Heptabase - Crimp cured?

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Posted by exatty95
Sep 14, 2023 at 07:50 PM

I used it right from the beginning, and I found it better as a writing helper than at knowledge management—my principal use. To be fair, I haven’t used it recently, as I have been using Obsidian and Tana. Looking at it now, it does seem much improved at knowledge management, so perhaps I acted prematurely. I’d be interested in others’ experiences.

Posted by Dormouse
Sep 14, 2023 at 09:42 PM

I liked Scrintal better than Hepta originally, but they were very late getting their dark mode out. Promised earlier but not delivered. And by that time I was using Hepta. And I’ve not got back into it since.
My impression is that Hepta is developing faster. And I liked it being local rather than web.
I also found that Obsidian’s Canvas was often more effective when I had a task in mind. Simpler whiteboard but far more note options.

When I was thinking about giving up on Heptabase, I wondered if Mindomo could be used as whiteboard/notes instead. (The thought was triggered by trying the mindmap feature in Hepta and being surprised by how useful it was.) For my particular current needs, it’s actually working very well. I still do my real notes in Tangent - but I’ve always done that anyway. I’m not sure I have a need for Hepta or Scrintal now. I was never comfortable with the idea of all my notes being in a database.

Posted by Rausch
Sep 15, 2023 at 06:59 AM

I am very much of the same mind: I keep Bear for my general note-taking and foresee Heptabase as project-oriented, populated only with relevant notes - either new reading and thoughts, or those carefully chosen from my existing notes. That’s how I used Tinderbox too.

I’m hoping that HB is really going to help me then to organise and develop each project, or part of a project. Of course, some parts will become permanent resources for future projects as well.

Tumbleweed wrote:
>One thing that really struck is a video link someone posted here about
>not taking and saving notes on everything. I previously did that
>meticulously, and organizing all that info can be more of a burden than
>a help (and now those are scatter among programs). Now I am trying to
>make a frame of relevant topics/areas, and set a “skeleton” of
>information which can be updated and replaced. The visual organization
>style is conducive to this, because you can remember where something is
>“supposed to be” and add/alter as needed, as well as get a fast overview
>of pertinent info.

Posted by Rausch
Sep 16, 2023 at 07:50 AM

Thanks for this recommendation: I think I’m already sorted with my research notes and long-form writing apps (I’m testing it to see if HB fits in the middle) but I generally write a lot - as an exercise, and as a strategy: oddly enough sometimes my brainstorming seems to work better through rough prose than an analogue or digital whiteboard.

I’m not sure how much of Tangent notes I’ll end up using, but the writing and rabbit-hole exploring which the app developer talks about fits this prose kind of brainstorming really well, and having used it now for a day I find that the app has a lovely friction-free presentation.

Dormouse wrote:
>I still do my real notes in Tangent - but I’ve always done that anyway.
>I’m not sure I have a need for Hepta or Scrintal now. I was never
>comfortable with the idea of all my notes being in a database.

Posted by Dormouse
Sep 17, 2023 at 12:29 AM

I find Tangent has the features I need for notes and doesn’t intrude on my thinking or writing. Simple and quite elegant.
I find that I spend 99% of my time in it thinking and writing - where in Obsidian it sometimes felt I was doing well to hit 50%. And Obsidian is always available if I need an extra feature, though I haven’t so far.

I’ve relatively recently switched my long-form writing to Mindomo and Word. Very smooth integrated workflow, and everything had to end up in Word anyway. And it’s easy to import .md notes into Mindomo if that should ever be needed. In some ways I always felt that HB was better for working with sources, but the evidence never quite backed that up.

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