Messages

126

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Inspire Writer

« on: February 25, 2022, 11:14 AM »

a decent WYSIWYG Markdown editor

-Deozaan (February 24, 2022, 10:56 PM)

This is a very particular kind of editor. It seems to have lifted some very detailed features from Ulysses and is aiming at the same market except on Windows. I have it in mind to check Ulysses features to see the detail of what it has left behind. I also intend to describe some of the issues I have encountered when I have enough for a post.

I think I've tried all the WYSIWYG markdown editors on Windows (some only briefly I admit), and others that seemed to have something to recommend them. I'd be very keen to try more, if you come across new ones (I still don't understand how Inspire evaded me for so long when I ought to have found me in its target demographic).

As a general purpose editor, I think Typora is clear of the field. WYSIWYG, easy to work with, excellent import/export. Fair number of configuration options.

So why would I prefer to write in Inspire than Typora? That's a very good question and I don't have a very good answer. Typora has more themes; it has focus as well as typewriter mode. it doesn't misinterpret wikilinks, configurable shortcuts. Maybe it feels slightly clumsier. It doesn't have a database (so no switching sheet sequence to make a complete document - but I wouldn't use that much anyway). For most people, I would say that Typora would be better.

127

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm thinking of going primitive, with discursion into zettelkasten

« on: February 25, 2022, 08:55 AM »

I'll have to try to give an overview of why when I get a chance.

-wraith808 (February 25, 2022, 07:20 AM)

Please.
I don't mind no WYSIWYG.
I don't need wikilinks in every program, though thinking the syntax is something else could be a problem.
I assume it's particularly good at something to make you like it.

128

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm thinking of going primitive, with discursion into zettelkasten

« on: February 25, 2022, 04:20 AM »

I do see that's an issue.

I look at the thread titles on the Discussion page (specifically usually only General Software Discussion), and then I notice post titles when I'm there. Even doing this post there's the topic but a separate Subject title for the post - which is what I edit because it always has the Topic Title as default. I don't think the Forum should even show Post Titles as Topic Titles since it is clearly designed to separate them.

As I said I'd like to keep editing post tiles sometimes to indicate the subject. I can see many people knowing they don't have any interest in x or y even though they like following z in the thread. Possibly a few variants - "going primitive ... post title" or "going primitive zettelkasten ... post title" & etc if ever needed. Hopefully that will leave everyone knowing where they are.

When I post on a topic that I don't think is part of this thread's process, I do post it separately.

129

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm thinking of going primitive, with discursion into zettelkasten

« on: February 24, 2022, 06:20 PM »

Your new titles show no continuity or relevance to the original title and make people think there's a new thread

-Target (February 24, 2022, 05:53 PM)

This is presumably about the way it shows on the post page.
In practice, it's a thread with sub-threads. There's continuity but also a variety of issues. There's an advantage in seeing sub-threads when you're on the thread page and are interested only in some issues. I'm reluctant to lose that. Maybe I can change it to something like Primitive - sub-thread so everyone knows where they are.
I never look at the page that just shows post titles, so it never occurs to me that anyone is misled.

130

General Software Discussion / Enter Enter

« on: February 24, 2022, 05:06 PM »

I like my main workflow to be efficient. I am used to producing a new paragraph by typing Enter. I have been neutral about whether that paragraph is actually a paragraph (as in Word and other word processors, Scrivener etc) or a long single plaintext line as in most markdown editors; all I need is to be able to see my paragraphs as separate and distinct
 ...
Now I know that some apparently happily go Enter, Enter to achieve the blank line required to define a markdown paragraph, but I know I will never be one of them.

-Dormouse (December 29, 2021, 03:48 PM)

The particular issue I had is that a Workflowy bug tends to concatenate note text that is not in separate paragraphs.

Now, I'm hoping I have a proper solution.
Using Clavier+, I have programmed the Enter key to produce Enter Enter when the Num Lock key is off. Most of the time I either want normal behaviour OR I want the double Enter. So it's not much of a problem for me to switch between the behaviours. This massively simplifies my work with Workflowy and other programs like markdown editors. I'd prefer that they allowed editing of their shortcuts, but this works.

131

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm thinking of going primitive, with discursion into zettelkasten

« on: February 24, 2022, 03:18 PM »

I just don't care about markdown,

-BGM (February 24, 2022, 02:47 PM)

I don't either.
Actually, that's not true. I actively dislike markdown.

I really appreciate everything saved in text

-BGM (February 24, 2022, 02:47 PM)

Indeed. Plaintext is a good idea - though not for everything - but the implementations are poor.

I have not been pleased enough with any of the markdown editors I've tried so far

-BGM (February 24, 2022, 02:47 PM)

The key word in this is enough. With sufficient incentive, you'll just accept whichever seems best.

I'm pretty happy with TreeDBNotes

-BGM (February 24, 2022, 02:47 PM)

And that's why

although it needs some improvements and needs some promise for the future, but it's still working well for me.

-BGM (February 24, 2022, 02:47 PM)

That's where the problem lies. I doubt you will see any new programs coming in using rich text unless they are word processors. The Rightnotes, Scriveners etc will hang on while they can, but rich text is unfashionable and higher cost in terms of computer resources. The best you can hope for is that TreeDBnotes carries on working, and the next best is that you find a markdown editor where you never need to see the markdown and don't need to know how it works. That's true for Inspire Writer in that it's easier just to use traditional shortcuts for most things, and the markdown itself is semi-hidden. But what it can do is limited by what markdown can do. It has the best interface with Word that I've seen in a markdown editor.

For me, Inspire Writer ticks many work in progress boxes, and I don't need it for long-term storage. Works seamlessly with markdown files (though I need some awareness of any syntax differences) and works pretty well with Word. Maybe even writing notes. It's a long way from perfect - I'd like a pop-out edit pane, OPML import/export and customisable shortcuts and syntax. Even a bit of theme tweaking. As well as the folding and other things I have mentioned already.
I think all editors will have to improve their management of emojis, but I'm sure that will come in due course.

132

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm thinking of going primitive, with discursion into zettelkasten

« on: February 24, 2022, 01:24 PM »

Fellas, here's one called Effie, and it's giveaway, this Feb 10, 2022 (today):
https://www.giveawayoftheday.com/effie/

I'm going to give it a spin.

-BGM (February 10, 2022, 08:11 AM)

If you are that interested in testing new programs, then you might be interested in looking at Inspire Writer. I don't suggest that you switch from TreeDBnotes - while it works you have too much to lose - but in some ways it's a modern take on that type of design. Explicitly a program for writing rather than an information manager. Has a database. Uses markdown, but you don't have to be aware of it.

Now, on my desktop, I've mentioned before that I use TreeDBNotes - Using this program, I have notes for all of my program development, all my IT and network changes and logs, conversations with techs and agents over the phone, histories of various computers and devices and network management.  I've got an entire notebook dedicated to stories and poems, another notebook dedicated to notes on animals, artwork, etc.  They are my own personal encyclopedias.

-BGM (February 07, 2022, 11:17 AM)

Yes, you could do that.

I also love custom icons for note entries and folders in the tree.  With TreeDBNotes, I can also paste screenshots right into the editor with no further work (they become embedded as bmps).

-BGM (February 07, 2022, 11:26 AM)

Yes, you can paste images.
You'd use emojis instead of custom icons today. They will work here as well as anywhere else.

Getting data *out* of TreeDBNotes, yes, well, it has quite a few options, but they are kind of quirky, I think.  You can output to epub or html, really, that's sort of it.

-BGM (February 07, 2022, 04:20 PM)

I think that Inspire Writer's export options are pretty good (markdown, text, docx, PDF, HTML) and nicely manageable.

I have my own toolbar with all my own custom styles.  The tree gives you options to customize the style and icon AND flag of every entry in the tree.  Any entry in the tree can be a folder as well as a note.

-BGM (February 07, 2022, 04:20 PM)

No.
No customisation at all. WYS is all you can get.

• Paste hyperlink
• Recognize system url protocols
• Multiple tabs, each with it's own tree

-BGM (February 07, 2022, 11:26 AM)

In a manner of speaking. No and No.

133

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Inspire Writer

« on: February 24, 2022, 05:36 AM »

I have now bought my license for the program.
I mention this because it has an offer of a free license for a review and I'd like to emphasis that I haven't taken advantage of it.
I will update this thread with further thoughts as I have them, which I'm sure I will.

134

General Software Discussion / Inspire Writer

« on: February 23, 2022, 08:50 PM »

I've done a Review on Inspire Writer.
I'd not come across it before, which strikes me as odd. Apparently similar to Ulysses. Markdown editor that can work on markdown files just like standard editors, but also has a database which adds extra functionality. Clearly designed specifically for writers. I've only been testing it out for a few hours, but I'm quite taken with it. $30 atm.

135

Mini-Reviews by Members / Inspire Writer

« on: February 23, 2022, 08:43 PM »

Why have I never heard of Inspire Writer?
(I suppose another way of thinking about it, is 'how did I hear about it now?' and I'm not sure I can answer that either.

It's a minimalist wysiwygish markdown editor.
And I really mean minimalist. Minimalist in looks, minimalist in features and virtually no settings that can be tweaked. Though not minimalist in cost - it's not expensive but it is paid software whereas most markdown editors on Windows are free. $30 atm, same price as iA Writer.

Many similarities to iA Writer and Ulysses to my untutored eye as a non-Mac user who tried the iA Writer trial, but never felt any value in using it. It feels as if there's a macness about it. I like the dark theme (which is what I use) much better than the iA Writer theme which always felt to starkly black and contrasty. This one is remarkably similar in tone to my preferred theme on Obsidian (Obsidian Nord).

• It has typewriter mode, but no focus mode apart from making the edit pane full screen.
• It has import from docx, HTML. I didn't try HTML, but the docx imports never worked.
• There's no ability to move files around, or headers around in the outline.
• There's no folding on headings (and it accepts a #heading instead of requiring # heading).
• There's no way to have more than one file open at a time that I could find - only one window, no tabs, only one pane.
• Switching view modes is slow. Slower than any markdown editor or word processor I have used before. Usable, but noticeable.
• The markdown syntax it has available is very limited.
• But does have images, tables etc working simply enough
• Only two themes (light and dark). I suppose the light theme is okay, but don't use them so can't compare. I do like the dark theme.

Looking at the above, it looks much more limited than all the free editors I, and most people, use.

So why would anyone consider paying money for it?

Well, it actually looks like a neat little editor for writers. It has the necessary features (bar underline and folding) but isn't weighed down by the tonnes of useless garbage most markdown editors smother themselves with. It looks nice and easy on the eye (though would benefit from a focus mode - FocusWriter would be a good implementation; maybe adding a sentence option). There are four predefined tags - Urgent, ToDo, Draft and Published - which points to writers being their target market.

And it does have useful features.

There's an option for live spellchecking in up to three languages (not that this is something I often turn on).
There are statistics for selection and whole document (characters, sentences, paragraphs, pages - though I'm not sure how the pages are calculated).
There's a comment syntax (++ for a line/section; %% for blocks)
There's a very nice set of export options - Ghost, Medium, WordPress (+ PDF & HTML) and especially .docx. I really like this one. It presents the option of exporting into a number of styles (Modern, Elegant, Formal etc), allows a preview, and then the options are to save, to put into clipboard or to open in a selected program - such as Word. So no need to create documents if that's not needed, which suits my Workflowy purposes ideally - though I still need to do my copying from Word itself to get the paragraphs I need - Enter appears to = New Paragraph; with Shift-Enter = New Line, but the 'paragraphs' are really markdown lines, and the new lines are soft line breaks.
Autosave is quite fast (at least in external files) and it has a regular backup schedule.

So all that's quite nice. And all of that is for files living in the file explorer, being shared with other editors. There are a few more features, for those files created in or imported to the Library. (I assume that the library is some type of database. Imported files stay where they are, there's just a new copy created in the library; the new copy is not synchronised with the original file.)

Possibly the most important of these is that the files in a Library folder can be moved around the sequence easily and that individual files can be selected for export using the usual Ctrl or Shift options, which makes it very easy to put together a long document/book for export to Word or PDF. These 'sheets' can also be split or merged as desired.
There's also a note/sticky note feature (only one per sheet) and session word counts (and goals).

Do I like it?

Yes I do. Despite the lack of folding, I can imagine using it as my main writing interface. The export options to Word are great. It's very simple; all the options it has are useful to me (most writers, I imagine) and there's nothing else getting in the way. For those that want them, the Scrivener like scene/chapter/book type options seem functional. It happily works as a normal markdown editor on external files as well as those in its database, though with slightly fewer features (I think its file explorer gives it an advantage over WriteMonkey 3 in this regard). I'm happy to buy it for my writing and happy to use the other editors for notes and anything that needs their more advanced capabilities.

I came across the following review, which specifically compares it to Ulysses, so I feel that my impression of macness is probably on the mark.

136

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm thinking of going primitive, with discursion into zettelkasten

« on: February 22, 2022, 06:02 AM »

I've devised a workflow for the copy/paste.

A single txt file. Can be opened, edited and written in by virtually any program. Ending in Word where final formatting etc can be done before pasting. And Word turns every line into a paragraph, even when loading a txt file (maybe not always desirable behaviour, I would have thought, but helpful here).

Seems to work very well apart from being extra work. I don't often use formatting anyway, but this preserves the formatting in those programs that have it before Word (primarily the markdown programs).

I used Writage to convert markdown markup into Word formatting (by copying all then pasting as markdown). Glitched once when the pasted text lost all its lines and paragraphs - so not purely a Workflowy issue - but a few undos sorted that.
Also noticed that Writage doesn't recognise markdown headers beyond h3. Hitting too many problems using Writage, so will lose that part. It's not as if I needed the formatting after all.

One slight compensating advantage. Is that this means that most writing can be done in one file rather than dotting about. And all the sorting out is done later when in a sorting things out mindframe.

137

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm thinking of going primitive, with discursion into zettelkasten

« on: February 21, 2022, 03:38 PM »

Are you trying to figure out which software to use to write/edit your notes?  How do you read the end result of your notes?  For example, I don't really care much which program i use to write my files.

-superboyac (February 20, 2022, 04:29 PM)

Within limits, I don't much care about the note editor. I regard wiki-links as essential. And the colours have to be right to suit my eyes. And decent linking though I use few bells and whistles. But I have been happy using a wide range of programs. At least until lines vs paragraphs became an issue because of the Workflowy bug.

What i care more deeply about

-superboyac (February 20, 2022, 04:29 PM)

For me, that's everything to do with the writing. The planning, development, writing, editing, and ultimately publishing (which just means sending it off usually). And I need my writing editor to be very close to just right. Word has never worked for me. MarkText is often too slow and has syntax restrictions I find annoying. Obsidian is just a code editor. Typora works pretty well; I've become more impressed the more I've used it . FocusWriter is very good (but limited formatting and no colour). Atlantis mostly works. Logseq might turn out okay in the end, but there are irritations now and it takes so long to start up.

Word has never worked for me

-Dormouse (February 21, 2022, 03:38 PM)

But sadly, I may be stuck with it, at least if I want to copy and paste into Workflowy notes. It's all I have found that reliably pastes paragraphs as paragraphs that Workflowy recognises including the formatting. Doesn't mean I have to write in Word - it seems to assume that lines from anything ought to be paragraphs - but I need it for formatted text. Atlantis doesn't always work, Atticus never, SmartEdit Writer as bad. Typora preserves paragraphs, but doesn't have formatting, if that's needed. I suppose it's okay. I'll get used to it. At least with that workflow, I could type in Obsidian or anything and the lines would be translated into paragraphs. And Writage then becomes worthwhile.

138

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm thinking of going primitive, with discursion into zettelkasten

« on: February 21, 2022, 03:09 PM »

what are you trying to accomplish?

-superboyac (February 20, 2022, 04:29 PM)

Essentially I do two things, though many types of both: I write and I research.
I had quite a reasonable workflow using database style programs but was aware of increasing issues over long-term viability, which is where I started with this thread. Moved on to files (good), though without ever stopping using databases for short-term tasks, and plaintext (markdown is ubiquitous but not good).

Most of the thread has been about research. By definition that's long-term and so file solutions were always best. I keep two types of research - actual hard research or reflections, most of it in highly focused fields, and a scrapbook, which is anything I see I find interesting and might be able to use in future. I can be quite adventurous in looking for research techniques. Everyone has their own techniques, efficiency and effectiveness is hard to prove and most of what I need is in my head anyway. But files and links have big advantages. And similar techniques could work for fiction too.

But the writing is ultimately more important - I could live by writing without research, but not vice versa. Three essential elements in writing are content, structure and words. With the words, the ultimate is being in the flow and the wrong editor gets in the way of that. For me, the Workflowy kanban view is superb for structure; for anything long and multi-faceted in particular, it allows me to see and feel the shape of the whole document, while allowing my mind to stay in the flow on the tiny section I'm writing in. Splitting documents into tiny parts à la Scrivener has never worked for me.

Ideally, I'd have an editor that joined the research with the writing but I haven't found anything that works for that. Obsidian seems determined to stay a code editor. And it's hard for me to avoid the need for me to be in rich text/docx at some point. My markets are print not web.

139

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm thinking of going primitive, with discursion into zettelkasten

« on: February 20, 2022, 07:07 AM »

Writage lets me work in md when I want to, copy the formatted text to a Word document, and copy and paste Word formatted text into my markdown document. It's pretty seamless going from plain text to word which is cool as I don't like doing long form writing/editing in Word unless I have to.

-wraith808 (February 16, 2022, 09:31 PM)

It makes sense. I tried it again. Testing Obsidian syntax.
Writage fails on highlight and strikethrough, but Typora gets it (MarkText doesn't).
So Writage and copy/paste with some syntax glitches, or Typora with import/export?
for pure text, whch is what I have most of the time, it makes no difference at all - and I have no need of either Typora or Writage.
Copy/paste is more convenient - but only if it works reliably. And if I do formatted text, highlight, strikethough and underline are needed as often as bold/italics. So probably Typora has the advantage for my use.

Markdown incompatibilities feel worse than the days when Word was very expensive and all the notWords had their own particular incompatibilities.

140

General Software Discussion / I will actually try to do a zettelkasten

« on: February 19, 2022, 07:14 AM »

Am thinking I will actually give zettelkasten a go.
I researched it thoroughly previously, but didn't try to follow all the rules.

• Was unsure about best software to use
• Was unsure about its range of utility. How to set limits. Use it for everything? But Luhmann's note-keeping was very focused. I think I have clarified my ideas on that, particularly helped by reading many of his notes (available online; most still only digitised rather than OCRd.) They're very academic shorthand. Not like Ahrens' account at all. And that makes sense to me. Not masses of work, except in thinking about the links.
• And never completely decided about the folgezettel. Seemed to make sense despite the arguments of the original software brigade. As my mind pondered though, I came to see it as essential. Not just in linking but in sketching out future publications.

So how to do it?
afaics, folgezettel are just pointers in an outline. So lots of programs can do that. The key is the very manual requirement to decide exactly where to place each note.
Which programs?
I don't know wikis, but assume they can.
Otherwise, I see no reason why they can't be done in an outliner - Dynalist or Workflowy say. Put bullets in the right sequence, wikilinks available, notes as bullet notes. Also tagging. Should work.
Obsidian? Single file ordered list with notes below. Using wikilinks for the note view without actually embedding them. I think I'll try that. Most users would just use a MOC list with atomic notes in the vault; that would work easily too, but won't be so quickly convertible to OPML.
One folgezettel advantage of an ordered list is that each note has a unique number, even if it has to be derived by following the hierarchy back instead of having it in the note.

I have a date/time shortcut available in any program I type in anyway so that will make any simple title unique.

141

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm thinking of going primitive, with discursion into zettelkasten

« on: February 19, 2022, 07:08 AM »

Also notice Tangent Notes. Very early stages. Looks okay. Local files, will work seamlessly on Obsidian files. No idea what advantages it intends to have. I think I saw another one around too. Still looks as if there will be more and more of them.

142

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm thinking of going primitive, with discursion into zettelkasten

« on: February 18, 2022, 03:17 PM »

I noticed updates today from Logseq and Obsidian (insider). But I've no particular interest in looking at either.

143

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm thinking of going primitive, with discursion into zettelkasten

« on: February 18, 2022, 03:15 PM »

I had

Scrum is iterative.

-wraith808 (February 18, 2022, 08:54 AM)

I had a quick look at the video; it seemed quite long, so I only looked at a bit. But it looked as if Scrum is about getting things done?

I know that's how kanban is usually used, but what interests me is purely the picture. The types of graph that Vonnegut used to draw. He applied his, mostly, to fiction, but I believe the approach should be applied to any form of writing - the presentation of the results of experiments, legal reports, academic papers, pre-publication reviews of said papers, magazine articles. Everything has expectations in terms of length and structure - and sometimes they are demands more than expectations. Before I start a project, I expect to have a clear idea about form and shape. What I like about kanban is that I can use it to give me the views I want to track how it's developing (it will diverge more often than not, sometimes that's better but sometimes I can see that it will fail before the end). I can use it to plan, and I can use it to track.

And I need to be able to pick it up again after a long gap. So a very visible format will help with that. Nothing helps with research gaps because the situation has often changed when it's picked up again.

144

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm thinking of going primitive, with discursion into zettelkasten

« on: February 18, 2022, 06:33 AM »

I've tried many kanbans, including those in Obsidian and Logseq, but found none of them helpful in practice

-Dormouse (February 18, 2022, 05:14 AM)

Actually, I think Plottr is best viewed as a kanban. But rigid and inflexible compared to WF.

145

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm thinking of going primitive, with discursion into zettelkasten

« on: February 18, 2022, 05:14 AM »

I'm using Scrum

-wraith808 (February 17, 2022, 07:38 PM)

I don't know it, but it seems very different to me. And complex.

I'm always fascinated by individual differences, and how something that works for one person, simply doesn't fit another.

I recognise that purely within myself. I've tried many kanbans, including those in Obsidian and Logseq, but found none of them helpful in practice until WF. Some of that is the virtually instantaneous switching between board and outline views. I also love the way I can zoom in or out by changing which bullet is the starting point. And, while I always loved Scrivener's corkboard, it never made me more productive, though I thought it should. The more sophisticated sticky note imitation glitched too.

But the kanban/WF bit is really only the middle stage. Shouldn't say stage - the parts are interacting all the time.
The 'starting' one is Content. That's where Mindomo and Obsidian live.
With Text being the last. That has to be linear. I'll try to forget the probability that Word will be there having to be used in everything I write instead of the titbits it has been receiving.

I also love that OPML works in all stages. Though the OPML file used in the content stage isn't useful in the kanban stage and vice versa. Editors needed in all stages too.

146

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm thinking of going primitive, with discursion into zettelkasten

« on: February 17, 2022, 09:23 AM »

My central system for everything writing related will be Workflowy.
The key features I'll use will be kanban, mirrors, colour, wikilinks

Any piece of work needs to be in three sections
- Text
- Planning and development including text
- Content
The text sections will mirror each other.
Bullets, if they exist, will be put as sub-bullets of an empty sub-bullet at the bottom of Planning and Development or, if necessary, below Text. (To try to stop them distracting me if I'm working on anything else.)

Content depend on what the piece is.
It could, for instance, be a few big research files from Obsidian exported through OPML. Should give me wikilinking with the Text and Planning.

Long-term storage, research etc in long markdown files, accessed from Obsidian and/or Logseq
Text file review and editing in Word.
Writing in a number of programs including FocusWriter, Typora, Logseq
And all the planning and development in Workflowy.

147

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm thinking of going primitive, with discursion into zettelkasten

« on: February 17, 2022, 09:10 AM »

I don't like doing long form writing/editing in Word unless I have to

-wraith808 (February 16, 2022, 09:31 PM)

Me too

Writing Outliner helps me keep projects straight and has the corkboard from Scriviner,

-wraith808 (February 16, 2022, 09:31 PM)

I think my Workflowy kanban should do this. Much prefer kanban to corkboard.

Writage lets me work in md when I want to, copy the formatted text to a Word document, and copy and paste Word formatted text into my markdown document. It's pretty seamless going from plain text to word

-wraith808
link=topic=48938.msg448203#msg448203 date=1645068678

I see how that's useful.

afaics, my central useful file format is opml; and I'll move between that and md and docx. I'm not sure I will ever need to do much  directly between md and docx  Will I want to type markdown into Word? I don't know. Still, I'll know to install Writage if I do.

148

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm thinking of going primitive, with discursion into zettelkasten

« on: February 16, 2022, 05:51 PM »

To give an idea of how I've set Workflowy up, I'm attaching images of a mockup in kanban and in bullet modes.
The text bullets are mirrored to a text list with the same structure; this is the one that can be exported to end up as a markdown or docx document containing only the text. Writing or editing can be done anywhere and will be mirrored to the other.
I use emojis and colour text to give me a very quick overview of what is going on where.

149

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm thinking of going primitive, with discursion into zettelkasten

« on: February 16, 2022, 02:21 PM »

you might want to also look at writage

-wraith808 (February 16, 2022, 11:59 AM)

Thanks. Yes. Want would be putting it too strongly.
I don't like markdown, but it seems hard to avoid it in plaintext, and I have never liked Word - but docx is even more ubiquitous and seems pretty robust across programs too. So do I want a bridge?

I did think of it, and installed a trial to look at it. Then disconnected it from Word, so I could be sure I was seeing Word rather than Writage.
I'm genuinely conflicted about it.
I even looked at the outliner app (DocxManager) to see if that would bring anything extra  But that seemed expensive without offering anything obviously useful to me.

One attraction was FocusWriter - which has a very limited set of formatting option, but quite sufficient for me in writing mode.
And always preferred Atlantis over Word in general use. I don't really like the way it manages Headings, but it's no wore than Obsidian. Word itself seems better.
Typora imports and exports docx quite happily.
It feels as if that will cover what Writage does. But I'm not sure.

The bit where Word stands out is the Review stage, but I don't know Writage adds anything to that.
Happy to hear any views if you have experience of it. Else I think I'll wait and see how it goes.

I'm not entirely reconciled to the prospect of using Word more, even though it appears to make sense.

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General Software Discussion / Re: I'm thinking of going primitive, with discursion into zettelkasten

« on: February 15, 2022, 06:50 PM »

Recently my productivity slumped. I became preoccupied with my systems again. It's not an unexpected stage in an evolving workflow. Two steps forward and one step back is better than one step forward and two steps back, and both are better than three steps forward which inevitably emerges as a delusion.

Where was I? Why did it happen?
I had reached the point of using simple plaintext files, often in markdown. I had programs that, for all their deficiencies, could be made to work. I always understood that markdown itself was a pernicious collection of time-bound prejudices but it was ubiquitous and there seemed no avoiding it.

I stumbled with creative workflows (usual), realised the utility, and availability, of mindmaps and then kanban. Plaintext filing preserved through Markdown-OPML identity. Which led me to longer markdown files (many advantages and closer to Luhmann's actual system than many small ones since each atomic note is embedded in a structure as well as having links), but also to outlines and outliners which I had never found especially useful before.

The value of outliners not being intrinsic to outliners alone, but being a disregarded and poorly implemented feature in markdown editors; viz. the visualisation and speed when moving sections. Plaintext editors ought to be better at this but they aren't.

But this made me more sensitive to conversion glitches. And raised again the issue of whether the md or opml file should take precedence. And raised the question again of databases, since outliners are databases and the opml merely a particularly valuable export format. Which in turn raised again the question of rich text and word processors; outliner > word processor > md/opml being more efficient than editor >< md/opml >< outliner > word processor > md/opml.

The Rock in the Road

And then the big stumble. I had always been unconcerned about whether I was typing in lines or paragraphs. Conversion at the next stage, should it be needed, was a minor issue since the next stage required deliberate thought anyway. But this is when most of the writing would be done in a single program (with occasional paste into it, when I'd done a little writing elsewhere). But back and forth needed more consistency. Cut and paste was not entirely reliable, and Workflowy - which I needed for the kanban - had a problem retaining the integrity of lines. Which meant standardisation on paragraphs. Which shouldn't have been an issue. Word processors have paragraphs; markdown has paragraphs. And many of the programs I use have configurable shortcuts.

But Obsidian was an obdurate unyielding obstacle. Many users appeared to have the belief that Enter=New Line (and New Paragraph was therefore Enter Enter) was part of the markdown specification, instead of it simply being an old code/line/text editor convention. Only a minor irritation in practical terms since I'd already stopped writing in most of the time. WriteMonkey was a bigger loss. But Typora and MarkText were fine (so long as I wrote in WYSIWYG mode). So was Logseq (though I had to edit a config file to achieve the same behaviour in bullet and document mode which is hardly the most user-friendly design). And naturally all word processors. FocusWriter is a funny one, according to my initial testing: its behaviour is fine in docx files, but txt/md files have only lines. I quite like FocusWriter, so that's a small pressure to use docx rather than plaintext.

While I'm on Enter Enter, what is it about the plaintext markup languages that so many instructions involve flapping at the same key and counting? I could only imagine they were invented by two finger typists who had never been taught, or accustomed to, touch typing. One key is a simpler target, but multiple keypresses takes longer and counting is always an additional cognitive load even if it becomes a habit or automatism.

Habit, automatism and muscle memory

The keypress issue might seem minor. I know what lines and paragraphs are, and how each program works. I can convert easily between the two. I can even do Enter Enter in one press (using the thumb and little finger of right hand) and Shift-Enter with one finger. And for most people that is probably true. But I'm a touch typing writer. My keyboard use goes beyond habit, and is at least an automatism and largely muscle memory. When I'm writing, my mind already has threads for content, words, grammar and punctuation; adding another thread for the Enter or Enter Enter question pulls in my conscious mind and disrupts the flow of the writing. It's actually a process disrupt.

So Markdown? Really??

I fully appreciate and agree with the arguments against word processor formats and in favour of plaintext. But also aware that my writing usually has to be converted to .docx or equivalent at some stage. That's writing not note-taking. And I have become increasingly aware that markdown isn't as virtuous as usually painted.

To come close to duplicating what a word processor file can do, it involves detailed understanding of markdown specifications, and also those for CSS, not forgetting HTML. That's time consuming. And though doc/docx has been criticised for having a number of versions, there are even more versions of markdown, CSS and HTML. Plus all the program configurations - the typical markdown editor is not designed to be friendly or accessible to the non-technical user. I've sometimes thought that Obsidian was designed as an equivalent to the Marine training obstacle course for aspiring programmers. As a structure it feels rickety with multiple points of failure. I know what such a construction looks like; I've watched Wallace and Gromit.

Next steps

• Notes will stay as markdown/OPML. Large files rather than tiny ones.
• Writing is best as OPML/docx. OPML is a plaintext format, so plaintext is always available and the final copy can always be converted and kept as markdown. Or it can be done at any point when Obsidian linking is wanted.
• All files will be kept in Obsidian vaults.
• All plaintext files will use Obsidian syntax ([[]], ![[]], #tags, (@tags added since they are used in a number of programs including Workflowy), **bold**, *italic*, <u>underline</u>, ~~strikethrough~~, ==highlight==)
• Programs to type in to include FocusWriter, Typora, MarkText, Logseq, Atlantis, Word and Workflowy; maybe Dynalist.

In the end, it's only a mild system tweak. Files remain central, with databases used for WIP only. WriteMonkey is a major loss, though I could still use it for long files, where the folding is especially useful. Obsidian becomes more marginal in terms of regular use. Logseq enters; I'm not fond of it as an Obsidian competitor but it's fine to write in.

It's ironic that Word has entered. It's a very long time since I chose to use word processors for writing; when I wrote in rich text it was always in other programs; in practice, I don't expect to write in it now either. But giving up databases for long-term storage remains a very good idea.