doomemacs/modules/ui/doom-dashboard/README.org

#+TITLE:   ui/doom-dashboard
#+DATE:    October 9, 2019
#+SINCE:   v1.3
#+STARTUP: inlineimages nofold

* Table of Contents :TOC_3:noexport:
- [[#description][Description]]
  - [[#module-flags][Module Flags]]
- [[#prerequisites][Prerequisites]]
- [[#configuration][Configuration]]
  - [[#a-custom-banner][A custom banner]]
  - [[#adding-text-to-the-dashboard][Adding text to the dashboard]]

* Description
This module adds a minimalistic, Atom-inspired dashboard to Emacs.

Besides eye candy, the dashboard serves two other purposes:

1. To improve Doom's startup times (the dashboard is lighter than the scratch
   buffer in many cases).

2. And to preserve the "last open directory" you were in. Occasionally, I kill
   the last buffer in my project and I end up who-knows-where (in the working
   directory of another buffer/project). It can take some work to find my way
   back to where I was. Not with the Dashboard.

   Since the dashboard cannot be killed, and it remembers the working directory
   of the last open buffer, ~M-x find-file~ will work from the directory I
   expect.

** Module Flags
This module provides no flags.

* Prerequisites
This module only requires that ~all-the-icons~'s icon fonts are installed.

It should've been installed when you first installed Doom, but ~M-x
all-the-icons-install-fonts~ will install them again.

* Configuration
** A custom banner
To use a custom image as your banner, change ~fancy-splash-image~:

#+BEGIN_SRC elisp
(setq fancy-splash-image "~/my/banners/image.png")
#+END_SRC

#+begin_quote
Doom will fall back to its ASCII banner in Terminal Emacs. To replace the ASCII
banner, replace the ~doom-dashboard-widget-banner~ function in
~+doom-dashboard-functions~ with a function that inserts your new banner into
the current file.
#+end_quote

** Adding text to the dashboard
Doom's dashboard iterates over ~+doom-dashboard-functions~ when it is told to
redraw. Add your own functions to operate on the buffer and potentially add
whatever you like to Doom's splash screen.

#+begin_quote
Keep in mind that inserting text from expensive sources, e.g. your org agenda,
will negate most of Doom's startup benefits.
#+end_quote