Keypoints isn’t a typical Zettelkasten program, but it shares quite a few principles with it. For example, each note has a stable & concise ID, which is also used for cross-linking of notes. But you can create links easily via drag & drop. This is also shown quickly in this little screencast:
By “Ambitious and difficult”, are you referring to the reference retrieval? My app will try to fetch the reference info from your reference manager (if possible). There’s still a lot of work to do w.r.t. bibliographic features, but I hope to support at least the scriptable reference managers on the Mac (like Papers, Bookends or BibDesk) from the very beginning.
Since the plaintext note contains all required information Keypoints can re-establish the link to the exact PDF annotation (in the PDF source file) from the plaintext note. But it currently doesn’t provide PDF links that will open the PDF (at the exact location) in other applications. This would require those other apps to support linking to an exact position on the PDF page. Or did you mean something else?
Are you referring to the fact that notes from different PDF sources can be displayed in these apps next to each other? This would be similar in Keypoints. Or did you mean something else? Thanks.
What is your business model to monetize all of your hard work?
I have been using Mindmaps to perform document tabulation of a large number of technical documentation that I am preparing.
This is a very hot niche right now.
Look at all the gushing going over Roam Research the new flavor of the month.
Where will the data reside? I think this is the issue with Roam Research whereas the data passes through their servers and they cannot handle the traffic so creating this phony scarcity frenzy.
IMHO the timing is perfect. I would suggest some type of subscription model with free access to people with a .edu email to get traction. A page out of the Apple playbook.
Besides good functionality and good relationships with your customers, I suggest looking at financial sustainability.
@D_Rehak, many thanks for the motivating feedback!
W.r.t. to business models, I’m personally no fan of subscription-only models. And for me (as a former polar researcher with elongated field trips, see here) I strongly favor apps that can also work fully offline.
Ideally, the app would be free for individuals and money would come via other means (think Zotero). But as this is highly unlikely, I’d like to pursue the classic one-off license model (i.e., no subscriptions for individual users). But before I can think too hard about things like this, I want to focus on the app, make it stable and bring it into release state. As you say, there’s still much hard work ahead.
Your suggested approach looks very appealing! I hope we can try it soon!
Extracting information out of papers and combining them to be used e.g. in a review paper or the discussion of an original paper is always a struggle. I changed my preferred workflow quite often…
From my point of view (MD and researcher in ENT and allergy) the combination of the text with the bibliographical source is crucial here. Currently, I usually draft papers in Ulysses and paste the bibliographical info the text from Bookends. Correct formatting of the references is not crucial at this point - I just need to be able to recognize where the info came from later on.
What I would suggest to think about early on is the possibility of an iPadOS Version. It is so enjoyable to read and highlight academic papers on the iPad (sitting somewhere relaxed and not at the desk)…
The Agenda monetization model is very nice. You pay for the app as it is now, and it’s yours to use forever. If you want new features, you can subscribe for those. If they don’t strike your fancy, you can hold off.
Something I’ve really enjoyed lately is using Readwise to review my Kindle highlights. I get a list of five every day, click through to the web app. A couple of clicks allows me to open Kindle to that book and highlight, so I can give the highlights some context, make more notes, etc.
This capability with PDFs or some sort of conduit to/from Readwise would be phenomenal.
I would happily pay a bounty when the time comes.
Yes, the Agenda folks have found a nice compromise which I think is very fair and practical. They are smart guys, and I very much enjoyed working with them when I was at Papers Mekentosj. However, what I don’t like so much about the Agenda model is that it forces the developers to focus on features. OTOH, with the classic business model (one-off licensees), you can’t make a new release w/o major new features either. Sometimes, however, the biggest advancements lie in fine tuning the details.
If you’re MacOS/iOS/iPadOS only, you might consider the SetApp model - the subscription w/o subscription. One subscription works for many curated apps. Includes duplicates, but I believe SetApp only pays publishers for the apps installed (so on merit). Yet, the model is apparently very strong (I gather).
To play devil’s advocate, the subscription model is very strong (IMO) if the value is high. Then it’s a no-brainer, and the financial stability helps with developerment, hiring, planning, through rough development patches, etc…
Without any idea of the work involved in the programming, I agree.
I certainly much prefer reading (esp. pdfs) on my iPad than the desktop / laptop computer. As is well-known, however, working with the data to generate new documents such as analyses is usually much more straightforward on a MacOS device.
As far as possible, I try to ensure the applications I use are cross-device.
Agreed. For many (including me), the iPad is a crucial part in their workflows. However, I’m a solo developer, and I can only work on this part time. So getting an app into release state on one platform is already a big undertaking. Those who develop themselves probably know how long it can take to reliably implement even the tiniest features. So, yes, I’d love to offer an iPad version, and I have plans to implement this. But right now, it’s a long term goal.
On the plus side, since the app’s notes are exposed as plaintext files on disk, it should be possible to integrate with other iPad editors. That’s obviously not the same as a dedicated iPad app, but it’s at least something.
Yes and herein is the problem. Because the majority of mass public has been brought into computer literacy with easy to navigate UI’s it is reasonable to deduct that it is easy to create the software when nothing can be further from the truth and the Wizard of Oz behind the facade is either an army of programmers or a one man operation who is working their preverbal ass off.
If one wants to see something shocking go behind and look at the screens of personnel working in the hotel, airline or banking industry and many systems goin back to DOS days as they amount of work and lines of code to implement big software systems is astounding.
While it has gotten easier by building on blocks of reusable code it is still a formidable task and I think Apple is trying to blend it so one piece of code can run on their eco system.
Then this is compound by the mass consumer for some reason is under the expectation that software should be free and some have the odyssey to write up negative critics and complain about spending $0.99 > $2.99 on a piece of software while they are in Starbucks sipping their $5.00 lattes’.
Given all this why do people embark on this journey?
Well it is truly a labor of love and the thrill never ends from seeing your thoughts, your instructions being executed perfectly.
Great idea but please consider ways to share a set of notes with colleagues or the public - perhaps via a static site generator as you mentioned on another forum.
The difference between an app which is for personal use only vs one where you can share your work product with others is an enormous jump in utility.
Sorry for my naivety…
I’m just an interested user without any experience in software development and hearing about Mac Catalyst, Xcode 11, SwiftUI and how they might make it easier to develop for both platforms gave me the impression that this would be a feasible approach.
This app sounds right in my wheelhouse, as I prefer keeping things in plain text. However, I do most of my PDF reading on the iPad. Would it be possible to extract the sort of typical notes I can take using a PDF reader with your app? Even just this functionality would be awesome!
How is this coming along? It sounds amazing and would be great to try!
Please keep in mind that at some point or another the text will have to come out of Keynote and into Word or similar for use with anyone else (colleagues, publisher, etc). And don’t forget Zotero folks
