Getting started with Denote

At its core, Denote is a file-naming scheme (The file-naming scheme). It is applies to new text files that Denote creates or to existing files of any type (videos, PDFs, images, …). Here is the big picture view on how to get started with Denote:

1. Create new text files with ‘M-x denote’ (Points of entry).
2. Rename any file anywhere with ‘M-x denote-rename-file’. There are many variations of this command, such as denote-dired-rename-marked-files (Renaming files).
3. Link to another Denote file with a given file name using the command ‘M-x denote-link’ (Add a single direct link using a file name prompt). Or link to a file whose contents match a query with the command denote-link-to-file-with-contents (Add a direct link to a file whose contents include the given query).
4. From any file with a Denote file name, view backlinks with ‘M-x denote-backlinks’ (The backlinks’ buffer).
5. Instead of linking to a file, create a “link” to a search through file contents with ‘M-x denote-query-contents-link’. This searches the contents of text files in the denote-directory. To only search against file names (not file contents!), use ‘M-x denote-query-filenames-link’ (Add a query link).
6. To produce a Dired buffer with matching files and preferred sorting, do ‘M-x denote-dired’ (Display filtered and sorted files with denote-sort-dired or denote-dired).
7. To search directly in the contents of your files, do ‘M-x denote-grep’ (Use denote-grep to search inside files).
8. To use shorter buffer names for Denote files, enable the denote-rename-buffer-mode (Automatically rename Denote file buffers).

There are many more features documented in this manual. Also, we have standalone packages that provide support for Org dynamic blocks (part of the denote-org package), fully fledged journaling with denote-journal, writing of “sequence notes” with denote-sequence, and many more (Packages that build on Denote)!