schedule.el'

`planner-schedule.el' allows you to project task completion time. Tasks should be of the form:

#A0 _ 2h Do something
#B0 _ 1h30m Do something
#B0 _ 2d Do something
#B0 _ 2w Do something
#B0 _ 10s Do something

s: seconds, m: minutes, h: hours, d: days, w: weeks

`schedule.el' is included with Planner in the `contrib' directory, but you can alternatively get it from http://www.newartisans.com/johnw/Emacs/schedule.el if desired.

`schedule.el' provides a single Lisp function, schedule-completion-time. It takes an Emacs time object and a quantity of seconds. It returns an Emacs time object that represents when the given number of seconds will be completed, assuming that work can only be done during work hours.

The available work hours are affected by several factors:

1. If `timeclock.el' is being used, the amount of time left in the current work day (timeclock-workday-remaining) (see (Emacs)Time Intervals section `Time Intervals' in GNU Emacs Manual)
2. The amount of time in each work day (schedule-workday)
3. The definition of a work week (schedule-week)
4. Any holidays defined in the Emacs calendar (see (Emacs)Holidays section `Holidays' in GNU Emacs Manual)
5. Any appointments in the Emacs diary (see (Emacs)Appointments section `Appointments' in GNU Emacs Manual)

Taking all of the "block out" periods into account, schedule-completion-time will compute when the given number of seconds will be done, based on your current definitions of time available.

As an example, here's a function which, given a list of durations in seconds, will return a list of completion times starting from the current moment:

  (defun compute-completion-times (&rest durations)
    ``Compute completion times for a list of DURATIONS (in seconds).''
    (let ((now (current-time)))
      (mapcar
       (function
        (lambda (dura)
          (setq now (schedule-completion-time now dura))))
       durations)))

To call this function, do:

(compute-completion-times 3600 7200 3600)

Keys

`planner-schedule.el' defines the following keybindings:

C-c RET is bound to planner-schedule-show-end-project. C-c C-m is also bound to planner-schedule-show-end-project.

In XEmacs, planner-schedule-show-end-project is bound to C-c C-T c-e and C-c C-S-t C-e.

Functions

`planner-schedule.el' defines the following interactive functions:

Function: planner-schedule-show-end-project

Display the estimated project completion time.

`schedule.el' does not define any interactive functions, or keybindings.

7.3 Finances

Currently, Planner provides one module dedicated to tracking your finances. This module works with a program called Ledger.

7.3.1 Ledger

`planner-ledger.el' provides integration between planner and John Wiegley's ledger accounting program, which can be found at http://newartisans.com/johnw/ledger.tar.gz.

To use planner-ledger to insert a ledger balance overview and a list of pending transactions into planner day pages, make sure that your day page includes sections that match planner-ledger-balance-regexp and planner-ledger-pending-regexp. Example:

* Tasks

* Ledger

** Pending transactions

* Notes

You can manually update ledger sections with the planner-ledger-insert-maybe command.

You can also automatically update ledger sections with the following hook:

(add-hook 'planner-goto-hook 'planner-ledger-insert-maybe)

You can create ledger entries from specially-formatted tasks using planner-ledger-add-entry-from-task. Tasks should be of the form `payment due: payee, amount [comment]'. Example:

#A1 _ payment due: foobar, $1000.00 some comment here
#A2 _ payment due: baz, 1000.00

Options

User Option: planner-ledger-balance-accounts

List of accounts to be included or excluded from the balance overview. `+' includes all matching accounts, and `-' excludes matching accounts. See the documentation for ledger-run-ledger for more details.

User Option: planner-ledger-balance-regexp

Regular expression matching section for ledger balance. Do not store other data in this section, as it will be overwritten.

User Option: planner-ledger-pending-regexp

Regular expression matching section for ledger balance. Do not store other data in this section, as it will be overwritten.

User Option: planner-ledger-payment-task-regexp

Regular expression matching special ledger tasks.

Functions

Function: planner-ledger-insert-maybe

Update any ledger sections on the current page.

Function: planner-ledger-add-entry-from-task

Create a ledger entry based on the task at point. Task should match planner-ledger-payment-task-regexp.

7.4 Contacts and Conversations

Planner has two modules available for keeping track of contact and conversation information. The first uses the Big Brother Database (BBDB), and the second uses Emacs Relay Chat (ERC). BBDB is a full contact database. ERC is a client for chatting online on Internet Relay Chat (IRC) networks. The ERC module for Planner will help you keep track of online conversations you have if you use ERC for those conversations, but does not by itself store contact information other than the time you had the conversation, the network and channel you were on when you had it, and maybe who you had it with. If you are looking for a way to manage your full address book, then `planner-bbdb.el' in combination with BBDB is what you are looking for.

7.4.1 BBDB

`planner-bbdb.el' allows you to refer to your contacts easily from within a planner page. See the BBDB Manual: (bbdb)Top.

`[[bbdb://Sacha.*Chua][Sacha]]', for example, will be linked to the blog, web or net fields of the first matching BBDB record.

`planner-bbdb.el' does not define any interactive functions, or keybindings.

7.4.2 Emacs Relay Chat

To use planner-erc, place `planner-erc.el' in your load path and add this to your `.emacs' (or `_emacs'):

(require 'planner-erc)

IRC URLs may be of the following forms.

irc://server/nick,isnick
irc://server/#channel
irc://server

Annotations will be in the following forms.

[[irc://server/nick,isnick][Chat with nick on server#channel]]
[[irc://server/nick,isnick][Chat with nick on server]]
[[irc://server/#channel][Chat on server#channel]]
[[irc://server][Chat on server]]

`planner-erc.el' does not define any interactive functions, or keybindings.

7.5 Tracking Research and Resources

Planner provides three modules for keeping track of information involving three specific tools: w3m, BibTeX, and `bookmark.el'.

7.5.1 W3m

This module allows you to create tasks from a w3m buffer.

`planner-w3m.el' does not define any interactive functions, or keybindings.

7.5.2 BibTeX

BibTeX URLs are of the form `bibtex:file/name:key'.

`planner-bibtex.el' does not define any interactive functions.

7.5.3 Bookmark

`planner-bookmark.el' uses the `remember' package to create a note whenever you create a bookmark (see See Bookmarks: (Emacs)Bookmarks). For more information about `remember', please check out

• http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/RememberMode - EmacsWiki.org page
• http://sacha.free.net.ph/notebook/doc/dev/remember/remember.html - Online info documentation

Configure remember according to the instructions in `remember-planner.el' so that notes are saved to your planner pages.

User Option: planner-bookmark-take-note-after-set-bookmark-flag

Non-nil means show a remember buffer after setting a new bookmark.

When you create a bookmark, Emacs will open a buffer for your notes. C-c C-c saves the buffer to today's page. If you don't want to save a note, you can kill the buffer.

Bookmark URLs are of the form `bookmark://bookmark-name'.

`planner-bookmark.el' does not define any interactive functions.

7.6 Tracking Development

Planner has three modules geared toward programmers. Two modules deal with version control and integrating information from those projects into the planner page. One module deals with the Gnats bug-tracking system.