Hi all.

Each time, Manfred talks about ConnectedText I feel the urge to give it a try. But I have always been held back by the fact that CT does not run on the Mac (I know I can run Windows using VMware or Parallels - but my favorite notebook does not have an Intel CPU).

So: Is there a Wiki tool similar to ConnectedText that runs on Windows and Mac OS X?

What I am interested in particularly is what John O'Connor described as:

"In Connectedtext as soon as you have entered a “card” that contains a shared keyword
with an existing “card” you can see that there is a connection."

Franz

Hi.

Let me add a few features that I need/would like:

MUST HAVE
* Full-text search (with Boolean operators)
* Searching through several Wikis
* Support for bold, italic, strikethrough
* Tables
* Bulleted lists
* Insertion of images
* Ability to have several notes (in windows) open at the same time
* Bookmarks for notes
* Navigator that shows topic relationships (as in CT)

NICE TO HAVE
* Save searches
* Use of styles for formatting paragraphs
* History navigation
* Export to RTF
* German spellchecker

Franz

Why not set up a locally hosted personal wiki using Mediawiki, the open source application behind Wikipedia? Gina Trapani's instructions at Lifehacker worked fine for me: http://lifehacker.com/software/wikipedia/geek-to-live--set-up-your-personal-wikipedia-163707.php

Big difference compared to CT: you're saved from having yet another window open; the wiki is inside Firefox.

I can pretty much tick off most of Franz's wiki requirements: since I'm using Mediawiki and Firefox as platforms for the wiki, I can draw on their extensions; I'm able to draw on other applications which interact with Firefox - particularly DT Search.

Big drawback for Franz may be that Mediawiki only gives you one wiki. This isn't a problem for me. I'm using the wiki to store preliminary notes for potential research topics. The aim is to get the notes to cross-fertilise, produce those aha moments. But it would be easy enough to set off projects using categories.

It's also possible, though I haven't tried this, to put a local Mediawiki on a stick and so take it from machine to machine.

The tech side of setting up the local Mediawiki may seem daunting at first. Just follow Gina's excellent instructions.

The main drawbacks for me have been that it's a bit slow, a couple of seconds, to open up at first. And adding photographs is a couple of clicks rather than CT's drag and drop.

Ike

Franz

My big mistake. Gina's instructions are for a Windows XP computer... I just presumed it would be cross platform.

This looks like a Mac route to a personal wiki: http://macmegasite.com/node/2506

Ike

I only know of one desktop wiki that runs on both PC and Mac.
NoteStudio, from http://www.dogmelon.com.au/ns/
Not sure how many of your requirements it will fulfill.
Moreover, the development was frozen not so long ago, though they are looking for someone to take over.

Well, just for the record, Wikidpad also runs on Win and Mac. Though I'm sure you probably already know about this one.

Are you looking for a tool that runs on both Windows and Mac, or would a Mac-only tool work for you? If Mac-only is fine, check out VoodooPad. It meets all your requirements (except search in Tiger, which is only moderately good -- but it will inherit all the new search operators in Leopard automatically and you only have a week more to wait).

If you need cross-platform, check out Wiki Server:
http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/features/wikis.html
You need OS X server to run it, but the user interface is *very* slick. It's a pity they don't have videos of it up on their website (at least I can't find them). It has most of the good stuff from Sharepoint mixed with wiki goodness. And you can access it in a cross-platform manner.

-- Chris

Thanks for the pointers so far.

@Ike: I tried PmWiki more than a year ago. It was OK on Windows but somehow it was not what I needed (can't remember exactly what it was that was missing). I'll give it another try.

MediaWiki might be fine for my needs. I do not necessarily have to use several databases, I can also keep my notes in one file. But the effort required is way beyond what I am prepared to invest - if I go for a pure Windows solution, spending $30 for a CT licence or even $80 for the USB licence will be the easiest way.

@Thomas: Notestudio is no option as development was frozen.

Wikidpad seems to be interesting. I will give it a try. However, it looks like it does not have a Navigator as in CT - i.e. the view that shows the links between the notes. What I have seen so far reminds me of Infoselect (the data repository I use at the moment).

And: No, I was not aware of Wikidpad :-)

@Chris: I am looking for a cross-plattform tool; the ideal solution would be one that can be run from a USB stick both from Windows and Mac.

Again, thanks so far.
Franz

Take a look at Zulu Pad:

http://www.gersic.com/zulupad/download.html

I don't know much about it, but it does claim to run on both Windows and Mac and from a thumbdrive.

Steve Z.

Thomas wrote:

Well, just for the record, Wikidpad also runs on Win and Mac. Though I'm sure you
probably already know about this one.

I want to second the recommendation for Wikidpad. I've been tinkering with it (converted my KeyNote-based data to it). Wikidpad is extremely powerful. There are a few things about it that I appreciate:

First, the powerful features that I don't use don't get in the way. It's nice to know that they're easily available should I find the need.

Second, I like the "dual access" to my data. I can access data in a hierarchical manner via the tree, or "contextually" via the WikiWords.

KeyNote continues to be my main PIM, but I'll be using Wikidpad to create an interractive family history for relatives.

Someone just pointed me towards Wagn, a cloud-based wiki, which is using the index-card metaphor for organising data and is WYSIWYG. It looks very interesting. Nevertheless, they seem to be mostly geared towards setting up websites, rather than data management a la Zettelkasten, so I won't be rushing to switch from CT just yet.

The first video will give you an idea of how it works:

http://wagn.org/how_to_videos

It's not clear to me though how easy it is to import/export data and whether one can run any sophisticated queries or visualise relationships between cards.

Funny that you bring that thread up again.
Just a few days ago I installed Zulupad (recommended in this thread by Steven Z.). Finally a wiki that does not force me to switch between Edit and View mode. For now, I just use it for brainstorming a new project - usually I do that in Xmind but this time there is more text involved so that I chose to try something different.

What I find funny is how little the tools that we are dicussing, at least for for such an application, have changed in almost seven years: Connected Text, WikidPad, Zulupad (not updated since 2009), and various server based wikis. The main recent addition I can think is Piggydb.

In respect to Wagn, it took me a bit to understand how it differs from other wiki solutions; its main competitive advantage is in presenting information, where many cards can be included in the same screen. I expect that one can make fairly complex websites with this. Also interesting is that they have made an educational charity to market and support the tool. Thanks for the heads up.

While the subject of personal wikis is at the forefront, I just thought I'd point out that TiddlyWiki has a fresh new version, which appears to have many more features. I haven't tried it, so this is no endorsement, but it might be a multi-platform solution for some:

http://tiddlywiki.com/

Steve Z.

The new Tiddlywiki 5 is still not feature-complete but if someone was looking for a capable Wiki for Mac and Windows (and Android, iOS etc, too) I'd say this was it. It is open source, has a great forum, very active developers, has encryption built in, very light-weight and highly configurable.
It can be run as a single html file (good for self-hosting) or under node.js with every tiddler (=note) being represented as a single text file on disk (good for exchange with other tools on the same computer).
I am only a casual user because I have invested in a different system but I am considering switching towards TW5.
Prion
PS: I tend to consider that switch more seriously the closer that hard deadline is getting...

Worth reminding those who are hesitating over TiddlyWiki that the great TWEdit (under iOS) is available for editing TiddlyWiki files exchanged via Dropbox. The app has really matured and is now stable and reliable (in my experience, at least). After the disappointment of the excellent but erratic AsNoted (based on underlying TiddlyWiki tech), I've moved back to TWEdit on my iPad.

TWEdit is newly TiddlyWiki 5-compatible, too (as from Dec 2013).

Cheers,
Bill

It may be worth noting that one of the side effects of using a single html file (even though it definitely does not feel like one) there need not be explicit support for Dropbox and the like. Anywhere you can save to and open from will work, MS Skydrive, Dropbox, Telekom cloud space, owncloud, anything seems to work just fine.
I am using TWedit on the iPad, too, great piece of software. I would not mind not having to remember to upload the file after saving it on the iPad but that is a minor nuisance.

Prion wrote:

I am only a casual user because I have invested in a different system
but I am considering switching towards TW5.

May I ask what that other system is and what are the advantages you see in the new Tiddlywiki?

I was going to ask the same question.

TW looks good. But I am constantly perplexed by the sudden changes on my screen as soon as I click a link in a TiddlyWiki file.
And here, again, we have the distinction between Edit and View mode. I still do not get why we need that. I stopped using something like TeX decades ago. I am a writer, I am always in Create and Edit mode. I do not need a view mode (we have PDF or printed pages for that - and even these can be "edited").

Franz

Alexander Deliyannis wrote:

May I ask what that other system is and what are the advantages you see
in the new Tiddlywiki?

You mean, beyond dragging me away from that looming deadline?

That other system is Mac-centric (Devonthink Pro, the Wiki part is represented by Voodoopad, also some Tinderbox and nvALT). Each of these programs has got its strengths but what slows me down is the fragmentation of my information but I am used to it and know where and when it needs some help.
I do not have enough experience with TiddlyWiki to be confident that it would at least take over the Wiki part. It is open source and when I had questions in the past I was usually put on the right track within hours by some helpful souls on the TW forum.
I really like the fact that I can see the Wiki syntax and do not have to trust some binary black box. Voodoopad usually works well and the Dropbox sync is almost foolproof. Due to the absence of RTF editing under iOS, the VP iPad app is more a viewer, though,and will happily destroy information if one attempts to edit anything (this is but one example of the limitations of the black box).
Markdown is present but rendered so ugly to be unusable (to me).
Tiddlywiki on the other hand may be less well integrated into the Mac OS but on the flip side is also much less dependent on it. TWedit provides a fully fledged editing solution on the iPad and some functionality such as the ability to display incoming and outgoing links for example can be easily added to Tiddlywiki but not in Voodoopad (only Backlinks and only separated from the note itself in the inspector).
Does that answer your question?

Prion, thanks for the useful info. From my part I have tried to favour platform-agnostic working whenever I can, but it is true that, beyond plain text files, there are often incompatibilities between the formats and tools used.