fast-ref

A package to quickly add formatted refrences into your buffer.

Note taking during talks is hard. Presenters move fast and often do not allow for sufficient time to note down a useful reference. fast-ref allows you to quickly add references into your notes file by prompting for, and auto-formatting, the important information.

This package currently defaults to format in the RSC style using org mode markdown elements - this can, of course, be customised.

Installation

Download and add into your local path then add the below into you .emacs

(add-to-list 'load-path "path/to/install")

;;set to t (or don't include this line) to insert into buffer at point 
(setq fast-ref-auto-insert nil)

;; set the style wanted - current options are "rsc", "acs" and "plain".
(setq fast-ref-cite-style "rsc")

(require 'fast-ref)

Usage

Run fast-ref with M-x. Enter text when prompted, press RET to continue through the prompts. By default the reference will be added to your buffer at the point.

To auto insert citation at point set fast-ref-auto-insert to t (on by default). Switching to nil will hold the reference in the kill ring - place into buffer with p.

The default is to format the reference in plain style with org markdown elements. This can be changed by altering the fast-ref-cite-style variable. Currently asc and plain are available. User specified styles are planned.

To turn on per citation insert option, set fast-ref-per-ref-insert to t. This will prompt the user each time to determine if the reference should be inserted or kept in kill ring.

Please note - titles are not included as a deliberate design decision as that would slow down the taking down of references.

User defined styles

The user can define their own styles. First, set fast-ref-cite-style to "user" . The style can be defined by setting the variable fast-ref-user-define in the user’s init.el.

An example below:

(setq fast-ref-user-define (concat fast-ref-first ", et al., " fast-ref-jour ", " fast-ref-yr ", " fast-ref-vol ", " fast-ref-pg "."))

Todo

• Allow for different formatting options.
• Allow for different ref. styles to be chosen.
• Add option to auto-insert.
• Allow for used defined styles.