My no-server personal wiki—Part 1
June 24, 2008 at 6:09 PM by Dr. Drang
This is the first of what I expect to be a two- or three-part post on a wiki-like note taking system I’ve developed for keeping track of the work I do on my professional projects. I’ll start by explaining what I want out of such a system and how other solutions didn’t fit my needs.
At any given time, I’m working on several projects, each with its own client and its own set of facts, figures, and research results. My habit has always been to keep all computer files related to a particular project in its own folder (usually with subfolders) on my hard disk, just as I keep all physical files related to the project in a set of manila folders that are labeled and kept together in my file cabinets. Keeping everything related to a project together is important for three reasons:
- It’s just easier to keep track of things this way. Despite the improvements in Spotlight, dragging a file into a folder is less time-consuming than tagging it with a project name.
- Sometimes I need to copy all my work on a project and send it to the client. My paper files go off to a copy shop for photocopying, and my computer files get burned to DVD. If all the computer files are in one folder, burning a DVD is a one-step operation.
- When the project is done, I archive the computer files to DVD, put them with the paper files, and send them off to storage. Again, if all the computer files are in one folder, burning a DVD is a one-step operation.
Until recently, most of my project notes were on paper rather than in computer files. This was primarily because most of my notes are taken in the field, away from my computer, and there’s been no organizational advantage to rewriting those notes on the computer. But I did want the notes on the computer, so I began looking for ways to organize my notes that way.
At first, a wiki seemed like a natural fit. It’s easy to create new pages, and the pages are easy to navigate and edit. If I choose the right wiki software, I can use Markdown formatting, which I use to write almost everything these days. Unfortunately, the usual server-based wikis keep all the information in a central database, which means that my project notes would not be kept in the project folder. This makes it too difficult to archive the notes with the other project files, so server-based wikis were out.
The notion of a file-based wiki led me to TiddlyWiki and its various offshoots. Because it’s run with JavaScript, TiddlyWiki would let me keep my notes for a particular project in a single big HTML file in the project folder, just as I want. But there were two problems with TiddlyWiki: First, I didn’t like the default style and found its CSS structure very difficult to delve into and modify. Second, TiddlyWiki doesn’t work well with Safari because Safari’s JavaScript doesn’t like the idea of saving changes to the HTML file, which is essential to the idea of a wiki. (I tried using the Java applet that gets around this problem, but it didn’t work for me. I suspect I could have gotten it to work if I’d kept at it, but since I didn’t like the look of TiddlyWiki it didn’t seem worth the effort.)
So then I moved on to VoodooPad, Gus Mueller’s personal wiki application for the Mac. This seemed like the perfect solution. Its pages can be styled however I like, its data are saved to a file that can be put anywhere on my hard disk and can be exported to various open formats—this is important because I don’t want to get stuck in a proprietary system—and it’s backed by a developer known to be responsive to his customers. I tried it, I bought a license for it, but I just couldn’t get used to using it because it doesn’t use Markdown. I was a bit surprised at this reaction, but after a decade of using text-only systems (SGML, LaTeX, and now Markdown) I just couldn’t stand using something that works like a word processor. Eventually, I gave up and gave my copy of VoodooPad to my daughter to help her organize her college notes. Since it came from me, I suspect she’s ignored it—most parents of teenagers will understand that—but I still think VoodooPad would be a great solution for someone who likes writing in a word processor.
At this point, I decided to create my own system. The rules I set for myself were:
- It has to use text files that can be stored anywhere and are easily moved and archived.
- The notes are to be written in Markdown. If I later decide that Textile or reStructuredText or something else is better, changing to the new markup system should be easy.
- The notes are to be written in a text editor rather than in an HTML text box so I don’t feel like I’m writing in a straightjacket.
- The notes should be styled according to my taste. Since my taste can change, the style should be easy to change.
- The creation of new pages and new links to those pages should be simple and/or automatic.
I’ll start describing the system I came up with in the next post.
