Using your ZK to write

Will

This time, without question, I removed all doubt about my connection with reality. I've stuttered and stammered and forgotten the common names of things stumbling along for 20 mins. Confused zettel, note, and file and a PC and a MAC, and mentioning sideways carrots?( what the hell are those) over and over again. I'm not getting any better at making videos. Watch this at your own risk. I can't be responsible for damages to your DNA? You might get something out of this video that will help your writing.

This combo of the software The Archive and Marked2 are the absolute best writing software combo ever!

A part of the writing process that this video doesn't show is the gathering and referencing of the entire ZK when making the zettel that makes up this essay. I habitually run The Archive in two-window mode and keep the right window focused on my work and the left window I use to search my ZK, view PDFs or live preview with Marked2.

Best view in full screen.
https://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/c3eV3qVbL9i

The two-window workflow allows you to write and research effectively. It is so efficient that it is fun. The most fun you can have writing!

Try this - for the win!

If you have questions, suggestions, or criticisms, let me know.

zk_1000

your speech has improved by so much. I am really impressed by the progress you've made.

ctietze

Nice. I was waiting for the transclusion preview (it's used e.g. at around 19:00m) because that's a really nifty thing in Marked, allowing one to space out writing onto multiple files -- and managing many small-ish files is something I believe The Archive does well, so win-win

Will

Thanks for your comments.

Using a particular type of structure note or group of structure notes to tie multiple atomic zettel together into a live previewed full document is a powerful feature of The Archive/Marked2 toolchain.

I would not just link zettel together and call it done when doing this. But, I'd see where the gaps in my ideas were not well explained and make the necessary edits to the zettel. Editing the zettel makes them more useful and iterates them forward. This is a win-win. I get a publishable document, and my ZK grows. Some commentators in other threads have worried about this "muddling" their ZK. Creating a structure note outlining a publishable paper is not considered 'muddling.' Working to iterate zettel in the publication process is not 'muddling.' I'm sure I have lots of "wasteful," "abstract," and even false notes that might be considered 'muddling,' but not these.

A few of the features that Marked2 extends in The Archive for writing.
1. table of contents
2. mini mapping
3. folding
4. keyboard navigation
5. auto-scrolling
6. comprehensive stats
7. proofing tools
8. outlining
9. printing
10. MathJax/LaTex

GeoEng51

@Will

Use of Marked2 is very cool; thanks for highlighting it so well.

However, I'm not convinced that trying to write an entire article or book or thesis in your ZK is a great idea. A lot of the writing doesn't need to go into a ZK. But obviously, it can. It just seems a bit forced (to me). Clearly, it depends on the main purpose for which you are creating and maintaining a ZK.

Jeremy

Really interesting video. At the moment I use Folding Text, now under new management, to do this sort of moving paragraphs around when Scrivener would be overkill, but I might have to give this method a try.

xal

@GeoEng51 said:
@Will

Use of Marked2 is very cool; thanks for highlighting it so well.

However, I'm not convinced that trying to write an entire article or book or thesis in your ZK is a great idea. A lot of the writing doesn't need to go into a ZK. But obviously, it can. It just seems a bit forced (to me). Clearly, it depends on the main purpose for which you are creating and maintaining a ZK.

I like the idea to have all the content in a same slipbox, notes, articles and even books organized by chapters. But of course, there are some limitations to do that. I am trying some other tools for my project of writing a book, Ulysses, iA Writer...

Do you have recommandations for a writing tool?

GeoEng51

@xal said:
I like the idea to have all the content in a same slipbox, notes, articles and even books organized by chapters. But of course, there are some limitations to do that. I am trying some other tools for my project of writing a book, Ulysses, iA Writer...

Do you have recommandations for a writing tool?

I use Scrivener for most of my writing projects and then export either to a Markdown file, with further massaging by Pandoc (for personal use), or to a Word Processor such as Word or Pages, depending on the preference of clients. A lot of times, though, the text just stays in Scrivener.