Efficient way to insert multiple file links (residing in the same directory) into a org file with helm

Question

Suppose I edit an org-file, say /foo/bar/file.org and I want to insert links to multiple files living in another path, say /another/path/to/files/.

A stupid way to do this would be to call helm-find-files, navigate from /foo/bar/ to /another/path/to/file and insert the link to the first file via C-c @ (and enter the link name/description). Then I repeat the complete procedure for all other files.

Slightly more efficient would it be to use helm-resume with universal argument (e.g. C-u C-c h b) and then resume find files. Then there is no need to navigate from one path to the other each time.

I also tried to mark multiple files (via Alt-SPACE) and then press C-c @, but that doesn't work.

So is there a significantly more efficient way to do the same job?

Answer 1

Since current helm-find-files command does not support to insert multiple candidates as org links, a rough improvement can be made as follows:

(defun helm-files-insert-as-org-link (candidate)
  (let* ((marked-files (helm-marked-candidates :with-wildcard t)))
    (dolist (file marked-files)
      (let ((target (expand-file-name (helm-substitute-in-filename file))))
        (insert (format "[[file:%s] " file))))))

Use Ctrl-SPACE to mark multiple candidates, and insert them.