PKM Weekly - 2024-11-02
A look at the latest Personal Knowledge Management PKM news from the past week.
Hi Everyone,
Welcome November, the move of the US Presidential Elections, Guy Fawkes Night, Thanksgiving, and Black Friday, what a month we have coming up.
No video today as recovering from a very serious case of the man flu - not going to say it was a life and death situation but was close. I am sure my fellow men companions know what I mean.
CAPACITIES
Making Travel Planning a Breeze with Capacities
Learn how step-by-step how Capacities can support you before, during and after a trip! Looking for your travel command centre - a single place that transforms scattered ideas into organized plans. Instead of drowning in browser tabs and sticky notes, you’ll have a clear system that helps you focus on what matters: looking forward to your adventure.
Check out this excellent guide here.
What's new - Recent Updates
Support for *.m4a audio files. (Ticket)
Add check icon to active date picker suggestion.
Increase indentation of headings in the object sidebar outline.
Enable one-time-code autofill in the authentication flow.
Delay image loading spinner for a smoother experience
And lot of other bug fixes. Check out the full change log here.
I started using Capacities (with AI) for note-taking and it's so much easier to keep track
OP was a Notion user and decided to test Capacities. After swearing by Notion for several years, I came across Capacities.io as a newer note-taking system and I decided to check it out. While Notion can be used by the individual, they are really pushing for it to be a team-use platform over an individual-use platform. Capacities on the other hand is designed specifically for individual use.
Check out their thoughts here
LOGSEQ
Logseq DB Version Release Schedule?
OP asks “Is it possible to know even an approximate schedule for when the Logseq DB version will be released as an installable version not web version?”
Answer - Sorry, we have no idea when Logseq DB will be stable enough to build and test the local apps. With this version still in full development, we push changes several times a day. We don’t have the time at this moment to optimize for local apps, as it would take away from the development work.
We’re working as fast as we can, but regardless we recommend against new users adopting Logseq DB anytime soon. That’s because the UI and possibly the data model will change a lot, which will only confuse new users. I wouldn’t want to recommend Logseq DB until it’s feature-complete (as in: has at least the features that Logseq MD has at this moment).
Creating an Effective Logseq Structure for Developers: A Practical Guide
Logseq is a powerful knowledge management tool that works as a networked outliner, perfect for developers who need to organize code snippets, project documentation, and technical notes. Here's how to structure it effectively.
Starting Fresh
Taking everything I learned from my first graph which was about 4 years’ worth of notes, and starting over. Step 1 is a detailed style guide. Still working on it.
The biggest thing I have learned is that Logseq is not a tool for connecting ideas, it is instead a tool for organization. Trying to connect ideas yourself leads to lack of meaning. Instead, by focusing on deep organization, meaningful connection of ideas comes as an emergent property.
TANA
Release Notes
Lots of improvements and bug fixes this week again, including:
The speed of opening big lists and tables are now much improved.
Fixed issue where some nodes in the sidebar was default expanded (Sidebar)
Fix issue where second right click didn't open native context menu on nodes in fields (Nodes and references)
Fixed bug where a search node with "DATE OVERLAPS" would sometimes crash the panel (Search nodes)
Full changelog here.
Tana Tuesday
Looking for a Tana focused newsletter - check out Tana Tuesdays.
This will be a weekly email covering everything Tana, from app updates (with explanations), events, tips, news, as well as a summary of activity from the Slack community. Paid subscribers will get access to my Tana templates as well (the first one is coming imminently!).
This is perfect for those of you who are too busy to dig into Slack each week or feel a bit lost with what's going on! Or anyone who uses Tana (or wants to) that just wants an easy way to stay up to date.
How can I export out my data?
OP Asks “curious, what's a way I can export out my data, either via API or programmatically?”
Quite a few responses here. In short, not easily!
OBSIDIAN
Multiplayer
Seems that Obsidian has something cool in store for us with being able to Share notes and edit them collaboratively
Obsidian - Let’s Talk Learning Curve
In this video I talk about Obsidian.md's learning curve. Diving into if you need to be a programmer to use the tool and how deep the rabbit hole you need to go to use the tool as a DM.
Obsidian For Beginners: Non-Linear Note Taking, Plugins & Templates
In this video I walkthrough Obsidian For Beginners with an introduction to Non-Linear Note Taking, Plugins, and Templates.
I touch on why Obsidian is the best app for your PKM system (personal knowledge management), how to get started with Obsidian, and how you can use the different settings, plugins, and templates to augment your note-taking, with a view to an AI-assisted future.
In this tutorial, I give practical, real-world examples on how I use non-linear note taking in Obsidian to improve my notes, knowledge, and idea generation.
I give a complete overview of Obsidian, including all of the main settings to get you started with your second brain.
Obsidian's Many Uses
In all my time using a Mac, I’ve never found more uses for a single app as I have for the note taking app, Obsidian. With a robust selection of over 1900 plugins, Obsidian can be configured to import and manipulate data from a great many sources. It can even be used for publishing. Using the Dataview plugin makes it function like a database. It stays open at all times on both my Macs. There are a great many resources to help you master it, including on Reddit, Discord, the developer’s website, YouTube and numerous blogs.
Check out the list here.
Other Apps
Omnivore
Unfortunately, Omnivore is shutting down and all data will be deleted on 15th November 2024. Please export your data by then. Omnivore will remain open-source and can still be self-hosted. This program should continue to work with self-hosted instances.
For people looking to migrate, personally it seems a good few uses are suggesting Wallabag or Readeck (FOSS) are possible alternatives, although are missing a few features. Readwise Reader is another good one but its paid and not open source.
On this note, do check out Dario’s video
Scrintal
How to revise your book / self-editing strategies with Scrintal! Check out the video here.
RemNote
1.17.9 (Beta) Bugfixes
Added a left-sidebar tutorial on bulk editing with the omnibar.
Fixed issues preventing typing answers in LaTeX blocks in the queue.
Fixed queue auto-scrolling to the bottom when displaying an answer.
Corrected misaligned left sidebar during onboarding.
Disabled queue shortcuts when using the "Magic AI Flashcard" popup.
Improved AI Chat with better spacing, smoother auto-scrolling, and resolved input issues.
Fixed full-width images being cut off in print mode.
RemNote have been really pushing out some quality updates of late.
AFFiNE
Something exciting coming to AFFiNE?
Notes Taking Flow
OP single point of truth is my Obsidian vault. Everything before that is triaging and sorting. Except Todoist, which is linked to Obsidian. See more here.
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.