https://www.zettelkasten.de/ Zettelkasten Posts by Christian 2021-08-10T17:49:03Z Christian Tietze https://zettelkasten.de/authors/christian/ tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2021-08-10:/posts/system-crafters-org-roam-v2-livestream/ System Crafters Answered org-roam and Zettelkasten Questions in Livestream 2021-08-10T17:49:03Z 2021-08-10T17:49:03Z <p>On Friday, David Wilson of System Crafters hosted a 2 hour live-stream about Emacs org-roam to answer viewer questions after <a href="https://zettelkasten.de/posts/org-roam-version-2/">his previous org-roam v2 video demo</a> and talk about the Zettelkasten Method in general.</p> <figure class="post-figure youtube"><div class="video-container"><iframe src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/-TpWahIzueg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div></figure> <p>Sascha and I joined the chat, too, and overall we had a good time and interesting things were discussed with the nice folk in the chat. David’s recapture of the Zettelkasten basics is spot-on, and his pragmatic thinking promises good things to come from him!</p> <p>If you’re interested in the application of the Zettelkasten Method with org-roam v2, David focuses on this <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TpWahIzueg&amp;t=2741s">at the 45:41 chapter mark</a>.</p> <p>We think you will enjoy this episode, too! David expertly moderates the chat by reading questions and comments aloud, which makes it possible to listen to the episode like a podcast, in case you don’t want to stare at the screen for two hours straight.</p> <hr> <p><strong>Sascha’s Comment:</strong> I really liked David’s calm and rational perspective on the matter. I think he got many things right and even though it was a live stream (which means it is not scripted) this video is a staple for people who want to use Emacs to handle their Zettelkasten.</p> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2021-07-29:/posts/org-roam-version-2/ org-roam (Emacs Zettelkasten Package) Version 2 Released 2021-07-29T17:42:55Z 2021-07-29T17:42:55Z <p>Last week, free and open source <a href="https://www.orgroam.com/">knowledge management package <code>org-roam</code></a> was updated to version 2.</p> <p><code>org-roam</code> is an Emacs package (or “plug-in” as we normies would call it) that adds Zettelkasten features to connect small pieces of knowledge.</p> <figure class="post-figure "><a href="https://www.orgroam.com/"><img alt="" src="/posts/org-roam-version-2/20210729191147_org-roam-v2.png" class="post-figure__image"></a><figcaption class="post-figure__caption">Screenshot of org-roam v2 in action: the main pane shows a note, the right sidebar shows incoming links</figcaption></figure> <p>The format used to store and display notes used the popular Emacs package <code>org-mode</code>: <a href="https://orgmode.org/"><code>org-mode</code></a> has a plain-text file format (<code>.org</code>) not unlike Markdown, and the package comes with functionality for note-taking that allows you to write formatted text, and also organize projects and tasks. Its variety of features actually makes org hard to describe.<sup id="fnref1"><a href="#fn1">1</a></sup></p> <p><code>org-roam</code> adds functionality for a Zettelkasten on top of org, like displaying all incoming links (aka backlinks) for any note in a sidebar. You also get quick capture functionality to create a new Zettel from anywhere, and link auto-completion to make connecting notes easier. So <code>org-roam</code>‘s job is to maintain a web of knowledge, while <code>org-mode</code> is the file format to write rich notes with e.g. images and tables inside. – The capabilities of <code>org-roam</code> actually go beyond mainainting a Zettelkasten, since org’s task-management features can be interwoven with Zettelkasten-style notes if that’s something you’re into.</p> <p>Want an introduction to <code>org-roam</code> and its Zettelkasten features by a veteran Emacs screencaster? Check out this video:</p> <figure class="post-figure youtube"><div class="video-container"><iframe src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/AyhPmypHDEw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div> <figcaption class="post-figure__caption">Building a Second Brain with org-roam, by System Crafters; <a href="https://systemcrafters.cc/build-a-second-brain-in-emacs/getting-started-with-org-roam/">see show notes for text version</a></figcaption></figure> <p>What’s new in v2? The most breaking change from v1 to v2 is that they now use org-mode links IDs instead of individual files. This is supposedly making it much more snappy when you work with a lot of notes. Migrating from the old v1 file format is a bit of work, but they offer a migration wizard for this purpose. If you’re just getting started, the new version 2 is good to go, though!</p> <p>Notable links to learn more about <code>org-roam</code>, <code>org-mode</code>, and a starting point for Emacs if you want to check this out:</p> <ul> <li> <a href="https://sachachua.com/">Sacha Chua</a> publishes Emacs news every week to provide an overview of activity in the community. <a href="https://sachachua.com/blog/2021/07/2021-07-26-emacs-news/">Her latest issue from 2021-07-26</a> contains a huge section about org, org-roam, and the update to v2.</li> <li> <a href="https://orgmode.org/"><code>org-mode</code> website</a> to get to know the <code>.org</code> file format and a glimpse of its features</li> <li> <a href="https://www.orgroam.com/"><code>org-roam</code> website</a> to learn more about the roamification of Emacs <code>org-mode</code> notes</li> <li> <a href="https://github.com/org-roam/org-roam-bibtex"><code>org-roam-bibtex</code></a>, a package that makes it possible to use BibTeX for reference management in your notes</li> <li> <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/">/r/emacs</a> is a surprisingly active subreddit where people share their Emacs love stories, setups, configuration helps, and also org-related stuff</li> <li> <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/orgmode/">/r/orgmode</a> is a place to get help and discover tricks pertaining <code>org-mode</code>, but is less active than /r/emacs</li> <li> <a href="http://ergoemacs.org/emacs/emacs.html">Xah Lee’s Emacs tutorial</a> if you want to get your hands dirty with Emacs</li> </ul> <div class="footnotes"> <hr> <ol> <li id="fn1"> <p>Really, where do you even start? It comes with tables and spreadsheet functions to auto-update table cells based on formulae; it displays and manages images and other attachments in your notes; you can have executable (!) code blocks that show results in your notes, be it text or images (think plotting data); you can manage your address book; and it’s a very capable task manager with customizable project and task rules, scheduling, deadlines, and automation for everything, including a dashboard-like overview of everything you have to do for the day. Oh, and you can use it to power your website or blog because there’s extensions that spit out HTML. If a task can be accomplished with text, org can probably do it for you. <a href="#fnref1">↩</a></p> </li> </ol> </div> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2021-07-09:/posts/create-image-from-link/ Create Image Previews for Your Notes From Links With This Tool 2021-07-09T18:30:54Z 2021-07-09T18:30:54Z <p>Stephan Bogner (<a href="https://forum.zettelkasten.de/profile/st_phan">@st_phan</a> in the forums) shared a neat and free web tool with the community the other day, a <a href="https://link-previews.stephanbogner.de/"><strong>link preview generator</strong></a>.</p> <p>It creates image previews of a website from a link. The result is optimized to be embedded into your notes without taking up too much space.</p> <p>Have a look at Stephan’s example of a video watch list note:</p> <figure class="post-figure "><a href="https://forum.zettelkasten.de/uploads/editor/gn/f44j7a3d3nk3.png"><img alt="" src="https://forum.zettelkasten.de/uploads/editor/gn/f44j7a3d3nk3.png" class="post-figure__image"></a><figcaption class="post-figure__caption">Watch list of movies: image preview focuses on video thumbnails</figcaption></figure> <p>Or this experiment application by @Will:</p> <figure class="post-figure "><a href="https://forum.zettelkasten.de/uploads/editor/8a/cikj4eoo4acg.png"><img alt="" src="https://forum.zettelkasten.de/uploads/editor/8a/cikj4eoo4acg.png" class="post-figure__image"></a><figcaption class="post-figure__caption">Will tested a couple of different sites</figcaption></figure> <p>Finally, here’s a close-up of Sascha’s blog post, “<a href="https://zettelkasten.de/posts/dont-dehorsify-the-horse/">Don’t Dehorsify the Horse</a>”:</p> <figure class="post-figure "><a href="/posts/create-image-from-link/20210709205135_horsify-image.png"><img alt="" src="/posts/create-image-from-link/20210709205135_horsify-image.png" class="post-figure__image"></a><figcaption class="post-figure__caption">Blog post link preview</figcaption></figure> <p>Check out his free online tool at <a href="https://link-previews.stephanbogner.de/">https://link-previews.stephanbogner.de/</a> and leave feedback for Stephan in the comments!</p> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2021-05-19:/posts/insert-zettel-wills-macro/ Insert a New Zettel Where You Are with Will's Macro 2021-05-19T19:59:41Z 2021-05-19T19:59:41Z <p>Forum legend @Will showcased another Keyboard Maestro macro this week that does a particularly interesting thing: from anywhere you are in your web of notes, his macro ties a new Zettel into the web.</p> <p>Check out the GIF teaser for Will’s 10-minute YouTube demo:</p> <figure class="post-figure "><a href="/posts/insert-zettel-wills-macro/20210519213729_will-demo-macro.gif"><img alt="" src="/posts/insert-zettel-wills-macro/20210519213729_will-demo-macro.gif" class="post-figure__image"></a><figcaption class="post-figure__caption">The GIF shows how the ‘Archive Note from link’ template injects a Zettel at the selection</figcaption></figure> <p>Wills’ demonstration basically goes like this:</p> <ol> <li>In a list of topics, select a topic you want to expand on (here: “Laminar Thinking”).</li> <li>Invoke the macro.</li> <li>See how the macro (1) adds a ‘forward link’ to a new Zettel next to the selection, (2) creates a new, empty Zettel, automatically titled “Laminar Thinking”, plus other template metadata.</li> </ol> <p>Imagine your preparing to write a text and <a href="https://zettelkasten.de/posts/how-i-use-outlines-to-write-any-text/">use an outline</a> to sketch ideas. Now you find that on a particular item in the outline has a lot of sub-items and could use a new Zettel as an overview. Select the item’s text and use @Will’s macro to insert a Zettel right at that point.</p> <p><a href="https://forum.zettelkasten.de/discussion/1819/insert-a-templated-new-note-titled-based-on-a-selection#latest"><strong>Check out his video with explanation on the forums.</strong></a></p> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2021-04-08:/posts/the-archive-big-sur-app-icon/ Alternative The Archive App Icon Fan Art 2021-04-08T08:47:37Z 2021-04-08T08:47:37Z <p>@lucaschultz on the forums shared an alternative icon for <em>The Archive</em> for free for everyone to use. This came out of nowhere and was a pleasant surprise: It’s really cool that Luca poured in the time and work to create “fan art” for our app!</p> <figure class="post-figure "><a href="https://github.com/lucaschultz/the-archive-icon/"><img alt="" src="/posts/the-archive-big-sur-app-icon/20210408105317_big-sur-icon.png" class="post-figure__image"></a><figcaption class="post-figure__caption">Luca’s Big Sur icon in action</figcaption></figure> <p>Luca even <a href="https://github.com/lucaschultz/the-archive-icon/">published the <code>.sketch</code> source files</a>, so you can generate and tweak the icon further! The icon set is published under a <a href="https://github.com/lucaschultz/the-archive-icon/blob/main/LICENSE">CC-BY-4.0 license</a>, so you can do what you want with it, provided you mention the original author.</p> <ul> <li><strong><a href="https://github.com/lucaschultz/the-archive-icon/raw/main/The%20Archive.icns">Download the alternate icon set</a></strong></li> <li>macOS Catalina or older: <a href="https://9to5mac.com/2020/12/01/change-mac-icons/">Change the app icon</a> easily by dragging the <code>.icns</code> file onto the app icon in Finder’s “Info” window.</li> <li>macOS Big Sur discourages changing icons, so the process is way more cumbersome. <a href="https://appletoolbox.com/how-to-change-the-icons-for-your-favorite-apps-on-macos-big-sur/#Disable_System_Integrity_Protection">Read this guide</a> for details on how to enable the same drag &amp; drop capability on Big Sur.</li> <li> <a href="https://github.com/lucaschultz/the-archive-icon/">Browse the source</a> if you want to improve the icon.</li> </ul> <hr> <p><strong>Sascha’s Comment:</strong> Looks very nice!</p> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2021-03-17:/posts/the-archive-3rd-anniversary/ The Archive: 3rd Anniversary 2021-03-17T14:02:23Z 2021-03-17T14:02:23Z <p>This week marks 3rd year of <a href="https://zettelkasten.de/the-archive/">The Archive</a> being available in public. In March 2018 we published the final release. To celebrate this anniversary, we have a special treat for you to share the joy with friends!</p> <p>We asked ourselves what there is that we could give back to show our appreciation of the community. What is even better than receiving a gift from someone? Well, giving a gift!</p> <p>So here’s this year’s surprise:</p> <figure class="post-figure "><a href="http://presents.zettelkasten.de/"><img alt="" src="/posts/the-archive-3rd-anniversary/20210317132452_claim-o-matic.gif" class="post-figure__image"></a><figcaption class="post-figure__caption"></figcaption></figure> <p>Everyone who bought <em>The Archive</em> in the past 3 years up to March 16th gets a <strong>free license</strong> for the app to give away.</p> <p><a href="https://presents.zettelkasten.de/">Head to our <em>Anniversay License Claim-O-Matic</em></a> and – in perfectly accurate German fashion – fill out the exciting form there. The thing runs until end of March.</p> <p>This means that every customer can give away 1 free license to someone else. And in case you have trouble with the form because your cat swallowed your old email account, just get in touch with us.</p> <p>Happy app anniversary everyone!</p> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2021-02-15:/posts/image-capture-desk-zettelkasten/ Use Image Capturing to Couple Your Desk and Your Zettelkasten 2021-02-15T09:20:39Z 2021-02-15T09:20:39Z <figure class="post-figure youtube"><div class="video-container"><iframe src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/Wp7oHW-s7sA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div></figure> <p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp7oHW-s7sA">In this video,</a> Sascha demonstrates how you can get stuff from the physical world into the digital: by capturing images of sketches on paper with The Archive, and turning on our shiny new inline image preview function to see the sketches inside his notes.</p> <p>Drawing on a computer sucks with a mouse, so getting a pen and paper sketch into your notes to add visualizations is a pretty big deal when you work with knowledge.</p> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2021-01-28:/posts/chinese-introduction/ Chinese Introduction to the Zettelkasten Method 2021-01-28T17:50:40Z 2021-01-28T17:50:40Z <p>Someone recently reached out to us and sent us a Chinese translation of the <a href="https://zettelkasten.de/introduction">Introduction to the Zettelkasten Method</a>: This generous person is <a href="https://www.zhihu.com/people/cai-zhi-xiang">Zhixiang Cai</a>, Ph.D in Oil and Gas Well Engineering. He is a programmer and loves knowledge management and did an amazing job translating the article. We happily publish the translation on our page, so <a href="https://zettelkasten.de/introduction/zh">check it out</a>!</p> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2021-01-21:/posts/wiki-links-as-searches/ How to Use Wiki Links for Saved Searches in The Archive 2021-01-21T17:30:00Z 2021-01-21T17:30:00Z <p>You can use <code>[[wiki links]]</code> in The Archive as a clickable shortcut to searches, which support complex logical operators to form very specific expressions.</p> <p>People on the forums seem to <a href="https://forum.zettelkasten.de/discussion/comment/4194/#Comment_4194">enjoy the discovery of clickable complex search expressions</a> in The Archive, so here’s a short explanation of how you can use links like <code>[[#Gardening soil NOT fertilizer]]</code> to create a stored search.</p> <p>Stuff like this is not going to replace your structures and individually connected notes in your day-to-day work, but you could play around with this to quickly save search expressions for later. Here’s an intro to get up to speed with this accidental feature, what the important boolean logic operators are, and how this relates to finding and excluding notes.</p> <p>For years, Sascha and I manually resolved links in nvALT by copy &amp; pasting target IDs to the search bar. This wasn’t too bad in practice. This is also how you can navigate a Zettelkasten when all you have is a file system. Search always works when you’re at a computer. You don’t need a fancy app for that.</p> <p>When we added <code>[[wiki links]]</code> to The Archive, we didn’t want to make them special in any way. We did not even tie them to file names. Coming from the simplicity of nvALT, we made links just a shortcut to what we did manually for years: to perform a search.</p> <p>So whatever you put between <code>[[</code> and <code>]]</code> is clickable, and when you click on it, the app will perform a search. You can see how the Omnibar reflects the exact wording of the liked phrase. There is absolutely no difference between searching for “hello world” in the app by typing, and clicking a <code>[[hello world]]</code> link.</p> <p>Usually, we’d use wiki links to point to specific notes by their ID. But if you deliberately not put an ID into the link but just any word, you essentially get a saved search.</p> <h2 id="a-primer-to-boolean-search-expressions">A primer to Boolean Search Expressions</h2> <p>With support for complex search expressions, this becomes pretty powerful!</p> <p>The Archive <a href="https://zettelkasten.de/the-archive/help/#can-i-use-boolean-search">supports boolean search expressions</a>. That means you can put <strong>logical operators</strong> into your search strings to affect the search results.</p> <p>By default, two words in a search string are combined with the <code>AND</code> operator. So when you search for “hello world”, the equivalent, explicit boolean search string is <code>hello AND world</code>. That’s how the app interprets things by default. You add more words, and thus require that a note contains the first one <em>and</em> the second one <em>and</em> the third etc.</p> <p>The other operator is the <code>OR</code> operator:</p> <ul> <li> <code>hello AND world</code> or simply <code>hello world</code> looks for notes that contain both words;</li> <li> <code>hello OR world</code> looks for notes that contain either “hello”, “world”, or both.</li> </ul> <p>The last operator that The Archive recognizes is the <code>NOT</code> operator. You can use it to exclude words, like a blacklist. <code>NOT hello</code> will look for all notes that do not include the string “hello”.</p> <h2 id="saving-boolean-searches-for-later-with-wiki-links">Saving Boolean Searches for Later with Wiki Links</h2> <p>Back to our introductory example, <code>[[#Gardening soil NOT fertilizer]]</code>. What this ends up meaning when you add the implicit <code>AND</code> operators is the following: <code>[[#Gardening AND soil AND NOT fertilizer]]</code>.</p> <p>So you will get notes that</p> <ul> <li>do contain <code>#Gardening</code>,</li> <li>and do contain <code>soil</code>,</li> <li>but do not contain <code>fertilizer</code>.</li> </ul> <p>Depending on your actual notes, this could produce gardening-related notes that pertain management of a healthy soil without fertilizer.</p> <p>Usually, links are meant as one-to-one connections between notes. One Zettel points to another.</p> <p>But when you create a note like <code>Gardening tips overview</code> and then put the wiki link <code>[[#Gardening soil NOT fertilizer]]</code> inside, you don’t just add a link to another note – you create a saved search shortcut instead!</p> <h2 id="saved-searches-do-not-replace-manually-created-order">Saved Searches Do not Replace Manually Created Order</h2> <p>In our day-to-day Zettelkasten practice, we often recommend usage of <a href="https://zettelkasten.de/posts/three-layers-structure-zettelkasten/">structure notes</a> to, well, add <em>structures</em> to all the pieces of knowledge that you put inside your Zettelkasten. Structure notes use links to point to individual notes for details. Some structure notes look like a table of contents for the project you’re working on, and they use links to point you to the details. <a href="https://zettelkasten.de/posts/add-identity/">We recommend you use note IDs</a> in these links to create long-lasting, direct connections.</p> <p>Boolean search expressions are something totally different, and they are not suitable to be part of a structure note or create any other kind of order. They are conveniences to make finding specific notes in an ever-growing archive more likely. Please do not mistake clickable Boolean search expressions for the holy grail of productivity. As we established in the past, mere “groups” of notes are unordered and not useful, for example notes with a certain tag; and stored Boolean search expressions produce similar results and thus suffer from the same defects. Through creating order manually, you create <a href="https://zettelkasten.de/posts/understanding-hierarchy-translating-folgezettel/">meaningful hierarchies</a>. Saved searches don’t help to create and manifest structures. They only produce an unsorted set of results.</p> <p>They are useful hacks, though.</p> <p>You could create a special note in your archive that becomes your daily dashboard (<a href="https://forum.zettelkasten.de/discussion/1568/does-your-zk-have-any-home-notes-if-so-how-do-you-maintain-it">a forum discussion about home notes</a> came up last December if you want inspiration on that topic). A dashboard/home note could contain a list of the projects you work on, questions you had left unanswered when you left your desk, and other “meta” information like that. It’s not meant to become part of the content of your Zettelkasten, but it’s a digital entry point to pick up trails you wanted to follow. Especially if you have a hard time figuring out a complex Boolean search expressions, saving them for later there could be helpful. It’s a research in your own archive that you didn’t finish.</p> <p>Or take the example of gardening; you might have a couple of structure notes on gardening already. Some discuss management of the soil in detail, and the hierarchy that’s encapsulated in these structures contains pointers towards empirical studies on the effects of phosphor overdoses, arguments for different plant rotations, and such things. The clickable <code>[[#Gardening soil NOT fertilizer]]</code> search expression has no part in this. But you might still find some use in storing this search inside your <code>Gardening tips</code> note temporarily, that might eventually become a proper structure note once you finish your the process of compiling an overview on the topic of e.g. “Fertile soil without fertilizer”.</p> <p>There you go: this is how you can use wiki links in applications like nvALT and The Archive, where the wiki link merely performs a simple search query. With boolean operators, search expressions can get pretty wild to express complex combination of criteria – but ultimately, your writing work will rely on manually curated structures, and this is only an interesting step to find new stuff in your ever-growing collection.</p> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2020-10-21:/posts/the-archive-v1.5.7/ The Archive v1.5.7 2020-10-21T13:50:28Z 2020-10-21T13:50:28Z <p>Today, v1.5.7 of The Archive is available on the “Cutting Edge” update channel. It’ll become available on the regular, stable, “Release” channel in about a week.</p> <p>Most notably, you can now hold the <kbd>Cmd</kbd> key when you click on links to open them in a new tab, just like in a web browser.</p> <p>And a lot of you mouse-less nerds will enjoy the ability to jump between links in a note with a shortcut (<kbd>Ctrl-Tab</kbd> by default), <em>and open the link under the cursor</em> (<kbd>Ctrl-L</kbd>). This can speed up navigation within your archive a lot!</p> <p>Then there are various fixed related to entering (or pasting!) file names that are way longer than macOS would allow. When renaming a note and in the Quick Entry window, you get visual feedback when you try to enter more than the allowed 255 characters per file name: each character that is above the limit is highlighted red.</p> <p>This is one of the last releases before either the new Markdown editor or scriptability goes live. So expect version 1.6 with something new in the future!</p> <p>List of Changes:</p> <ul> <li>🐞 <strong>Fixed:</strong> Icon selection for Saved Searches on macOS 10.11 El Capitan didn’t display the built-in icons.</li> <li>🐞 <strong>Fixed:</strong> Sidebar widths (and visibility settings) are remember next time you start the app.</li> <li>🐞 <strong>Fixed:</strong> The Quick Entry Helper doesn’t error-out when you try to create a file that has way too many characters for macOS to handle, resulting in loss of data of the form. You can now fix the problem and try again.</li> <li>🐞 <strong>Fixed:</strong> When you hit Enter in the Omnibar and a new file would be created, you’ll get a warning that the file name is too long instead of a file creation error.</li> <li>🐞 <strong>Fixed:</strong> Visibility of the Quick Entry helper in dark mode.</li> <li>🔧 <strong>Changed:</strong> When you try to rename a note and exceed macOS’s file name length limit, you geta visual feedback while you type and the app won’t let you commit the name change. This also prevents “could not rename” errors from popping up.</li> <li>🔧 <strong>Changed:</strong> The Quick Entry Helper shows the auto-generated file name based on IDs in the form, instead of generating a surprise ID after you click “Create”.</li> <li>🌟 <strong>New:</strong> Command-click <code>[[wiki links]]</code> and <code>#hashtags</code> to open the result in a new tab.</li> <li>🌟 <strong>New:</strong> Follow links at the cursor position with a keyboard shortcut.</li> <li>🌟 <strong>New:</strong> Jump to the next link in the text with a keyboard shortcut. This feature tastes best when combined with the new “follow link” command.</li> </ul> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2020-10-03:/posts/alfred-macros-the-archive/ Alfred Macro Collection for The Archive 2020-10-03T18:36:15Z 2020-10-03T18:36:15Z <p>Paul Ryley (@pryley on the forums) whipped up an <a href="https://github.com/pryley/alfred-the-archive">amazing Alfred macro collection for The Archive</a>. – Huuuuge thanks go out to Paul for taking the time to working with The Archive better for Alfred users!</p> <p>That means you get a ton of macros to remote-control your Zettelkasten in general and The Archive in particular from Alfred. <a href="https://www.alfredapp.com/">Alfred</a> is a tool for application launching, global hotkeys, text expansion, and macro invocation. The macro stuff means you can bring up Alfred with a shortcut, then select e.g. the “Search The Archive” macro, and type your search term there.</p> <figure class="post-figure "><a href="/posts/alfred-macros-the-archive/20201003193543_alfred-macro-preview.png"><img alt="" src="/posts/alfred-macros-the-archive/20201003193543_alfred-macro-preview.png" class="post-figure__image"></a><figcaption class="post-figure__caption">With Paul’s workflow, you can create notes from templates if you have a recurring note format. Create a template by using the `#template` tag in a file, and that’s it.</figcaption></figure> <p>Paul’s macro collection, called a “workflow” in Alfred lingo, comes with these actions:</p> <ul> <li> <strong>Searching Notes</strong> is not actually searching with The Archive, but it’s doing a search in your Zettelkasten, and then offers a couple of actions: <ul> <li>preview the note</li> <li>insert link to the note</li> <li>open note with an external editor</li> </ul> </li> <li> <strong>Searching Tasks</strong> looks for checkbox-style lists <code>- [x] like this</code> </li> <li> <strong>Searching Tags</strong> shows you a list of all used tags in all your notes, and lets you invoke a search for notes from there</li> <li> <strong>Random Notes</strong> shows any note from your Zettelkasten</li> <li> <strong>Creating Notes</strong> uses a form for title and tags, and it supports complex template files</li> <li> <strong>Importing URLs</strong> is a web clipping tool to import articles as notes</li> <li> <strong>Importing Images</strong> puts an image you select via Alfred (e.g. using it as a Spotlight-like file finder) into The Archive’s managed media folder – and provides a link for it right away</li> <li> <strong>Text Manipulation</strong> is like a format menu add-on for The Archive to increase the heading level, for example</li> </ul> <p>There’s a ton to configure if you want to adjust the behavior to your liking.</p> <p><a href="https://github.com/pryley/alfred-the-archive">Paul’s macro collection</a> comes with a comprehensive documentation, including examples and many screenshots. If you run macOS and want to dip your toes into productivity-enhancing tools like <a href="https://www.alfredapp.com/">Alfred</a>, make sure to check out Paul’s macros!</p> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2020-10-01:/posts/jooble/ Welcome Visitors from Jooble! 2020-10-01T13:17:01Z 2020-10-01T13:17:01Z <p><a href="https://de.jooble.org/stellenangebote-lehrerin">Jooble</a>, the job search portal, kindly reached out and offered to feature our site on their page. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jooble">According to Wikipedia</a> and their references, “Jooble is in the top 1000 most visited sites in the world” and “the second most visited job search site”.</p> <p>So if you’re new to the Zettelkasten Method for creative knowledge work and came here from their page, welcome!</p> <p>In short, the Zettelkasten Method is all about working with knowledge: you capture ideas, connect and interweave them, and thus facilitate coming up with new ideas. The process makes it easy to keep an overview of complex topics and also work on hard problems for a long time without getting lost even after week-long interruptions in your work.</p> <!--get started with our [introduction to the Method](https://zettelkasten.de/intro), --> <p>At base, the principles are to create atomic notes and links between them. To find out what this means and how that works, have a look at our <a href="https://zettelkasten.de/posts/overview/">curated article overview</a>, and make sure you <a href="https://forum.zettelkasten.de">visit the forum</a> and get to know the amazing people there.</p> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2020-08-21:/posts/textmate-zettelkasten/ Video Demo: TextMate as a Zettelkasten App 2020-08-21T13:49:09Z 2020-08-21T13:49:09Z <p><a href="https://macromates.com/">TextMate</a> is a free, open-source macOS text editor that we mention on this site since forever. It is also damn good at navigating files in a big folder. So it’s a good alternative to dedicated Zettelkasten software.</p> <figure class="post-figure youtube"><div class="video-container"><iframe src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/d-x8MpM4yDE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div></figure> <p>In this video, I demonstrate the basic interaction patterns for TextMate to get a plain text Zettelkasten working: how to navigate around, make use of the folder-relative “Open Quickly” command, and create new notes. You know, everything you really need to be productive.</p> <hr> <p><strong>Sascha’s Comment:</strong> Why do we publish an app that is obviously not designed to handle your Zettelkasten and therefore rather clumsy compared to more dedicated text editors? </p> <p>The reason is to abstract from software and really experience that the Zettelkasten syntax is designed to work with any text editor to give you maximum freedom. </p> <p>If you think it is slow, then compare it with a physical Zettelkasten. Even TextMate lets you handle your Zettelkasten way more quickly than a physical Zettelkasten.</p> <p><strong>Your Zettelkasten is not the software you use.</strong></p> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2020-06-09:/posts/online-course-announcement/ Zettelkasten Method Online Video Course Announcement 2020-06-09T18:30:55Z 2020-06-09T18:30:55Z <p>The online course is getting real. We’re very far with the preparations for the first recordings, so now’s a good time to start telling you more about it. The first step is to prepare our course page, so there you go.</p> <p><a href="https://zettelkasten.de/course">Head to the <strong>Course Announcement Page</strong></a> and sign-up for news before the release.</p> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2020-05-22:/posts/zettelkasten-chat/ Zettelkasten Chatrooms 2020-05-22T05:50:21Z 2020-05-22T05:50:21Z <p>Ever wanted to quickly bounce off ideas, get to know the people from the Zettelkasten community better, and hang out with knowledge nerds? There’s now chat rooms for that!</p> <p><a href="https://forum.zettelkasten.de/discussion/1118/former-lurker-here-is-there-a-chatroom-for-the-discussion-of-zettelkastens">Folks from the forums</a> have created places to hang around and chat about all things Zettelkasten, knowledge management principles, and life and stuff.</p> <p>So if you’re into chatting, check out the two new options here:</p> <ul> <li>The <a href="https://discord.gg/BUzvUd2">Zettelkasten Discord</a> </li> <li>IRC: Freenode.net, channel <code>#zettelkasten</code> (<a href="https://webchat.freenode.net/">Connect via webchat</a>)</li> </ul> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2020-03-24:/posts/the-archive-2nd-anniversary/ The Archive Turns 2 Years Old 2020-03-24T16:24:46Z 2020-03-24T16:24:46Z <p>The dominating topic of this month is COVID-19. Nevertheless, <em>The Archive</em> is celebrating. We don’t let pessimism grip us and carry on.</p> <p>Last week, on March 15th, was <em>The Archive</em>‘s 2nd anniversary. Just like we’re all supposed to not celebrate big birthday parties or gather for festivities in general, this year’s app anniversary is toned way down as well. Here’s to what has happened in the past year.</p> <figure class="post-figure "><a href="https://zettelkasten.de/the-archive"><img alt="screenshot of the Archive" src="/img/blog/202003241725_screenshot-the-archive-2nd-anniversary.png" class="post-figure__image"></a><figcaption class="post-figure__caption">The latest version of The Archive, demonstrating tabs and the new overall look, still looks great with the user-submitted theme “Pretty Functional” by @Basil</figcaption></figure> <p>In a nutshell, The Archive <a href="https://zettelkasten.de/the-archive/release-notes/">changed a lot</a> in the past year. We’ve now got <strong>multi-tabbing and multi-windowing</strong>, for example. Around last year’s anniversary, the <strong>browser-like navigation</strong> began to land, too. Both features affect the way people work with notes quite a bit! Scripting is next on the list and due to become this year’s big milestone. </p> <p><a href="https://zettelkasten.de/the-archive/">Here’s a link to check out The Archive</a> if you don’t know the app, yet.</p> <p>But the real star of the past year in this part of the interwebs isn’t the app. </p> <p>It’s the community of Zettlers. Or Zettelnauts; <a href="https://forum.zettelkasten.de/discussion/848/zettelizers">this case for the name isn’t yet decided</a> 🙂</p> <figure class="post-figure "><a href="https://forum.zettelkasten.de/"><img alt="screenshot of the forum" src="/posts/the-archive-2nd-anniversary/202003241728_forum.jpg" class="post-figure__image"></a><figcaption class="post-figure__caption">The forums are buzzing with activity</figcaption></figure> <p>To see what has changed, just <a href="https://forum.zettelkasten.de/">take a look at the forums.</a> There are now 772 discussions in total, and the community currently clocks in about 10 replies per day, on average. There’s a lot of interesting discussions about software, workflows, and automation. People explore new ideas and openly share their approaches. The overall tone of the discourse is sugary sweet: We don’t even need to moderate at all. Everyone is already being genuinely helpful on their own account.</p> <p>The practice of the Zettelkasten Method is evolving as well. For one, the world-wide community of Zettlers is beginning to produce information material, scripts and applications to improve everyone’s life. It’s easier than ever to find Zettelkasten resources; I can hardly keep up storing <a href="https://pinboard.in/u:DivineDominion/t:zettelkasten">bookmarks of everything</a> (also see the <a href="https://pinboard.in/t:zettelkasten">global #zettelkasten bookmarks</a>). Interesting developments include Andy Matuschaks <a href="https://forum.zettelkasten.de/discussion/833/insert-a-list-of-backlinks-into-all-your-notes">auto-backlink-management script</a> that is compatible with every folder of plain text files: Run it regularly to keep an up-to-date list of backlinks in your notes. This approach to scripting is a game-changer. It’s augmenting what a simple text editor can do. Then there are experiments to <a href="https://forum.zettelkasten.de/discussion/comment/4584/">unify date-based Zettel IDs with Luhmann’s approach to nest notes</a> – which, oddly, was totally unprecedented until late! There also now is a growing <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Zettelkasten/">Zettelkasten subreddit</a> where people share and use even more fringe plain text approaches using vim and emacs.</p> <p>So for knowledge workers in general and Zettelnauts in particular, the past year was good, the mapped territory of all things Zettelkasten expanded, and we all were gifted with very interesting new ideas and development. Thanks to you all for your contribution!</p> <p>Stay safe everyone, and stay tuned for belated anniversary gifts to trickle in. </p> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2020-03-04:/posts/marked2-wikilinks/ Make [[WikiLinks]] Clickable in Marked 2 2020-03-04T07:50:17Z 2021-02-24T11:22:00Z <p>In the forums, <a href="https://forum.zettelkasten.de/discussion/comment/4381/#Comment_4381">@mjknight shared a Marked 2 preprocessor script</a> that you can use to transform non-standard <code>[[wiki link]]</code> to become regular Markdown links that you can click on.</p> <ol> <li>Save the script below to a convenient location, e.g. <code>~/scripts/marked_wikilink_preprocessor.rb</code>.</li> <li>Open <a href="https://marked2app.com/">Marked 2</a> and head to the app preferences.</li> <li>In the “Advanced” tab, select “Preprocessor and paste the path to your script.</li> </ol> <figure class="post-figure "><a href="/posts/marked2-wikilinks/202003040850_marked2-prefs.png"><img alt="Marked 2 preferences screenshot" src="/posts/marked2-wikilinks/202003040850_marked2-prefs.png" class="post-figure__image"></a><figcaption class="post-figure__caption">Type in the path to your preprocessor script; that’s why you should use a simple path :)</figcaption></figure> <p>Marked will expand the path, so in my case <code>~/scripts/marked_wikilink_preprocessor.rb</code> becomes <code>/Users/ctm/scripts/marked_wikilink_preprocessor.rb</code> and it shows a faint "OK” next to the path text field.</p> <figure class="post-figure "><a href="/posts/marked2-wikilinks/202003040851_marked2-preview.png"><img alt="screenshot of Marked 2" src="/posts/marked2-wikilinks/202003040851_marked2-preview.png" class="post-figure__image"></a><figcaption class="post-figure__caption">See how my David Epstein structure note displays clickable links. Note the resolved URL at the bottom</figcaption></figure> <p>With these settings, you can open a note from The Archive in Marked and you can click <code>[[wiki links]]</code> to navigate around in The Archive. Upon hovering, it’ll show <a href="https://zettelkasten.de/the-archive/help/#how-do-i-link-to-notes-from-other-apps">the URL scheme for “matching”</a>, aka searching and showing the best match, which is the same thing The Archive’s internal wiki links do.</p> <h2 id="marked-preprocessor-script">Marked preprocessor script</h2> <div class="highlight"><pre><code class="language-ruby" data-lang="ruby"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight ruby"><code><span class="c1">#!/usr/bin/env ruby</span> <span class="nb">require</span> <span class="s1">'uri'</span> <span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">class_exists?</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">class_name</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="n">klass</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="no">Module</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">const_get</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">class_name</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="k">return</span> <span class="n">klass</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">is_a?</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="no">Class</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="k">rescue</span> <span class="no">NameError</span> <span class="k">return</span> <span class="kp">false</span> <span class="k">end</span> <span class="k">if</span> <span class="n">class_exists?</span> <span class="s1">'Encoding'</span> <span class="no">Encoding</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">default_external</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="no">Encoding</span><span class="o">::</span><span class="no">UTF_8</span> <span class="k">if</span> <span class="no">Encoding</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">respond_to?</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'default_external'</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="no">Encoding</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">default_internal</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="no">Encoding</span><span class="o">::</span><span class="no">UTF_8</span> <span class="k">if</span> <span class="no">Encoding</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">respond_to?</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'default_internal'</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="k">end</span> <span class="k">begin</span> <span class="n">input</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="no">STDIN</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">read</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">force_encoding</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'utf-8'</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="k">rescue</span> <span class="n">input</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="no">STDIN</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">read</span> <span class="k">end</span> <span class="n">input</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">gsub!</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="sr">/\[\[(.*?)\]\]/</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="k">do</span> <span class="o">|</span><span class="n">m</span><span class="o">|</span> <span class="n">match</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="no">Regexp</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">last_match</span> <span class="n">link_target</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">match</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="s2">"</span><span class="se">\[\[</span><span class="s2">[</span><span class="si">#{</span><span class="n">link_target</span><span class="si">}</span><span class="s2">](thearchive://match/</span><span class="si">#{</span><span class="no">URI</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">escape</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">link_target</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="si">}</span><span class="s2">)</span><span class="se">\]\]</span><span class="s2">"</span> <span class="k">end</span> <span class="nb">print</span> <span class="n">input</span> </code></pre></div></code></pre></div> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2020-01-18:/posts/fake-link-autocompletion-to-any-app/ Emulate Automatic Link Suggestions in Your Note-Taking App and The Archive 2020-01-18T11:30:29Z 2020-01-18T11:30:29Z <p>If your note-taking app of choice doesn’t support auto-completion to suggest links while you type, what can you do?</p> <figure class="post-figure "><a href="/posts/fake-link-autocompletion-to-any-app/2a-no-auto-completion.png"><img alt="" src="/posts/fake-link-autocompletion-to-any-app/2a-no-auto-completion.png" class="post-figure__image"></a><figcaption class="post-figure__caption">Denote a link with double square brackets, but nothing happens. What to do?</figcaption></figure> <p>Not all software can implement the exact same feature that I’d like it to have. Then I try to figure out ways to use a tool to do what I want, breaking down the feature into more basic steps, each of which I could do manually, if needed. This works surprisingly well most of the time.</p> <p>Let’s figure out the options you do have if you want to add a link from <code>A</code> to <code>B</code>, but don’t know the ID of <code>B</code>, yet, only parts of its title. How can you and your software of choice work together to create a link?</p> <p>For example, Sascha and I have been using nvALT to great success with a couple of AppleScripts to automate Zettel ID creation, even though there were no clickable links to navigate our notes. You may recall we have been advocating to manually follow links when your app doesn’t allow clicking on them by simply searching for the ID. We ate our own dogfood, telling folks that links are just a more convenient way to perform a search, and we worked in that exact way for years until we switched to our own app.</p> <p>What is a similar manual process replacement for auto-completion of links? What can you break this feature down into, and how can your note-taking software help get the job done?</p> <h2 id="what-really-is-auto-completion-of-links">What really is auto-completion of links?</h2> <p>In an ideal app, you would select the link target from a list that pops up while you type.</p> <p>You could call this feature “auto-completing” of links or “link suggestions”. In the convention to place inter-note links via <code>[[wiki links]]</code>, that could mean you type the two opening square brackets, <code>[[</code>, and then expect the app to offer some user interface widget to help you find what you are looking for right there, right now.</p> <p>This can be broken up into these steps, that we’ll examine individually in a second:</p> <ol> <li> <strong>Denoting a link.</strong> That’s you typing <code>[[</code> before and <code>]]</code> after the linked word.</li> <li> <strong>Finding a link target.</strong> Visually, that often boils down to a search widget as a popup that doesn’t affect your currently selected note. In other words, it’s a new, independent search context.</li> <li> <strong>Inserting the link target</strong> between the square brackets.</li> </ol> <h3 id="denoting-a-link">Denoting a link</h3> <p>In the worst case, step 1, denoting a link, means hitting the keys on your keyboard: two pairs of square brackets. Some apps provide the closing bracket for you, so it’s either 4 or 2 keystrokes.</p> <p>In the best case, the “insert link here” command could be a shortcut that saves you from typing all 4 characters. </p> <p>Honestly, I don’t think this step is a hurdle. Typing the brackets is simple, and I also prefer it to memorizing a shortcut for this simple task. Next.</p> <h3 id="finding-a-link-target">Finding a link target</h3> <p>To find a link target is the actual auto-completion or link suggestion part. </p> <p>If your app of choice doesn’t offer a widget for this that pops up, what can you do? Are you screwed? </p> <p>Not at all: You can still manually search for the target note!</p> <p>“But if I search in my archive, I’m taken away from the note I want to edit!”, you may cry out in despair. Good point.</p> <p>A link suggestion widget is actually creating a <em>temporary search context</em> for you. You can abort it, nothing happens; you can confirm the selection, and the link is inserted for you. The main app, your current note and the main search, are not affected.</p> <p>You can emulate the result to some degree with a few simple tricks.</p> <p>Recall how Sascha and I have manually done the work of the computer to follow links: select the linked-to ID, copy it, got to the search bar, paste the copied ID, and then look at the resulting note. </p> <p>For link auto-completion, you can do the same and perform each step manually. You will want to do this in a way that allows you to <em>restore the current context</em>. Here, this means to get back to the note you are editing before you leave and search for another note to link to. </p> <p>Metaphorically, you want to leave a finger or a bookmark between the pages of your notebook to quickly get back there. To achieve this, employ <a href="https://www.kungfugrippe.com/post/453204090/q-trick">the Q-trick</a>: type <code>qqq</code> right where your cursor is to leave a temporary jump mark. That’s a unique search term. Later, you can search for “qqq” and get back to the exact place where you left the unfinished note. Then you remove this temporary bookmark string again and end up more or less where you left off.</p> <p>So this step boils down to these actions:</p> <ul> <li>Make the current context restorable. We can use to Q-trick for that, inserting <code>qqq</code> in the place of the link.</li> <li>Search in your archive as usual to find the note you want to link to.</li> <li>Copy the ID of the note.</li> <li>Restore the context, e.g. by searching for <code>qqq</code>.</li> <li>Remove the temporary “<code>qqq</code>” from the note once you reach it.</li> </ul> <h3 id="inserting-the-link-text">Inserting the link text</h3> <p>In an automated feature, the work of the computer would be to type text between the square brackets for you.</p> <p>With the manual work you just completed in the previous step, this boils down to pasting the ID from your system clipboard. That’s it. <kbd>⌘V</kbd>.</p> <h2 id="ways-to-preserve-and-restore-context-in-the-archive">Ways to preserve and restore context in The Archive</h2> <p>I was inspired to write about this manual and technique in part because our beloved users of <em><a href="https://zettelkasten.de/the-archive/">The Archive</a></em> request the auto-completion to be added as a feature. </p> <p>We do understand that this is useful and saves some time and effort – after all, the manual process outlines above is a bit tedious at first, though you get used to it with time. <em>The Archive</em> doesn’t support this exact feature, yet.</p> <figure class="post-figure "><a href="/posts/fake-link-autocompletion-to-any-app/3-the-archive.jpeg"><img alt="" src="/posts/fake-link-autocompletion-to-any-app/3-the-archive.jpeg" class="post-figure__image"></a><figcaption class="post-figure__caption">Get used to use tabs for temporary search contexts. Learn the shortcuts to become super fast at this.</figcaption></figure> <p>But <em>The Archive</em> does come with a couple of other features that you might not have thought to be useful for this purpose:</p> <ul> <li>The <strong>navigation history</strong> preserves context as well: from the note you are editing, you can just start a new search and look around until you find the target. Then you hit the “Back” button (<kbd>Cmd</kbd>-<kbd>Ctrl</kbd>-<kbd>left arrow</kbd>) until you get back to where you left off. Paste the ID, and you’re done.</li> <li> <strong>Tabs and multiple windows</strong> are a very literal implementation of independent search contexts. You can skip the Q-trick completely and open a new tab, search for the link target to your hearts content, copy its ID, then close the temporary tab again and paste the ID. The original tab will not be affected at all: the editor still looks the same, and if you left the cursor between the square brackets, you can simply hit <kbd>Cmd</kbd>-<kbd>V</kbd> to paste the ID directly.</li> </ul> <p>Multiple tabs are already very close to a dedicated auto-completion widget. They are displayed differently, but underneath, the same thing is happening: the search is isolated from your current editing session. You have to copy and paste the link ID manually, true, but that’s all there is left for you to do.</p> <aside class="note"> <p> You can also use <a href="https://forum.zettelkasten.de/discussion/comment/2516/#Comment_2516">@Will’s Keyboard Maestro macro</a> to provide this exact functionality as an add-on, by the way. </p> </aside> <h2 id="concluding">Concluding</h2> <p>I find it helps to conceptualize features and problems in a way that may look rediculously fine-grained.</p> <p>To come up with manual solutions for a lack of computerized features, I find that the practice of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizard_of_Oz_experiment">Wizard-of-Oz Software-Demoing</a> helps. There, you design features and specify user input and expected output on the device; but instead of coding an app to do it, you secretly perform the requested task manually. If you can imagine to manually simulate the result a computer doing the work, then you have already broken down a software feature into simple steps that you can do in any app.</p> <p>If you try to break down killer features of your favorite software this way, I bet you’ll figure out ways to get a similar result that’s at least 80% as good by doing some things manually. Why would you bother, though? – Well, the upside of coming up with this is that you learn to become independent from specific software. </p> <p>You’re not helpless when you have to retrieve your data from a backup on a computer that doesn’t have your favorite app, or operating system, installed.</p> <p>Software agnosticism is really a mindset where <em>you</em> stay in control as much as you can. The bonus of control is that you not give up your autonomy willy-nilly by getting used to a particular app too much. </p> <p>As you know, infatuation with a particular software solution may end in heart-break and pain when you discover it isn’t going to be developed any longer and your data is locked away. We want to help you avoid this pain, and I hope this exercise helps!</p> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2020-01-16:/posts/zettelkasten-summary-david-clear/ You Should Read David B. Clear's Summary of the Zettelkasten Method 2020-01-16T11:46:25Z 2020-01-16T11:46:25Z <figure class="post-figure "><a href="/img/blog/202001161213_zettelkasten-bclear.jpeg"><img alt="Sketch of a Zettelkasten" src="/img/blog/202001161213_zettelkasten-bclear.jpeg" class="post-figure__image"></a><figcaption class="post-figure__caption">Image courtesy David B. Clear, CC BY-SA 4.0</figcaption></figure> <p>At the turn of the decade, David B. Clear<sup id="fnref1"><a href="#fn1">1</a></sup> wrote a summary about all things Zettelkasten, called <a href="https://writingcooperative.com/zettelkasten-how-one-german-scholar-was-so-freakishly-productive-997e4e0ca125">“Zettelkasten — How One German Scholar Was So Freakishly Productive”</a>.</p> <p>It’s a great post, especially if one is just starting out with the Zettelkasten Method. There’s so many highlights there, like:</p> <blockquote> <p>You get that? The linear recording of information, as in a notebook, sucks. Non-linear notetaking [sic!], and especially graphs and concept maps, rock. And what is a Zettelkasten if not one massive graph or concept map?</p> </blockquote> <p>And concise metaphors and explanations:</p> <blockquote> <p>By using the Zettelkasten method, your notes become entities that are knitted into a larger web of ideas. Instead of the system deteriorating the more you add to it, it becomes better. Again, it’s like your brain. No one would suggest that having more neurons would make you dumber. It’s the same with the Zettelkasten. More notes means more ideas and more connections, and the more ideas and connections you have, the “smarter” your Zettelkasten becomes and the more insightful your writing will be.</p> <p>Saying that the Zettelkasten becomes smarter is not just poetic language. Luhmann meant that quite literally.</p> </blockquote> <p>Promises of the Zettelkasten Method David summarizes include:</p> <ul> <li>You’ll focus better</li> <li>You’ll be less frustrated</li> <li>You’ll waste less time</li> <li>You’ll think better</li> <li>You’ll be more productive</li> <li>You’ll be more creative</li> </ul> <p>His list of principles reads like lyrics: “add notes without fear”, “never delete”. Really, we love the post, and think y'all should be pointing your eyeballs at it. <a href="https://writingcooperative.com/zettelkasten-how-one-german-scholar-was-so-freakishly-productive-997e4e0ca125">Read David’s post on Medium.</a></p> <div class="footnotes"> <hr> <ol> <li id="fn1"> <p>I hope that’s his real name, because “B. Clear” is just too awesome. <a href="#fnref1">↩</a></p> </li> </ol> </div> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2020-01-14:/posts/note-link-janitor-andy-matuschak/ Insert a List of Backlinks Into All Your Notes 2020-01-14T06:34:03Z 2020-01-14T06:34:03Z <p>Andy Matuschak shared <a href="https://github.com/andymatuschak/note-link-janitor">a script called <code>note-link-janitor</code></a> with us the other day that maintains a list of backlinks in all of your Markdown notes.</p> <p>And yes, by “maintains” I really mean “maintains”: if it doesn’t exist, it adds a <code>## Backlinks</code> section at the end of each Zettel with a list of incoming links, and it updates the section on subsequent runs. This means you can run the script as often as you’d like, and it always produces an up-to-date result – as opposed to, say, naively adding a new <code>## Backlink</code> section time and time again. When you run the script regularly, you’ll always have an up-to-date backlink list in your notes. Neat.</p> <p>On the flip side, it deletes any customizations you add to these sections as well, so you better not write in them.</p> <p><strong>Please test the script on a copy of your notes, because there is no undo, and make backups!</strong></p> <p>I ran it on a copy of a subset of my notes from <a href="https://zettelkasten.de/posts/tags/book-processing-series/">the David Epstein videos</a> and on the note <code>201910011532 Computational thinking</code>, it inserted one link, plus a copy of the phrase it was found in:</p> <div class="highlight"><pre><code class="language-text" data-lang="text"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight plaintext"><code>## Backlinks * [[201711181848 Separation of Concerns]] * [[201910011532 Computational thinking]] is about separation of concerns </code></pre></div></code></pre></div> <p>The script does find <code>[[wiki links]]</code>, but only finds the files when the whole filename is inside the square brackets. </p> <ul> <li>This link is recognized: <code>[[201910011532 Computational thinking]]</code> </li> <li>This is not: <code>[[201910011532]] Computational thinking</code> </li> </ul> <p>On the upside, there’s hope for a less precise search since the script is open source. (It is written in JavaScript/TypeScript.) Anyone can volunteer to change the file name resolver algorithm to add an option to make it work with partial matches in file names.</p> <p><strong><a href="https://github.com/andymatuschak/note-link-janitor">Check out <code>note-link-janitor</code> on GitHub.</a></strong></p> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2019-11-22:/posts/bryan-kams-zettelkasten-journey/ Beginnings of Bryan Kam's Zettelkasten Journey 2019-11-22T14:04:52Z 2019-11-22T14:04:52Z <p>Bryan Kam wrote two posts about his embarking on a Zettelkasten journey in recent months. Especially if you’re getting started, posts like his can be a nice place to get inspiration and a feel for the early days.</p> <p>In his <a href="https://clerestory.netlify.com/zk">first post</a>, he talks about his understanding of the method as a <strong>“methodology for thinking in writing.”</strong> Which is a pretty apt summary of one of its benefits already. He also draws connections to <em>Getting Things Done</em>, which I’d argue the Zettelkasten Method is not an alternative, but an extension of for personal productivity. Either way, Bryan lists a few core principles and their immediate, actionable results. For example this:</p> <blockquote> <p>Each “zettel” (aka note) can only contain a single thought. […] Massive interlinking. […] The size limit encourages the recording of inchoate thoughts, to be developed by their relationships. If they’re not linked strongly enough, they may be lost forever in the network. (Less likely in software, but still possible, if you forget to link/search. Also sounds sort of like your brain, doesn’t it?)</p> </blockquote> <p>I wrote the following on the topics mentioned here: <a href="https://zettelkasten.de/posts/create-zettel-from-reading-notes/">the principle of atomicity</a> and one of the early posts about <a href="https://zettelkasten.de/posts/extend-your-mind-and-memory-with-a-zettelkasten/">building a second brain</a>.</p> <p>A month later, he <a href="https://clerestory.netlify.com/zk1/">wrote a follow-up to his post</a> with reflections on the process, and a very nice graphical visualization of note connections. One gem from that post:</p> <blockquote> <p>The biggest benefit seems to be that a wider variety of thinking is closer to the surface of my mind at all times. I feel that I think more clearly and can make better analogies. I also feel more confident that I have mastered the material I’ve read (or alternatively, that I know when I haven’t understood, and need to learn more before returning to the material).</p> <p>A second benefit is the <em>serendipity</em> that Luhmann and Ahrens predict. I often find notes that I’d forgotten about, either by a search or by realising that one note connects to another, then finding more links on that note. This produces novel and insightful connections.</p> </blockquote> <p>So go ahead and read Bryan’s <a href="https://clerestory.netlify.com/zk">first</a> and <a href="https://clerestory.netlify.com/zk1/">second</a> post to immerse yourself further in the Zettelkasten experience!</p> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2019-10-25:/posts/david-epstein-range-episode-6/ "Thinking Outside Experience" - David Epstein: "Range" - Book Processing Ep 06 2019-10-25T16:58:44Z 2019-10-25T16:58:44Z <figure class="post-figure youtube"><div class="video-container"><iframe src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/NpMzDP6lMq4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div></figure> <p>This chapter’s outline started out was pretty short – and most of the stuff that I did add was anecdotes and stories. Interesting stories, sure, but nevertheless not much to brag about in front of your friends who study humanities. The actual sources will be interesting, but I didn’t get to them this time.</p> <p>Instead, I decided to go with placeholder notes: I added the stuff from Epstein’s account and a reference to the original, but also left a note to myself both in the note (as a warning!) and in my to-do-list so I knew this is not supposed to be the end of that particular branch.</p> <p>Still, the visualization from the structure note looks interesting:</p> <figure class="post-figure "><a href="/posts/david-epstein-range-episode-6/20191025185803-epstein-ep-6-diagram.png"><img alt="" src="/posts/david-epstein-range-episode-6/20191025185803-epstein-ep-6-diagram.png" class="post-figure__image"></a><figcaption class="post-figure__caption">After this chapter, it looks less like an onion with many layers because it grows an appendix of sorts.</figcaption></figure> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2019-10-19:/posts/david-epstein-range-episode-5/ "Learning, Fast and Slow" - David Epstein: "Range" - Book Processing Ep 05 2019-10-19T05:37:44Z 2019-10-19T05:37:44Z <figure class="post-figure youtube"><div class="video-container"><iframe src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/Vs1mscyOuFs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div></figure> <p>By accident, I started this episode with an outline that was surprisingly long and lended itself well to my favorite <em>Zettel refactoring</em>, called “Extract Zettel”, where I take part of an existing note and put it into a new one, leaving a link in place of the cutout.</p> <p>Took me 3 weeks to get into the groove, and since last time things flow quite smoothly as I hunt for precious information in this journalist’s take on a complex topic.</p> <figure class="post-figure "><a href="/posts/david-epstein-range-episode-5/20191019072824_episode-5-diagram.png"><img alt="" src="/posts/david-epstein-range-episode-5/20191019072824_episode-5-diagram.png" class="post-figure__image"></a><figcaption class="post-figure__caption">The web of notes after episode 5 shows a second layer around the core, like an onion</figcaption></figure> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2019-10-09:/posts/david-epstein-range-episode-4/ David Epstein: "Range" - Book Processing Ep 04 2019-10-09T19:29:44Z 2019-10-09T19:29:44Z <figure class="post-figure youtube"><div class="video-container"><iframe src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/v3bbM5B9pv4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div></figure> <p><a href="https://youtu.be/v3bbM5B9pv4">This episode</a> is shorter, because I didn’t find many useful ideas in Chapter 3. And the ideas I did find interesting were not citable, so I had to look the originals up. That took most of the time, but did ultimately not produce many new notes.</p> <p>I did add a couple, though, and in the last 5 minutes extracted a few notes from a comment I left behind that also affected the previous chapter’s outline.</p> <p>It’s interesting that after a couple of session I already begin to form an opinion of the quality of Epstein’s research. There’s lots of endnotes, but the quality is … well, enjoy this episode to find out more!</p> <figure class="post-figure "><a href="/posts/david-epstein-range-episode-4/20191009212917_episode-4-diagram.png"><img alt="" src="/posts/david-epstein-range-episode-4/20191009212917_episode-4-diagram.png" class="post-figure__image"></a><figcaption class="post-figure__caption">Web of notes after episode 4</figcaption></figure> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2019-10-02:/posts/david-epstein-range-episode-3/ David Epstein: "Range" - Book Processing Ep 03 2019-10-02T05:45:44Z 2020-06-25T10:02:00Z <figure class="post-figure youtube"><div class="video-container"><iframe src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/F6AZQQ_1U4E" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div></figure> <p>Please enjoy <a href="https://youtu.be/F6AZQQ_1U4E">episode 3</a>, hitting early this week because I’ll be traveling for a couple of days – and cannot muster the strength to wait until Friday to hit the “publish” button.</p> <p>This chapter was harder to process. There seemed to be parts missing in the story. Maybe I’m too sloppy and haven’t noticed the missing pieces? Either way, something’s amiss in <em>Range</em> land. I also notice that the topics from chapter 1 were connected to the topics here somehow, but it’s just a hunch how things will fit together eventually. I’m looking forward to the next episodes, because I hope it “clicks” and I know how to split the sequence of notes in the structure note up into new Zettel notes and then work with the more powerful web of notes instead of this monolithic book overview.</p> <p>Anyway, here’s a picture of the work-in-progress web of notes, starting from the book overview.</p> <figure class="post-figure "><a href="/posts/david-epstein-range-episode-3/20191002194740_episode-3-diagram.png"><img alt="" src="/posts/david-epstein-range-episode-3/20191002194740_episode-3-diagram.png" class="post-figure__image"></a><figcaption class="post-figure__caption">Web of notes starting at the book after episode 3</figcaption></figure> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2019-09-26:/posts/david-epstein-range-episode-2/ David Epstein: "Range" - Book Processing Ep 02 2019-09-26T05:45:44Z 2019-09-26T05:45:44Z <figure class="post-figure youtube"><div class="video-container"><iframe src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/HX4q2XmC8sA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div></figure> <p><a href="https://youtu.be/HX4q2XmC8sA">Here’s episode 2</a> for y'all! </p> <p>Everything was a <em>ton</em> easier this time. In the previous episode, I processed the classic study by Ericsson et al on deliberate practice<sup id="fnref1"><a href="#fn1">1</a></sup>. That was by far the hardest nut to crack, and on top everything was recorded. That took a noticeable amount of cognitive capacity, too. And the studies I wanted to have a closer look at were either not available in full-text or irrelevant in detail, so I could focus more on the actual connection-making and writing. (The part I actually like, heh.)</p> <p>Part of Sascha’s feedback last time was that I should decide for myself what I want from a study: Do I want to acquire expertise in the fields of cognition, learning, or sports? Certainly not right now. So I limited what I was looking for in the papers tremendously in this episode, aiming for a very superficial understanding.</p> <p>Looking at the footage, I also notice I added more commentary on top of the paraphrases. You could say there’s more of my voice in the notes this time.</p> <p><strong>Update 2019-10-02:</strong> Here’s a visualization of the notes <em>before</em> I recorded <a href="https://zettelkasten.de/posts/david-epstein-range-episode-3/">Episode 3</a>.</p> <figure class="post-figure "><a href="/posts/david-epstein-range-episode-2/20191002195930-episode-2-diagram.png"><img alt="" src="/posts/david-epstein-range-episode-2/20191002195930-episode-2-diagram.png" class="post-figure__image"></a><figcaption class="post-figure__caption">Web of notes after episode 2</figcaption></figure> <div class="footnotes"> <hr> <ol> <li id="fn1"> <p>K. Anders Ericsson, Ralf Th. Krampe, and Clemens Tesch-Römer (1993): <em>The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance</em>, Psychological Review 3, 1993, Vol. 100, S. 363–406. <a href="#fnref1">↩</a></p> </li> </ol> </div> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2019-09-20:/posts/david-epstein-range-episode-1/ David Epstein: "Range" - Book Processing Ep 01 2019-09-20T05:45:44Z 2019-09-20T05:45:44Z <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/FLvcJyZiiUI" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> <p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLvcJyZiiUI">The episode is live</a>! Please comment in the forums; we’d like to know what you think of the format.</p> <p>Sascha’s discussion starter, repeated here so you know the context when you comment below:</p> <blockquote> <p>We are very curious about your opinion. We don’t do bias your comment with specific question. So we ask in general: What are your thoughts about this format?</p> </blockquote> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2019-08-11:/posts/the-archive-1.4.0-multi-tabs/ The Archive (v1.4) Introduces Multi-Tabbing 2019-08-11T09:09:29Z 2019-08-11T09:09:29Z <p>We’d like to introduce to you the latest update to <a href="https://zettelkasten.de/the-archive">The Archive</a>. It comes with multiple tabs and windows! You can now search for different things in different windows without losing the context of your previous work.</p> <figure class="post-figure "><a href="/posts/the-archive-1.4.0-multi-tabs/20190807085327_tabs-and-navi.png"><img alt="" src="/posts/the-archive-1.4.0-multi-tabs/20190807085327_tabs-and-navi.png" class="post-figure__image"></a><figcaption class="post-figure__caption">(1) The tabs show the current search context for each tab, and (2) the history navigation for each tab enables you to go back in time for each tab individually.</figcaption></figure> <p>Multiple windows were an oft-requested feature since the early beta. The benefit is obvious: you can write a note, then search for a note to link to in a new tab without losing the context of the note you were writing.</p> <p>So far, Sascha and I have used <a href="https://www.kungfugrippe.com/post/453204090/q-trick">the Q-Trick</a> to get back to a note quickly. You leave <code>qqq</code> in the note right where you are, which is a unique search string that works much like a bookmark. Browse around in the archive, copy some links, then search for “qqq” again to paste them where you left off. Multiple windows and tabs make this hack almost unnecessary. Working with a lot of notes just got simpler for everyone!</p> <p><strong><a href="https://zettelkasten.de/the-archive">Download the new version</a></strong> from our website and check it out. This update is free for existing customers, as per <a href="https://zettelkasten.de/the-archive/roadmap/">our update policy and feature promise!</a></p> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2019-06-08:/posts/the-archive-1.3.0-browser-navigation/ The Archive (v1.3.0) Browser Navigation 2019-06-08T20:12:29Z 2019-06-08T20:12:29Z <p>We’re proud to announce the latest big update to <a href="https://zettelkasten.de/the-archive">The Archive</a>! It adds browser-like navigation, so you can get back to the results of an old search quickly.</p> <figure class="post-figure "><a href="/posts/the-archive-1.3.0-browser-navigation/20190608221134_browser-nav.gif"><img alt="" src="/posts/the-archive-1.3.0-browser-navigation/20190608221134_browser-nav.gif" class="post-figure__image"></a><figcaption class="post-figure__caption">The navigation in action. I enjoy going back and forth in time, I have to admit.</figcaption></figure> <p>This will be super useful in your workflow, especially when you often get lost in a rabbit hole. When you’re done following links, hit the back button to get to your starting point. No need to remember what exactly you did search for; no need to keep note IDs in the clipboard to get back to the start.</p> <p><strong><a href="https://zettelkasten.de/the-archive">Download the new version</a></strong> from the website and check it out. This update is free for existing customers, as per <a href="https://zettelkasten.de/the-archive/roadmap/">our update policy and feature promise!</a></p> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2019-05-14:/posts/breadcrumbs-in-notes/ Breadcrumbs in Your Archive 2019-05-14T09:09:08Z 2019-05-14T09:09:08Z <p>Here’s today’s fun story.</p> <hr> <p>Sascha asks me if I remember the connection between an author (Heinrich von Kleist) and a concept (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/Maieutics">Maieutics</a>). I hesitate a bit but then agree: yes, it’s his concept. The association feels just so familiar. </p> <p>I look up the concept in my archive, searching for “midwifery” (“Hebammenkunst” is the German term Sascha suggested). I indeed stumble upon a note about a text by Heinrich von Kleist about the spontaneous and sequential creation of thoughts during conversation. </p> <p>The note is from 2012. It’s not about the technique of midwifery at all. It’s more closely related to the topic of social systems.</p> <p>Then I find the actual term I was looking for.</p> <p>It’s at the very bottom, separated from the rest of the note by a <a href="https://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax#hr">series of dashes</a>. It’s in an aside, if you will.</p> <p>There I find the following line, probably added in 2014<sup id="fnref1"><a href="#fn1">1</a></sup>:</p> <blockquote> <p>Sascha did look for this in association with the labels “midwifery”/maieutics.</p> </blockquote> <hr> <p>Turns out Sascha and I embarked on this exact same search for Heinrich von Kleist’s concept about 5 years ago already. Why did I add this? Maybe last time we didn’t recall the author immediately and it felt safer to add this as a tag of sorts.</p> <p>Even though we did recall the author this time, I’m glad I left the breadcrumb behind. The practice seems to produce surprises indeed :)</p> <div class="footnotes"> <hr> <ol> <li id="fn1"> <p>I infer this from the file modification date (2014-01-15). Could’ve been anytime between 2012 and 2014, though. For later reference, I now added a timestamp to the note to preserve this guess – like I usually do nowadays when I add virtual post-it notes to my Zettel. <a href="#fnref1">↩</a></p> </li> </ol> </div> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2019-03-22:/posts/zettelkasten-business-founders/ Zettelkasten and Personal Knowledge Management for Business Founders 2019-03-22T14:22:28Z 2019-03-22T14:22:28Z <p>André Chaperon got in touch and told us how much he loves The Archive and the Zettelkasten Method – and then went on to summarize the gist of the method and app usage for his fellowship of small business owners. His process includes paper-based notes, which are taken in a leisurely manner, meant to be thrown away later manner, and ends with Tinderbox-based visualizations to get an overview. With all the “Getting Started” links and helpful details, this is a great resource to get started. Read <a href="https://tinylittlebusinesses.com/zettelkasten-method/">“How to create Idea Babies: A Knowledge Processing System for Marketers, Creators, and Knowledge Workers”</a>.</p> <p><strong>Sascha’s Comment:</strong> Use cases are very interesting. If you think about them they can give you great insights into the method of creative knowledge work, especially if the particular use case is not from your field of expertise. As a scientist you can learn a lot from a small business owner. The similarities allow you to extract general rules of creative knowledge work. </p> <p><strong>Christian’s Comment:</strong> André‘s post could be the starting point you’ve been missing on this very website for so long. His summary of the Zettelkasten Method is spot-on. I really like that he presents a full slice of a piece of work, from summarization on paper to notes because that makes it so much more valuable. (I may be biased after André opened the conversation with a declaration of his love for <a href="https://zettelkasten.de/the-archive/"><em>The Archive</em></a>. Full disclosure: I’m the developer of said app :))</p> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2019-03-15:/posts/the-archive-anniversary/ The Archive Turns 1 Year Old! 2019-03-15T08:39:30Z 2019-03-15T08:39:30Z <figure class="post-figure post-figure--borderless"><a href="https://zettelkasten.onfastspring.com/the-archive?source=zettelkasten"><img alt="birthday screenshot" src="/img/blog/20190314193821_confetti.png" class="post-figure__image"></a><figcaption class="post-figure__caption"></figcaption></figure> <p>This day a year ago, The Archive became publicly available for sale! </p> <p>To celebrate, we chopped <strong>50% off</strong> of the regular price for 5 days.</p> <p>You can now also purchase a license for a friend, colleague, family member, or your favorite pet by using the new <em>Gift Purchase</em> option in our store.</p> <p><em>The sale is over! Thank you all very much for the amazing year!</em></p> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2019-03-14:/posts/zettelkasten-music-teacher/ Using The Archive to Teach Music 2019-03-14T09:34:38Z 2019-03-14T09:34:38Z <figure class="post-figure "><a href="/img/blog/20190314105356_foley-archive-music.png"><img alt="Screenshot of Dr. Foley's archive" src="/img/blog/20190314105356_foley-archive-music.png" class="post-figure__image"></a><figcaption class="post-figure__caption">An example note by Dr. Foley</figcaption></figure> <p>Dr. Christopher Foley is a piano teacher based in Toronto, Canada. He set up The Archive to write, send, and curate lesson notes for his piano students. Read <a href="https://www.foleymusicandarts.com/blog/2019/3/5/how-i-use-the-archive-and-my-music-staff-to-create-engaging-lesson-notes">“How I Use The Archive and My Music Staff to Create Engaging Lesson Notes”</a>.</p> <p><strong>Christian’s Comment:</strong> I’m familiar with programming and the humanities, but I always wondered how a Zettelkasten could work for fine arts – or music, for that matter. I’m looking forward to hear progress reports by Dr. Foley that go into detail!</p> <p><strong>Sascha’s Comment:</strong> I think that shows the power of a plain text approach. Basically, all you need to do is to manipulate text. That means that you should set up a system that makes your manipulation abilities so powerful that the bottleneck in your workflow is not determined by your fingers but by your thinking. Great work, Doc. :)</p> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2019-01-17:/posts/ia-writer-zettelkasten/ iA Writer as a Zettelkasten Note Archive 2019-01-17T16:08:35Z 2019-01-17T16:08:35Z <p>Lorenzo wrote an article about <a href="https://trms.me/knowledge-management-with-zettelkasten-and-ia-writer/">how to use iA Writer for macOS as your Zettelkasten note archive</a>. Apparently, <a href="https://ia.net/writer">iA Writer</a> has a sufficiently quick search for large archives (10,000 notes big, in fact), which surprises me.</p> <p>As a native macOS app, you can use iA Writer to sync with Dropbox, iCloud, and other folder-based sync services and either use their mobile or Windows counterparts, or whatever else you like. No boxing-in.</p> <p>Have a look at <a href="https://trms.me/knowledge-management-with-zettelkasten-and-ia-writer/">Lorenzo’s review</a> for all the juicy details. Great work!</p> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2019-01-11:/posts/the-archive-appademic-review/ Zettelkasten & The Archive at The Appademic 2019-01-11T12:40:11Z 2019-01-11T12:40:11Z <p>Jai of <em>The Appademic</em> wrote <a href="https://appademic.tech/zettelkasten-thoughtful-plain-text-note-taking/">a blog post about The Archive and the Zettelkasten Method</a> in combination, how The Archive superseded nvALT for him, and how he found the Zettelkasten Method to go with minimalism and portability of data.</p> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2018-12-06:/posts/zettelkasten-tinderbox/ Zettelkasten Method and Tinderbox (macOS) 2018-12-06T14:38:03Z 2018-12-06T14:38:03Z <p>Beck Tench <a href="http://www.becktench.com/blog/2018/11/12/using-zettelkasten-and-tinderbox-to-document-a-literature-review">recorded 45min worth of inspiring “Literature Review” video</a> showing her current workflow with a Bullet Journal and the app Tinderbox for Mac to implement the Zettelkasten Method.</p> <p>I’ve never used this hypertext writing environment called Tinderbox. In the end, I’m a proponent of the plain text approach and keeping your knowledge portable, so there wasn’t much appeal in trying out the app. But its community looks nice, the developer is a cool guy, and the app looks solid and makes people happy. Maybe it can make you happy, too.</p> <p>Anyway, make sure to <a href="http://www.becktench.com/">take a look at Beck’s blog</a>. The posts’s illustrations are tasteful and I find the topics to be very interesting, too.</p> <p><strong>Update:</strong> Reader Russ pointed out that Tinderbox files are XML, which you could use in your own scripts or 3rd party tools. So you aren’t really locked in.</p> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2018-11-11:/posts/1writer-adds-wikilinks/ 1Writer 2.9.1 Adds [[Wiki Links]] 2018-11-11T10:03:08Z 2018-11-11T10:03:08Z <figure class="post-figure "><a href="/img/blog/20181111110351_1writer_291.png"><img alt="1Writer version update notice" src="/img/blog/20181111110351_1writer_291.png" class="post-figure__image"></a><figcaption class="post-figure__caption">Version 2.9.1 adds Wiki Links for all of us! And a tip jar. Guess who’ll be tipping.</figcaption></figure> <p>When people ask me, “Christian, what’s the best Zettelkasten Method-compatible app on iPads and iPhones?”, I always tell them about 1Writer. Its search is good. It syncs files with a ton of services. It handles <code>#hashtags</code>. </p> <p>And now it also supports <code>[[Wiki Links]]</code>.</p> <p>That makes it an even better companion to our very own macOS app, <em>The Archive</em>, and the plain text productivity techniques we encourage people to use.</p> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2018-10-29:/posts/macmittwoch-podcast/ Sascha and Christian Talk about Structure in a Zettelkasten on MacMittwoch (German Podcast) 2018-10-29T18:06:36Z 2018-10-29T18:06:36Z <p>In the nearby town of Paderborn, there’s a community-organized meetup called “<a href="https://www.macmittwoch.de/">MacMittwoch</a>” (literal translation: “MacWednesday” – guess when they meet :)). These fine folks produce a podcast, too, and their Farid Mésbahi and Gordon Möller visited Sascha and me in Bielefeld for a very nice chat. The result is <a href="https://www.macmittwoch.de/podcast/der-zettelkasten">Episode 15: Der Zettelkasten</a>.</p> <p>We talked about <em><a href="https://zettelkasten.de/the-archive/">The Archive</a></em>, but even more did we talk about the Zettelkasten Method in general, about emerging structure versus folder management, and why we value software agnosticism above all. Farid and Gordon are very welcoming and curious hosts, and Sascha and I are pleasant to the ear as always, of course, so you will want to listen to <a href="https://www.macmittwoch.de/podcast/der-zettelkasten">this episode</a> (1h 8min; German only).</p> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2018-05-05:/posts/derubercast-posthoc/ Sascha and Christian talk about All Things Zettelkasten at Der Ubercast (German Podcast) 2018-05-05T18:07:38Z 2018-05-05T18:07:38Z <p>We were invited to join <a href="https://rocketink.net">Patrick Welker of rocketink.net</a> and <a href="http://zettt.com/">Andreas Zeitler aka Zettt</a> of the German Podcast <em>Der Ubercast</em> to introduce our Zettelkasten Method to their audience and talk a bit about <em>The Archive</em>. Sascha explains a lot of the thinking behind IDs, structure, and why plain text is just the best. Thanks for having us, folks!</p> <p><a href="https://derubercast.com/podcast/107/">Listen to the episode on derubercast.com</a> (1h 30min; German only)</p> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2018-03-15:/posts/the-archive-launch/ The Archive Has Arrived. 2018-03-15T08:31:56Z 2018-03-15T08:31:56Z <figure class="post-figure "><a href="/the-archive"><img alt="Screenshot of The Archive at Launch" src="/img/blog/20180315094016_the-archive-launch.png" class="post-figure__image"></a><figcaption class="post-figure__caption"></figcaption></figure> <p>The definitive note-taking app for heroic authors and prolific writers is here. </p> <p><strong><a href="/the-archive">Download and enjoy</a>.</strong></p> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2018-03-06:/posts/the-archive-launch-announcement/ The Archive: Available March 15th 2018-03-06T14:29:02Z 2018-03-06T14:29:02Z <figure class="post-figure "><a href="/the-archive"><img alt="screenshot of The Archive" src="/img/blog/20180306152844_ta-launch-preview.png" class="post-figure__image"></a><figcaption class="post-figure__caption"></figcaption></figure> <p>We plan to release <em>The Archive</em> on Thursday, March 15th, early in the day in UTC. So if you wake up anywhere in the U.S. that day and the sun is up, it should be online.</p> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2017-11-21:/posts/jabref-4/ Reference Manager JabRef 4 Released 2017-11-21T07:20:55Z 2017-11-21T07:20:55Z <p>I just noticed that the developers of JabRef <a href="http://blog.jabref.org/2017/10/04/JabRef4-0/">released version 4</a> in October.</p> <p><a href="http://www.jabref.org/">JabRef</a> is still our go-to recommendation when it comes to cross-platform reference management. The BibTeX support is great, and with BibTeX + MultiMarkdown you have an open source publishing toolchain at your fingertips. (On macOS, BibDesk is still our favorite, but JabRef is a close second even there.) Note that JabRef requires Java 1.8+ to run.</p> <p>The <a href="http://help.jabref.org/en/EntryEditor#related-articles-tab">integration</a> with <a href="http://mr-dlib.org/">paper recommendation service “Mr.DLib”</a> sounds interesting. I have no clue if this is any good in practice; since I don’t do any research at all at the moment, I cannot evaluate that feature. You’re welcome to share your experience with the rest of us in the forum comments!</p> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2017-11-02:/posts/sublime-text-plugin/ Sublime Text 3 Zettelkasten Plugin 2017-11-02T13:26:04Z 2017-11-02T13:26:04Z <p>Rene from the forums did publish a <a href="https://github.com/renerocksai/sublime_zk">Sublime Text 3 Zettelkasten plugin</a> for better note-taking with Sublime. (See the <a href="https://forum.zettelkasten.de/discussion/77/renes-sublimetext-for-zettelkasten-package-talk-and-more">discussion</a> there.)</p> <p>The plugin features:</p> <ul> <li>Clickable Wiki-style links like <code>[[this one]]</code>, creating notes that do not yet exists</li> <li>Auto-completion of note titles when you begin typing <code>[[</code> </li> <li>Shortcuts to create new notes including a generated ID</li> <li>The ID format is the trusted and true data-based <code>YYYYMMDDHHMM</code>, for example: <code>201710282111</code> </li> <li>Highlighting of note links, <code>#tags</code>, and footnote references <code>[^like this one]</code> </li> </ul> <p>Huge shout-out to Rene 🙌</p> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2017-10-10:/posts/the-archive-overview-book-notes/ Overview Notes and Clickable Links 2017-10-10T13:59:39Z 2017-10-10T13:59:39Z <figure class="post-figure youtube"><div class="video-container"><iframe src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/R2AC6i9OdAU?list=PLHwtkAtdkx1KeyPHN5CdfVJcZi1uNZ6tC" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div></figure> <p>Sascha created <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2AC6i9OdAU?list=PLHwtkAtdkx1KeyPHN5CdfVJcZi1uNZ6tC">a short video</a> (sub 4min) about the usefulness of a little feature: clicking on stuff to change the search. Once you design your workflow to center around search terms, search shortcuts become super powerful. </p> <p>In this example, he used the reference manager’s citation key to quickly filter for notes about a book. The result is an overview of book notes, as you will see. </p> <p><strong>Update 2017-11-13:</strong> Link fixed!</p> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2017-09-29:/posts/maybe-sublime-text-zettelkasten/ Maybe Sublime Text Works Well for a Zettelkasten 2017-09-29T15:12:04Z 2017-09-29T15:12:04Z <p>Forum user Chris wrote a blog post with a dozen assorted things, including cool features that <a href="http://chris.moo-art.de/2017/09/sublime-text-the-better-nvalt-for-zettelkasten-workers/">make Sublime Text a good fit for the Zettelkasten Method</a>. I did not know you <em>cannot print</em> from Sublime, that sure came as a surprise.</p> <p>A full-blown review would be great to have one day, it seems, especially since fellow reader Dan Sheffler used to maintain <a href="https://github.com/dansheffler/Notational-Sublime">a Notational Velocity-style plugin</a>. Maybe Sublime 3 can really become quite a good fit for cross-platform usage.</p> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2017-08-18:/posts/forum/ Come and Visit the New Forum 2017-08-18T17:54:29Z 2017-08-18T17:54:29Z <p>Folks, the time has come to open the private forum to the public!</p> <p>We were using it during the beta of <em>The Archive</em> until today and it seems to work. I’m still experimenting with the design, but it’s a start. There still is a hidden sub-forum for us to work on <em>The Archive</em> behind the curtains, but now we’ve added more useful categories and opened up registration.</p> <p>Not much more to add, I guess! You probably know how discussion forum software works, so please remember to be as polite as you always are on these grounds, and feel free to ask questions and tell us about what you do!</p> <p><strong><a href="http://forum.zettelkasten.de/">http://forum.zettelkasten.de/</a></strong></p> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2017-07-05:/posts/zettelkasten-2nd-edition-impressions/ Christian's Impressions of Sascha's Book's 2nd Edition 2017-07-05T16:51:43Z 2017-07-05T16:51:43Z <p>I finished reading and commenting Sascha’s manuscript for the 2nd version of the Zettelkasten Method book. Here’re a few first impressions and why I’m excited to get a hold on the next draft.</p> <p>The most apparent change is the change of focus: instead of a bird’s-eye view of the method and its components, Sascha now emphasizes teaching the reader to work with her Zettelkasten. I liked the systematic approach of the 1st edition, but with this fundamental change, the book becomes so much more inspiring!</p> <p>As you probably know, I work with my Zettelkasten for a couple of years now, about 8 years, in fact, so I didn’t expect to learn a lot from reading the manuscript. There’s the gentle introduction on to how to feed your archive with notes. But after you finish this stage, you’re promoted from neophyte to apprentice, and Sascha begins a practical discourse with you. Like a master would instruct his apprentices about the intricacies of his craft, Sascha lays out the foundation for years of productive work and teaches you how to adapt to problems of scale. I was so thrilled when I finished that chapter that I wanted to change a lot of my older notes to become more useful for Future Me right away. I was pumped. And I honestly didn’t expect that at all.</p> <p>After I went through this transformation, I added my two cents about how to change the book’s structure to make this effect even more prominent. So we’ll probably be discussing this stuff some more. But I have no doubt you’ll like the result. I can hardly wait to see how readers react to upcoming drafts of the revised edition.</p> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2017-06-02:/posts/book-processing-video/ Book Processing Workflow (Video) 2017-06-02T14:45:18Z 2017-06-02T14:45:18Z <figure class="post-figure youtube"><div class="video-container"><iframe src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/4DIEiIH-N24?list=PLHwtkAtdkx1KeyPHN5CdfVJcZi1uNZ6tC" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div></figure> <p>Today, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DIEiIH-N24&amp;index=1&amp;list=PLHwtkAtdkx1KeyPHN5CdfVJcZi1uNZ6tC">Sascha talks about his workflow</a> of processing books. The demonstration is supposed to highlight the power of a useful search – in opposition to overly fancy software features. At about minute 22:00, Sascha also demonstrates using <em>The Archive</em> for this in all its buggy glory.</p> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2017-05-23:/posts/the-archive-video-nv-core/ The Archive App – Why We Chose the nv-Core 2017-05-23T14:25:55Z 2017-05-23T14:25:55Z <figure class="post-figure youtube"><div class="video-container"><iframe src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/cWHhdXi8X4U?list=PLHwtkAtdkx1KeyPHN5CdfVJcZi1uNZ6tC" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div></figure> <p>In <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWHhdXi8X4U&amp;index=1&amp;list=PLHwtkAtdkx1KeyPHN5CdfVJcZi1uNZ6tC">this video</a>, Sascha talks about the “nv-Core” – that’s our secret name for the kind of interaction facilitated by famous <a href="http://notational.net">Notational Velocity</a>, and made even more accessible thanks to the <a href="http://brettterpstra.com/projects/nvalt/">nvALT</a> variant we are raving about for years on this blog.</p> <p>In short, it’s all about speed, and “NV” nailed the “velocity” part.</p> tag:www.zettelkasten.de,2017-05-16:/posts/the-archive-video-intro/ The Archive App – Introduction to the Introduction 2017-05-16T15:17:55Z 2017-05-16T15:17:55Z <p>Sascha is preparing a video series showcasing the unique features of our app <em>The Archive</em>. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRBbR_OvRFs&amp;index=1&amp;list=PLHwtkAtdkx1KeyPHN5CdfVJcZi1uNZ6tC">Here’s the intro</a>:</p> <figure class="post-figure youtube"><div class="video-container"><iframe src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/mRBbR_OvRFs?list=PLHwtkAtdkx1KeyPHN5CdfVJcZi1uNZ6tC" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div></figure> <p>Remember that we follow a “software-agnostic approach”. That means our app will be great, but it will still be replaceable. Because we don’t want to lock people in with things they couldn’t do by any other means. The workflow and the method are important, not the tools!</p> <p>Meanwhile, Sascha is writing the new book and I am working on the app. We are <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_your_own_dog_food">dogfood</a> the beta of <em>The Archive</em> to ourselves already. You cannot imagine how many problems stay under the radar until you try to use the product every day. </p> <p>Ah well, time to get back to work.</p>
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