Videos
New #Evernote Tasks: May 2024 walkthrough.
Evernote Tasks has a new design and new features. So, let’s talk about them.
Introduction to #Scrintal (how-to).
On Scrintal, our notes and their connections are all in one place, where you can view or work on them. And there are plenty of features, like tags, tasks, bookmarks, and even a Kanban that you can learn how to use by watching today’s video.
What if organizing has become a waste of time?
It has been a few years since I started thinking about how useful organizing actually is. Every time I see something like the AI automations for Gmail shown on the I/O 2024, I am more convinced that organizing is becoming a waste of time.
Then, there’s the recently released Voicenotes, a note-taking app that, as far as I can tell, relies on AI for transcribing, summarizing, tweeting, creating lists, telling us anything about our past, and so much more. For someone like me, that’s a bit… unsettling, to say the least. But, the younger generation may be entirely comfortable with this idea. Anyway, full review of the app coming soon.
Back to my point. It might be time to stop worrying about organizing information.
On how #Bookmarks became the backbone of my #Obsidian system.
I recently made an adjustment to the system I use on Obsidian to collect ideas and follow-up with my creator work. Bookmarks are now playing the main role.
Hey #Evernote, please allow us to personalize the new Home.
Today’s video is an experiment. I always liked the chronology vibe of a vlog, and I wanted to add it to my channel. But instead of my daily routines, what I would like to do would be to share a constant stream of content related to my interactions with products and services I use and love.
It’s of course, easier said than done, but I think I’m getting there. Today’s video is as close to what I have in mind as I could ever get. The first important element is that it starts as a follow-up to Saturday’s video. Then there are the related topics. The beginning of the video has everything to do with one of Obsidian’s vaults, which in turn is linked to what I find interesting in Scrintal.
📺 How to customize the Tiny Theme Archive page on Micro.blog
In a recent episode of my podcast, I told Manton, the creator of Micro.blog, that I would prefer if the blog categories on the Archive page were horizontally displayed, instead of the current list. To my surprise, the solution arrived a day after I published the video.
When Otávio finished listening to the episode, he wrote a code (below) to do just the task. Now it’s my turn to give back to the community. The video below shows how you can use Otavio’s code to customize your own Archive page.
{{ define "main" }}
<div class="archive">
<h2 class="p-name">Archive</h2>
{{ if templates.Exists "partials/microhook-archive-lead.html" }}
{{ partial "microhook-archive-lead.html" . }}
{{ end }}
{{ $list := ($.Site.GetPage "taxonomyTerm" "categories").Pages }}
{{ if gt (len $list) 0 }}
<div class="archive-categories">
<h3>Categories</h3>
<span>
{{ $sortedList := sort $list "Title" }}
{{ $length := len $sortedList }}
{{ range $index, $element := $sortedList }}
<a href="{{ $element.Permalink }}">{{ $element.Title }}</a>{{ if lt $index (sub $length 1) }}, {{ end }}
{{ end }}
</span>
</div>
{{ end }}
<div class="full-archives h-feed">
<h3>Full Post List</h3>
{{ $list := (where .Site.Pages "Type" "post") }}
{{ range $list }}
<p class="h-entry">
<a href="{{ .Permalink }}" class="u-url"><span class="dt-published" datetime="{{ .Date.Format "2006-01-02T15:04:05-0700" }}">{{ .Date.Format "Jan 2, 2006" }}</span></a>:
{{ if .Title }}
<span class="p-name"><b>{{ .Title }}</b></span>
{{ end }}
<span class="p-summary">{{ .Summary | truncate 150 }}</span>
</p>
{{ end }}
</div>
</div>
{{ end }}
Two Web Clipper solutions I use to send information to Obsidian.
Collecting information is an important part of my learning process, but Obsidian doesn’t have something as powerful as the Evernote Web Clipper.
To find a solution, I tried different ideas until I came up with one that works well for me. I use two different tools, and I hope that they will inspire you to create your own system.
There are two types of clippings I do.
Sometimes, I need to preserve the page format, and even Evernote’s Web Clipper is not always good at that. This is the reason why I began using the print to PDF function and then dragging the PDF into a note in Evernote. You can see how I do it by watching the video below.
For this specific type of clipping, I am doing the same on Obsidian. But, since there’s nothing there similar to the ‘forward email to Evernote’ feature, I’m also ‘printing to PDF’ the emails I what to keep. However, like I explained in a recent video, I’m not creating notes for PDFs anymore. I’m simply saving them as files in the related folders.
The other type of clipping I do is text. Most of the time, all I need is the information, the text, and Evernote’s Web Clipper was always excellent at that. As for Obsidian, here’s where Steph Ango amazing solution was super helpful.
Like other Obsidian features and plugins, there are many options and a different one may be more suitable for your needs. In my case, I am enjoying the Web Clipper created by the CEO. A post on his blog even provides instructions for customizing it, which I did. How cool is that?
His post has everything you need to understand how to install, use and customize the Web Clipper. And in my video below, I share my reasoning for doing what I do and how I customized his solution to better work with the Proprieties I use in my Obsidian notes.
The new Obsidian Canvas is another step in the right direction.
A couple of years ago, I tried Obsidian Canvas and was drawn to its simplicity and potential. Nonetheless, it had never been incorporated into my workflows. Until now.
Obsidian is not for everyone, but if you prefer to write as close to simple text as possible and to keep your notes in an open format on your computer, you may fall in love with it.
It was designed to give users control over their files, but that almost changed with the introduction of Canvas in December 2022. At least, that was my sentiment at that time.
Obsidian notes are formatted in Markdown, meaning that I can open them anywhere, even if the app ceases to exist tomorrow. Unfortunately, the same was not true for the Canvas feature. It had its own format, which is why I was always reluctant to use it to create content. If you don’t know what Canvas is or how to use it, you can learn all about it in the first part of the video below.
Fortunately, that recently changed with the announcement that the Canvas file format is now called JSON Canvas, which, in turn, became an open file format. That’s a huge step in the right direction. It means that other people and companies can create compatible apps. And as you can see in the second half of the video below, there are already some compatible apps available.
In other words, we no longer have to worry about our Canvas files becoming locked inside an app. Thank you, Obsidian!