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authorChristian Cleberg <hello@cleberg.net>2024-03-04 22:34:28 -0600
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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.