How do I find org-mode files with completion in Emacs?

Question

I have a growing set of org files stored in org-directory . How can I navigate between them, preferably with interactive filtering and completion?

I thought there was a way to get org-mode to produce a list of known org files for quick navigation, but I can't seem to find it. If org-mode does not have this feature, how can I make a simple command that launches something like helm or icicles to find them?

Answer 1

The question is not very clear to me. But if your Org-mode files all have a certain file-name pattern (eg *.org ) and all are in the same directory ( org-directory ) then you can use several methods Emacs method to access them:

1. Cx Cf *.org RETURN in org-directory opens them all (the buffers are visiting them but only the last one is shown).

2. Cx Cf *.org TAB in org-directory , to show them using completion, then pick whichever one you want (or pick more than one, using a glob pattern, as in #1).

3. The same as #2, using Icicles or Helm. In Icicles, at least, you can also match using regexps and in other ways.

4. Open Dired for just those files: Cx d *.org .

There are really any number of ways to do what you've described. But I'm guessing that you have not really described your request/problem/question well enough, and when you do you will get a narrower set of answers.

---

UPDATE after your comments:

Here's one way: Open Dired on all of your Org files in and under org-directory .

(defun foo ()
  "Open Dired for (only) the Org files in and under `org-directory`."
  (interactive)
  (cd org-directory)
  (dired "*.org" "-lRF"))

Test it with Mx foo . Put this in your init file:

(foo)

And here's another way: Mx bar or bind bar to a key.

(defun bar ()
  "Open an Org file in or under `org-directory`."
  (interactive)
  (let ((default-directory         org-directory)
        (icicle-file-match-regexp  ".*\\.org"))
    (icicle-locate-file-of-content)))

Answer 2

I have a package that does just that: plain-org-wiki . It's nothing too elaborate: I just dump all of my 45 org files into a single directory and get completion for them.

Answer 3

How about org-iswitchb , which is provided by org already?

S witch between Org buffers. With one prefix argument, restrict available buffers to files. With two prefix arguments, restrict available buffers to agenda files .

Add this to your startup file after org is loaded: (global-set-key "\\C-cb" 'org-iswitchb)

Answer 4

My favorite solution to this is helm-mode which is activated with the helm package from MELPA. Here's a demo:

It really makes for a great environment for searching ones files quickly. In addition, one can enable fuzzy completion! Here's a minimal configuration (after installing the helm package):

(require 'helm-config)
(helm-mode 1)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-x C-f") 'helm-find-files)

You can also run grep on the files if you'd like to search their content. Take a look at this amazing guide if you'd like to learn more.