Recommendations on the "new" generation of outliners?

Posted by MadaboutDana
Jul 24, 2023 at 10:44 AM

Hm, yes, nice description of the main differences between LogSeq and Obsidian, but slightly outdated. Obsidian uses a hybrid markdown mode nowadays, so you don’t have to switch to preview (although you can choose to have notes appear in “Edit” or “Read” mode; the latter functions as a straight preview).

Bullet points can be treated like blocks, in much the same way as LogSeq (i.e. moved around etc.); bullet-point lists also fold, just like LogSeq. In that sense, Obsidian has clearly been inspired by LogSeq’s default bullet-point layout. You can further enhance this behaviour using the Outliner plugin (although that’s looking increasingly unnecessary).

It’s worth mentioning that you can link to individual blocks by adding your own identifier to any given block. But if you don’t want to do that, you can use (built-in) Bookmarks to bookmark individual blocks and then include them in links. It’s important to note that Obsidian does treat all text paragraphs as blocks, just not as obviously as LogSeq.

With respect to embedding, the amazing Hover Editor plugin (which is being considered for Core plugin status) allows you to hover over any link to view the entire note, and even to open that link in a separate window so you can edit the note. You can also embed using various plugins, but I don’t generally bother – although the ability to create embedded lists of notes based on tags (Tagged Documents Viewer) or indeed embedded lists of paragraphs/blocks of text (Tag Summary) is useful.

One of my favourite features is the (built-in!) Stacked Tabs view. This allows you to view tabs not just as horizontal labels across the top of a window, but in a kind of horizontal accordion (with the labels rotated 90 degrees). If you’re flicking between multiple documents simultaneously but don’t want to open multiple windows or use a fixed two-pane view, this is amazingly useful.

Just a few reasons why I like Obsidian so much!