# Creating an org-roam note from an existing headline **URL:** \ **Category:** How To\ **Created:** [November 17, 2020, 11:46pm UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/creating-an-org-roam-note-from-an-existing-headline/978 "2020-11-17T23:46:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![telotortium](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a587f6/32.png) [@telotortium](https://org-roam.discourse.group/u/telotortium)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2020, 11:46pm UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/creating-an-org-roam-note-from-an-existing-headline/978/1 "2020-11-17T23:46:33Z")
I have a notes files with a bunch of headlines containing various notes written over several years. Many of these notes are short and would belong in a system like org-roam, but there hasn’t been an easy way to migrate these notes into org-roam. So I’ve gone ahead and written a function [`org-roam-create-note-from-headline`](https://github.com/telotortium/doom.d/blob/f0295cc510d31c813e2a61ab2fc4aad3ae531e49/org-config.el#L1250-L1271): ```auto (defun org-roam-create-note-from-headline () "Create an Org-roam note from the current headline and jump to it. Normally, insert the headline’s title using the ’#title:’ file-level property and delete the Org-mode headline. However, if the current headline has a Org-mode properties drawer already, keep the headline and don’t insert ‘#+title:'. Org-roam can extract the title from both kinds of notes, but using ‘#+title:’ is a bit cleaner for a short note, which Org-roam encourages." (interactive) (let ((title (nth 4 (org-heading-components))) (has-properties (org-get-property-block))) (org-cut-subtree) (org-roam-find-file title nil nil 'no-confirm) (org-paste-subtree) (unless has-properties (kill-line) (while (outline-next-heading) (org-promote))) (goto-char (point-min)) (when has-properties (kill-line) (kill-line)))) ``` ---
**Author:** ![real-or-random](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/org-roam.discourse.group/real-or-random/32/514_2.png) [@real-or-random](https://org-roam.discourse.group/u/real-or-random)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2020, 4:54pm UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/creating-an-org-roam-note-from-an-existing-headline/978/2 "2020-11-22T16:54:49Z")
Thanks for sharing. I think that’s useful, in particular if you use org-roam more like a wiki rahter than like a zettelkasten. Sometimes things get too large and deserve their own file. ---
**Author:** ![JeffBrown](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/org-roam.discourse.group/jeffbrown/32/254_2.png) [@JeffBrown](https://org-roam.discourse.group/u/JeffBrown)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2020, 11:01pm UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/creating-an-org-roam-note-from-an-existing-headline/978/3 "2020-11-22T23:01:53Z")
This is super handy!!! Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![agibragimov](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/org-roam.discourse.group/agibragimov/32/589_2.png) [@agibragimov](https://org-roam.discourse.group/u/agibragimov)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 4:59am UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/creating-an-org-roam-note-from-an-existing-headline/978/4 "2021-01-04T04:59:30Z")
This is pretty cool and almost exactly what I needed. As soon as I started using org-roam (which is just a few hours ago) I felt grasping for something like this. Thank you for this snippet. I see how this can be improved: - #+roam\_tags can be set (based on org tags of the heading and roam\_tags of the original file) - if there any links to the heading, they could be replaced with the link to the new note ---
**Author:** ![japhir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b2d939/32.png) [@japhir](https://org-roam.discourse.group/u/japhir)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2021, 12:59pm UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/creating-an-org-roam-note-from-an-existing-headline/978/5 "2021-01-05T12:59:00Z")
A further improvement could be to convert the ```auto :PROPERTIES: :CREATED: [2021-01-05 Tue 13:59] :END: ``` drawer into a `#+created: [2021-01-05 Tue 13:59]` file property at the top :). Of course, if this property drawer exists (which it does for almost all of my notes) it would be nice if it would still convert the heading itself to `#+title: xxx` at the top of the file. ---
**Author:** ![gnohz](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/org-roam.discourse.group/gnohz/32/803_2.png) [@gnohz](https://org-roam.discourse.group/u/gnohz)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2021, 9:23pm UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/creating-an-org-roam-note-from-an-existing-headline/978/6 "2021-07-30T21:23:01Z")
How to implement this in V2? Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![gnohz](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/org-roam.discourse.group/gnohz/32/803_2.png) [@gnohz](https://org-roam.discourse.group/u/gnohz)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2021, 9:58pm UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/creating-an-org-roam-note-from-an-existing-headline/978/7 "2021-07-30T21:58:57Z")
I tried to change ```auto (org-roam-find-file title nil nil 'no-confirm) ``` to ```auto (org-roam-node-find 'other-window title nil) ``` and it works. ---
**Author:** ![doubleloop](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/org-roam.discourse.group/doubleloop/32/99_2.png) [@doubleloop](https://org-roam.discourse.group/u/doubleloop)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2021, 3:23pm UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/creating-an-org-roam-note-from-an-existing-headline/978/8 "2021-07-31T15:23:18Z")
I think this new feature just added may provide this functionality now: [(feat): add org-roam-extract-subtree (#1710) · org-roam/org-roam@829ee68 · GitHub](https://github.com/org-roam/org-roam/commit/829ee688606213da6aca11cbcecfbb512c159f0f) ---
**Author:** ![gnohz](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/org-roam.discourse.group/gnohz/32/803_2.png) [@gnohz](https://org-roam.discourse.group/u/gnohz)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2021, 10:12pm UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/creating-an-org-roam-note-from-an-existing-headline/978/9 "2021-07-31T22:12:43Z")
Not working with my current setup though… 1. It didn’t use my template, so the file name is still [YearMonthDate.xxx.org](http://YearMonthDate.xxx.org) 2. Error message: non-existent agenda file [R]emove from list or [A]bort? ---
**Author:** ![gsgx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/aeb1de/32.png) [@gsgx](https://org-roam.discourse.group/u/gsgx)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2022, 10:26pm UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/creating-an-org-roam-note-from-an-existing-headline/978/10 "2022-08-29T22:26:29Z")
I also had various issues with `org-roam-extract-subtree`, so I needed to use this snippet. I’ve modified it a bit for my use case, as I need to do multiple headlines at once and don’t need to worry about properties: ```auto (defun gsgx/org-roam-create-note-from-headline () "Create an Org-roam note from the current headline if it doesn't exist without jumping to it" (let* ((title (nth 4 (org-heading-components))) ;; Read in the name of the node, with the title filled in ;; TODO: How can I just use the title without user input? (node (org-roam-node-read title))) ;; Skip the node if it already exists (if (org-roam-node-file node) (message "Skipping %s, node already exists" title) ;; Without this the subsequent kills seem to be grouped together, not ;; sure why (kill-new "") ;; Cut the subtree from the original file (org-cut-subtree) ;; Create the new capture file (org-roam-capture- :node node) ;; Paste in the subtree (org-paste-subtree) ;; Removing the heading from new node (kill-whole-line) ;; Finalizing the capture will save and close the capture buffer (org-capture-finalize nil) ;; Because we've deleted a subtree, we need the following line to make the ;; `org-map-entries' call continue from the right place (setq org-map-continue-from (org-element-property :begin (org-element-at-point)))))) (defun gsgx/org-roam-create-note-from-headlines () (interactive) (if (region-active-p) ;; `region-start-level' means we'll map over only headlines that are at ;; the same level as the first headline in the region. This may or may not ;; be what you want (org-map-entries 'gsgx/org-roam-create-note-from-headline t 'region-start-level) ;; If no region was selected, just create the note from the current headline (gsgx/org-roam-create-note-from-headline))) ``` Hopefully that helps someone who comes across this thread. I would like to improve this by having an argument that I can set to not even prompt me for the titles at all if I’m sure the headline titles work, but I wasn’t able to figure out how to do that. ---
**Author:** ![lr0](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/org-roam.discourse.group/lr0/32/1464_2.png) [@lr0](https://org-roam.discourse.group/u/lr0)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2024, 11:47pm UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/creating-an-org-roam-note-from-an-existing-headline/978/11 "2024-02-01T23:47:55Z")
For people reading this 4 years later, just use org-roam-extract-subtree.