Is there anything that has the power and flexibility of ConnectedText (image support, extremely robust markup options) but which I can access and/or update from my mobile device?

As has been discussed before, much of the preferred software in this space is Mac only, or Mac/iOS only. The options that are most attractive to me for Windows (ConnectedText, TheBrain), seem to have either NO mobile support or very spotty, buggy mobile support. For example, TheBrain's iPhone app crashed repeatedly when I tried to test it through the company's WebBrain interface.

I use Windows at work and at home, and have an iPhone for the mobile part of the equation. Also, I am limited in my ability to install software on my work machine (anything requiring admin-level installation requires a call to IT), so I want something I can also access on the web if possible, or by editing files stored in Dropbox.

Hm, definitely a little restricted.

OneNote springs to mind. Beloved of IT departments, very powerful and available on multiple mobile platforms? And probably already on your PC...

You can also create links between OneNote notes, add tags etc.; it's a lot more powerful than you might think.

zoe wrote:

Is there anything that has the power and flexibility of ConnectedText
(image support, extremely robust markup options) but which I can access
and/or update from my mobile device?

I've been trying to find a solution to that for some time as well. I'm not interested in using another app. Then the question becomes, how to make CT portable, or how to access it remotely, or how to capture data with some other app and then load it into CT when I get home.

For now I'm stuck with leaving my home PC on and then accessing it via my Chromebook using the Chrome Remote Desktop (CRD) app. But my Chromebook is a 14" full size laptop, so it's not with me all the time. For those situations then I use Google Keep on an Android tablet to capture notes and transfer them to CT later. Getting a smaller Chromebook (11") might make it more bearable, though it might need to be tethered to an Android phone when away from wifi.

Another option might be to have a small but powerful ultrabook as the main machine, and then also use it as a desktop, by plugging it into monitors. But it's still not as portable as a phone or a small tablet, and the SSD drives tend to be too small for long term data accumulation.

I do actually have a Win XP netbook that I take on longer trips, which has another copy of CT and which I sync with the PC when I get back, but this manual syncing is not very convenient.

Yet another option might be to use the USB version of CT on a thumb drive and stick it into a Windows tablet, but it's got its own problems (e.g. links to files outside the drive would be broken when moving to a different PC).

The search continues...

Another possibility that has just occurred to me is to get into the habit of storing most of the external files that CT links to on the cloud (maybe Google Drive or Dropbox), and then CT's footprint would get smaller, so it could indeed be kept on a small Windows tablet or an HP Stream 11 type Windows 'chromebook.'

But I'm just wondering how quick such a system would be, if everything had to be downloaded from the cloud constantly. But maybe this is just my problem, as I use CT as a dashboard to my file system, at the moment linking to 52GB worth of files on my PC. It wouldn't be a trivial matter to transfer all of that into the cloud (though ironically it's already backed up on a cloud using yet another backup service...).

You know, I think it's possible that PiggyDB might be the solution for me, although I still have to figure out how mobile support might work...

zoe wrote:

I use Windows at work and at home, and have an iPhone for the mobile
part of the equation. Also, I am limited in my ability to install
software on my work machine (anything requiring admin-level installation
requires a call to IT), so I want something I can also access on the web
if possible, or by editing files stored in Dropbox.

Connected Text is, at its core, a wiki. If you don't need its very special functions, I believe that there are several routes you can take with other wiki platforms:

1. If you need offline access, you can look for a Dropbox-compatible standalone personal wiki. I suggest that you look for mobile wiki apps in the iOS market and then see which of these have Windows clients. The simplest solution by far is Tiddlywiki http://tiddlywiki.com/ which is just an HTML file; be careful to not edit such files concurrently from two devices.

2. If you are happy to work with your wiki only when you have internet access, then a web-based solution is probably the best. Again, there are two alternative approaches, depending on your technical background and your cloud-friendliness:

- You can opt for a hosted service, such as http://www.wikidot.com/ or http://www.wikispaces.com/

- Or, you can set up your own wiki under a commercial web hosting plan; this is easier than it sounds: just about any host plan nowadays will provide you with automatic setup of various software via Simple Scripts, which include several wikis http://www.simplescripts.com/script_category/cat:Wiki Of these, DokuWiki and PMWiki are probably the most user-friendly for personal use. Note: If you opt for this approach, make sure you include a backup service in your hosting plan.

Interestingly, the last option (hosted wiki for your own use) can also be applied for Piggydb. See the comment at the end of this post http://piggydb.net/2012/09/25/lets-play-piggydb-knowledge-creation-1-on-writing-by-stephen-king/

Thanks for this breakdown of options!

Check out Trunk Notes. It's a native wiki for iOS that syncs its Markdown files to Dropbox and also has a clever way to access the wiki via a web browser on a PC (or Mac).

And when I say "access," I also mean for editing, not just viewing.

TrunkNotes is *excellent* but if you are primarily working on your computer accessing and editing your wiki on your mobile device adds some unwanted friction. For years I have been encouraging the developer to finally publish the promised OS X version, with little success so far but it is still in the cards.



Chris Murtland wrote:

Check out Trunk Notes. It's a native wiki for iOS that syncs its
Markdown files to Dropbox and also has a clever way to access the wiki
via a web browser on a PC (or Mac).

One more if I may. Connecting to TrunkNotes via Wifi sharing depends on the presence of a Wifi that OS X as well iOS device can connect to, which is not possible everywhere. Under Yosemite one cannot set up an ad hoc Wifi network, at least not one with any kind of security.
An option here is using Type2Phone, an OS X utility that talks to your iOS device connecting via Bluetooth. This can be set up locally and provides some security.
HTH
Prion

I got really excited reading this thread, until I discovered the same thing reading the details. You can move data back and forth, but it's nothing resembling effortless synchronization.

There's no actual Mac client, only a way to backup and restore data. So if you have a lot of notes, I imagine navigating and finding information on the Mac side would be difficult.

Prion wrote:

TrunkNotes is *excellent* but if you are primarily working on your
computer accessing and editing your wiki on your mobile device adds some
unwanted friction. For years I have been encouraging the developer to
finally publish the promised OS X version, with little success so far
but it is still in the cards.



Chris Murtland wrote:
Check out Trunk Notes. It's a native wiki for iOS that syncs its
>Markdown files to Dropbox and also has a clever way to access the wiki
>via a web browser on a PC (or Mac).

Yes and unfortunately I do not use MacOS at all at the moment. Plus I'm not on wi-fi on the work computer because everything is on a pretty high-security hard wired intranet. Back to the drawing board...

zoe wrote:

Is there anything that has the power and flexibility of ConnectedText
(image support, extremely robust markup options) but which I can access
and/or update from my mobile device?

If you wanted to stick with CT, I think there are two different uses/issues here: 1) real-time access to CT database (to consult/modify it), and 2) capture new info to be added to CT (which can be done later on).

In the absence of a CT cloud app to do this (which has been requested on the CT forum: see http://connectedtext.com/forum/index.php/topic,3057.msg14129.html#msg14129 I see two options to do this, given your requirements.

As I mentioned before, 1) could be addressed by leaving your Win machine with CT on permanently and use another device with a remote access app to dial into the PC. Not sure if this can be done conveniently on an iPhone. I use my Chromebook + CRD for this, which is a lot more to carry.

To address 2), there seem to be a few options. You could use an iOS app for capturing notes and images, and then transfer them to CT when you get back home. I used to use the WorkFlowy app for this on iOS (you could keep your CT templates in it for different types of notes).

Alternatively, you could use a plain text editor app that saves/edits to Dropbox. Then in CT you could create a topic called "Dropbox folder" and add

[[$FILE:C:\Users\\Documents\My Dropbox\\*.*]]

to it, so this would display the files saved in that Dropbox folder, to remind you that you need to process them and bring them into CT. This topic then could be pinned in your Home page, or as a bookmark, or in a CT outline (and so on), to remind you to check it regularly.

On Android, I'd suggest Google Keep. I keep a couple of CT templates in it, and so it's fairly quick to create new notes with CT's markup in it. I have shortcuts to Google Keep in all my bookmark toolbars, so I can be reminded to check it and access it with one click.

Dr Andus wrote:

[[$FILE:C:\Users\\Documents\My Dropbox\\*.*]]

Oops, the forum software mangled the CT command a bit. Let me try it another way:

[[$FILE:C:\Users\username\Documents\My Dropbox\folder_name\*.*]]

Dr Andus wrote:

Oops, the forum software mangled the CT command a bit

Curiously, the CT command was rendered correctly when I viewed it in my RSS reader (InoReader) in Firefox, but rendered incorrectly when viewed on OutlinerSoftware.com in the same Firefox, and then again the other way round when I tried to "fix" it. I presume it has to do with different ways of rendering HTML...

You've undoubtedly mentioned this before (in that case a link would be enough), but could you explain your "bring them into CT" procedure?


Dr. Andus wrote

remind you that you need to process them and bring them into CT

Paul Korm wrote:

You've undoubtedly mentioned this before (in that case a link would be
enough), but could you explain your "bring them into CT" procedure?

Oh, with individual notes I normally only use copy and paste into the body of a new topic. So at the moment I record my notes as individual notes in Google Keep (by using a simple CT template I keep there), and then when I'm back at my Win PC, I call up Google Keep in Firefox and copy and paste each note into CT (and then delete those notes from Google Keep, which I only use as an inbox, to be cleared every time).

I only use mass import of notes in the case of diary entries, which I record in a plain text file for a few months, and then import them as a single file, which CT breaks up into individual topics according to a "separator" markup. This is explained in the CT help file > Importing text > Using a separator.

So in my diary I start an entry as

@@20150418

and CT splits the text file at the @@ separator mark and uses the immediate text after the separator as the title of the new topic, in this case displayed as "18/04/2015". The text contained below that will constitute the body of the topic, until the next occurrence of @@, which creates the next entry.

It would be of course possible to use a single plain text file kept in Dropbox for recording all notes with a separator and then import them in one go into CT, but I find it less hassle to just use Google Keep for occasional notes captured on the go.

Hmmm... Is there some way to continuously publish the CT database as HTML to a Public Dropbox folder?

That way I can pull up the URL on my phone when I need to look at old info. Then I can just use a Dropbox folder as my Inbox (with Workflow/Drafts/URL schemes on iOS to collect throughout the day, and Dropbox on my office machine for other things) and integrate them into CT when I get back to my home PC.

OK, answering my own question here -- It's apparently possible to host the full CT as an HTML document with supporting files/images in one's Public Dropbox folder. This way, I can read it on my iPhone, no problem (with custom responsive CSS this will get even easier). All it means is that I have to do an Export when I save/close CT, which I don't consider too imposing.

As for capture, I can use the Workflow app to dump items into Dropbox for later processing.

@Dr Andus

So, is there a way to select a file linked with the code you posted above

[[$FILE:C:\Users\username\Documents\My Dropbox\folder_name\*.*]]

and tell CT to import that file?

Paul Korm wrote:

So, is there a way to select a file linked with the code you posted
above and tell CT to import that file?

It would be nice but I don't think so. If you click on the link it will just open the file in your default text editor.

I presume it should be possible to write an AutoHotkey or Python script to automate such an import process.

However, it only takes 3 clicks to go to Project > Import > OK (as the last import location will be saved) to do such an import, so maybe that's why no one bothered to develop one.

Having said that, on the CT forum there have been discussions about the possibilities to do direct imports from Dropbox, but I can't remember if anyone came up with a script to do that.

There are pros and cons for doing automatic imports (I like to review files manually before importing them, to make sure I know what's going on/coming in), but I wouldn't mind if there was a one-click option to confirm such semi-automatic imports from Dropbox, Google Drive etc).

@Dr Andus

Very helpful. Thank you. I'll have to monitor the CT forum on this and see what develops.

It's not an actual client, but accessing the Trunk Notes wiki via WiFi sharing in the web browser does allow searching, browsing, editing, etc. The sync between the wiki and Dropbox from an iOS device is manual, but it is a sync.

When I can't get the PC and the iOS device on the same WiFi network for some reason (using a VPN on the PC, for example), I just edit the Markdown files in the Dropbox directory directly with any Markdown editor.

Another thing I like about Trunk Notes, is that beyond the basic wiki functions, it's pretty customizable and powerful, with access to CSS, jQuery, and Lua scripting to tweak and extend.

It may not be an ideal setup, but I find it a bit quicker and more convenient than the current workarounds with ConnectedText mobile access. For what it's worth, when I was trying to make CT work even with mobile considerations, I would publish the entire CT wiki as a compiled help file and then access that with CHM reader software on iOS. I would use text files on Dropbox for later import to CT; similar to what is mentioned above. All of that isn't too onerous, but I find that I really like making actual, direct edits to my wiki when I'm on my iPhone or iPad. Also, once you have a large CT wiki, exporting it becomes increasingly time consuming. For desktop usage, however, there is no doubt that CT is the luxury version.

TiddlyWiki, also mentioned in this thread, is another option. Its single-file storage model may make it more straightforward to use under different conditions. The iOS app (twEdit) does sync to Dropbox, but again, it's manual rather than automatic.

An iOS version of CT with full, automatic syncing to the desktop version would indeed be a dream.

steveylang wrote:

I got really excited reading this thread, until I discovered the same
thing reading the details. You can move data back and forth, but it's
nothing resembling effortless synchronization.

There's no actual Mac client, only a way to backup and restore data. So
if you have a lot of notes, I imagine navigating and finding information
on the Mac side would be difficult.