Thanks for the reply, but no, it’s not that (there’s a dedicated command for next/previously opened in cmd-]/[ I think. That’s the standard Mac Forward/Back shortcut and I’m glad it’s there, but it’s not what I’m looking for.)
It’s the most basic of features: go to the sidebar and select a file — it opens that file. Stay in the sidebar and press the down key. You expect, and want, the next file to be shown, but it doesn’t seem to happen. Similarly, there’s not shortcut for ‘next/previous’ document, as there is in DEVONthink, Scrivener, Tinderbox, Finder etc…
There doesn’t seem to be a way to traverse the directory with the keyboard. (I know you can search for a file, but that’s a different capability.) Am I missing something?
Thanks, you are kind. Given the rapid development of Obsidian I’m hoping this omission will soon be addressed. After reading your post I tried the same navigation in Craft—it also does not work navigating the folder/doc list.
At the moment, I’m giving up playing with Obsidian and Craft (and Emacs) and trying to use DEVONthink as much as possible — it can do almost everything the others can and I’ve (under)used it for years, so I’m comfortable with it. I spend far too much time thinking ‘I wonder how this new shiny thing does the same thing I can already do in DT3/Scrivener/Tinderbox?’…
In my case, I tried hard to use DT as you describe but I have relegated DT to OCR and file conversion for a few reasons. I’m not sure these are valid for others but in my case:
— I worry about having all of my files imported into DT given that others have reported data loss. I have indexed files as well but then it feels like I’m duplicating what already exists in iCloud.
— While the latest version is better than the prior version, I find DTTG to be a poorly designed application. I use my iPad a lot so this is important to me.
— I find trying to take notes in DT (Mac or mobile) to be tedious in DT’s editor. It works, but is not a great experience.
So, I’ve landed on trying to keep everything in iCloud, syncing and backing up everything, and using plain text/md for nearly everything as much as possible.
Regarding Scrivener, it is a great program but I don’t like needing to sync with DropBox because I will run out of free space and I don’t want to pay Dropbox’s high subscription cost. This is why I have gravitated toward trying to use Obsidian for long-form writing, along with all of the advantages of having my stuff in plain text. But, as I’ve posted elsewhere, I’m missing important features that programs like Scrivener and Ulysses provide.
I’ve come to the conclusion that every choice is a compromise. I just have to decide which compromises I’m willing to make.
I think I may have mentioned this before, but I wonder if Scrivener’s External Folder Sync feature would go a way towards squaring your circle? Use Scrivener on the desktop, and iA Writer / Obsidian / Byword / Something New and Shiny to work on the .md files in iCloud Drive on the iPad. I do this even on the desktop when I’m in the Emacs for Everything part of my cycle.
There are a couple of wrinkles, but essentially for the book you’re using markdown to write and Scrivener to organise and compile the manuscript. It can be really powerful. Just a thought if you’ve not explored the idea. (If you’re interested, I can put together a quick howto if that would help?)
That is amazingly kind and generous of you and would be awesome! I don’t know how to do what you are describing. I too use iA Writer and of course Obsidian (and have used Byword in the past). Also, what is Emacs?
I can’t thank you enough, your kind offer is “way above and beyond!”
No problem: I’ll make it fairly basic and you can see if you want any more details from there. Visitors have just arrived, so it won’t be for a few hours, but I’ll try to get it done when they’re gone.
(Emacs is the most advanced text editing environment in existence. It’s been continuously developed for decades, and acolytes engage in vicious hand to hand combat with devotees of Vim in The Editor Wars over which is better. It’s utterly brilliant, but it’s utterly idiosyncratic and absorbing and infuriating and wonderful for a certain sort of programmer / writer. It’s a rabbit hole that makes PKM look shallow…
No hurry at all, you are doing me a favor! As to Emacs, based on your description and my utter and total lack of programming/coding knowledge, I think I’ll avoid that rabbit hole. Speaking of rabbits, I took this picture this morning while working on may patio in the backyard.
Given Milo’s influence (I assume) this is encouraging and something I’d expect us to see in the not too distant future. That said, reading through the Obsidian posts, there are A LOT of feature requests. I don’t see how developers filter and deal with so much input!
It is a fuzzy process balancing the tension of ease-of-implementation with user demand. Discourse’s features help a lot, though. Sort the category by Top - All Time and you get a good picture of what’s sought after.
And yes, there’s currently 2,200 roughly unique feature requests. Not trivial. But, compare with the number that have been completed in the first year—700—and it doesn’t look so bad!
Thanks for the UI suggestions, guys. Going to throw my own in: Typefaceapp.com. It’s a font management app about as buttery as Things 3.
And please, skew the suggestions towards UI.
For one, I already have my app’s UX on lock. For another thing, aesthetic is translatable. That’s why Porsche Design exists. But good UX is completely contextual to the problem being solved. A 7lb Topre keyboard is the best typing experience on my desk. A 7lb Topre keyboard would be a disaster in my backpack.
My app is a Salesforce competitor. If I embraced the suggestion to ship a core feature at a time, it would look like a city without a plan. If I embraced the suggestion for more customizability over more opinionatedness, and pitched “more customizability than Salesforce”, most companies would s— harder than if I said “it’s like IKEA but you also chop the wood”.
I don’t need UX suggestions. It’s like talking about lenses in someone else’s prescription. I need pure UI inspiration, because I have an uncommonly large app that could benefit from every advantage to soften its big feature set, including min/maxing pleasantness in the UI.
As discussed… Rather than clog up this thread, I’ve sent you a private message with a quick howto on using Scrivener’s ‘Synchronised Folders’ for creating/editing markdown files in an external folder. Hope it’s useful…
Thank you, that’s a great idea. Satisfied with Dribbble would be a stretch. Votes for actual, testable apps with a track record are still more important. Just like touring an actual architectural marvel beats concept art with all the trash cans and vagrants removed. But this is an awesome lode I hadn’t tapped for miscellaneous UI doodads.
It’s such an odd omission.
