Copy html source from org files to the clipboard.

If you uses email a lot like me in your job, but also use emacs, you wonder if is possible to export your org files to html, and paste in to your email, well, we are in emacs, everything is possible within emacs, so in this post, I'll show you a couple of functions that help me to make my workflow more efficient.

Copy html source from org files to the clipboard.

First of all we only need a dependency for make this couple of functions to work:

htmlize

Make sure you got this installed in emacs.

Installing `htmlize`:

Listing 1: This is an example using use-package:

(use-package htmlize
  :ensure t)

Explaining the functions:

Export file and copy to the clipboard.

(defun export-org-email ()
  "Export the current email org buffer and copy it to the
clipboard"
  (interactive)
  (let ((org-export-show-temporary-export-buffer nil)
        (org-html-head (org-email-html-head)))
    (org-html-export-as-html)
    (with-current-buffer "*Org HTML Export*"
      (kill-new (buffer-string)))
    (message "HTML copied to clipboard")))

(defun export-org-email () …): Defines a new Emacs Lisp function named export-org-email with no arguments.
(interactive): Makes this function interactive, allowing it to be called with M-x export-org-email or through key bindings.
let block: Sets local variables specific to this function.
org-export-show-temporary-export-buffer nil: Prevents the display of a temporary buffer during the export process.
(org-html-head (org-email-html-head)): Assigns the value returned by the function org-email-html-head to org-html-head. org-email-html-head generates the HTML head content for the exported email.
(org-html-export-as-html): Initiates the export process of the current Org mode buffer to HTML format using org-html-export-as-html.
(with-current-buffer "Org HTML Export" …): Accesses the buffer named Org HTML Export where the HTML export results are stored.
(kill-new (buffer-string)): Grabs the content of the Org HTML Export buffer using (buffer-string) and copies it to the system clipboard using kill-new.
(message "HTML copied to clipboard"): Displays a message in the minibuffer indicating that the HTML content has been successfully copied to the clipboard.

Add some CSS to the file.

This snippet is only for add a custom css "touch" to your copied html org file.

In the below example the function looks in my Downloads folder, but you can specify another path.

(defun org-email-html-head ()
  "Create the header with CSS for use with email"
  (concat
   "<style type=\"text/css\">\n"
   "<!--/*--><![CDATA[/*><!--*/\n"
   (with-temp-buffer
     (insert-file-contents
      "~/Downloads/custom.css")
     (buffer-string))
   "/*]]>*/-->\n"
   "</style>\n"))

And that's it, the next is to paste in to your mail, using the inspection tools in the browser, or save it with html format.

Javier Pacheco