I have been following this forum for a while and I am SO appreciative of all the teaching and guidance! I opted to go with google docs for my Zettel and wondered if there might be others who have done the same that I could compare notes with.
I've been using Google Docs to build my Zettelkasten since my very recent introduction on 29 December 2023. Blimey, that's longer ago than I'd have guessed.
I like Google Docs as it's easy to access anywhere I have access to a device and an internet connection and, as you'd expect from Google, searches well. I don't like Google Docs because it doesn't automate backlinks and it doesn't have any reporting feature that will identify slips that have gone off and got lost.
If I may offer one thing I've found: My ability to see when a slip was getting out of hand, too big, what when I installed an Docs extension that let me create documents sized A6, landscape ... like an index card. It doesn't just let me see a slip is getting big (certainly when it reaches 3 A6 pages), but it also has a nice visual appearance on the screen with text clearly within a "card" rather than on a page that descends below the bottom of the screen.
I remember that @mlbrandt described her UID encoding scheme in the discussion "Numerology in the UID...?". I speculated in response that the limitations of one's software system (in this case, Google Docs) will affect one's use of metadata.
@mlbrandt encodes subject metadata in the UID, perhaps in part because Google Docs has no automatic indexing of such metadata as more specialized ZK software does, and by putting subject metadata at the front of the UID, you get an automatic subject index when the UID is at the start of the document name and all documents are sorted by name. (At least, that's how I imagine it works; I don't use Google Docs. Correct me if I'm wrong.)
I used this outline of academic disciplines to create a 4 number system. Not as a "filing system" for my notes, but a guide to the most likely place a first note should go.
I'm a surgeon and a theologian (with a background in humanities!) so my interests are quite varied (hence why I wanted a system that let me think about a variety of topics.
I still put each note next to the note most like it in keeping with the super power of a Zettelkasten. To find the note the new note should go next to I search my drive for key (or related) words and only use this 4 digit spreadsheet if I can't find where it should go.
I also spend a little time thinking about "random" associations with other ideas and cross link the two docs by copying and pasting the urls on each note.
Here's an example of a recent note. My Zettel is above the solid line. Quotes from sources that led to my note are below the line.
Thanks, that answers a doubt that I had. It seemed to me that the file list (i.e., list of Zettels themselves) could be difficult to use as a subject index because of all the redundancy. It would be impossible to use it as such in an extremely large Zettelkasten. But you have a manually created subject list that you use sometimes that avoids that problem. That almost seems to be necessary when the software doesn't create such a list automatically.
Comments
I've been using Google Docs to build my Zettelkasten since my very recent introduction on 29 December 2023. Blimey, that's longer ago than I'd have guessed.
I like Google Docs as it's easy to access anywhere I have access to a device and an internet connection and, as you'd expect from Google, searches well. I don't like Google Docs because it doesn't automate backlinks and it doesn't have any reporting feature that will identify slips that have gone off and got lost.
If I may offer one thing I've found: My ability to see when a slip was getting out of hand, too big, what when I installed an Docs extension that let me create documents sized A6, landscape ... like an index card. It doesn't just let me see a slip is getting big (certainly when it reaches 3 A6 pages), but it also has a nice visual appearance on the screen with text clearly within a "card" rather than on a page that descends below the bottom of the screen.
Thanks! Good idea re: the "index card" size.
I remember that @mlbrandt described her UID encoding scheme in the discussion "Numerology in the UID...?". I speculated in response that the limitations of one's software system (in this case, Google Docs) will affect one's use of metadata.
@mlbrandt encodes subject metadata in the UID, perhaps in part because Google Docs has no automatic indexing of such metadata as more specialized ZK software does, and by putting subject metadata at the front of the UID, you get an automatic subject index when the UID is at the start of the document name and all documents are sorted by name. (At least, that's how I imagine it works; I don't use Google Docs. Correct me if I'm wrong.)
I used this outline of academic disciplines to create a 4 number system. Not as a "filing system" for my notes, but a guide to the most likely place a first note should go.
I'm a surgeon and a theologian (with a background in humanities!) so my interests are quite varied (hence why I wanted a system that let me think about a variety of topics.
I still put each note next to the note most like it in keeping with the super power of a Zettelkasten. To find the note the new note should go next to I search my drive for key (or related) words and only use this 4 digit spreadsheet if I can't find where it should go.
I also spend a little time thinking about "random" associations with other ideas and cross link the two docs by copying and pasting the urls on each note.
Here's an example of a recent note. My Zettel is above the solid line. Quotes from sources that led to my note are below the line.
Thanks, that answers a doubt that I had. It seemed to me that the file list (i.e., list of Zettels themselves) could be difficult to use as a subject index because of all the redundancy. It would be impossible to use it as such in an extremely large Zettelkasten. But you have a manually created subject list that you use sometimes that avoids that problem. That almost seems to be necessary when the software doesn't create such a list automatically.