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Craft for Windows is apparently a thing now
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Posted by Amontillado
Sep 6, 2022 at 12:48 PM
I completely agree. Transclusion is a key feature for any knowledge system. You get context, it solves “compiling” documents for export, it slices, it dices…
Obsidian keeps catching my eye, even though it’s not as flexible and even more aesthetically plain than Devonthink.
A transcluded document in Obsidian does the expected thing in view mode, produces a nice in-line expansion in edit mode, and further lets you navigate to the transcluded document. That’s something Devonthink doesn’t offer.
But Obsidian isn’t perfect. The transcluded document’s backlinks don’t include where it was transcluded from, only where it was linked from.
There is, somewhere over a rainbow, a greener pasture. I’m as certain of that as I am of flying cows and mixed metaphors.
MadaboutDana wrote:
Now if they’ll only include transclusion in one of their many and
>regular updates – without transclusion, their whole task
>management model falls to pieces… :-(
Posted by MadaboutDana
Sep 7, 2022 at 08:28 AM
Of course there is (for us CRIMPers, in any case!).
I quite agree – but I’ve tried Obsidian and no, it just breaks all my current expectations concerning smooth user-friendliness. Powerful, yes. Pleasant to use? Not really.
Craft is amazing, but increasingly, almost tangibly held back by the lack of transclusion (for example, although their task management has improved by leaps and bounds, there’s no way of including individual tasks from a complex project document in day notes).
Still, when I raised the issue of transclusion (about a year and a half ago, I think), they did say it was on the roadmap!
Amontillado wrote:
I completely agree. Transclusion is a key feature for any knowledge
>system. You get context, it solves “compiling” documents for export, it
>slices, it dices…
>
>Obsidian keeps catching my eye, even though it’s not as flexible and
>even more aesthetically plain than Devonthink.
>
>A transcluded document in Obsidian does the expected thing in view mode,
>produces a nice in-line expansion in edit mode, and further lets you
>navigate to the transcluded document. That’s something Devonthink
>doesn’t offer.
>
>But Obsidian isn’t perfect. The transcluded document’s backlinks don’t
>include where it was transcluded from, only where it was linked from.
>
>There is, somewhere over a rainbow, a greener pasture. I’m as certain of
>that as I am of flying cows and mixed metaphors.
>
>MadaboutDana wrote:
>Now if they’ll only include transclusion in one of their many and
>>regular updates – without transclusion, their whole task
>>management model falls to pieces… :-(
Posted by MadaboutDana
Sep 8, 2022 at 11:19 AM
Hm, okay, just been experimenting with Craft again after a while away, and I realise you can copy meaningful links to tasks (or indeed any “block” in a note) using the “Copy as Markdown” in the context menu or the “Copy link” item in the little menu that appears when you click the right-hand circle with three dots that appears next to all blocks when you mouse-over them.
You can then paste the link into a daily note, whereupon the text of the full block appears, linked directly to the original version in the original note. Thanks to Craft’s ingenious “preview” function (float your mouse over the link, and a small but very sharp preview of the target block/note pops up), this is actually pretty useful, and means you can easily check out the linked block even if you don’t follow the link (sorry: hope that makes sense!). This is especially useful if the block is just one in a long list of e.g. tasks in a project-related note.
But the preview is even cleverer than I thought. If you’ve got nested content in the block, and you float over the link, then the preview shows you the nested content. If you haven’t got any nested content in the block, so it’s just a simple block of text, then the preview shows you the block in the context of the surrounding note. That’s subtle.
That’s actually quite impressive. It’s not transclusion, but it’s not far off.
Now it would be helpful if they included the preview function for the actual block (i.e. not just the link to the block), so you could see the block’s nested content without having to actually open it.
Still, that’s made me very thoughtful… it’s an amazingly powerful feature.