Create a note with the region’s contents
The command denote-region takes the contents of the active region and then calls the denote command. Once a new note is created, it inserts the contents of the region therein. This is useful to quickly elaborate on some snippet of text or capture it for future reference.
When the denote-region command is called with an active region, it finalises its work by calling denote-region-after-new-note-functions. This is an abnormal hook, meaning that the functions added to it are called with arguments. The arguments are two, representing the beginning and end positions of the newly inserted text.
A common use-case for Org mode users is to call the command org-insert-structure-template after a region is inserted. Emacs will thus prompt for a structure template, such as the one corresponding to a source block. In this case the function added to denote-region-after-new-note-functions does not actually need aforementioned arguments: it can simply declare those as ignored by prefixing the argument names with an underscore (an underscore is enough, but it is better to include a name for clarity). For example, the following will prompt for a structure template as soon as denote-region is done:
(defun my-denote-region-org-structure-template (_beg _end)
(when (derived-mode-p 'org-mode)
(activate-mark)
(call-interactively 'org-insert-structure-template)))
(add-hook 'denote-region-after-new-note-functions #'my-denote-region-org-structure-template)Remember that denote-region-after-new-note-functions are not called if denote-region is used without an active region.