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Zotero Better Notes – Knowledge management inside Zotero

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Re: Zotero Better Notes – Knowledge management inside Zotero

#81

Post by radlad »

Capricorn2481 wrote: post #78
dandellion wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you use syncthing to sync notes with your phone too? How do you set that up?

Obsidian has an optional paid sync plugin that works out of the box. You could use Syncthing but I don't think it does text file diffing? Obsidian Sync keeps a version history of each file I have tried to use a plugin called Obsidian Git that automatically runs git commits and pushes on an interval, but I have found it frequently had conflicts and the visual for resolving those conflicts wasn't super helfpul. I ended…

Great writeup of the tradeoffs. Also, Obsidian Sync offers end-to-end encryption.

Re: Zotero Better Notes – Knowledge management inside Zotero

#82

Post by xeromal »

maxmalkav wrote: post #3

Zotero was key to finish my long delayed thesis, reducing the toil of managing a lot of references on a topic that I disliked more and more by the minute. Unfortunately back in the day they did not have yet the embedded PDF reader and highlighting features, but still was super helpful (I decided to stay away from Mendeley for license and affiliation reasons) I still keep Zotero around for some projects that require m…

Same. Hearing Zotero brought back memories of undergrad for me. lol

Re: Zotero Better Notes – Knowledge management inside Zotero

#83

Post by noisy_boy »

dandellion wrote: post #76
noisy_boy wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What it does for me: - everything is markdown which I'm comfortable in - I can use conventional structure of folders and notes within folders (not for everyone but it works for me) - extensive support for cross-linking/embedding/bookmarks along with connection graphs/search (out of these, I had use cases for cross-linking and embedding which worked very well) - nice responsive UI with support for themes/customization…

Do you use syncthing to sync notes with your phone too? How do you set that up?

I do - Syncthing runs on both Linux (my PC) and Android (my phone). The configuration is same as any syncthing setup to share a folder (the top-level folder containing all the Obsidian vaults in this case) between two nodes (my PC and phone in this case) - their UI[0] is relatively straightforward.

[0]: https://docs.syncthing.net/intro/getting-started.html

Re: Zotero Better Notes – Knowledge management inside Zotero

#84

Post by ukuina »

For those considering a commerical solution, DEVONthink handles personal knowledge as well as PDF and other files, split into separate "databases" that can sync across local WiFi to other devices running DEVONthink.

I recently discovered it can handle Markdown files and link across entries.

Search is powerful and fast. There are very few sync issues.

Downsides: MacOS/iOS/iPadOS only, and not free or open-source (but it's a one-time purchase).

Not affiliated, just a happy user.

Re: Zotero Better Notes – Knowledge management inside Zotero

#85

Post by noisy_boy »

Capricorn2481 wrote: post #78
dandellion wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you use syncthing to sync notes with your phone too? How do you set that up?

Obsidian has an optional paid sync plugin that works out of the box. You could use Syncthing but I don't think it does text file diffing? Obsidian Sync keeps a version history of each file I have tried to use a plugin called Obsidian Git that automatically runs git commits and pushes on an interval, but I have found it frequently had conflicts and the visual for resolving those conflicts wasn't super helfpul. I ended…

For my notes, it is only me who edits, so I don't have conflicts as such. If I edit notes on the phone while on the move, syncthing syncs to PC once I'm back home; similarly any changes done at home on the PC flow to the phone. I also use the Obsidian Git plugin (though I have disabled automatic commits and commit as and when I feel the need) - haven't had any conflicts so far.

Re: Zotero Better Notes – Knowledge management inside Zotero

#86

Post by edvinbesic »

timal wrote: post #80
fho wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I second SyncThing in combination with Obsidian. Works like a charm.

I just setup Obsidian a couple days ago and have been using https://github.com/vrtmrz/obsidian-livesync which seems to work ok. I'm curious if SyncThing would be preferable. How does it handle conflicts? How often does it sync? Does it drain the battery on mobile if it syncs too often?

I cant speak to mobile personally as it is not a use-case for me but as far as conflicts SyncThing works great.

I have been running it for a little over a year now across three primary devices and the server and I don’t think I’ve seen more than a handful of conflicts. Don’t remember a single one with my obsidian directory which is currently ~500 files (markdown/pdf etc).

Re: Zotero Better Notes – Knowledge management inside Zotero

#87

Post by laeri »

noisy_boy wrote: post #17

Obsidian has replaced all (work, home, mobile) note taking solutions everywhere for me. The last want from my side is removing the friction related to editing markdown tables (e.g. multi-line content in cells) - Obsidian has some plugins that makes things better but it is miles behind what, say, confluence wiki offers for tables.

I don't think both serve the same use cases. Or can you use obsidian or does a plugin exist to annotate and read pdfs?

Re: Zotero Better Notes – Knowledge management inside Zotero

#88

Post by tengwar2 »

ukuina wrote: post #84

For those considering a commerical solution, DEVONthink handles personal knowledge as well as PDF and other files, split into separate "databases" that can sync across local WiFi to other devices running DEVONthink. I recently discovered it can handle Markdown files and link across entries. Search is powerful and fast. There are very few sync issues. Downsides: MacOS/iOS/iPadOS only, and not free or open-source (but…

The strong point for me is that DEVONthink uses RTF (and RTFD) as the native format. RTF is, along with Markdown, a document format that I expect to be widely supported for the next 40 years, but has the advantage of being WYSIWYG and supporting more advanced formatting. RFTD supports embedded images - it is less widely supported, but there are third party editors. The "databases" are MacOS packages, and they document how to get the files out if DEVONthink becomes unavailable. Hence for me it gives a good balance of functionality and longevity.

Re: Zotero Better Notes – Knowledge management inside Zotero

#89

Post by depaulagu »

laeri wrote: post #87
noisy_boy wrote: post #17

Obsidian has replaced all (work, home, mobile) note taking solutions everywhere for me. The last want from my side is removing the friction related to editing markdown tables (e.g. multi-line content in cells) - Obsidian has some plugins that makes things better but it is miles behind what, say, confluence wiki offers for tables.

I don't think both serve the same use cases. Or can you use obsidian or does a plugin exist to annotate and read pdfs?

I use this one: https://github.com/elias-sundqvist/obsidian-annotator

Re: Zotero Better Notes – Knowledge management inside Zotero

#90

Post by superposeur »

I like to annotate pdfs by hand, so import from Zotero into Notability on my ipad. Does anyone know of a good way to automatically reintegrate hand annotated pdfs back into Zotero? Ideally a given Zotero reference entry would have two pdfs, original and annotated, as well as a .note file. (The various plug in options seem only to manage text annotations.)
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