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+date = 2022-03-02
+title = "Easy, Reliable Note-Taking"
+description = "My personal preferences to ensure notes are clear, portable, and long-lasting."
++++
+
+## Choosing Durable File Formats
+
+> TL;DR: Write in a format that can be easily rendered and read in
+> plain-text mode (e.g., `.txt`, `.md`, etc.).
+
+As I've written more and more over the years, I've found that my love
+of note-taking is always growing. Everything I learn or need to remember
+can be written down in a note and saved digitally, with no cost to
+myself. Unlike paper copies that need physical storage space, digital
+files simply need space on your local disk or cloud storage, which is
+fairly abundant these days.
+
+However, I had a historical struggle with migration of notes between
+different apps that require different formats and applied proprietary
+styling. This meant that I had to go through each note during migration
+and edit the file to look presentable again.
+
+For the last year or two, I have written everything exclusively in
+[Markdown](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown) format. Small notes,
+long-form writings, and even these blog posts are all written in
+Markdown.
+
+Why Markdown? While I do appreciate the simplicity of plain-text files
+without any formatting, I often need visual cues such as heading and
+code blocks to keep my thoughts straight. Markdown provides a minimal
+set of styling indicators for me to style my notes without adding any
+proprietary, embedded data into the files. If I want a top-level
+heading, I simply add a hash (`#`) before the line. An added
+bonus is that even if a system doesn't understand Markdown, it will
+render it as plain-text and I can read it just as easily.
+
+For example, here's how TextEdit on macOS will open and display a
+Markdown file in plain-text, since it does contain any features to
+preview Markdown as HTML:
+
+![Plain Text
+Markdown](https://img.cleberg.net/blog/20220302-easy-reliable-note-taking/plain_markdown.png)
+
+## Saving & Syncing Files
+
+In order to read and edit my notes across platforms, I use my personal
+cloud storage through Tresorit due to its native integration with macOS
+and iOS file managers. In addition, Tresorit works well on Debian-based
+Linux distros, which I used before macOS (and will likely switch back to
+in a few years).
+
+You can use whatever sync software you want - syncing plain-text or
+markdown files is incredibly easy and fast, since the files are
+generally tiny.
+
+Since the cloud storage syncs files automatically, there is no need for
+me to sync anything manually or kick-off a sync job to update my files.
+This means that I can edit on mobile, and it takes about 5-10 seconds to
+see the changes on desktop.
+
+### Version Control with Git
+
+A different approach I've contemplated is storing my notes and
+attachments is using a hosted Git repository to track changes to the
+files. However, I don't want to rely on an external service that could
+potentially see into my data, even if the repository is private.
+
+I might just do `git init` locally and then commit my changes
+each time I write or update a note, but that seems to be a lot of work
+just for tracking changes - which I don't necessarily care to know.
+
+### Backups!
+
+One small addition to the storage/sync conversation is the idea of
+backups. Personally, I manually create periodic backups of my entire
+cloud storage, compress it into an archive, and store it on my home
+server.
+
+To improve my workflow, I am going to be exploring options to
+automatically compress the mounted cloud directory and send it over to
+my server on a set schedule.
+
+## Writing on Desktop
+
+> **Update (06.14.22)**: Since writing this post, I have reverted to
+> simply keeping my `notes` folder open and opening notes
+> individually in TextEdit for a more minimal and relaxing writing
+> experience on the desktop.
+
+The bulk of my writing occurs in a desktop environment, with a full
+keyboard layout and wide screen. I don't illustrate with a smart pen, I
+rarely use embedded images, and I love being able to see all of my
+notes/directories in a sidebar.
+
+With this simple set of requirements, I chose
+[Obsidian](https://obsidian.md) as my desktop text editor. Obsidian has
+some in-depth tools like a graph view, command palette, mentions, etc.,
+but I've found that using it as a simple Markdown editor is incredibly
+easy and straightforward.
+
+Here's an example of how my Markdown notes look when opened in
+plain-text mode:
+
+![Obsidian Markdown Source
+Mode](https://img.cleberg.net/blog/20220302-easy-reliable-note-taking/obsidian_source_mode.png)
+
+Here's the "live preview" version, where the Markdown is rendered
+into its HTML format:
+
+![Obsidian Markdown Live
+Preview](https://img.cleberg.net/blog/20220302-easy-reliable-note-taking/obsidian_live_preview.png)
+
+### Programming on Desktop
+
+While I was writing this, I realized I should specify that I don't use
+the same editor for writing notes and for writing code. For programming
+purposes, I use [VSCodium](https://vscodium.com) as my development IDE.
+
+## Writing on Mobile
+
+Personally, I write very little on mobile, except when needing to take
+important notes on-the-go. Any long-form writing, journals, etc. are
+done at home, where I always have my laptop available.
+
+I wanted a simple and foolproof editor for iOS, preferably open-source.
+After a long journey of testing the few (& terrible) open-source iOS
+note-taking apps, I finally found a phenomenal one:
+[Runestone](https://github.com/simonbs/runestone). This app is fantastic
+for note-taking, has plenty of optional features, and integrates
+natively with the iOS file manager.
+
+This app opens the iOS file manager and allows you to click any file you
+want, opens it up in an editor, and lets me save and close out of that
+note.
+
+Quite simple but effective.