Question re outining
Hi everyone,
I used to use the ZKN3 program for running a zettelkasten, but switched to the Archive after migrating to a new computer caused all kinds of havoc. I'm loving the simplicity and bomb-proofness of this compared to a lot of other stuff I've tried.
I do find one shortcoming though and wonder how y'all might have dealt with it. I use these notes for writing, and one great thing about the ZKN3 program was the ability to generate an outline, where you could move notes around. This was, as I understand it, a core functionality of the old school notecard system, but I don't see a good way to do that here other than writing out an outline and linking the zettels. It works, but is a little clunky -- I would of course prefer something drag-and-drop, which I imagine would mean physically copying notes over to some other program like RemNote every time I want to write something. A buddy suggested printing hard copies and reorganizing that way, which might not be a bad idea.
Just curious what tricks others are using to gather up notes into an outline. Please share any successes you've had. Best wishes.
Howdy, Stranger!
Comments
I'm also interested in the solutions that others have found for a more flexible outlining. For now, when setting out to write something based on ideas in the Archive, I create a new Zettel and dump all the links (Zettel links) that seem pertinent to the topic at hand, then order them in a potentially logical sequence. From there, though, I need to paste the actual content of the Zettels so that I can create text with it and around it. That becomes rather clunky within a Zettel. I then want to migrate to Scrivener to grapple with the text chunks and create article subsections. I have a sense that this process can be optimized. Suggestions are most welcome.
For reference, I have to produce research articles, which are typically 6000-9000 words long.
@Dragonfly I follow a similar process to the one you are describing, except that I forgo the middle step, that is, I just find applicable zettels, then drag and drop them into Scrivener. I do the rest of my organizing and writing in Scrivener.
You could do what I do. My ZK is written in HTML, so I open my zettels in a browser. When I want to do that "moving notes around" thing I use the web browser's facilities of many windows and tabs and move those around.
If your notes are in MD, well, a browser can read and display those…