Recent Posts

326

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

« Last post by Dormouse on March 23, 2021, 09:24 PM »

I think a lot of this relates to the direction the developers want to take the application. I haven't seen any indication that they want to make it a general purpose application.

-wraith808 (March 23, 2021, 08:08 AM)

I'm not sure. I agree it's not their own intent, but they do follow users and are very open to almost anything being done with plugins and frequently consider extending the API to make some plugins possible. But how much can reasonably be done via plugins I have no idea.

327

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

« Last post by Dormouse on March 23, 2021, 09:19 PM »

1. Have Obsidian read .txt (and other plaintext) files as if markdown (apply markdown styling, and so on)
2. Have Obsidian read .txt as plain plaintext (no markdown styling)

The plugin does 1 AFAICT. But if this gets wings perhaps both 1 and 2 will get implemented, and maybe also a further feature
3. Have Obsidian read files with extension .NNN as some other, perhaps user customized plaintext format that differs from markdown. For example, AsciiDoc.

-Nod5 (March 23, 2021, 05:11 AM)

The plugin does 1, but only partially. It does 2 in the absence of any markdown in the file; up to a point. I'm not convinced that the holes in these will ever fully filled, but I see no chance of 3, although there must be a possibility that a plugin could be written to do this to some extent, maybe.

The plugin allows .txt to follow markdown styling. It allows links and transclusions, in .txt files. It doesn't allow .txt to be read natively or to be transcluded itself, and links to .txt files have to be typed out in full. Neither are tags in .txt recognised and nor do .txt files appear in graphs. Having hit these limits, I am now wondering how much use I will be able to make of it. For some things it will work fine, but not being able to be transcluded means that the technique of embedding chapters into a file to produce a complete MSS won't work. Of course, there's no difficulty in renaming them all at that point but working out which format to work in at each stage doesn't seem straightforward now; quite a collection of swings and roundabouts.

328

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

« Last post by Dormouse on March 22, 2021, 05:32 PM »

txt-as-md plugin

-Dormouse (March 19, 2021, 05:00 PM)

And have realised that for my workflow this is a game changer. I've always written text with formatting to be done later. I like doing all my reviewing and editing using colours, comments etc. All the programs that will do that are happy to work with .txt files (though they won't save such extras in a .txt file), which means that I can convert nearly all my .md files to .txt and gain the ability to use them all, with no loss of Obsidian features. If I have to save files for a while in an extra word processing format until edits are completed, it's only what I always have to do anyway, and this way there's no converting backwards and forwards to do. The plugin works in mobile too.
And all the files collected originally in .txt format can go straight in to the vault without conversion.

329

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

« Last post by Dormouse on March 19, 2021, 05:00 PM »

Also briefly tested the txt-as-md plugin on a test vault.
My interest was Obsidian commands rather than markdown,  but successfully inserted a transclusion into the txt file.
Will save a smidgen of time when exporting from Diarium and a heapfull if want simultaneous access from a program that won't read md.

330

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

« Last post by Dormouse on March 18, 2021, 06:31 PM »

The Obsidian Mobile app (ultra early, very limited access beta) was going to be for light input use only, according to the Trello roadmap, but afaics it's pretty full featured. Many minor glitches still but works with all the plugins, css etc. Many seem to be using it on production vaults, but I'm only peering at it occasionally through isolated test vaults. Doesn't require the use of the Obsidian Sync service at all; I'll avoid subscribing to that because, apart from the extra cost, it would just add another unnecessary layer of processes for me to understand and set up.

331

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

« Last post by Dormouse on March 18, 2021, 06:21 PM »

I've started to combine a new editor with my VS Code workflow - Deepdwn (https://billiam.itch.io/deepdwn).

-wraith808 (March 13, 2021, 03:24 PM)

Looks quite nice, though I'm not sure I have a real use for another editor.
Not quite sure where I stand on YAML. I originally stuck a YAML section into Obsidian notes, for potential future use, but then deleted them all when they said that the YAML was being reserved for plugin use - would be beyond irritating to develop a use and then have it disrupted by plugins. That seems to have reversed and it's now used by some people, though I'm still not sure why I would need it. Easy enough to add should I want to.

I use Typora regularly because pasting excel cells produces a markdown table that I can copy and paste elsewhere. I don't know which other editors will do that, but don't have an incentive to look.
FWIW, if I paste the cells into Diarium,  I get a formatted table in an image file and the unformatted text in the body of the entry. I always ue Excel because I don't get the same response from Sheets - even when I paste the cells into Excel and then abstract them again. It all seems very odd to me, but I don't really need to understand why they work in this fashion.

332

General Software Discussion / Re: Copying internet pages with images on Android

« Last post by Dormouse on March 12, 2021, 05:00 PM »

I've found that one of the problems is that many pages are only copied with links to the images rather than the images themselves, which is no good to me. I think I will just save everything as an image - good enough for most uses and they can always be further processed if needed. And I'll stop using Evernote for data capture, which implies not really using it at all. Which is fine because I hate the new version.

333

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

« Last post by Dormouse on March 12, 2021, 04:36 PM »

My journal has continued successfully, still informed by Virginia Woolf's practice. Once she'd got into the swing of it, she wrote her journal in the afternoon/evening with her serious writing in the morning. Journal entries varied: sometimes she used them to help develop new ideas and issues; sometimes she practiced styles; sometimes she recorded events, sometimes, observations, sometimes feelings; sometimes she analysed her beliefs and aims about writing. Gaps, of course, because of her illnesses and engagements that took all her time.

I'm not partitioning by time of day, but I am partitioning by entry and storage system. Continuing to use Diarium, even though Obsidian will become a practical option with the mobile versions. I can export the relevant entries from Diarium (as text) into Obsidian (rename as md). I| doubt the Obsidian option will ever be as slick, and I can already recognise the value of the different mindset when I'm writing the diary. If I didn't need mobile, I would probably just use The Journal but I do find Diarium very smooth. Effectively, it means that the journal is one path into my notes.

FWIW I'm also trialling Instapaper (potentially also comapring it with Pocket) and Readwise, again as part of the entry system. Also Readly. I'd never seen the value of Readwise which struck me as expensive, given that it is easy to find alternative ways of doing the same thing. But convenience has a value and one of the advantages it might bring is a greater use of highlighting and notes on everything rather than just where it will obviously be useful.

I'm aware that there have been one or two Obsidian updates that have resulted in (a tiny amount of) data loss (quickly addressed). And somewhat greater issues arising from plugins. Some reports of data loss seem most likely to be due to conflict with a user's sync system. For the moment, I don't use community plugins at all and I am exercising caution over what I use Obsidian for and making sure I have sufficient backups. (Ditto for the Diarium database.) My plan is to do a major review once the pace of development has slowed; I expect then to move back to heavier use, but with a clear idea of how to manage security and what limitations I should impose on use. So far it has moved from all data being in the vault folders, to adding jsons in User profiles, and then adding a database in the User profile; the databases aren't essential - they will be recreated from scratch if deleted, but there's no way I've seen to turn off the persistent storage automatically. It's moving too fast to be worth attempting such a review yet.

334

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

« Last post by Dormouse on March 12, 2021, 03:47 PM »

The Obsidian mobile apps are out in a very limited access, bug-stomping beta. I'm avoiding it for now as I don't want to get sucked into a vortex which will give me no short-term gain.

335

General Software Discussion / Re: Copying internet pages with images on Android

« Last post by Dormouse on March 04, 2021, 05:42 PM »

Of the second order copy/paste solutions, Paper looks like the best choice for me since it will export to markdown.

I'll need to check out the other Vivaldi settings,  but so far I've only got its own notes to save as pure text.

336

General Software Discussion / Copying internet pages with images on Android

« Last post by Dormouse on March 04, 2021, 12:21 PM »

This never used to be a problem. I was aware that some programs wouldn't include images in a pasted page, but the Evernote web clipper worked reliably. That's no longer the case - the web clipper can take ages before I can see what it's done and often gets stuck on sites requiring a login. Quick, easy and reliable it isn't. (Might be a browser issue I suppose but I need something to work whatever browser I'm using. I usually use Vivaldi. Retested - the Evernote web clipper worked in Chrome Canary this once at least, but copy/paste had same results as Vivaldi.)

So, I try Simplified View-Select All-Copy. That works in Gmail and Evernote and Dropbox Paper, but not in most note or document programs which skip the images. Markdown editors don't work, but neither does Joplin or Textmaker. Or Word or Docs.
Is there something I'm not doing correctly? Evernote works, which is good, but it's already multi-stage I'd rather avoid the extra steps involved in exporting it.

337

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

« Last post by Dormouse on March 02, 2021, 02:39 PM »

Org-mode

-wraith808 (March 02, 2021, 09:00 AM)

I looked at this a while ago. Concluded that it was better than markdown but lack of ubiquity made it too much of a lock-in, as with AsciiDoc. As time has gone on, I'm glad I learned markdown and have an awareness of these alternative options, but I've moved away from using them all. Now it's mostly text with occasional Obsidian commands.

I have developed a very barebones approach to Obsidian. No community themes or plugins (every now and then users report data loss from one of them, and I just don't need the aggravation). And nothing confidential (it's moved from json to a database so no longer immediately readable, but still saves in User folders); I could manage it securely but don't want to have to design a system around a still moving target.

As it is I have a highly functional system requiring little effort.

338

General Software Discussion / Re: A good program for transcribe handwritten text to mechanical text in the pc

« Last post by Dormouse on February 25, 2021, 02:41 PM »

OneNote is complicated for me because I don't want to update and give me problems. If I try with office 2016 I may have problems.

-Contro (February 25, 2021, 11:51 AM)

I appreciate the concern. I run 2016 and 365 together on one machine, but fear that 2016 will stop being effective at some point. For now I switch between them depending on what I want to do. Can't say I like the direction of travel and I don't actively use either version now  - only work with some stuff already there that haven't exported yet.

Do you know if goes well under windows xp pro ?

-Contro (February 25, 2021, 11:51 AM)

No idea about that I'm afraid. I do try to keep my OSs fully updated.

339

General Software Discussion / Re: A good program for transcribe handwritten text to mechanical text in the pc

« Last post by Dormouse on February 25, 2021, 11:21 AM »

That works more easily than I anticipated. Looks as if it ought to be possible to load multiple pages. I'll be interested to hear the results of all your experiments.

340

General Software Discussion / Re: A good program for transcribe handwritten text to mechanical text in the pc

« Last post by Dormouse on February 24, 2021, 04:35 PM »

I'm not convinced that FreeOCR will do handwriting. Most OCR programs don't. Of course, if the handwriting is regular enough they might work.

Most programs that will work are specifically set up to process handwriting as an input; OneNote for example. But they don't have a workflow that works well with a mass of handwritten documents. And many only work online (eg Pen to Print).

It seems as if it ought to be possible to have both capability and workflow, but I'm not sure it's been done yet. And maybe it's harder than it seems.

341

General Software Discussion / Re: Sagelight Image Editor v4 returns as Pay-What-You-Want

« Last post by Dormouse on February 18, 2021, 10:47 AM »

Well Rob is back again, so ought to be able to respond to issues. I think he's contemplating best way of taking Sagelight forward.
He also has a 'new' product Sagebox, which seems to be a programmers tool that he developed for his wider consulting work.

342

General Software Discussion / Re: A good program for transcribe handwritten text to mechanical text in the pc

« Last post by Dormouse on February 15, 2021, 07:20 AM »

I thought there were many programs that attempted Intelligent  Character Recognition (ICR), but I've no recent experience of them.

iirc both Evernote and OneNote can have a go. Plus others. How well it works will depend on language and handwriting.

What I do know is that handwriting directly into Android apps works remarkably well (and my handwriting is BAD; and variable).

343

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows Explorer "File manager" Alternative

« Last post by Dormouse on February 10, 2021, 05:52 AM »

I upgraded to 11 after holding off for a while, and a little over the time that he gave for free upgrades, 12 came out.  11 works fine, so I just figured I'd wait until the next version came out.

-wraith808 (February 05, 2021, 06:52 AM)

I learned a while ago that the best strategies for me were instant upgrades or skipping versions. Other schedules reduce bangs per buck.
And if you only want to pay when there’s a feature you need, you'll always find cheaper alternatives.

344

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

« Last post by Dormouse on February 01, 2021, 06:29 AM »

Any whole that splits into multiple sections, with highly detailed components, where each section has a similar structure

-Dormouse (January 31, 2021, 06:12 PM)

I've realised that it works for any whole with detailed (markdown) components. Structure is just the way I've been using it.

You could think of it as a large desk covered in documents.
Or you could have a  structure at the top/left/middle with unpositioned documents lying around it.
You could use it like Scrivener's corkboard (though here the documents won't lie on top of each other or overlap, though more than one document to a cell is possible). For me, it could work better than the corkboard because the space is so much bigger, though I'd miss drag and drop (or I would if I used Scrivener).
 

345

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

« Last post by Dormouse on January 31, 2021, 06:12 PM »

that's a pretty manual process.  It would drive me nuts lolll...

-superboyac (January 31, 2021, 04:39 PM)

Indexing, I basically use the classic zk of idea of creating a note that links to all the sub-topics.  So i create an index note.  Multiple index notes can link to the same sub-note, that's fine.

-superboyac (January 31, 2021, 04:39 PM)

I think the  difference here is that this part of my process has nothing to do with note-taking or zettelkasten. It's about planning, writing and organising an MSS. If there will be enough for more than one book, moving parts between them so that each one is well structured. Making it easy to see gaps that need filling. Ditto for generating multiple articles from one research programme. And that's the same for a series of articles on aspects of the same issue. Irrelevant if you're hand-to-mouth but essential when you're in a position to plan the series.

If you're a pantser writing fiction it has no value at all. Though, when I think on it, if you write lots of bits it might help you stitch them into coherence.

Has to be manual because all the decisions require thought.

And at the end, you do have an index. If there’s a book series, and each column is a book, with scenes on the rows, all that's needed is to copy a column, put a ! In front of the wikilinks to insert the transclusions, and then export/print the whole MSS.
You'd have other columns in the spreadsheet of course. Word counts, targets, appearance of characters and locations, whatever it is that's helpful for planning or editing/reviewing. But you probably only want that in the spreadsheet.
Would work for a PhD too. Be overkill for an UG essay, but could help with a thesis.
Or multi-stage business plans. Or years of committee meetings. Any whole that splits into multiple sections, with highly detailed components, where each section has a similar structure.

I wouldn't use it at all for zettelkasten type notes (or the value of using it there hasn't struck me yet).

346

General Software Discussion / Wikilinks, spreadsheets and tables

« Last post by Dormouse on January 31, 2021, 03:38 PM »

Wikilinks in Obsidian are a wonderful tool for writing and research. I'm still investigating the best way to use Obsidian (& et al) for my writing, in particular looking for the best method for organising and manipulating longer pieces of writing.

One option is very long documents and using headings. Headings produce outlines and can be linked directly.
Another option is multiple documents with a MOC/Index. This makes manipulating and re-sequencing very easy.
Another is simply using files and nested folders - the way most writer's programs do it.
However, all  are very linear. And I inevitably find linear constricting.

I have always used spreadsheets as part of my planning process, and am aware that many writers have constructed complex systems using multiple spreadsheets.
Tables can help as a cutdown way of doing the same, but their limited functions restrict what can be done. And markdown tables are a PITA (though Typora's are more usable than most).
Ideally I wanted to continue to use spreadsheets. Obsidian allows links to the files which can then be opened in the default spreadsheet program, which is manageable.
But I have worked out a much, much better solution.

• I use a spreadsheet. Scenes, people, places, concepts (anything I choose) get put in wikilinks if I think that I might want to link to them. I can switch and move things around however I want.
• I copy the spreadsheet and paste it in Typora (doesn't work if I try pasting in Obsidian or WriteMonkey, but haven't tried anything else).
• I copy the Typora table and paste it into Obsidian.
• Obsidian will automatically link to any notes that already exist and will offer to create notes for the wikilinked titles that don't already exist.

This gives me a supercharged index that isn't simply sequential. If I hover over the link, I can see the content. I can use the spreadsheet itself (I'll stick a link in as the title of the table) for analysis and development.

The one fly in the ointment is that this seems to be unidirectional - you can't take the markdown table and paste it into a spreadsheet. I assume It might be possible with a few conversions, but that doesn't feel like a productive workflow in normal circumstances. It's not a major issue - it means always making changes in the spreadsheet and copying back into Obsidian, but that's all.

Probably of no interest to most people, but I find the possibilities exciting.

347

General Software Discussion / Trying a journal again - inspired by Virginia Woolf

« Last post by Dormouse on January 17, 2021, 05:46 PM »

I'm also having another go at doing a serious journal/diary.
I've been inspired by Virginia Woolf's diaries which I hadn't read until I was recently gifted a copy. (Ebook versions are available for free on the internet, like all of her work.) I've always been impressed by the famous diaries (Pepys etc) , but they'd never seemed relevant to my own potential use. These diaries fit much better. They seem to cover everything. She took them seriously, trying to set aside a small amount of time each day, but there are still many days with no entries. There's description, observation, activities, introspection, planning and recording her reading and her writing programme. Recording and trying to analyse her feelings and emotions and health (frequently poor). Practicing phrasing and style (and reporting her feeling, after some years of use, that it had helped her writing to flow more easily).

In the past, I've often been caught out by the physical methodology getting in my way. And limited time. That led me to focus on what seemed important (with the habit stopping when it no longer was), and books (printed diaries/plain notebooks) which then became inconvenient. And I've tried so many digital methods without ever getting going seriously with any of them. At least with the pen and papers ones, I still find the ones made years ago interesting today. But in recent years I've never been able to do more than a few days at a time in a paper diary, so digital it has to be.

I tried a plain document approach using Obsidian, but that became messy and not very useful. So as my system is opening again, I've returned to Diarium, which I first looked at in March last year before encountering Obsidian. AND I'm having another go with dictation on the phone. The availability suits me well and I'm accustomed to dictating, even if it is never as fast as typing, when it feels as if it ought to be faster. Worked okay so far, but very early days, so mostly likely another false start; maybe not because the Woolf model could easily work for me. And I'm not limited to dictation or the phone. I expect to export regularly into .txt files.

But the dictation works  remarkably well. 'Marques de Riscal, Rioja Reserva 2016' without a hitch. I was well impressed.

348

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

« Last post by Dormouse on January 17, 2021, 05:13 PM »

I've not been following the development of Obsidian that closely recently. It continues apace. Multiple plugins and themes now - though I'm aware that some of them on occasion have caused data loss. Many still look for Roam features, implemented exactly the way Roam does it. Hosts of other improvements and tweaks that sometimes catch out even experienced users. If most users use a large number of them, I can foresee the day in a few years where switching to anything else will become very hard because their preferred features aren't all available elsewhere; or they'll gradually give up and start again with another program. I think giving up will be frequent anyway because so many users are students who won't have the same needs once they finish their courses and the system they have built with Obsidian will have been tweaked and fine tuned into inflexibility.

We'll see.
Won't be an issue for me because I'm staying primitive.
I'm limiting my markdown formatting to headings and very occasional text (italic, bold, underline, strikethrough) = and half of that isn't really markdown. Maybe lists. Plus wikilinks. Plus images.
Most of what I do works perfectly well as pure .txt.
Editing and reviewing needs much more than markdown can provide and I will continue to switch to other programs for those.

349

General Software Discussion / Re: Vivaldi, the new Web browser for power users

« Last post by Dormouse on January 17, 2021, 02:06 PM »

It's never been an issue for me: I always typed d anyway 

Was going to check  on Firefox, but then found that I hadn't installed it.

350

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

« Last post by Dormouse on January 03, 2021, 02:22 PM »

For navigating, I basically use the sidebar where the files are listed, and the graph webbing view.

-superboyac (December 31, 2020, 12:27 AM)

I was interested because I find I'm ignoring most options.
I virtually never use the graph or the file explorer sidebar.
I do use links (backlinks sometimes), tags and search - and that's about it. I use my nested vaults as an easy way to limit the available files and would expect to use MOC (Maps of Content = indices) when they become useful.