Over the past few years there are increasing apps that work well with plain text (Obsidian, Drafts, Bear…). However, the most problematic aspect for me in working with plain text is to do with files in a variety of formats that are associated to the plain text. Plain text doesn’t often travel on its own. For example I may need to prepare for a meeting and review a number of files. I can easily make the notes in a plain text app, but the files can be PDF, docx, xlsx, jpg, etc. My experience is that plain text editors don’t really handle this well. Sometimes, even a quick view can be a problem or editing the file and saving it back into it’s plain text editor. You then end up with needing to separate associated files from your notes, which, let’s face it, can be a real pain. You’re in the meeting looking at the notes and can’t find that one stupid file!
In practice this becomes very messy, very fast. Let’s say, I’m in Bear preparing for a meeting. I need to open a docx file that I have saved into Bear. Bear allows me to preview the document which is fine. I now need to make a correction to the file. I now open it in Word and am immediately told it is read only. So I now need to make a copy, but of course cannot store it back in Bear, I now need to select either onedrive, iphone/ipad or Files App. I now have to remember after the meeting that the edited file is now stored in “x”. Imagine multiplying the countless times over countless meetings. What a mess.
I would be interested in how you wise MPU folks handle this dichotomy? Especially solutions that scale well. It would be helpful if the solution works on macOS and iOS/iPadOS.
My own solution at the moment it to store all my files in Devonthink, as it handles the most file formats. It also allows creating links to each file that can be pasted into a plain text app and opened easily. It also allows the editing of files and saving them in-situ. Ironically, this could all be done in Devonthink, but their plain text offering always seems to be behind the curve.
The outcome I’m looking for is to be able to go to a meeting, read my notes, make notes, open associated files and modify them and after the meeting find all is still connected.
A final question is how archive works in such a system? Moving files can break links. Leaving files that are no longer needed can create unecessary clutter as well as use up needed storage space.
This is pushing me further away from iOS/iPadOS and I find myself grabbing my MBP more than my iPad. On my MBP I can open the file in Word from Bear and save it back to Bear. It’s that pesky iOS/ipadOS that’s the problem.
Sorry for the long post!
