As I was poking around trying to fill out my list of note-takers (see previous posting), I learned of an app called Walling, which intrigues me. Walling is like a set of nested white boards (called Walls). The notes are cards (called Bricks) you pin to the Walls. Nothing new there. But you can section the Walls to help organize the information on them. The type of information you can post to your Walls is pretty versatile. Walling has a daily notes type feature called Daily Desk. It doesn't seem to have the ability to add links between notes, but it does use a tag-like system (called Nodes) to provide quasi-links.

I've long admired Milanote, but the boards in Milanote are too isolated from one another to build networks of information. Walling seems a step in the right direction.

https://walling.app/why-walling

Steve

Correction: It doesn't look like you can nest Walls afterall. You can build collections of Walls... folders really... to organize them.

I stumbled across Walling today and of course searched this forum for any feedback or comments.

I feel like this is the kind of app that looks really neat in screenshots or sample documents, but might become unmanageable with larger collections of larger notes. The ability to change views for sections seems useful, especially list view which truncates the section into a list of bricks. You can collapse sections, but it would also be good to truncate bricks so bricks with a lot of content don't have to take up so much space.

Upon further consideration I think the app could be practical if there was better wall management. I think the best model for this app is 1 wall = 1 note/outline, such that content is more spread out than a typical PIM 'note' but visually well-organized. But you can't have collections of collections, or have walls demoted under other walls, etc. There is also no pinning or starring or other organization tools.

I wish there was a corkboard app that would display URL's. Think of a cross between a web browser and corkboard.

Then I could have an inventory of ideas as notes in Devonthink. A subset could go on a corkboard, showing index cards with the content of RTF, Markdown, or even just plain text notes.

I'm starting to think I should revisit Tinderbox, although it didn't resonate with me. My failing, I'm certain.

I've dabbled with Walling a few times. It is alluring, but I have the same feeling you do... that it wouldn't take too much content for it to become overwhelming. I get their update emails, and they do make frequent improvements.


steveylang wrote:

I stumbled across Walling today and of course searched this forum for
any feedback or comments.

I feel like this is the kind of app that looks really neat in
screenshots or sample documents, but might become unmanageable with
larger collections of larger notes. The ability to change views for
sections seems useful, especially list view which truncates the section
into a list of bricks. You can collapse sections, but it would also be
good to truncate bricks so bricks with a lot of content don't have to
take up so much space.

Upon further consideration I think the app could be practical if there
was better wall management. I think the best model for this app is 1
wall = 1 note/outline, such that content is more spread out than a
typical PIM 'note' but visually well-organized. But you can't have
collections of collections, or have walls demoted under other walls,
etc. There is also no pinning or starring or other organization tools.

Take a look at Milanote. It can act as a corkboard, with nested corkboards. And its web clipper for Chrome works very well.


Amontillado wrote:

I wish there was a corkboard app that would display URL's. Think of a
cross between a web browser and corkboard.

Then I could have an inventory of ideas as notes in Devonthink. A subset
could go on a corkboard, showing index cards with the content of RTF,
Markdown, or even just plain text notes.

I'm starting to think I should revisit Tinderbox, although it didn't
resonate with me. My failing, I'm certain.

I am warming to Walling a bit, though I don't like having my info spread across multiple apps. The 'wall' layout seems conducive for thinking and idea development, but not so practical for a total information archive (I'm fully committed to UpNote for that.) The app is pretty easy on the eyes (which does count for a little bit.)

I did discover a couple of things regarding organization- you can already nest folders, and you can pin individual bricks (the interface seems so-so but probably functional.)

They have a product roadmap (https://walling.app/XvglutVDmXy2tfcm5ggr/walling-product-roadmap and collapsible bricks is on the list. Some other planned features for 2021:
-Bulk data export
-Section mirror
-Dedicated iPad app

I will play around with the 100 brick free account some more...


Stephen Zeoli wrote:

I've dabbled with Walling a few times. It is alluring, but I have the
same feeling you do... that it wouldn't take too much content for it to
become overwhelming. I get their update emails, and they do make
frequent improvements.

Quick question. Has anybody had issues with getting Walling to recognize files that you have inserted or uploaded to a brick? I wanted to add a few photos still in their raw format (e.g. Nikon's .NEF) to a brick and I have been having troubles with the files even being recognized and appearing. I am working with their tech support, who have been helpful and responsive, and they do not seem to have the same problem when they upload these files. I have tried two different browsers, Chrome and Edge, and two different PC's, HP desktop and Lenovo laptop, and had the same results. I know a few of you are also photographers, so I thought I would see if you are having the same issue.

Thanks,

--Ken

They recently decreased the number of walls in the free plan from 10 to 5. As a user from pretty early on, I had 10 walls. Today I went back to Walling for the first time since they decreased the number of walls in the free plan to 5, and discovered I cannot edit anything in the app at all. That's incredibly nasty and I will not be upgrading after all.

Walling sent out an email blast today that the founder of Walling "embarks on a new journey," and the new CEO notes that he "first came across Walling earlier this year".

Press release: https://explore.walling.app/walling-welcomes-new-leadership/

User feedback survey: https://forms.fillout.com/t/j26g54sTMvus

satis wrote:

Walling sent out an email blast today that the founder of Walling
"embarks on a new journey," and the new CEO notes that he "first came
across Walling earlier this year".

Press release:
https://explore.walling.app/walling-welcomes-new-leadership/

User feedback survey: https://forms.fillout.com/t/j26g54sTMvus

Yes, I got my letter the other day and was going to post, but I have been under the weather this week and was not able to post. I am feeling cautious about this change as we have seen this story before. I actually subscribed when they launched, as my wife found it easy to use when we work together planning or reviewing things like vacation plans. It is not perfect, but it does the job well enough.

I suspect I will continue using it, but I am also going to start reviewing my export options and also see what alternate programs are out there as well. I liked Milanote, but I also know my wife will not be happy if I recommend a new program. I migrated from Trello to Walling and she was okay, but not exactly happy with, that migration. The next one may not be so well received.

--Ken

This is where the pace of change becomes so annoying – when collaboration (whether personal or professional) is involved.

I guess it’s why many (even most?) of us are happiest with apps that base the underlying data repository on standard text files (whether markdown or otherwise encoded – the new Obsidian Gingko-alike plugin is an awesome example of sensitively “enhanced” markdown code, as is NotesHub).

For those who don’t know it, the Gingko-alike plugin is called “Lineage”. It’s transforming my Obsidian experience!

Ken wrote:

satis wrote:
Walling sent out an email blast today that the founder of Walling
>"embarks on a new journey," and the new CEO notes that he "first came
>across Walling earlier this year".
>
>Press release:
>https://explore.walling.app/walling-welcomes-new-leadership/
>
>User feedback survey: https://forms.fillout.com/t/j26g54sTMvus

Yes, I got my letter the other day and was going to post, but I have
been under the weather this week and was not able to post. I am feeling
cautious about this change as we have seen this story before. I
actually subscribed when they launched, as my wife found it easy to use
when we work together planning or reviewing things like vacation plans.
It is not perfect, but it does the job well enough.

I suspect I will continue using it, but I am also going to start
reviewing my export options and also see what alternate programs are out
there as well. I liked Milanote, but I also know my wife will not be
happy if I recommend a new program. I migrated from Trello to Walling
and she was okay, but not exactly happy with, that migration. The next
one may not be so well received.

--Ken

satis wrote:

Walling sent out an email blast today that the founder of Walling
"embarks on a new journey," and the new CEO notes that he "first came
across Walling earlier this year".

Press release:
https://explore.walling.app/walling-welcomes-new-leadership/

User feedback survey: https://forms.fillout.com/t/j26g54sTMvus

Well, I finally got around to filling out the survey. I am not sure who wrote it, but it did not give me a lot of encouragement about the future of the program. Perhaps they were trying to gauge loyalty, but the questions seemed more focused on what I would do if I did not have Walling. As I said, not encouraging. I wish them well, as I like the program a lot, but I am still keeping my eyes open. Perhaps it it time to revisit X-Tiles?

--Ken

MadaboutDana wrote:

For those who don’t know it, the Gingko-alike plugin is called

“Lineage”;. It’s transforming my Obsidian experience.

I'm just writing to thank you for the reference, @MadaboutDana!!!

Gingko, was for quite some time my favorite program for thinking and composing text. I put it aside due to the erratic update path of its developer, on the other hand I regretted that there was no similar alternative: simple, graphical and effective… And now, thanks to your suggestion I have just discovered a very good alternative and also integrated into Obsidian. Wonderful! It works well on macOS, although on iPadOS (for now) it presents some quite annoying bugs. Despite that I am already using it.

I repeat: thank you very much.

You’re very welcome! Your experience mirrors mine! ;-)

tberni wrote:

MadaboutDana wrote:
>For those who don’t know it, the Gingko-alike plugin is called
“Lineage”;. It’s transforming my Obsidian experience.

I'm just writing to thank you for the reference, @MadaboutDana!!!

Gingko, was for quite some time my favorite program for thinking and
composing text. I put it aside due to the erratic update path of its
developer, on the other hand I regretted that there was no similar
alternative: simple, graphical and effective… And now, thanks to
your suggestion I have just discovered a very good alternative and also
integrated into Obsidian. Wonderful! It works well on macOS, although on
iPadOS (for now) it presents some quite annoying bugs. Despite that I am
already using it.

I repeat: thank you very much.

Lineage looks very interesting and it has the benefits of Obsidian's low friction. Very timely suggestion, actually. Over the last few weeks I've been outlining/story planning with a similar method in Curio.

Curio now has a object type called a Composition. It's a grid layout container for other objects. I've been writing story beats in a left hand column with notes to the right.

My favorite feature of Compositions is the individual Markdown or RTF notes can be synced instances of a master note somewhere in my Curio file. That's probably not so much use for a scene outline, but it's nice to have character and scene notes appear in multiple places, editable wherever they appear.

Wonderful, the amazing tools we can access in modern times. I've got Lineage installed on Obsidian on my Linux box and plan to give it a good workout this evening.

I just started using Lineage last week and I can recommend it. It has extensive keyboard shortcuts that make it easy to add notes above, below and to the right, as well as splitting and merging them. Export to a single note is one mouse click. And the best features: fully offline and no subscription required.

Amontillado wrote:

Wonderful, the amazing tools we can access in modern times.

I consider Obsidian's case to be special. Its architecture that supports plug-ins makes it an operating system within an operating system, so that it becomes an open writing environment for multiple systems, methods, and work environments focused on text and data management. I think we can even talk about a new management and work paradigm.

Obsidian reminds me of Emacs, except that normal people can actually use it.

Heh heh, I couldn’t agree more ;-)

Cyganet wrote:

Obsidian reminds me of Emacs, except that normal people can actually use
it.

Agreed, Obsidian's extensibility is cool.

It seems a little complex to write an extension, though, and that is what draws me toward Tinderbox. It's pretty easy to write agents.

I confess I'm not a faithful Tinderbox user, though. I should revisit it.


tberni wrote:

I consider Obsidian's case to be special. Its architecture that supports
plug-ins makes it an operating system within an operating system, so
that it becomes an open writing environment for multiple systems,
methods, and work environments focused on text and data management. I
think we can even talk about a new management and work paradigm.

Amontillado wrote:

I confess I'm not a faithful Tinderbox user, though. I should revisit it.

This is exactly what happens to me as well: I come and go with Tinderbox. I leave it for certain periods and then come back to it based on a specific project I have in hand. Little by little I am getting deeper into it, but it requires dedication.

It occurs to me that a simplified version (map view, outliner and little else) of Tinderbox for iOS/iPadOS would be very welcome, as it would make light work easier (data collection, schematization, etc.) and perhaps facilitate its dissemination.