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I'm thinking of going primitive, with discursion into zettelkasten
Dormouse:
Obsidian ... less inviting to use.
-Dormouse (February 28, 2022, 05:10 PM)
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Workable but not smooth.
-Dormouse (February 28, 2022, 05:10 PM)
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seems slightly clunky
-Dormouse (February 28, 2022, 05:10 PM)
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Heading sizing has been re-done - ... I have tried adding some CSS overrides to avoid old themes from screwing it up, but ...
... Please report .. issues to the theme developer though.
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The final quote is from the Obsidian developer in the forum, responding to a report that h1 headings had become gargantuan in the latest update. I think it sums up many of the issues that make Obsidian problematic for productive use. Things can change suddenly (it is still in beta, after all), sometimes break and that most users' workflow depends on a large number of developers, not all of whom are entirely up-to-date. Good program for fiddling, very responsive and flexible for programmers, but not the greatest for maintaining a smooth and productive workflow especially for the non-technically minded.
The contrast with IW is stark. In some ways that program is limited and rigidly not configurable. But everything is part of the whole and seems, so far, to be very reliable.
Dormouse:
When I found IW, I was really just looking for a better writing front end to cover me for markdown and rich text workflows. Turns out that it will be used further into the backend too.
My planned workflows atm:-
1. Mindomo > Workflowy > Inspire Writer > Word
2. Inspire Writer > Workflowy > Inspire Writer
3. Inspire Writer > Word > Inspire Writer
Programs involved:
Planning and Development - Mindomo, Workflowy, Inspire Writer
Writing - Inspire Writer, maybe some in Workflowy
Editing - Word, Inspire Writer
Storage formats - markdown, docx, OPML
General support program - Typora
I don't know about related note-taking and research. I'm sure wiki-links, backlinks, and tags will be core components, but haven't worked out a plan yet.
Though I have switched my newish formal zettelkasten project from Obsidian to Workflowy. It lacks the nice Ctrl-hover that made Obsidian very fast when it came to position a new page; but that was only needed because the MOC with links was required to maintain folgezettel. Workflowy has folgezettel automatically, and the notes are immediately visible anyway.
I think Obsidian will remain a code editor at heart, with clunky features and a constant risk of workflows breaking - at least for the next few years. That doesn't make it something I can afford to rely on when I need smooth workflows. I think in 5-10 years time, it will either have improved massively, morphed into something else or be in terminal decline; atm I'm not confident that the first option is the most likely.
Workflowy has the requisite wiki-links, backlinks and tags but is an online database. That's okay for 95% of what I need. But I haven't checked out what it can do in this regard. It seems to be in active development, so hard to be too definitive about planning its use - it could get better (or worse); so far the newer features seem pretty well implemented.
Though I have switched my newish formal zettelkasten project from Obsidian to Workflowy
-Dormouse (March 04, 2022, 04:41 AM)
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In fact, it's becoming my research/writing hub. I'd started by also having my small number of tasks etc there too (better to only use one program I thought), but I struggled to cope with that. Moved those to Dynalist (so that's no longer deprecated). Odd the way our minds work. What ought to be most efficient turns out simply irritating.
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What Inspire Writer does it does okay. But no wiki-links, a limited tag system, limited search and no auto-complete. It could never be more than a small contributor to a system centred in another program.
Most of the other programs I have looked at in the PKM space are some way behind Obsidian, but I'm sure there will be more to come. The hybrid database/files model operated by Ulysses and IW has the potential to be very powerful.
Dormouse:
I need smooth workflows
-Dormouse (March 04, 2022, 04:41 AM)
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IW ... is limited and rigidly not configurable. But everything is part of the whole and seems, so far, to be very reliable.
-Dormouse (March 01, 2022, 05:34 AM)
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so when I found this quote
I also like how picky the developers of both apps are. Neither of them just add every requested feature. It needs to fit tightly into their app’s workflow.
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In a Review comparing Ulysses with Bear I thought "Exactly!"
There are times when I'm happy to play and learn, but others when I need to get things done. Most writing is getting things done. Research too, but not quite such a high proportion of the time.
The problem with smooth workflow apps is that they are very very good if they match your workflow, but can be close to useless if they don't. But most of the newer PKM apps I've tried are in the very rough category (I'll except Amplenote, which simply didn't meet my needs). Obsidian used to be far smoother than most, but hasn't been the same since the move to CodeMirror 6 and Live Preview and the plugin explosion.
Also
The resurgence of Workflowy development seems to be associated with an increase in the number of developers from 2 to 14. Some in Ukraine.
And Also
Brandon Sanderson apparently does his outlining (he's a heavy outliner) AND writing entirely in Word. Maybe in a single long document?Story Bible in WikidPad. I'm okay with a very long document in a plaintext format, but I'd worry about a huge tome entirely in Word. Though I assume he has much more powerful computers that I have.
Dormouse:
I'm okay with a very long document in a plaintext format, but I'd worry about a huge tome entirely in Word.
-Dormouse (March 05, 2022, 09:07 AM)
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Doesn't seem like a problem. Tested it with War and Peace. No complex formatting etc, but it was only just over 2MB and pretty snappy. Perfectly manageable. Broke it once ("not responding"), but I was trying.
Briefly tested setting Word up for writing since it is so so long since I've used it like that, and it's not so bad. Had to change (set up) a few shortcuts - but I'm not big on shortcuts most of the time, so minor for me. Outlining flexibility - shifting lines, paragraphs etc - better than most programs (actually as good as any), which is very different to what I remember. Word/paragraph/page counts good - though I don't think there's a session counter. Entirely practical tbh. Extremely configurable in some ways, and not at all in others.
Okay, it won't compete with WikidPad for Sanderson's Story Bible; or with the wiki-linking PKM apps for research and linking (I don't see how Sanderson's setup could be as good as one with incorporated wiki-links). Doesn't compete with Inspire Writer/Ulysses/Scrivener for writing in multiple projects. Don't believe there's a typewriter mode. But still much better than I had expected. And everything co-operates with it.
rjbull:
For what very little it may be worth, the Zufuliu fork of Notepad2 now does Markdown, but not I think WYSIWYG.
The recently-released Notezilla 9 can do Markdown, and now has hyperlinks that point from one sticky note to another. I don't know if you can collapse a group of linked notes into a single document.
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