Dired is the Emacs directory editor. You can get to it with C-x C-f (find-file) if you specify a directory. C-x d (dired) works too. Dired makes it easy to do batch operations on files. One of the niftiest features that you might not even think of looking for, though, is the ability to make a Dired buffer editable using C-x C-q (dired-toggle-read-only). Then you can use replace-regexp, keyboard macros, and all sorts of other ways to change filenames. When you switch back out of editing mode with C-x C-q, the files will be updated.

Here's a cheat sheet for working with Dired.

2014-02-24 Emacs tips – use Dired to manage files #dired #emacs

Also, bjonnh suggested making a cheat sheet for movement commands. I use the M-b, M-f, C-M-b, and C-M-f shortcuts a lot when working with Emacs Lisp. C-a and C-e are great too.

2014-02-27 Map for getting the hang of Emacs movement #emacs #map #guide

If you use evil-mode because you're used to Vim shortcuts, this cheat sheet won't be useful to you, but maybe I can make an evil-mode cheat sheet someday.

In other news, I'm slowly becoming the kind of person who can understand SmartParens. I'm getting the hang of slurp and barf, but the rest of it still boggles me. Someday!

Get your copy of the Sketchnotes 2013 collection

Since people found my collection of sketchnotes from 2012 handy, I've put together a categorized collection of sketchnotes from 2013 as well. Enjoy! =)

Behind the scenes

This was how I made the 2012 collection:

1. Create a Microsoft Powerpoint presentation. Fill it with high-res images. Resize and position all the images. Use AutoHotkey to save myself time and avoid going crazy.
2. Create a spreadsheet with titles and page numbers. Add captions with liberal use of AutoHotkey.
3. Create a manual table of contents and link to all the images. Mostly use AutoHotkey, except for the part where if you create a link to a slide number that consists of repeated numbers (ex: 55 or 66), you have to select it a different way, because typing “55” gets you #51 (and “555” gets you #52, etc).
4. Save as PDF.

There was a lot of manual fiddling around involved in making that collection, so I'm experimenting with a different approach that may be useful. For Sketchnotes 2013, I wanted to see if there were ways I could simplify the packaging process while enabling people to do other things with the files.

Here's what I did:

1. I used Emacs dired-mode's C-x C-q (dired-toggle-read-only) to go into editable mode, which allowed me to easily edit all the filenames to include #keywords. I used C-x C-q to save the changes.
2. Then I used Emacs dired's % m to select multiple files by regular expressions and R to move the files into a specified directory.
3. Tada! Neatly organized files. I packaged it up as a ZIP and put it on Gumroad.
4. Since Dropbox also allows you to share folders, I created a public link to the folder that had my organized sketches. That way, people can download a single directory if they want to, instead of downloading all 250+ MB.

It still might be interesting to make a PDF, especially if I can make one that can be published through something like CreateSpace. More packaging… =)