The utility of the “New tiddler here” action is obvious. It helps create a hierarchy of tags.
But what is the point of “New Journal Here”? How do you use it?
Say I click “New Journal Here” on a tiddler titled “Literature Review of XYZ.” It adds a new Journal tiddler with the tag “Literature Review of XYZ.” What’s the point?
The two commands are similar, but not identical.
“New tiddler here” creates a tiddler using the title defined by the $:/ControlPanel > Info > Basics > Title of new tiddlers setting. If the specified title already exists, a number suffix is automatically added (e.g., “New Tiddler 1”, “New Tiddler 2”, etc.) so that a unique title is generated.
“New journal here” creates a tiddler using the title defined by the $:/ControlPanel > Info > Basics > Title of new journal tiddlers setting that can include TWCore date formatting codes that are automatically replaced with the current date/time value when the tiddler is created. If the resulting title already exists, it is just opened for editing instead of creating a new tiddler with a number suffix.
-e
Thanks for the explanation.
My point is that “New Journal here” just adds the current tiddler as a tag to the journal tiddler.
I get the functionality. It’s the utility that I don’t understand.
I asked this question so that perhaps the community can shed some light on how they use this feature, which I have not figured out yet.
As I previously noted, “New Journal here” ALSO automatically applies date/time formatting to the generated title, and can edit an existing journal rather than always creating a new tiddler.
A typical Journal workflow would be to record activities for the current day.
The first time “New Journal Here” is used, a tiddler is created with a title format of DDth MMM YYYY so you can enter some text. Subsequent use of “New Journal Here” during the same day will edit the existing journal tiddler so you can add more text. The next day, when “New Journal Here” is used, a new journal tiddler will be created.
The result of this workflow is the accumulation of multiple tiddlers – one per day – that form a log of your activities over time.
You can then list links to all your activity logs using a filter like:
<<list-links "[tag[Journal]!sort[modified]]">
or show links and the log content itself, using something like:
<$list filter="[tag[Journal]!sort[modified]]">
<$link/>:<blockquote><$transclude mode="block"/></blockquote>
</$list>
-e
I am really sorry. I think I am not conveying my questions precisely.
Your description describes the functionality of “New Journal” button that you can trigger with ⌃Control+J
I am talking about “New Journal Here” button
“New Journal Here” only adds one function over “New Journal” button, which is adding current tiddler as tag to the journal entry.
No, not quite. It also preserves your existing Journal entry. It also uses a different template which specifies that this tiddler is a Journal, and typically uses a special date format.
What that means is that throughout the day, as you’re visiting various tiddlers, you can update your existing journal entry, and at the same time create tags that will make navigating back to those original topics easy. Of course, you could have used links to those topics, which is the approach you would use with “Stroll”, for instance.
But tagging is also a legitimate and powerful way to connect information. And tagging, as opposed to linking, comes with a built-in mechanism for updating tags when you change titles.
It’s often the case that you use a Journal as a summary of events of the day, but then use tags to navigate back to the details.
For instance, if you ordered a new keyboard, you might use “New Journal Here” on top of the receipt, so that when reviewing the events of the day you could quickly go back to the receipt.
Nice.
I have been using links to the tiddlers in my journal. I also noticed that Mehregan edition shows tiddlers created on a day under the journal. But I can see how a user can use tags to connect relevant tiddlers to a journal’s entry.
I would also like to add TiddlyWiki does not force too much on you and allows you to adapt it for different uses.
For example what if you wanted to log events as they occur, set Title of new journal tiddlers as DDth MMM YYYY 0hh:0mmpm and in this case you have multiple Journal entries for each day, and it makes sense that it be associated with particular tiddlers for example in a project tiddler do “new journal here” as a “project journal entry”.
I have modified new Journal here and New Journal buttons to also add a journal-date field <<now YYYY0MM0DD0hh0mm0ss0XXX>> so it is easier to sort or query later, or group multiple journal entries on a given day/week etc…
