ConnectedText v5

Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Sep 26, 2011 at 11:27 AM

@Daly

If you are still interested in giving CT a trial, there are some topics in the “Welcome to ConnectedText” project written by users which can help you get started. The one I found most valuable is named “Texting to your Taste.” You can search for this topic, or—in some ways easier—open the Topics pane (via the View menu). I like to keep this pane open all the time anyway; I drag it to the right side of the screen where it anchors. You now have a handy index of all the topics in the project arranged alphabetically. Anyway, the Texting to Your Taste topic provides some handy advice for how you might approach using CT.

I would add, as a pretty novice user myself, that I think the best way to approach CT if you’re feeling stumped is to open the Topics pane (as described above) for reference and then to just create notes as you need them. Don’t worry about linking notes unless it feels natural. While CT is a desktop wiki, it is first and foremost a notes database. Wiki links is just one of the handy ways to organize and relate those notes. But the beauty of CT is that it provides many other ways to work with them. I’m stilling learning these.

I do agree that one of the bigger stumbling blocks is the wiki markup. Basic markup is pretty easy to master. But using some of the more advanced features like setting attributes requires learning some expressions, and I personally don’t have a good mind for learning these easily. Baby steps is how I’m approaching things.

As an aside, I’ve started seeing ConnectedText as the Windows version of Tinderbox. There are a lot of similarities in the programs. Great power for those who invest the time to learn to use them properly; a mysterious mashup for those who (reasonably) prefer their applications have a more intuitive feel.

Steve Z.