Chris and Lewis, thanks. I think you've got me started. I'm sure I'll be
back for more soon.
Andy
On Sunday, January 19, 2020 at 9:51:51 PM UTC-5, Chris George wrote:
>
> Hi Andy,
>
> I feel for you. It took me a while to get rolling too.
>
> If any of this is confusing, ask questions.
>
> The very best advice I can give you is to open LeoDocs.leo from within Leo.
>
> File, Open Specific Leo File, LeoDocs.leo
>
> Start at Leo's Documentation in the Outline Pane and slowly work your way
> through. This documentation is preferred to the website as it is much
> easier to navigate and to search.
>
> The tutorials can be handy, the FAQ contains most of the entry level bits
> you are looking for..
>
> And ask questions here. The documentation is in general excellent but the
> steep learning curve can be intimidating. The documentation can always be
> improved and has been many times during my time using Leo, often after I
> expressed my own frustrations with understanding how to make Leo do what I
> want it to do.
>
> A quick overview of plugins requires and understanding of how settings
> work. This is not going to be comprehensive, but should give you the
> general idea.
>
> There are different levels of setting. The more local settings take
> precedence.
>
> LeoSettings.leo are the default settings. Do not mess with these at all,
> ever. Do take the time to read through them. When you come across a setting
> you would like to change, copy that node and paste it into
> myLeoSettings.leo which are your user settings. THe next level of settings
> is local to an individual Leo file but we can skip that for now.
>
> So for plugins we want to copy the @enabled-plugins node to from
> LeoSettings.leo and paste it into myLeoSettings.leo as a child node of
> @settings. Then you can edit this node and the changes will take precedence
> over the same node in LeoSettings.leo. To enable a plugin simply delete the
> # in front of it, save myLeoSettings.leo, close Leo and re-open Leo. From
> the Plugins menu you can select a plugin and the docstring will appear in
> the rendered pane to give you an idea how it works.
>
> Again, ask questions. Don't be embarrassed. I started into Leo in 2007 and
> it took me two years to get really comfortable with it. Now I spend most of
> my time at my computer in Leo.
>
> HTH,
>
> Chris
>
>
> On Sun, Jan 19, 2020 at 6:14 PM andyjim <andy...@gmail.com <javascript:>>
> wrote:
>
>> 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> 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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