Thanks Chris, your comments are encouraging. But I do not know how to
install plugins. I do not know how to use plugins. I do not know how to
use directives. I do not know how to open files in Leo. I've looked
around, tried to find my way through the maze, tried some things based on
what I did find. Nothing has worked so far. I do not find clear
instructions for the beginner, spelling out the most basic of things in a
clear, step by step way. I hate to drop Leo just because I'm too dumb to
figure it out, as it looks too good, but so far it seems not to have an
entry path for the (non-programming) beginner. If there is such an entry
path ("Complete dummies start here!") I'd be grateful to be pointed in that
direction.
Andy
On Saturday, January 18, 2020 at 8:45:08 PM UTC-5, Chris George wrote:
>
>
>
> On Sat, Jan 18, 2020 at 3:36 PM andyjim <andy...@gmail.com <javascript:>>
> wrote:
>
>> Uh, complete newbie here, and I feel like I'm walking into a high end
>> programmers convention here and raising my hand red-faced to ask for a bit
>> of kindergarten help. Everything in this forum is Greek to me. I am NOT a
>> programmer. Repeat: I am not a programmer.
>>
>> Welcome, Andy. I am not a programmer either, but I have been using Leo
> for a bit over a decade.
>
>
>> My intended usage for Leo is organizing notes & ideas. I'm raising my
>> hand here because perhaps Leo's outlining/organizing capabilities may be
>> what I need. I'm hoping folks here can tell me if I'm even knocking on the
>> right door by looking at Leo. But it looks like Leo's flexibility in
>> outlining may be unsurpassed and may be what I'm looking for. Hope so.
>>
>
> Leo can be without peer when it comes to organizing notes and ideas.
>
>
>>
>> I've looked for years for a software to help me organize my notes and
>> ideas.
>>
>
> It took me a while to find Leo. I run linux and used to have spotty
> Internet, so a program that supported clones and wasn't a website was
> important to me.
>
>
>
>> Here's the problem: I've been journaling for 25 years, writing thoughts,
>> notes, ideas on probably hundreds of topics, and totaling probably a few
>> million words in a few thousand files. But I haven't done much organizing.
>> Most of my journal files have notes on multiple topics. Generally my files
>> are named by date rather than topic, though I have perhaps a few hundred by
>> topic. For years I wrote in Word, often using outline format, usually
>> writing most notes in one file per year, in outline format. If you're
>> concluding it's a mess, you are right (though it could be worse). What's
>> not in Word is mostly in text files. I switched to writing in Vim a few
>> years ago, and am now writing in Spacemacs. Org mode has been recommended
>> to me but I have not undertaken it. I suspect Leo is better than org mode
>> for my needs but who am I to know? Is it?
>>
>
> Step one for me was converting my knowledge base into text files. Step two
> was getting it all into Leo. Step three (which I am still doing) was
> organizing it all.
>
> For example, a text file that came out of a wordprocessor would often have
> a headline and a bunch of text. Once imported into a node I would select
> all of the text I would like in a new node, including the headline, and hit
> Ctrl-Shift-D. This creates a child node with the headline as the node
> headline and the balance of the selected text as the node. Very quick, very
> easy.
>
>
>>
>> My project, which will undoubtedly take a couple of years, is to class
>> and organize all notes into a "thoughtbase", perhaps comparable in some
>> ways to a Zettelkasten. I want to sort through the mess, clip notes out by
>> topic and organize them such that I can readily access anything and
>> everything. I hope to cluster topics under a few (perhaps 25) main
>> headings, some number of sub-headings, and individual topics with all notes
>> on each topic stacked together.
>>
>
> Using clones you can create whatever organizational scheme you like. Add
> in a couple of plugins, like bookmarks, tags, and backlinks, and that
> ability explodes.
>
>
>>
>> Perhaps there's a book or two or three there, but to find such a book or
>> books will require that all this be organized so I can see it, access it,
>> massage it, move clips around, stack them up, try things, remember things I
>> wrote 20 years ago, .... Sound like fun? You don't have to answer that.
>>
>> My thought is to arrange all this in external plain text files initially,
>> with the outline organization being in Leo, leaving the files external
>> (eventually that is. Perhaps this isn't the best approach. But I'm getting
>> ahead of myself. My first question is (and I'm hoping I've given a somewhat
>> comprehensible thumbnail of what I'm looking for), is Leo capable of this,
>> or perhaps Leo in combination with other software? Maybe some of the
>> text-crunching and manipulating would be best done outside of Leo? BBEdit?
>> DevonThink? InfoQube? Zettelkasten? Eastgate's Tinderbox? Heck I don't
>> know. Oh yeah, MacOS High Sierra on an older (2010) iMac; just installed
>> Leo 6.1.
>>
>> One reason I'm looking at Leo for this is that I think I'm going to have
>> to just start bringing material into an outline system, note by note, and
>> evolve the classing and relationships 'as she goes'. I think it would be
>> too much to try to come up with the entire classing system out the outset.
>> Evolve it instead. And I suspect that is where Leo may outshine any other.
>> Is this true? Others claim similar qualities, where the optimum
>> organization emerges as you bring more material into the system and deal
>> with it as the spirit moves, piece by piece. Patterns emerge, relationships
>> develop, that sort of thing. That is ultimately what needs to happen. Is
>> Leo the best bet? Or some combo of software?
>>
>
> Everything you have outlined is doable in Leo.
>
>
>> In addition to some general thoughts on all this, I'd like a few pointers
>> to get me started. I have learned how to create an external file in Leo,
>> but I haven't found how to open/import a file (text or Word). That will be
>> a key function in putting together a thoughtbase. I'm sure Leo can do, but
>> I haven't discovered how to do it.
>>
>
> Leo is a text editor. Once I got over my burning desire to have my writing
> in 13.2pt, chartreuse, unicorn fonts and such I began to realize that as a
> writer all of that WYSIWYG fluff was exactly that. Fluff.
>
> Convery everything into text files. Use pandoc/docutils etc. etc. Stick it
> all into a file system that makes sense to you. Install the active path
> plugin and suck it all into Leo. Once that is done I think you will find
> yourself wondering why you would even bother cluttering your file system
> with a bunch of external files. For programmers, that ability is key. For
> writers, and likely for you, it is an extra step that you likely won't find
> much use for.
>
>
>> Thanks, Andy
>>
>
> HTH,
>
> Chris
>
>
>
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