10 ms·

Trilium Notes: Markdown autoformat personal knowledge base

233 points by en3r0 6y ago

en3r0 6y ago
I have been using Trilium lately and I love it. What sold me completely is the sidebar sections "What Links Here" - my purposeful linking and "Similar Notes" - reminding me of what I may have forgotten.
- en3r0 6y ago
  Also the fact that I can completely self host it on a server while running a local client on any machine that syncs effortlessly.
kurzawa7 6y ago
Will give this a shot. Looks like a modern alternative to CherryTree. I find these hierarchical note taking apps useful for organising complex projects which usually require several levels deep of note organisation. I also use Joplin for general note taking and Google Keep for website resources. I'm set.
- maxwellwhite 6y ago
  Website resources?
  - kurzawa7 6y ago
    What I meant by "Website Resources" is a collection of website links I want to keep note of. Also, Sorry for not linking apps I mentioned. CherryTree - A hierarchical note taking application, featuring rich text and syntax highlighting, storing data in a single xml or sqlite file. https://www.giuspen.com/cherrytree/ https://www.giuspen.com/cherrytree/ -- Joplin - An open source note taking and to-do application with synchronisation capabilities https://joplinapp.org/ https://joplinapp.org/ -- Google Keep - a web-based note-taking service developed by Google. https://keep.google.com/ https://keep.google.com/ -- Extras which may interest you: Zim - A Desktop Wiki - https://zim-wiki.org/ https://zim-wiki.org/ TreeSheets - Open Source, Free Form Data Organizer (Hierarchical Spreadsheet) - http://strlen.com/treesheets/ http://strlen.com/treesheets/
    - maxwellwhite 6y ago
      Hey! Thanks for the reply, by the way. Checking out the links, too!
- supandi 6y ago
  I have been using 'Joplin' for most of my notes. I have the desktop client and mobile client synced up using 'syncthing' app on my desktop. Its a perfect little setup.
formalsystem 6y ago
I've tried more than a couple of times to use a personal knowledge base and haven't been succesful in making it stick. My process so far has been I keep a daily journal where I write down the most interesting things I learnt or did everyday. If my daily notes are getting unwieldy then I use a Markdown file which I sync on Github. And when I really want to make sure that I've understood something I'll either write a blogpost or stream myself going through a library. I would definitely appreciate the ability to search my old notes better since they got too long to efficiently parse a long time ago but this process lets me structure the really important concepts I learn without adding too much overhead when I'm just learning random stuff. I also expect my notes to outlast many knowledge base projects and part of the appeal of markdown to me is that it's probably gonna be around for a while. I'm curious if any writers here have found personal knowledge bases to be worth the initial overhead.
- bwat49 6y ago
  > My process so far has been I keep a daily journal where I write down the most interesting things I learnt or did everyday Trilium should work great for this, you can press ctrl + alt + p to automatically create a new day note under a calendar tree. In my case, I also added a custom shortcut/button that brings me to the current day in the calendar tree
- kieckerjan 6y ago
  Sounds like you have the bulk of a successful routine in place already. The only thing that is missing is a regular moment when you sit down and sift through all your recent notes and connect them to your knowledge base, whatever that is. I suspect that this feels a bit pointless at first but I understand that it soon becomes satisfying and useful. (Beginner here, hence the cautious tone.)
- synista 6y ago
  So I'm going through a bunch of these apps/systems and so far, Zettlr looks like it might be suited to what you're already doing. It's fairly minimalistic out of the box, the markdown files are automatically named by the date you write them (your daily notes), there's autocompletion for your links, there's tags, and that's it. There are maybe a few other things, but that's it. I'm trying out Trilium right now because I was interested in its visual mapping (I'm more of a visual thinker So I've been using Freeplane, a mindmap software, but it's too restrictive with the hierarchies) and while it has nice features, there seems to be too much going on, which I suspect won't stick with me personally.
mkl 6y ago
Previous discussion (but worth discussing again): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18840990 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18840990
- mbreese 6y ago
  I think this is more in reference to yesterday’s discussion about Obsidian... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23324598 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23324598 There have been a few knowledge base/markdown discussions lately.
  - synista 6y ago
    I wonder whether it is a result of coronavirus and lockdowns, spring cleaning, or the popularity of roam (or all of the above).
souterrain 6y ago
I find that an ability to search the knowledgebase exceeds the value of organizing according to a hierarchy. I can see some value in linking/backlinking à la an encyclopedic "See also" reference for discovering similar information that doesn't share keywords. Are there other disadvantages to an "all search" solution I'm overlooking?
- _jal 6y ago
  Think it tends to be mostly a personal preference thing. I use both, but do rather like hierarchies - they just seem like a natural way of grokking things. I also tend to just naturally outline a lot, whether writing, taking notes or coding. Another reason I find them useful is that the act of organizing them is also a form of learning for me - not just the information, but the context and relations. A third reason I like hierarchies is probably a result of a mental flaw. I've always had an issue with "missing words" - where a particular noun just doesn't come to me when I need it. Definitely worse with proper names for some reason. When I'm missing a word, context works much better for finding something.
  - en3r0 6y ago
    I also do both right now, helps with some rediscovery, but I think tagging (linking) could be a better long term approach.
- igammarays 6y ago
  The disadvantage of an "all search" solution is that it presumes that you know what you are looking for. Some of the greatest value I get from my notes happens when I'm serendipitously browsing an old hierarchy, remembering connections I made before.
  - battery_cowboy 6y ago
    All search plus some form of spaced memorization scheme for pages or blocks within pages would be nice, I wouldn't have to actively structure my notes that way. I hate structure, I'm always refactoring, so I prefer just saving things in one big folder with labels if I can. I wish I didn't even have to use folders in my file system!
znpy 6y ago
oh my god this looks awesome... i had been using boostnotes, but this looks lightyears ahead.
munfred 6y ago
I have installed trillium twice before, when trying to find a better alternative to a bunch of google docs, but didn't end up using it. The reason is that you cannot readily share an editable copy of a document with a link, which ends up happening with half the documents I write in Google docs. If that was an option, I think it'd be preferable to Google docs in every way (for me).
- en3r0 6y ago
  Nice idea, maybe make a feature request.
- yasoob 6y ago
  This makes me wonder if there is feasibility for P2P collaborative editing feature in trillium.
  - The_Colonel 6y ago
    It is actually explicitly a non-feature: https://github.com/zadam/trilium/wiki/FAQ#multi-user-support https://github.com/zadam/trilium/wiki/FAQ#multi-user-support
munfred 6y ago
I have installed trillium twice before, when trying to find a better alternative to a bunch of google docs, but didn't end up using it. The reason is that you cannot readily share an editable copy of a document with a link, which ends up happening with half the documents I write in Google docs. If that was an option, I think it'd be preferable to Google docs in every way (for me).
Karunamon 6y ago
I've been singing the praises of this app every chance I get.. it's really pretty much perfect. * Free (beer/speech) * Self-hostable, including the sync server, which doubles as a web-accessible version of the app (++mobile access!) * Extensible (want UI elements that do things with your notes? Easy. Want to render graphs based on metadata you've entered? No problem. Your own metadata and tagging scheme? All built in.) * Encryptable (built in encrypted notes function) * Syntax highlighting for most languages you probably care about * Exportable, no proprietary formats * Notes can be written in markdown * Truly cross-platform (Mac/Linux/Windows/Web) The tiniest of gripes can be directed at things like requiring you to use a key combo to insert a link (rather than letting me, say, use some markdown and autocompleting it), but that's minor. This blows the Evernotes and the NValts and quite possibly even OrgMode out of the water.
- Yanu-3452 6y ago
  My biggest gripe trying it now is the poor keyboard shortcuts in windows. Hitting ctrl+s is a reflex and while it might not need saving, it's annoying that it redirects focus to the search. Likewise, F2 doesn't rename, instead tries to do something difference. If it proves useful anyway I'll try to contribute a keyboard shortcut map to be more consistent with windows or VS, it might be annoying until then however.
  - e_carra 6y ago
    I think this is done specifically for Emacs users, since we're used to get incremental search once we type C + s.
  - en3r0 6y ago
    You can set your own shortcuts for actions in the options.
- bmikaili 6y ago
  > Truly cross platform > No mobile
  - 6y ago
threatofrain 6y ago
Latex status: https://github.com/zadam/trilium/issues/287 https://github.com/zadam/trilium/issues/287
pricci 6y ago
I would love to explore someone else's library of notes. I really don't know how to take effective notes. When I start reading a new book I try to take notes but always end up just reading. The problem is that months after I can't remember much.
- noyesno 6y ago
  Write your notes on the margins and once you finish the book, transfer the marginalia and relevant quotes to your note taking system of choice.
  - pricci 6y ago
    This is a good idea, the problem is that I use an e-reader. It has a keyboard but taking notes in it isn't really convenient.
- synista 6y ago
  Look up Andrew Matushchak's entry on evergreen notes [1]. [1] https://notes.andymatuschak.org/z4SDCZQeRo4xFEQ8H4qrSqd68ucpgE6LU155C https://notes.andymatuschak.org/z4SDCZQeRo4xFEQ8H4qrSqd68ucp...
  - pricci 6y ago
    Thanks, that's really interesting
fsiefken 6y ago
Interesting! Tiddlywiki with all of it's plugins, tags, search amd markdown support is still preferable to me. It is even more crossplatform as it works locally in my Quest as well (termux webdav rb script)
- mcint 6y ago
  What is your current setup? I quite happily and successfully used MPTW to manage work knowledge, tasks, and context for 2 years. Between leaving the related job and the odious save workarounds for pre-TW5 wikis, I stopped using it. I've made multiple multi-hour attempts to find a workable TW5 configuration, with both the TW5 legacy plugin and searching for replacement plugins.
  - ahnick 6y ago
    Not sure if you have run across NoteSelf (https://noteself.org/ https://noteself.org/) before, but it is basically TiddlyWiki + PouchDb. Maybe that would be a workable solution for you?
  - fsiefken 6y ago
    hi mcint, i use the DIY ruby script for a poor man's webdav server (there is IIS webdav, Apache or Caddy webdav, but they are more involved): https://gist.github.com/jimfoltz/ee791c1bdd30ce137bc23cce826096da https://gist.github.com/jimfoltz/ee791c1bdd30ce137bc23cce826... For sync I use syncthing. Syncthing and ruby work on Android and/or Termux respectively. So sometimes I like to browse / lookup my TW5 from a multitab VR environment, my android phone or my desktop
strogonoff 6y ago
Another hierarchical note-taking tool slash knowledge base, though a bit more limited/opinionated and proprietary, is https://roamresearch.com/ https://roamresearch.com/.
kaushikt 6y ago
Looks like Obsidian.md Currently, I use a lot of Notion. Easy to share and collaborate.
majkinetor 6y ago
Looks great. I couldn't use anything tho, that has no export as single portable format (PDF, Word, whatever) of complete stuff.
- IanCal 6y ago
  Seems to have an export to a tarfile of markdown docs with a folder structure matching the tree.
oonis 6y ago
Can anyone compare this to Obsidian that was released into beta recently?
- drcongo 6y ago
  I've tried Trilium in the past, and tried Obsidian this week. I fell in love with Obsidian instantly (even though there are a couple of key things missing [1]). This is entirely subjective, but the UI of Trilium actually gives me anxiety - I want my note-taking, knowledgebase to be a zero-friction thing of calm. Obsidian definitely is, I spent two minutes customising keyboard shortcuts to closer match Sublime Text where I spend most of my day and I was up and running, and in the flow when writing documentation. Trilium is the exact opposite of that. It's information overload. It reminds me of MS Word with all the toolbars open. Some people like that, but if you like a calm, focussed place to write or read documentation or notes, I'd go with Obsidian. [1] For me Obsidian is currently missing anchor linking to headers within a document (which I know is on the roadmap), and scroll past end of document, as I hate my carat being anchored to the bottom of the screen when writing. Despite those things being missing, I'd paid the personal license within about an hour of trying it and if it turns out to be useful across a team I'll pay the commercial license for it too.
  - synista 6y ago
    +1 re: information overload. I've been testing a bunch of them lately, and Zettlr (FOSS) has a nice and minimalist thing going on too. I liked Obsidian too, especially the network graph, but the licensing discussions in the other thread yesterday are a bit of a concern, but the dev erica seemed fairly open, so I'm keeping an eye out on how that goes.
    - en3r0 6y ago
      There are a few things to address the default overload. - There is a "writing mode" - You can hide the sidebars or portions of the sidebars.
elmolino89 6y ago
While this is clearly aimed at personal use, I wonder if it could be extended to serve as a lab notebook for a small research group. Storing time-stamped, signed Markdown notes with version control and with some hierarchy (daily notes, brainstorm ideas, versioned lab protocols etc.) would be great. Right now I use on site GitLab & private GitHub repo, but for the not computer savvy users this seems to be too much. Ability to add images to documents using menus/mouse is crucial.
- camone 6y ago
  As referenced above [1] multi-user is a non-feature so I wouldn't expect development on that any time soon. Not sure how good Obsidian [2] is, multi-user support seems to be in dev as well but it might work on a shared drive folder. Also doens't seem to be free/libre. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23347168 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23347168 [2] https://obsidian.md/ https://obsidian.md/
arauhala 6y ago
This looks pretty amazing, and something I have hoped would exist. I wonder if it would make any sense to add Jupyter Notebook kind of functionality to these kinds of notes. It feels like super cool idea, but it may be too big feature to be realistic.
aryehof 6y ago
I wonder how important keeping data local versus in the cloud is for users? Does encryption affect that?
NotUsingLinux 6y ago
Is anyone reminded by this as kind of a smalltalk image? I mean an environment that is self contained and can be modified? I wished the authors would think of aspects like that: how to modify the system without restarting it or needing separate tools. Sure it looks nice but in the end its a browser with some javascript libs glued together with sqllite or something? Customization seems way to difficult , so the tool can do a bit of tiny things that seem nice for me but so many things that I don't need. The GUI seems very bloated for me. Is this just me? Or are people generally happy with such GUIs?
- bwat49 6y ago
  I'm very happy with this program, the GUI isn't the most elegant but it does the job. I don't think I'd describe the GUI as 'bloated' though... it's actually pretty minimal. I think the screenshot on the github page makes it look busier than it really is (e.g. the sidebar can be hidden, and you'd usually be using it with a larger window size). I find the program to be very powerful out of the box, so I haven't had to customize much (the customization is just icing on the cake IMO). I use this program every day at work as my personal knowledgebase for my technical support notes (and also for taking notes on phone calls). I have thousands of notes and this program handles it much better than anything else I've tried. The powerful tree structure, fast search, and tagging system make it really easy for me to quickly find what I'm looking for.
The_Colonel 6y ago
Author here, if you want to ask anything ...
- tritiy 6y ago
  Well, my questions are pretty basic but since you offered :) 1. In text note I make a code block and I do not know how to 'exit it'. How can I 'finish' it and make another paragraph? 2. Is there a shortcut to insert a checkbox (like Evernote does with Ctrl+Shift+C 3. Is there a way to change the font? I like Mono fonts for notes. 4. Can I reduce the margin between paragraphs in text notes? Thats all for now, thanks.
  - The_Colonel 6y ago
    Hi, sorry for being late: 1. Code block is exited by double enter (so two new lines) 2. No shortcut for the checkbox unfortunately 3. Only Themes can change the fonts - see e.g. "Steel Blue" in the demo document to see how it's done. https://github.com/zadam/trilium/wiki/Themes https://github.com/zadam/trilium/wiki/Themes 4. You could use custom CSS to change it however I can't recommend this: https://github.com/zadam/trilium/wiki/Themes#custom-css https://github.com/zadam/trilium/wiki/Themes#custom-css
acemarke 6y ago
Been using Boostnote for the last few years. Boostnote's great, but it doesn't have note nesting / trees, so I figured I'd give Trilium a shot. Downloaded Trilium, tried to type in a standard GFM Markdown fenced code block with a language identifier for syntax highlighting, and it kept converting it to a "Plain Text" block as soon as I typed the third backtick, making it unusable. That's a hard blocker for me. I write Markdown all the time, and I don't want a pseudo-WYSIWYG editor mangling the Markdown I'm writing as I type it. I also need to be able to add code blocks, with highlighting, at any point in the middle of the notes I'm writing.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]

233 points by en3r0 6y ago

I have been using Trilium lately and I love it. What sold me completely is the sidebar sections "What Links Here" - my purposeful linking and "Similar Notes" - reminding me of what I may have forgotten.

en3r0 6y ago
Also the fact that I can completely self host it on a server while running a local client on any machine that syncs effortlessly.

kurzawa7 6y ago

Will give this a shot. Looks like a modern alternative to CherryTree. I find these hierarchical note taking apps useful for organising complex projects which usually require several levels deep of note organisation. I also use Joplin for general note taking and Google Keep for website resources. I'm set.

maxwellwhite 6y ago
Website resources?
- kurzawa7 6y ago
  What I meant by "Website Resources" is a collection of website links I want to keep note of. Also, Sorry for not linking apps I mentioned. CherryTree - A hierarchical note taking application, featuring rich text and syntax highlighting, storing data in a single xml or sqlite file. https://www.giuspen.com/cherrytree/ https://www.giuspen.com/cherrytree/ -- Joplin - An open source note taking and to-do application with synchronisation capabilities https://joplinapp.org/ https://joplinapp.org/ -- Google Keep - a web-based note-taking service developed by Google. https://keep.google.com/ https://keep.google.com/ -- Extras which may interest you: Zim - A Desktop Wiki - https://zim-wiki.org/ https://zim-wiki.org/ TreeSheets - Open Source, Free Form Data Organizer (Hierarchical Spreadsheet) - http://strlen.com/treesheets/ http://strlen.com/treesheets/
  - maxwellwhite 6y ago
    Hey! Thanks for the reply, by the way. Checking out the links, too!
supandi 6y ago
I have been using 'Joplin' for most of my notes. I have the desktop client and mobile client synced up using 'syncthing' app on my desktop. Its a perfect little setup.

formalsystem 6y ago

I've tried more than a couple of times to use a personal knowledge base and haven't been succesful in making it stick. My process so far has been I keep a daily journal where I write down the most interesting things I learnt or did everyday. If my daily notes are getting unwieldy then I use a Markdown file which I sync on Github. And when I really want to make sure that I've understood something I'll either write a blogpost or stream myself going through a library. I would definitely appreciate the ability to search my old notes better since they got too long to efficiently parse a long time ago but this process lets me structure the really important concepts I learn without adding too much overhead when I'm just learning random stuff. I also expect my notes to outlast many knowledge base projects and part of the appeal of markdown to me is that it's probably gonna be around for a while. I'm curious if any writers here have found personal knowledge bases to be worth the initial overhead.

bwat49 6y ago
> My process so far has been I keep a daily journal where I write down the most interesting things I learnt or did everyday Trilium should work great for this, you can press ctrl + alt + p to automatically create a new day note under a calendar tree. In my case, I also added a custom shortcut/button that brings me to the current day in the calendar tree
kieckerjan 6y ago
Sounds like you have the bulk of a successful routine in place already. The only thing that is missing is a regular moment when you sit down and sift through all your recent notes and connect them to your knowledge base, whatever that is. I suspect that this feels a bit pointless at first but I understand that it soon becomes satisfying and useful. (Beginner here, hence the cautious tone.)
synista 6y ago
So I'm going through a bunch of these apps/systems and so far, Zettlr looks like it might be suited to what you're already doing. It's fairly minimalistic out of the box, the markdown files are automatically named by the date you write them (your daily notes), there's autocompletion for your links, there's tags, and that's it. There are maybe a few other things, but that's it. I'm trying out Trilium right now because I was interested in its visual mapping (I'm more of a visual thinker So I've been using Freeplane, a mindmap software, but it's too restrictive with the hierarchies) and while it has nice features, there seems to be too much going on, which I suspect won't stick with me personally.

mkl 6y ago

Previous discussion (but worth discussing again): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18840990 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18840990

mbreese 6y ago
I think this is more in reference to yesterday’s discussion about Obsidian... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23324598 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23324598 There have been a few knowledge base/markdown discussions lately.
- synista 6y ago
  I wonder whether it is a result of coronavirus and lockdowns, spring cleaning, or the popularity of roam (or all of the above).

souterrain 6y ago

I find that an ability to search the knowledgebase exceeds the value of organizing according to a hierarchy. I can see some value in linking/backlinking à la an encyclopedic "See also" reference for discovering similar information that doesn't share keywords. Are there other disadvantages to an "all search" solution I'm overlooking?

_jal 6y ago
Think it tends to be mostly a personal preference thing. I use both, but do rather like hierarchies - they just seem like a natural way of grokking things. I also tend to just naturally outline a lot, whether writing, taking notes or coding. Another reason I find them useful is that the act of organizing them is also a form of learning for me - not just the information, but the context and relations. A third reason I like hierarchies is probably a result of a mental flaw. I've always had an issue with "missing words" - where a particular noun just doesn't come to me when I need it. Definitely worse with proper names for some reason. When I'm missing a word, context works much better for finding something.
- en3r0 6y ago
  I also do both right now, helps with some rediscovery, but I think tagging (linking) could be a better long term approach.
igammarays 6y ago
The disadvantage of an "all search" solution is that it presumes that you know what you are looking for. Some of the greatest value I get from my notes happens when I'm serendipitously browsing an old hierarchy, remembering connections I made before.
- battery_cowboy 6y ago
  All search plus some form of spaced memorization scheme for pages or blocks within pages would be nice, I wouldn't have to actively structure my notes that way. I hate structure, I'm always refactoring, so I prefer just saving things in one big folder with labels if I can. I wish I didn't even have to use folders in my file system!

znpy 6y ago

oh my god this looks awesome... i had been using boostnotes, but this looks lightyears ahead.

munfred 6y ago

I have installed trillium twice before, when trying to find a better alternative to a bunch of google docs, but didn't end up using it. The reason is that you cannot readily share an editable copy of a document with a link, which ends up happening with half the documents I write in Google docs. If that was an option, I think it'd be preferable to Google docs in every way (for me).

en3r0 6y ago
Nice idea, maybe make a feature request.
yasoob 6y ago
This makes me wonder if there is feasibility for P2P collaborative editing feature in trillium.
- The_Colonel 6y ago
  It is actually explicitly a non-feature: https://github.com/zadam/trilium/wiki/FAQ#multi-user-support https://github.com/zadam/trilium/wiki/FAQ#multi-user-support

munfred 6y ago

Karunamon 6y ago

I've been singing the praises of this app every chance I get.. it's really pretty much perfect. * Free (beer/speech) * Self-hostable, including the sync server, which doubles as a web-accessible version of the app (++mobile access!) * Extensible (want UI elements that do things with your notes? Easy. Want to render graphs based on metadata you've entered? No problem. Your own metadata and tagging scheme? All built in.) * Encryptable (built in encrypted notes function) * Syntax highlighting for most languages you probably care about * Exportable, no proprietary formats * Notes can be written in markdown * Truly cross-platform (Mac/Linux/Windows/Web) The tiniest of gripes can be directed at things like requiring you to use a key combo to insert a link (rather than letting me, say, use some markdown and autocompleting it), but that's minor. This blows the Evernotes and the NValts and quite possibly even OrgMode out of the water.

Yanu-3452 6y ago
My biggest gripe trying it now is the poor keyboard shortcuts in windows. Hitting ctrl+s is a reflex and while it might not need saving, it's annoying that it redirects focus to the search. Likewise, F2 doesn't rename, instead tries to do something difference. If it proves useful anyway I'll try to contribute a keyboard shortcut map to be more consistent with windows or VS, it might be annoying until then however.
- e_carra 6y ago
  I think this is done specifically for Emacs users, since we're used to get incremental search once we type C + s.
- en3r0 6y ago
  You can set your own shortcuts for actions in the options.
bmikaili 6y ago
> Truly cross platform > No mobile
- 6y ago

threatofrain 6y ago

Latex status: https://github.com/zadam/trilium/issues/287 https://github.com/zadam/trilium/issues/287

pricci 6y ago

I would love to explore someone else's library of notes. I really don't know how to take effective notes. When I start reading a new book I try to take notes but always end up just reading. The problem is that months after I can't remember much.

noyesno 6y ago
Write your notes on the margins and once you finish the book, transfer the marginalia and relevant quotes to your note taking system of choice.
- pricci 6y ago
  This is a good idea, the problem is that I use an e-reader. It has a keyboard but taking notes in it isn't really convenient.
synista 6y ago
Look up Andrew Matushchak's entry on evergreen notes [1]. [1] https://notes.andymatuschak.org/z4SDCZQeRo4xFEQ8H4qrSqd68ucpgE6LU155C https://notes.andymatuschak.org/z4SDCZQeRo4xFEQ8H4qrSqd68ucp...
- pricci 6y ago
  Thanks, that's really interesting

fsiefken 6y ago

Interesting! Tiddlywiki with all of it's plugins, tags, search amd markdown support is still preferable to me. It is even more crossplatform as it works locally in my Quest as well (termux webdav rb script)

mcint 6y ago
What is your current setup? I quite happily and successfully used MPTW to manage work knowledge, tasks, and context for 2 years. Between leaving the related job and the odious save workarounds for pre-TW5 wikis, I stopped using it. I've made multiple multi-hour attempts to find a workable TW5 configuration, with both the TW5 legacy plugin and searching for replacement plugins.
- ahnick 6y ago
  Not sure if you have run across NoteSelf (https://noteself.org/ https://noteself.org/) before, but it is basically TiddlyWiki + PouchDb. Maybe that would be a workable solution for you?
- fsiefken 6y ago
  hi mcint, i use the DIY ruby script for a poor man's webdav server (there is IIS webdav, Apache or Caddy webdav, but they are more involved): https://gist.github.com/jimfoltz/ee791c1bdd30ce137bc23cce826096da https://gist.github.com/jimfoltz/ee791c1bdd30ce137bc23cce826... For sync I use syncthing. Syncthing and ruby work on Android and/or Termux respectively. So sometimes I like to browse / lookup my TW5 from a multitab VR environment, my android phone or my desktop

strogonoff 6y ago

Another hierarchical note-taking tool slash knowledge base, though a bit more limited/opinionated and proprietary, is https://roamresearch.com/ https://roamresearch.com/.

kaushikt 6y ago

Looks like Obsidian.md Currently, I use a lot of Notion. Easy to share and collaborate.

majkinetor 6y ago

Looks great. I couldn't use anything tho, that has no export as single portable format (PDF, Word, whatever) of complete stuff.

IanCal 6y ago
Seems to have an export to a tarfile of markdown docs with a folder structure matching the tree.

oonis 6y ago

Can anyone compare this to Obsidian that was released into beta recently?

drcongo 6y ago
I've tried Trilium in the past, and tried Obsidian this week. I fell in love with Obsidian instantly (even though there are a couple of key things missing [1]). This is entirely subjective, but the UI of Trilium actually gives me anxiety - I want my note-taking, knowledgebase to be a zero-friction thing of calm. Obsidian definitely is, I spent two minutes customising keyboard shortcuts to closer match Sublime Text where I spend most of my day and I was up and running, and in the flow when writing documentation. Trilium is the exact opposite of that. It's information overload. It reminds me of MS Word with all the toolbars open. Some people like that, but if you like a calm, focussed place to write or read documentation or notes, I'd go with Obsidian. [1] For me Obsidian is currently missing anchor linking to headers within a document (which I know is on the roadmap), and scroll past end of document, as I hate my carat being anchored to the bottom of the screen when writing. Despite those things being missing, I'd paid the personal license within about an hour of trying it and if it turns out to be useful across a team I'll pay the commercial license for it too.
- synista 6y ago
  +1 re: information overload. I've been testing a bunch of them lately, and Zettlr (FOSS) has a nice and minimalist thing going on too. I liked Obsidian too, especially the network graph, but the licensing discussions in the other thread yesterday are a bit of a concern, but the dev erica seemed fairly open, so I'm keeping an eye out on how that goes.
  - en3r0 6y ago
    There are a few things to address the default overload. - There is a "writing mode" - You can hide the sidebars or portions of the sidebars.

elmolino89 6y ago

While this is clearly aimed at personal use, I wonder if it could be extended to serve as a lab notebook for a small research group. Storing time-stamped, signed Markdown notes with version control and with some hierarchy (daily notes, brainstorm ideas, versioned lab protocols etc.) would be great. Right now I use on site GitLab & private GitHub repo, but for the not computer savvy users this seems to be too much. Ability to add images to documents using menus/mouse is crucial.

camone 6y ago
As referenced above [1] multi-user is a non-feature so I wouldn't expect development on that any time soon. Not sure how good Obsidian [2] is, multi-user support seems to be in dev as well but it might work on a shared drive folder. Also doens't seem to be free/libre. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23347168 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23347168 [2] https://obsidian.md/ https://obsidian.md/

arauhala 6y ago

This looks pretty amazing, and something I have hoped would exist. I wonder if it would make any sense to add Jupyter Notebook kind of functionality to these kinds of notes. It feels like super cool idea, but it may be too big feature to be realistic.

aryehof 6y ago

I wonder how important keeping data local versus in the cloud is for users? Does encryption affect that?

NotUsingLinux 6y ago

Is anyone reminded by this as kind of a smalltalk image? I mean an environment that is self contained and can be modified? I wished the authors would think of aspects like that: how to modify the system without restarting it or needing separate tools. Sure it looks nice but in the end its a browser with some javascript libs glued together with sqllite or something? Customization seems way to difficult , so the tool can do a bit of tiny things that seem nice for me but so many things that I don't need. The GUI seems very bloated for me. Is this just me? Or are people generally happy with such GUIs?

bwat49 6y ago
I'm very happy with this program, the GUI isn't the most elegant but it does the job. I don't think I'd describe the GUI as 'bloated' though... it's actually pretty minimal. I think the screenshot on the github page makes it look busier than it really is (e.g. the sidebar can be hidden, and you'd usually be using it with a larger window size). I find the program to be very powerful out of the box, so I haven't had to customize much (the customization is just icing on the cake IMO). I use this program every day at work as my personal knowledgebase for my technical support notes (and also for taking notes on phone calls). I have thousands of notes and this program handles it much better than anything else I've tried. The powerful tree structure, fast search, and tagging system make it really easy for me to quickly find what I'm looking for.

The_Colonel 6y ago

Author here, if you want to ask anything ...

tritiy 6y ago
Well, my questions are pretty basic but since you offered :) 1. In text note I make a code block and I do not know how to 'exit it'. How can I 'finish' it and make another paragraph? 2. Is there a shortcut to insert a checkbox (like Evernote does with Ctrl+Shift+C 3. Is there a way to change the font? I like Mono fonts for notes. 4. Can I reduce the margin between paragraphs in text notes? Thats all for now, thanks.
- The_Colonel 6y ago
  Hi, sorry for being late: 1. Code block is exited by double enter (so two new lines) 2. No shortcut for the checkbox unfortunately 3. Only Themes can change the fonts - see e.g. "Steel Blue" in the demo document to see how it's done. https://github.com/zadam/trilium/wiki/Themes https://github.com/zadam/trilium/wiki/Themes 4. You could use custom CSS to change it however I can't recommend this: https://github.com/zadam/trilium/wiki/Themes#custom-css https://github.com/zadam/trilium/wiki/Themes#custom-css

acemarke 6y ago

Been using Boostnote for the last few years. Boostnote's great, but it doesn't have note nesting / trees, so I figured I'd give Trilium a shot. Downloaded Trilium, tried to type in a standard GFM Markdown fenced code block with a language identifier for syntax highlighting, and it kept converting it to a "Plain Text" block as soon as I typed the third backtick, making it unusable. That's a hard blocker for me. I write Markdown all the time, and I don't want a pseudo-WYSIWYG editor mangling the Markdown I'm writing as I type it. I also need to be able to add code blocks, with highlighting, at any point in the middle of the notes I'm writing.

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