I have a tiny corporation for my consulting. I do all of my own paperwork. I have lots of notes in Org Mode for infrequent tasks like the tax-related paperwork I do once a year. My notes include checklists, links, and Org Babel blocks for calculations. I often need to copy standard text (ex: the name of the company) or parts of the output of my Org Babel blocks (ex: tax collected) so that I can fill in web forms on the Canada Revenue Agency website.

This little snippet makes it easy to copy text for pasting. It defines a custom Org link that starts with copy:. When I follow the link by clicking on it or using C-c C-o (org-open-at-point), it copies the text to the kill ring (which is what Emacs calls the clipboard) so that I can paste it anywhere. For example, [[copy:Hello world]] becomes a link to copy "Hello world". Copying means never having to worry about typos or accidentally selecting only part of the text.

(use-package org
  :config
  (org-link-set-parameters
   "copy"
   :follow (lambda (link) (kill-new link))
   :export (lambda (_ desc &rest _) desc)))

I can use these links as part of my checklist so that I can quickly fill in things like my business name and other details. I can put sensitive information like my social insurance number in a GPG-encrypted file. (Just set up your GPG keys and end a filename with .gpg, and Emacs will take care of transparently encrypting and decrypting the file.)

I can also export those links as part of my Org Babel output. For example, the following code calculates the numbers I need to fill in a T5 form for the other-than-eligible dividends that I issue myself according to the T5 instructions from the CRA.

(let* ((box-10 1234) ; fake number for demo
       (box-11 (* 1.15 box-10))
       (box-12 (* 0.090301 box-11)))
  `((box-10 ,(format "[[copy:%.2f][%.2f]]" box-10 box-10))
    (box-11 ,(format "[[copy:%.2f][%.2f]]" box-11 box-11))
    (box-12 ,(format "[[copy:%.2f][%.2f]]" box-12 box-12))))

On my computer, the numbers become links that I can click and copy. Another little shortcut thanks to Emacs and Org Mode!