How to Use Tiddlywiki Effectively (I am an average enduser)

#1

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.

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#2

Example tip

Tags

  1. To see the tags in your wiki, open the Sidebar, More Tab, and then Tags tab
  2. To see notes tagged with special tag say math, just click on the math in the list
  3. You can open any note in the opened list by clicking the math
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#3

A good start to learn Tiddlywiki as an end user is

https://groktiddlywiki.com/

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 .

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The Worst Feature of Tiddlywiki
#4

I like

  1. Colorful tags
  2. Icons with my notes (tiddlers)

Tags with color are more beautiful and can be distinguished and found quickly.

Use colorful tags and icons for your notes like below.

image
image992×208 10.9 KB

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#5

A tip is this …

Drag and drop a TAG from one wiki to another.
All Tiddlers so-tagged will be imported to the destination wiki.

That is seriously useful :smiley: !

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#6

But not very DRY.

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#7

As a new user of TW, some tips I am using now

  • 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.
  • Use syncthing to sync TW in multiple devices.
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#8

How to use TiddlyWiki Effectively

Don’t Panic!

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.
  • New with this tag
  • Create TOC for tag sidebars
    • ie; list tiddlers so tagged in sidebar or story
  • Open all/close all with this tag
  • Remove tag
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#9

Tip using tags

Note: When you see a tiddler with a Tag, click the tag pill and you will quickly see all other notes (tiddlers) from that set/subject/category

#10

To hide a tiddler to not appear in search and sidebar Recent tab simply name it with a prefix $:/ like $:/myphoto, $:/my-setting

Use cases:

  1. an image tiddler should not be appeared on its own
  2. a setting, state, temp, stylesheet, tiddler

NOTE: Tiddlywiki calls a note/tiddler, its name started with $:/, a system tiddler.

#11

To search for hidden tiddlers/notes (their name prefixed with $:/ and also called system tiddlers) do as below

  1. from sidebar, standard search box click on Advanced Search button (the magnify icon)
  2. in the tiddler opened ($:/AdvancedSearch) click on the System tab
  3. enter your keywords/phrases to search
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#12

Hoping to avoid gaps here;

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?
#13

2 posts were split to a new topic: Possibilities to improve the sidebar “search” function

#14

My practice is

  1. I use three letters (rarely) and more (most of the time), the tiddler title shall be self-explanatory
  2. I never use punctuation or nasty characters in the title

I like @TW_Tones advise above:

#15

Feel free to grab helpful items from Documenting TW — a non-linear personal web notebook

Blessings!

#16

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.

Have a nice day
Yaisog