@mediapathic after having read various posts and used Obsidian for awhile, curious where you are at in your thinking with link as search format vs. link as direct?
@Nick said: @mediapathic after having read various posts and used Obsidian for awhile, curious where you are at in your thinking with link as search format vs. link as direct?
At the moment, I am quite pleased with link to direct. The only real disadvantages I have found for it are rendered null when using Obsidian, mostly due to their automated updating of links when files are renamed, and excellent and very granular search capabilities.
However, I want to be clear here about two things. One: I do not think that this approach is the best for a software-agnostic approach. I think it can work in a software-agnostic way, but the results will be noisy (e.g., I have a note named "motivation". That will almost certainly produce a very noisy set of search results). I am willing to make this sacrifice for the greater ease of use in the software I use most often (Obsidian, Emacs, and The Archive), but it is not the correct solution for everyone.
The other thing is that I am quite the opposite of an academic in my use of Zettelkasten. My linkages do not need to be as rigorous as most people, and in fact, given the things I work on, a certain amount of erring toward randomness and slop in my results can actually be an advantage. So, again, this is very much what works for me. I suspect someone trying to use a ZK in an academic way would be horrified by my results and I feel @Sascha judging me even now.
@mediapathic ya I'm undecided on it all, still trying to figure out what I want to do. I like the idea of using it to track output overtime and for it to serve as a backup for possible switch of software.
But I've also been experimenting with only having titles, because Obsidian will automatically update links. On top of that unmentioned links don't work unless you have it as just titles for terminology at least.
So I'm split on what to do lol. Also since I started Obsidian Publish, the Time IDs are very annoying, so I've removed them for the Published notes.
I, too, am on the fence about keeping timestamp UID's in filenames. The convenience of having that chronological context is compelling. I adopted the idea of including a timestamp UID in every note as metadata, leaving the possibilities open to restoring it if I ever need to. I have a mix and match of notes with and without them. I use whichever best suits my need or thinking at the time. Obsidian lets you link across folders, so I use separate folders for the different styled filename/note titles to have a clearer view of folder note lists.
I saw in the Obsidian forums where someone suggested using regex search for finding chronological context for notes where the timestamp UID is not stored in the filename but in the note text. It occurred to me that this idea could be carried a step further via a script or perhaps a plugin. It would return a note list in Title-order A-Z or Z-A with the timestamp UID presented as the first string (display only) and then the filename title. This script or plugin could handle date ranges etc. Then the convenience could be preserved without having to have the timestamp UID in the filename.
I finally found a solution to this problem in Obsidian.
Front Matter Title plugin previews file name as "XYZ" even though the original file name is UID. Its link preview also includes XYZ, so there are no problems using [UID] links like in the Archive.
@c4lvorias said:
One problem is it allows title duplicates.
Same for me in my practice, but this never became an issue. Except that one time where I processed a concept and afterwards looked for connections, only to notice I already had that. But that wasn't even the exact same title, character-by-character, only roughly so.
I'd argue that repeating titles are maybe not specific enough
Note file names contain a timestamp + short note title (ex. 202403272114-binary-vector-search.md)
In frontmatter you can specify aliases (ex. alias: Binary Vector Search)
Then while inside a note you type "[[" and search relevant note by it's alias
Then when found it gets automatically formatted to a default markdown link, which is usable anywhere (ex. [Binary Vector Search](202403272114-binary-vector-search.md) )
@ZettelDistraction said:
Thank you for mentioning the Front Matter Title plugin. I wasn't aware of it. Now Obsidian is useful to me again--though I dislike the user interface.
Comments
@mediapathic after having read various posts and used Obsidian for awhile, curious where you are at in your thinking with link as search format vs. link as direct?
At the moment, I am quite pleased with link to direct. The only real disadvantages I have found for it are rendered null when using Obsidian, mostly due to their automated updating of links when files are renamed, and excellent and very granular search capabilities.
However, I want to be clear here about two things. One: I do not think that this approach is the best for a software-agnostic approach. I think it can work in a software-agnostic way, but the results will be noisy (e.g., I have a note named "motivation". That will almost certainly produce a very noisy set of search results). I am willing to make this sacrifice for the greater ease of use in the software I use most often (Obsidian, Emacs, and The Archive), but it is not the correct solution for everyone.
The other thing is that I am quite the opposite of an academic in my use of Zettelkasten. My linkages do not need to be as rigorous as most people, and in fact, given the things I work on, a certain amount of erring toward randomness and slop in my results can actually be an advantage. So, again, this is very much what works for me. I suspect someone trying to use a ZK in an academic way would be horrified by my results and I feel @Sascha judging me even now.
@mediapathic ya I'm undecided on it all, still trying to figure out what I want to do. I like the idea of using it to track output overtime and for it to serve as a backup for possible switch of software.
But I've also been experimenting with only having titles, because Obsidian will automatically update links. On top of that unmentioned links don't work unless you have it as just titles for terminology at least.
So I'm split on what to do lol. Also since I started Obsidian Publish, the Time IDs are very annoying, so I've removed them for the Published notes.
@nick @mediapathic
I, too, am on the fence about keeping timestamp UID's in filenames. The convenience of having that chronological context is compelling. I adopted the idea of including a timestamp UID in every note as metadata, leaving the possibilities open to restoring it if I ever need to. I have a mix and match of notes with and without them. I use whichever best suits my need or thinking at the time. Obsidian lets you link across folders, so I use separate folders for the different styled filename/note titles to have a clearer view of folder note lists.
I saw in the Obsidian forums where someone suggested using regex search for finding chronological context for notes where the timestamp UID is not stored in the filename but in the note text. It occurred to me that this idea could be carried a step further via a script or perhaps a plugin. It would return a note list in Title-order A-Z or Z-A with the timestamp UID presented as the first string (display only) and then the filename title. This script or plugin could handle date ranges etc. Then the convenience could be preserved without having to have the timestamp UID in the filename.
I finally found a solution to this problem in Obsidian.
Front Matter Title plugin previews file name as "XYZ" even though the original file name is UID. Its link preview also includes XYZ, so there are no problems using [UID] links like in the Archive.
Original:
With front matter title:
And linking:
One problem is it allows title duplicates.
Selen. Psychology freak. https://twitter.com/neuro__flow
“You cannot buy the revolution. You cannot make the revolution. You can only be the revolution. It is in your spirit, or it is nowhere.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin
Same for me in my practice, but this never became an issue. Except that one time where I processed a concept and afterwards looked for connections, only to notice I already had that. But that wasn't even the exact same title, character-by-character, only roughly so.
I'd argue that repeating titles are maybe not specific enough
Author at Zettelkasten.de • https://christiantietze.de/
In Obsidian I use the following:
[Binary Vector Search](202403272114-binary-vector-search.md))Thank you for mentioning the Front Matter Title plugin. I wasn't aware of it. Now Obsidian is useful to me again--though I dislike the user interface.
GitHub. Erdős #2. Problems worthy of attack / prove their worth by hitting back. -- Piet Hein. Alter ego: Erel Dogg (not the first). CC BY-SA 4.0.
I wish you good use.
Selen. Psychology freak. https://twitter.com/neuro__flow
“You cannot buy the revolution. You cannot make the revolution. You can only be the revolution. It is in your spirit, or it is nowhere.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin