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I'm thinking of going primitive, with discursion into zettelkasten
Dormouse:
what are you trying to accomplish?
-superboyac (February 20, 2022, 04:29 PM)
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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.
Dormouse:
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)
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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)
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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)
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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.
Dormouse:
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.
Dormouse:
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.
Dormouse:
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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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In a manner of speaking. No and No.
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