Custom Capture Template

In any functional interface of Metanote, you can open the Capture feature by using the '+' button on the left navigation bar. You can choose from default or custom templates, and you can customize Capture templates in the settings (please note that the premium version of Metanote is required).

Another very convenient way to use Capture is through the 3D-touch shortcut menu that pops up from the app icon. This allows you to capture directly without opening the app.

The MiniBuffer allows you to directly record content in a mini buffer without leaving the current editing buffer. This way, you can take notes while referring to the content in the current buffer. Moreover, you can switch between the two buffer at any time, and even edit different sections of the same file in two buffer without any issues.

You can choose whether to use the MiniBuffer during capture in the 'Settings.' The default is set to 'Automatic,' where it selects whether to use MiniBuffer or full-screen window capture.

When using the MiniBuffer, click the confirm button to save and exit the MiniBuffer. In full-screen mode, editing the file automatically saves upon exiting.

Occasionally, during capture, you may change your mind or wish to cancel midway. In such cases, simply click the 'Delete' button, and everything will return to its original state.

If you forget where the captured content is stored, use the 'Last Stored' function in the left menu of the navigation bar to directly open the last file edited during capture.

In Metanote, three default Capture templates are provided, each corresponding to different usage scenarios. The Metanote Premium version allows you to customize an unlimited number of Capture templates and modify or delete the default ones.

Specification of where the captured item should be placed.

The type of entry, a symbol. Valid values are:

1. entry

   An Org mode node, with a headline. Will be filed as the child of the target entry or as a top-level entry.

2. item

   A plain list item or checkbox item, placed in the first plain list at the target location. Again the target file should be an Org file.

3. plain

   Text to be inserted as it is.

The rest of the entry is a property list of additional options. Recognized prop- erties are:

1. prepend

   Normally new captured information will be appended at the target location (last child, last table line, last list item, …). Setting this property changes that.

2. immediate-finish

   When set, do not offer to edit the information, just file it away im- mediately. This makes sense if the template only needs information that can be added automatically.

3. empty-line-before

4. empty-line-after

   Set this to the number of lines to insert before and after the new item. Default 0, and the only other common value is 1.

5. time-prompt

   Prompt for a date/time to be used for date/week trees and when filling the template. Without this property, capture uses the current date and time.

6. tree-type

   When week, make a week tree instead of the month tree, i.e., place the headings for each day under a heading with the current ISO week.

7. unnarrowed

   Do not narrow the target buffer, simply show the full buffer. De- fault is to narrow it so that you only see the new material.

In the template itself, special “%-escapes”4 allow dynamic insertion of content. The tem- plates are expanded in the order given here:

1. %<FORMAT> The result of format-time-string on the FORMAT specification. see https://www.unicode.org/reports/tr35/tr35-31/tr35-dates.html#Date_Format_Patterns
2. %t Timestamp, date only.
3. %T Timestamp, with date and time.
4. %u, %U，Like ‘%t’, ‘%T’ above, but inactive timestamps.
5. %i Initial content, the region when capture is called while the region is active. If there is text before ‘%i’ on the same line, such as indentation, and ‘%i’ is not inside a ‘%(exp)’ form, that prefix is added before every line in the inserted text.
6. %f File visited by current buffer when org-capture was called.
7. %F Full path of the file or directory visited by current buffer.
8. %^g Prompt for tags, with completion on tags in target file.
9. %^G Prompt for tags, with completion all tags in all agenda files.
10. %^t, %^T, %^u, %^U Like ‘%t’, but prompt for date. Similarly ‘%^T’, ‘%^u’, ‘%^U’. You may define a prompt like ‘%^{Birthday}t’.
11. %^{PROP}p Prompt the user for a value for property PROP.
12. %^{PROMPT} Prompt the user for a string and replace this sequence with it.
13. %N Insert the text entered at the Nth ‘%^{PROMPT}’, where N is a number, starting from 1.
14. %? After completing the template, position point here.

This section is provided for users familiar with Org mode; if you're not familiar, feel free to skip it. Metanote is the app with the most comprehensive support for Org mode. It also supports most of the commonly used custom Capture settings in Org mode. Here's a detailed breakdown of the support: