The AI’s statement is somewhat imprecise. Not everyone requires PDFs. However, based on the information I’ve reviewed, the number of documents I’ve read far exceeds those on wiki sites.
Exporting a specific set of tiddlers to generate documentation is indeed an excellent approach. Alternatively, this functionality could be incorporated into the flatten macro to filter out a group of tiddlers possessing a particular field value.
Specific use cases may also suit certain individuals’ needs, and publishing solutions can benefit others.
I also believe that having a tiddler that brings together all relevant content would be ready for communication with others at any time.
This AI rewrite was successful. The number of participants in the discussion increased from 2 to 5. After the AI rewrite, the effectiveness of the expression significantly improved. The AI’s text is impactful and resonates deeply, with a persuasive structure that guides the reader rather than being formulaic like my previous posts.
This AI-rewritten text style originates from ruanyifeng.com. A master of documentation.
Inspired by @Mark_S. Here’s a simple kin-based solution. This approach can flatten tiddlers and includes a directory at the front.
Add the content “<<toc test/t1>>” to the tiddler test/t1.
Select “Filer” in Advanced Search.
Enter [kin[test/t1]]
After obtaining the search results, export them to static HTML.
another:
The translink macro and $list widget can replace the “export” to generate a flattened single page.
yaisog.tiddlyhost.com’s descendants plugin can replace kin plugin.
My point, though, was that such work was custom. The flattening is hand-crafted. Look at all the complexity in the TOC macros… which still aren’t flexible enough for many. And then think of how much more flexibility we would want in a flattener. It strikes me as too complex a problem to solve generically. But I’d love to be proven wrong.
Can I suggest that if you want to work toward this, you do a custom one for a medium complexity wiki, without worrying yet about a generic approach. If that works well, then look to two or three other wikis (not your own), which have similar needs (feel free to use mine above) and see if you can find a common design that would cover all of them with reasonable amounts of customization. You don’t need to implement it, not yet: just document a design. If you can do that, I’ll be impressed and will be much more willing to try to coordinate on a generic implementation.
Tutorials, yes, almost by definition. But reference manuals usually are meant to be random access. Diátaxis has more information.
As far as I can tell, there is no way to actually make print references to specific pages.
I think customization would be necessary. There are plenty of times when an outline format would not be appropriate. Sometimes you don’t want markers at all.
Before your rewrite was posted, I count you, Tony, Eric, and Mohammad participating. After that, I still count you and Tony, and add Springer, Mario, and me; not a big difference. I don’t remember the thread from it’s early days, and I almost skipped it simply this time because the post was AI generated. I only read it because of our recent interaction on a related thread. I was barely able to read it after the click-bait style first sentence. So, in short, I don’t think AI added much to this conversation.
Note: I split some posts from here into the Page breaks for printing/PDF Generation topic, because they seemed useful stand-alone. But if you haven’t read them, it’s probably worth doing.
My approach is to use the kin filter or the recursive method as a first approximation. Then follow one or two techniques.
First is to apply a unique tag to all the flattened tiddlers. Then use that tag to do any final arranging, adding or deleting tiddlers as needed by adding or removing the tag.
The other method is to use @pmario 's bundler to put all the tiddlers into a bundle. Once again, you can add or remove tiddlers from the bundle, and arrange the bundle as needed. There is an option at the top of the bundle tiddler to open all tiddlers in the story river. You can either do that, or parse the contents of the bundle to create your printable tiddler.
If you use the “tag” approach, you can also use @Mohammad 's sections plugin, which takes a filter you give it to create a single tiddler from all your tiddlers, but in sections. This is handy is you want to systematically review your existing material, without being overwhelmed by sheer content.
Do you use this only to collect a bunch of one-level transclusions? Or can this be extended to show hierarchical lists? If you open my charter document, it has one main tiddler which transcludes all the other content tiddlers, organized into Chapters, Sections, Subsections, and Sub-subsections. But each chapter, section, etc. is its own tiddler, and, importantly to me, has its own permalink. They are transcluded in a careful way to respect the hierarchy. To me, that’s a large part of the requirements. I couldn’t tell from your descriptions whether either technique would support this.
I did have a system set up to hide sub-hierarchies. Based on a level number in each tiddler. But it’s not really worth the effort.
If you have consistent formatting for each level, then maybe the flattened text would reflect that.
Using indenture to reflect hierarchy has the problem that you can quickly end up with only a narrow 2 cm band for text!
Ok. That very different requirements to mine. For me, having URLs like these is crucial:
But that’s part of my point that a generic tool for this is difficult. There’s such a variety of needs that it sounds extremely challenging to find useful commonalities. I am going to have to look into @Mohammad’s Sections plugin, though.
To be clear: I had not even seen the post at all prior to the revision.
actually it is hierarchical perhaps even networked.
using tagging tree operator is a way to flatten a hierarchy of titles into a list.
@pmario revised toc code would likely make the transclusion of a flattened toc easy through the item template.
A great learning resource for custom styles is @Mohammad 's section plugin. It offers numerous predefined styles and allows users to write their own.
@Mark_S also has the same need for TOC as I do.
Table of Contents for Section Editor Plugin - Discussion - Talk TW
My requirements are very straightforward: I just need a numbering system before the title. The numbers themselves should indicate the hierarchy. That’s all I need. Since my requirements are so simple, I can achieve this by hacking @Mohammad 's section plugin. It offers numerous predefined styles and allows users to write their own.
My requirements are very straightforward: I just need a numbering system before the title. The numbers themselves should indicate the hierarchy. That’s all I need. Since my requirements are so simple, I can achieve this by hacking @EricShulman 's code. I’m not a detail-oriented person, so I’m not suited to be a product manager. The result I want looks like this below—just simple numbering is fine.
Why am I proposing this feature for inclusion in the core macro? First, this functionality is essential for tiddlywiki’s ecosystem to communicate with external systems. Second, once integrated into the core macro, many users will contribute requests and suggestions, refining the flatten macro into a polished tool.
Since the reference manual can be printed, it inherently possesses certain linear characteristics. Although readers use the reference manual in a non-linear manner, my linear requirement is simply to be able to communicate externally without relying on the wiki.
For example: “Please refer to Section 1.2.5.”
Hmm. You two didn’t see the previous post.
After excluding me and @Mohammad the count is 2. Because @Mohammad’s comment is unrelated to this post.
@Scott_Sauyet, It seems you’re uncomfortable with the sales pitch tone of AI. I think AI’s approach to writing by starting with evoking a sense of connection is something worth learning from.
Since I have no need for printed output, only for instant messaging and AI interaction, I haven’t focused on pagination issues. However, that earlier post also inspired me to use the kin plugin for this post.
clearly a matter of opinion. I immediately felt it was verbose and felt a little bored.
Indeed, nodes on the official TiddlyWiki site can have multiple tags. It’s not linear in the traditional sense. By “linear” here, I mean being able to expand all levels at once, allowing you to see from start to finish without needing multiple clicks to jump around. I’m not sure what term to use to describe this concept.
Tag tree operator?
Can it transclude all relevant nodes?
Consider deleting some redundant sentences and retaining only the most Brilliant ones. For example, this Brilliant sentence:
Most people still crave that simple, linear experience: open, scroll, done.
AI writes with far more literary flair than I do.
see mention here Recursive filter operators to show all tiddlers beneath a tag and all tags above a tiddler
finds all tiddlers in the hierarchy like the toc and returns a list of titles. I use only a depth first version that came later.
It seems kin better suits my needs.
The tag tree can get t1 but not t1.1.
Yes, it can iff they are tiddler based.
It can not show a tiddler toc based on sections like headings. That was not the goal.