Zettelkasten Forum


Professor/Archaeologist/Researcher

Hi to all.

I'm a university professor and researcher in archaeology and am currrently adapting Zettelkasten to my research workflow. Meaning, I'm not using it in its pure form (as Luhmann devised it), but rather a mingle of it with a wiki database (a mix of concept notes, snippet notes and reading notes).

I use DEVONthink and Bookends for this but, since I don't really like the md editor in DT, I'm currently evaluating The Archive as the main repository of my notes database (my adapted Zettelkasten), while indexing the folder in DT3.

Oh... and I've been a lurker of this nice forum, which has helped me in the last few weeks to prepare for my (oh-so-wished) sabbatical.

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_Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose. _ -- Zora Neale Hurston

Comments

  • Welcome aboard! Looking forward to hear about your projects and how the Zettelkasten Method helped with your work.

    Author at Zettelkasten.de • https://christiantietze.de/

  • Fellow professor, archaeologist, researcher here. Also a bookends and Devonthink user. But I’ve found the simplicity of the archive (when combined with a few good keyboard maestro macros) to be a game changer. I link to bookends in my zettelnote and use the DT ai to explore both these notes and the original PDFs. I find it a good combo.

  • @ctietze Thank you for the welcome. :smile:

    @aroddick

    Cool! I'm also a KM user. What main macros do you use? I'm still setting mine (and also setting shortcuts for them in the TouchBar with BetterTouchTool), but I'll be happy to integrate a few more (specially if they speed up the Bookends - DT3 - The Archive interaction)

    So far I'm using these. The first three create new zettels (with different templates) in The Archive, the others are auto-descriptive (the search KM macro was adapted from @Will's Zettel Title Search.

    Also, do you also edit some zettels in iPad? If so, what app do you use?

    ================
    _Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose. _ -- Zora Neale Hurston

  • @MJV Welcome. Your university professor's perspective will add to the conversation.

    Will Simpson
    I must keep doing my best even though I'm a failure. My peak cognition is behind me. One day soon I will read my last book, write my last note, eat my last meal, and kiss my sweetie for the last time.
    kestrelcreek.com

  • Thank you, @Will. The Zettelkasten forum community is a very good one. I have already learned a lot by reading several posts. (Your inputs are particularly interesting to follow, since you so often share your workflow and tips.)

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    _Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose. _ -- Zora Neale Hurston

  • @MJV yes, @Will , I think, provided some amazing insert links (by simply typing [[) and and insert tags (typing #) that I use with every note. I draw in my bookends links with this macro (which some kind soul shared on another forum, although I'm having trouble tracking back who it was!)
    I create zettels in Drafts, using their handy actions, then use an action to save them to my Zettel Dropbox folder. I also fiddle with them using 1Writer.

    @MJV said:
    @ctietze Thank you for the welcome. :smile:

    @aroddick

    Cool! I'm also a KM user. What main macros do you use? I'm still setting mine (and also setting shortcuts for them in the TouchBar with BetterTouchTool), but I'll be happy to integrate a few more (specially if they speed up the Bookends - DT3 - The Archive interaction)

    So far I'm using these. The first three create new zettels (with different templates) in The Archive, the others are auto-descriptive (the search KM macro was adapted from @Will's Zettel Title Search.

    Also, do you also edit some zettels in iPad? If so, what app do you use?

  • @MJV I use iA Writer on my iPad to create Zettels. I love it's split-screen Markdown view. IA Writer syncs to iCloud and hence it is a simple matter to copy new text files to the Dropbox folder where I store my ZK.

  • MJVMJV
    edited June 2020

    @aroddick I'm going to check if I can adapt that reference macro BE->Md to my workflow. Although I'm happy with the one I have right now. (Like @Sascha showed in a shared video a while ago, also I prefer to have all the formatted reference in my zettels.)

    Basically I have my workflow set to include something like what's below as footnote:

    Bentley, R. A., O’Brien, M. J., Manning, K., & Shennan, S. (2015). On the relevance of the European Neolithic. Antiquity, 89(347), 1203-1210. <bookends://sonnysoftware.com/41986>

    @GeoEng51 I'm a bit curious about iA Writer on iPad, but since I'm writing most of my zettels on the mac (directly in The Archive now, after fighting a bit with DEVONthink's markdown missing capabilities) and also already owning 1Writer (for iPad's eventual editing), iA Witers' 30€ doesn't seem a good investment. I'm a nerd, but I have my limits. :smile:

    ================
    _Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose. _ -- Zora Neale Hurston

  • edited June 2020

    @MJV I'm a bit curious about iA Writer on iPad...

    I have iA Writer on Android (phone), iPadOS, and macOS. The iOS (iPadOS) version can't use notes from dropbox, only from iCloud, so is not worthy if you use dropbox. The Android and macOS versions can use dropbox.

    So I use iA Writer on my Android phone and the Mac and I'm very happy. I write temporary notes in Simplenote when on the iPad since I can access them in all my devices and manually copy them to my dropbox when on the Mac. I can still access and modify my dropbox notes within the iPad but only with the official dropbox app.

    If I had everything Apple I'll just use iCloud for storing my text files instead of dropbox but I read and write many times from my phone for convenience

  • @Splattack Thanks for the feedback.

    I would only be interested on the iOS/iPadOS version. But I'm using Dropbox so I'd have to change my storing place (and pay for a new app that might not do much more than 1Writer).

    ================
    _Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose. _ -- Zora Neale Hurston

  • @Splattack said:

    @MJV I'm a bit curious about iA Writer on iPad...

    I have iA Writer on Android (phone), iPadOS, and macOS. The iOS (iPadOS) version can't use notes from dropbox, only from iCloud, so is not worthy if you use dropbox. The Android and macOS versions can use dropbox.

    The statement that the iPad OS version of iA Writer cannot use Dropbox is not true. I keep my ZK in a Dropbox folder, normally accessed from TA on my Mac. However, I edit individual notes all the time in iA Writer on my iPad. You go to your Library in iA Writer and then instead of using iCloud, select "Open", select through to Dropbox (the first time, you have to run the Dropbox app on your iPad to authorize iA Writer accessing it), then go to whatever folder you want and open whatever file you want. When I come back to my Mac and open TA, the edited notes are there, ready for my use. Easy peasy.

  • Right - you can access individual files, but you can’t add your dropbox to the library (see below) meaning you can’t quickly navigate or follow links. It makes it pretty clunky compared to Dropbox folders on 1Writer.

  • @aroddick I don't find it clunky, really. Once you've opened a file, it stays on a list of previously opened files, in the iA Writer Library under "From Other Apps". Agreed there is a little bit of overhead to initially open the file, but then afterwards, it is simple to go back to it from iA Writer. This is my "go to" approach on the iPad.

  • @aroddick A P.S. to my immediately previous comment. When in iA Writer on the Mac, at the top of the far left column, there is a section for "Locations". Click on the small + sign next to "Locations" and you can open up and show any other folder you want, including the one in which you store your ZK.

    It's not quite that simple on the iPad, but as described above, still pretty straight forward.

  • edited July 2020

    @GeoEng51 said:
    The statement that the iPad OS version of iA Writer cannot use Dropbox is not true. ..Easy peasy.

    Yeah, but it doesn't work syncing dropbox folders, only if you open one file at the time.


    https://ia.net/writer/support/general/dropbox

    iOS

    As was the case with macOS, the Dropbox Sync API has been deprecated. While it is still available to use in iA Writer 5 until the end of 2017, we recommend accessing your Dropbox files through iOS11’s new Files interface:

    Ensure you have the Dropbox app installed on your iOS device
    In the Library, tap Open…
    Navigate to the file you wish to open and tap it
    

    Any files opened this way are automatically added to the From Other Apps location in the Library. They are also indexed for Quick Search so you can find them in seconds.


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