PKM Weekly – 2024-08-24
Hi Everyone,
Another full week of updates and whatnots from our favourite PKM apps. This week we have updates from:
Video of this week’s update:
CAPACITIES
New Release – New AI and Performance Updates
With the latest new release Capacities , we’re introducing some exiting new AI features, huge performance updates and a much more enjoyable overall note-taking experience!
AI Auto-fill for tags and select properties
Backlinks, Tag pages and Calendar now work offline
Block based linking now free
Small Improvements
Bug Fixes
Community & Content Roundup
Check out the AI features here:
Cross Platform Approach:
Here’s how we are developing Capacities into a cross-platform app
We are developing Capacities using web technologies. Since the web is supported across all platforms, this enables us to maintain a single codebase for all our applications. This approach allows us to avoid duplicating code for implementing the same features across various platforms; we simply reuse the same code everywhere, writing customized code only for specific native features and interactions with the operating system, such as accessing the camera.
In summary, web technologies empower a small team like us to operate efficiently and minimize maintenance overhead while supporting multiple platforms.
Our cross-platform approach (capacities.io)
Capacities — Creating a Reading List / Book Library with Templates, Page Properties and Queries
I have been testing out Capacities of late and thought I would do a walkthrough of creating a beautiful looking reading list / library that looks something like the below:
By working through this reading list / library, we touch on templates, page properties, queries and AI functionality which allows us to understand how Capacities works and gain an insight into its possibilities.
If you prefer a written walkthrough, check out this link, or see my earlier post on this website. Also, if you are interested in creating an On This Day query, please do see this video.
LOGSEQ
“Talk to your notes with Logseq and ChatGPT!” by Martin Brochhaus
In this final part of the series, Martin shows how large amounts of text can be vectorized with OpenAI’s embeddings. We will then store the vectors in a SQLite database. Finally, we will be able to ask any question and retrieve the notes that are most related to that question. We then forward that question to ChatGPT. This allows us to ask ChatGPT questions about data that it was not trained on, like our own personal notes.
The Forever Conundrum – Using Logseq for long form notes vs Atomic Notes
I have a long page with about 700 “blocks”, trying to clean it up in Logseq was a nightmare. I have put a lot of data into Logseq because I love a fulltime outliner, they are now the sunk cost preventing me from jumping ship.
just viewing the page is a pain, there is some kind of very slow and broken lazy loading. I will hit the “bottom” of a page, it’s actually some point in the middle, it does not trigger loading, I have to scroll back up a bit and down again for it to do one more load, and I have to repeat this process 3 to 5 times to scroll from the top of page to the actual bottom. Full post and responses here.
Logseq DB Version – When?
OP asks “wondering is there any information when logseq-db will be ready for testing?” The response was by Logseq Community Manager, Ramses, was “We’re already testing with a large group of testers. But as blogbourri pointed out, there’s still lots of features missing so it could be months before everything is put back in and ready for public testing.”
TANA
Tana AMA Recording
Founders (Grim Iversen, Tarjei Vassbotn and Olav Sindre), as well as Matt and Brage took part in an AMA to provide insights and updates on progress and look to address any concerns or confusion in the community.
full recording. Tana would also really love any feedback or ideas. If you have a few minutes-> AMA Feedback questionnaire
My takeaways:
Mobile hope for late Sep / early Oct (ios and Android around same time)
Integration, API – shortly after
More communication (AMA, videos, blog)
Roadmap / insights to be made available.
Some sort of offline mode is on their priority list
Full Open Doors delayed to October as want the mobile app to be ready.
P.S. There is a sneak peek of the mobile app in the video.
Tana Release Notes
The Release Notes updates are back:
General speed improvements. We have made several changes to slightly improve your Tana speed (rendering fewer DOM nodes, cleaner panels). Tana should feel slightly snappier
Every node has a new system field available called “Path”, which shows where a node lives. Uses an interactive breadcrumb widget in list view.
Based on feedback from the community, we are bringing back unlinked references.
Check out the full notes here.
100 TANA TIPS: Full 46-Minute Tana Beginner Course | Tana Notes App
Marc provides us with a whopping 46 minute video full of insights on how to get started and use Tana in tis video.
OBSIDIAN
Folders or Folders?
Nick Milo talks us through “Folder organization in Obsidian can be tricky. This video shows you different ways to set things up, so you can find what works for you. No perfect system here – just ideas to help you get your stuff sorted the way you like it.”
Answering my Big Questions with Obsidian
Alice inspires us to answer our big questions. Although they reference Obsidian, I think this can really apply to any tool. Thanks for sharing.
I spent almost all of my Saturday this weekend on finally sorting out my Obsidian Vault! This task was long, long overdue so I’m feeling good about finally having it done!
What I needed to do was rethink my approach to my personal note taking, clarify why I’m creating notes in the first place and then reorganise how I structure them to make everything as easy as possible. Since I’m not using it to run a business or deliver defined projects, I’ve found it hard to nail this down. So, I started by asking myself again – why do I want to take all these notes?
Article Link.
Excalidraw Writing Machine: Generate articles from your Visual Zettelkasten cards in Obsidian
Zsolt takes us on an “Excalidraw Writing Machine: Generate articles from your Visual Zettelkasten cards in Obsidian” journey. In this video, I demonstrate the Excalidraw Writing Machine (EWM) script, which converts a visual layout of an article into a draft writing. The layout can include text elements or visual Zettelkasten notes. The script follows the arrows between nodes to generate a hierarchical Markdown document. By feeding this document into generative AI like ChatGPT, you can quickly produce a nearly publish-ready draft, making it easier to create academic articles, blog posts, presentations, and more.
Other Apps
Heptabase AMA
Alan (founder of Heptabase) did an AMA with the Discord Community. It was done in a written format and the questions and answers can be found here. Questions included:
With the current gaps around quick capture and AI integration that other apps have been more focused on, is that something you see as a part of Heptabase’s future? Or is it focused more on complex ideas and a different space in a user’s workflow?
What is your plan for ensuring interoperability and data exchange between Heptabase and other applications that users use? Currently Heptabase is like a walled garden with little ability to interact with information in it with other apps. Is this how it’s intended to be long term, with your team building in-app functions to replace other apps or are the current interoperability limitations just a matter of development time?
There are many competitors in the crowded PKM space, several that offer similar functionality around infinite canvas. How are you differentiating yourself from them to justify a more expensive and premium solution?
Remnote Fireside Chat
Paper Reading Style Chat: We’ll be continuing the reading and discussion of https://augmentingcognition.com/ltm.html together as a community. (don’t we all love reading? nah I’m kidding. We’ll be discussing and nerding out over it! not your average kindergarten storytime, I promise)
Thursday 29 August – See link for your time zone Link
Appflowy Version 0.6.7.2 has been released
Includes a couple more updates to the recently pushed updates Fixed file upload issue including Fixed file upload issue and Fixed missing slash menu items: todolist and divider. Release v0.6.7.2 · AppFlowy-IO/AppFlowy (github.com)
Anytype Desktop v 0.42
Introducing Anytype’s new and luminous features! Leap, hop, and meander effortlessly between spaces, create new worlds directly from the redesigned sidebar, and enjoy a smoother experience with our latest updates and bug fixes. Explore three new widget layouts: Calendar, Kanban, and Gallery, and keep track of objects with an enhanced sync status indicator. Video
Productivity Thoughts
Another forever conundrum, Obsidian vs LogSeq vs ? Cannot decide on the right PKM to choose. I like the option to sync in Obsidian and also its community plugin ecosystem but LogSeq looks like a software where you can have everything under control including the code. Maybe there’s another tool that combines both. What’s your experience? Discussion
The Top 3 Apps for ADHD in 2024. ADHD can be challenging, especially when undiagnosed. In this video, we explore how ADHD affects productivity and the role of customizable digital tools in managing it. Video
That’s all for this week. Thank you very much in advance for reading and I look forward to bringing you more PKM news next week.