I’ve been using 1writer on iOS. But honestly, now that I haven’t thought about Zettelkasten in a while, and when I think about picking it back up, it seems MENTAL to use anything besides Bear if you want to work with your notes on iOS. No, you don’t have system files that you’re working with. Yes, you can actually do this kind of thing on mobile. Then eventually, someone will make a decent iOS app, and you can export your notes as markdown files and move right in.
I’m not sure why Zettelkasten software development is stuck in 2009. But my phone is with me ALL DAY EVERYDAY and the idea of only having full featured Zettel ability on my big dumb Mac seems bananas.
Well, Luhmann didn’t have software and managed to handle things pretty well.
No particular “zettelkasten” software is needed to use a slip-box approach, with note IDs, an index, etc. (Is “zettelkasten software” even a real category?)
Persistence and diligence is what’s needed, more than waiting for software.
I would love to use Ulysses. The problem is note linking. It doesn’t offer wiki style links. And the item links seem like they are becoming harder to get to. There are some scripting hacks that people have made, but Im not technical enough to get them working/troubleshoot when they don’t work.
Obsidian really is a cool app. I played with it some last night. And I saw that someone put together some Editorial actions to work similar to Obsidian. I may dig into that today.
But I’m also still really curious about using drafts. It has wiki linking now and has parity across platforms.
You can, but integrating images and rich documents is a pain, and you only get small previews. Linking is possible but requires a lot of manual manipulation.
You might also want to separate the production environment (writing itself) from the knowledge environment. I know I do.
Yeah. This is a good point. I just don’t want to have to think about which platform I need to use to do something, or to remember the idiosyncrasies of several different apps and how they handle linking or filenaming or whatever else.
Really I just need a tough-love workflow coach to force me to commit to something.
Obsidian and 1Writer play well together, providing you don’t use any of the fancier Obsidian wikilinking features (namely [[note#header links]] or [[note links|represented with different phrasing inline, separated by a pipe character]]).
Here’s a shortcut to dynamically create or open Today’s Note, providing your notes are saved in 1Writer with Dropbox via the app’s Dropbox integration:
To borrow from your classic contribution:
I’ll be glad to coach you! Just let me finish implementing my special workflow into three different PKM apps so that I can feel as much self-doubt as possible when I fall back into the old habit of just saving everything into a half-dozen different apps, devices, the desktop, and my downloads folder…
I have been playing with Obsidian and RoamResearch. Liking both of them. But time will tell which way I will lead myself into. Although at some point in the distant future they both might have 90% features overlapping. Just my guess
True, although it does look better to me than it did a couple years ago. If you’ve ever watched any of those makeover or remodel shows on cable TV, DEVONthink 3 is like the subject about halfway through the episode, at the point where you start to think, “This person/room/house really does have potential!”
Haha very good point. V3 is already a huge step forward compared to v2. And honestly, such a powerhouse is bound to have a somewhat austere UI. OmniFocus is a little bit like that compared to Things. But when you start tailoring these apps to your needs, man, do they sing!
I don’t like the new V3 UI. The old one, in particular the much missed 3 pane view is still a very sore point with me. New one is harder to use, and harder on the eyes. Much like the latest OF is as well.
I just spent a long time reading the 8 gazillion-post threat on the DEVONthink forum about this very topic. I don’t miss it, but I can’t believe they haven’t either 1) re-implemented it or 2) explained sufficiently WHY they haven’t implemented it.
I find this version, in general, nicer to look at. I’d appreciate some more refinements, though.
That’s not what they do.
I’ve begun emailing tech support directly with any suggestions or issues I have to avoid their tech support person on the forum that essentially says, “That’s the way we made it.”
I’m not so sure about that pencil sharpener. Isn’t a desk-mounted one better? Then you’ll always know where it is. And don’t forget you’ll want a little one in case you need it on the go. Also, what’s the best approach to sharpening? A professor at my design school alma mater ran an entire 1.5 hour workshop-lecture on sharpening a pencil and how to use it as a ritual for readying yourself for the work…
Wait, did someone say something about keeping it simple?
No, sadly it isn’t. There’s a certain taciturn and stubborn sentiment at Devon. Over the years I went from using DevonNote in 2007 to DT to DTP. It was a mostly satisfying experience but it got increasingly frustrating. I did not need DTP’s uniquely useful capabilities so it enabled me to easily jump ship to EagleFiler in 2016 after banging my head against Devon’s Customer Service wall about a bug they refused to address for literally years (then fixed soon after I switched).
