I am an end-user, use Tiddlywiki for note taking. I am not a programmer nor familiar with scripting in Tiddlywiki.
These are some simple notes about how effectively use Tiddlywiki. Some are redundant and familiar for an average user. But these tips show how to use Tiddlywiki in real life.
This is an open discussion and will collect tips to publish them in a separate thread under Tips & Tricks.
NOTE: The main purpose is to use the vanilla Tiddlywiki effectively! Installing other plugins and using them has lower priority in this context.
A good start to learn Tiddlywiki as an end user is
Excerpt
Welcome to Grok TiddlyWiki , the definitive TiddlyWiki learning resource! Grok TiddlyWiki is a textbook that helps you build a deep, lasting understanding of and proficiency with TiddlyWiki through a combination of detailed explanations, practical exercises, and spaced-repetition reviews of prompts called takeaways .
I like the feature to “Enable links to missing tiddlers” to branch new ideas without leaving current tiddler. This is different with other platforms (e.g. github) which I have to create a new issue and link back in the current issue.
Use Zotero and RefNotes to manage and cite literature in TW, respectively.
However you collect information in your TiddlyWiki as long as the information is stored in your wiki you can totaly rearrange it later, just check your backups are working (or just save a copy), especially before making a lot of changes.
When naming tiddlers be generous in the words you use, and in the body text include the words that will help you find this information in the future (not already in the title). These words can be searched for from the sidebar.
Have new information?, Before creating a tiddler consider searching for the key words you would use in the new title, perhaps you already have one you can edit and include the new Information in.
When naming one tiddler “similar to another”, just add a “little more info to the title”, so you can tell the difference, return to the other similar tiddler and extend its name to differentiate it, if needed.
Although you can search both the title and text, the result list only includes the title, so you want to be able to select the appropriate title from the search. Did I say “Be generous in the words you use in your titles” - of course I did - twice.
Avoid punctuation and special characters in titles
Use a tag for any group, set, subject or category where you have or expect to have more than one piece of information. Then you can click on that tag wherever it appears to see the other tiddlers in the same set.
If you open any tiddler that make sense being used as a tag itself, you can use the “new here button” to create more tiddlers, tagged with the current tiddler. This is the best way to create multiple notes in one set, with the same tag.
This allows a number of tiddlers be created that relate to another tiddler eg; Work, School, Tax…
Common sets of tags to use are;
Domain tags: eg personal, work, school
Tiddler type tags: eg todo, done, note, reference, contact, archive (something that is finished which you want to keep for the record)
Specific tags: eg gardening, books, fred
When entering text;
Include related keywords not in the title (yes I said it again)
Include links to related tiddlers see the link icon in the editor to search for existing titles and insert as links.
These titles then become part of the text when searching (and add more keywords)
Behind the info tab on any tiddler you can see backlinks and references which are titles used in text fields.
On this occasion I will not recommend my "reimagin tags" package, to keep it simple, but in many ways installing a set of tag dropdown tools I have, would help make basic use easier.
I wonder if users should be told about the minimum 3 characters needed in the search dialogue, so ideally tiddler titles are three or more characters long to appear in the search?
Are two letter tiddler names even likely?
If they want to include two letter tiddlers in a search how do they do it?
Don’t be afraid to add new fields to add structured information to tiddlers, e.g. a list of related tiddlers. You’ll thank yourself later when you’re more advanced and able to customize your wiki to make use of these, e.g. an automatic list of these related tiddlers as well as automatic link-backs in these tiddlers to the current one.
Start off by making some settings because un-set they will bother you all the time:
controlpanel > info > basics
default tiddlers: consider “retain story ordering”
controlpanel > appearance > theme tweaks:
sidebar: test text fluid-fixed vs fixed-fluid
stickytitles: is especially useful in combo with…
…this one:
controlpanel > settings
tiddler titles: consider “display as link” (simplifies a lot of things)
controlpanel > appearance > toolbars
editor toolbar: remove a lot or you get the multirow editor tools
viewtoolbar: maybe check deltete-button to show it
I know the premise in this thread was to not include plugins but the following setting really ought to be a setting in native TW: ScrollBack - I go crazy without it.
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