Is Neovim the ULTIMATE note taking tool?

[@JoshuaB86]

Great video. I've been using neorg for a few months and if you live in neovim, it really is a game changer. I've tried using other options, but it's hard for non nevim options to not mess up my workflow. Quickly doing what I need all in neovim is the hook for me. P.S. check out the templates external module. Its pretty handy if you repeat structure across projects often.

[@devopstoolbox]

Woah 🤯 this is exactly what I was looking for!

[@sto3359]

I also use it for neovim. Obsidian is great but it’s another GUI on the desktop

[@devopstoolbox]

Yup, although Obsedian does sound more appealing given the Nvim plugin and the ability to use on a mobile device

[@danwroy]

Hash is for "magic" links (it resolves the link by looking for the closest-match header). If you want to link the header directly, retype the header in the curly braces including the proper number of preceding asterisks.

[@devopstoolbox]

Thanks!

[@vitaliiivanov9514]

I would add a feature to fix link: on command, open popup with potential link targets sorted by closeness and on another command, add a qualifier to the link to fix it to the chosen target

[@prateeksharma3817]

Slowly and steadily neovim is becoming more of an emacs' child than vim's.

[@devopstoolbox]

Interesting take I must say!

[@riddickstark9628]

​@devopstoolbox it's more like that kid who thinks their uncle (emacs) is way cooler then their dad (vim). Chad Uncles.

[@devopstoolbox]

You guys should write something 🤣@@riddickstark9628

[@fabienpenso]

Only because neovim has a real language compared to vim. So like Emacs developers can finally add features easily; easier even.

[@Reducer]

Hi! Have you ever considered a video on... how you do your videos? I have no aspirations to start a youtube channel, but I think that transparent terminal overlay would look great for tech talks and live demos and stuff.

[@devopstoolbox]

Hi there! As cool as that would be KZbin finds it’s way to keep you in one path and moving away to content that’s *about* content creation might not be taken well by the audience. That’s said, I’d definitely consider integrating that into a future video so finger crossed :) Regardless if you’re interested the easiest way to start is to just capture your screen and a video of the background at the same time and then overlaying them in a video editing software. I hope this helps!

[@Gaivs]

The one thing I'm missing is a good way to import notes. I'd love to set up a system where I take notes on obsidian on my phone, then automatically import the new noted into my neorg notes.

[@isturizz]

That combo sounds pretty powerful.

[@maguilecutty]

I have it all synced with my nextcloud (self hosted) Notes folder - works pretty sweet

[@cryptixdaemon7236]

You can do that with an Obsidian API plugin, most people do not realize that there's a lot more to Obsidian than meets the eye, but you need to spend the time to get to know it and just like anything it takes time and effort, once you did that you begin to see a world of possibilities you didn't know about before.

[@anshulsingh8326]

Ah I love how obsidian handles files and the UI is beautiful. But it isn't open source and I'm stuck with Joplin. It's good but file handling isn't good since it saves it as databases. Also in Joplin I can change text color.

[@devopstoolbox]

I thing that the "it's not open source" statement needs to come with context. In obssidian's case, you own the files, you use your own storage, plugins are mostly open source and its fully extendible. The software is completely free, and there's no way for them to close source your data. If they decide one day you have to pay for everything you do, you just pick up you already locally stored markdown files and move. What difference does it make if you see the code behind it or not?

[@anshulsingh8326]

@@devopstoolbox Like currently I want to use a file folder based note to create a documentation of my project. This will be my first project and I'm thinking of launching the app. Now if I launch the app I will be using obsidian for commercial purposes. I know I will still have my data but there's no application that will show me exactly like in this folder structure and than I will have to do some work again on different software. But if I use Joplin I don't need that switch. But Joplin isn't as good as obsidian since obsidian saves data in folder structure outside it while Joplin just stores it in a database which I will have to export to other readable files.

[@devopstoolbox]

@@anshulsingh8326 Not sure I understand the directory structure issue.. Obsidian will follow your structure, unless there's something I'm not following like symlinks or some other hard to cover linking. That said, use the tool that works for what you're trying to achieve. I love obsidian and use it for much more than a note taking app - it's also my port to excalidraw and sometimes AI. It depends on how things sit with your workflow. With all of the above said, if you do want obsidian, but you find lack of support for a certain use case, you can build a plugin to practically do whatever you want, including following a non-conventional file structure...

[@isaacvicente]

Really great video! Could you please increase the size font in next videos? It's hard to see on mobile :)

[@devopstoolbox]

Yes yes you’re absolutely right! Definitely taking care of it. Thanks for the feedback and for noticing 😀

[@ichanmich]

@@devopstoolbox another note: I found the blurring during the zoom transitions very strenuous... I can imagine why you want to add an additional effect during zooming, but maybe you can find a different solution 👍

[@devopstoolbox]

@@ichanmich Thank you!! I’ll handle this for the unedited videos (already have 2 scheduled but the rest will be fixed). Thanks for the feedback!

[@robertwhite3503]

I was really hoping for VimWiki with full markdown support.

[@robertwhite3503]

and Obsidian

[@devopstoolbox]

Some day 🙏🏽

[@codetothemoon]

Great video - seems like doesn’t replicate the org mode syntax directly but is more inspired by it. Anything you wish it did better, other than mobile support?

[@devopstoolbox]

Thank you! I think there’s quite a long way to go to perfect the overall controls around workspaces, link etc. some of them are still buggy / hard to follow. That said, the syntax and it’s visual capabilities makes the result MUCH nicer than markdown. But yeah, the biggest one would be mobile access, if this is going to be a real note taking platform rather than another file format for engineering notes

[@emjizone]

Imagine you already have years of notes in structured markdown with links, including LaTeX math formulae, SVG graphics and Mermaid graphs, and TSV refs… well, *fuck with your new format!*

[@devopstoolbox]

😆 Well you can probably just advance to another format from one point / use the exporter constantly, but honestly if I were you I’d stick to my current setup with md. Unless you’re like me the visual appeal of Neorg makes so much difference to the point that’s it’s worth it

[@anatoliipipko7258]

Nice plugin, thanks for sharing! I've tried the journal option (:Neorg journal today) but for some reason the created file is not modifiable by default. When I open it separately I can modify it. Do you know what's a possible reason?

[@devopstoolbox]

Hmmm that's quite strange. I've been using the journal option a few times never had any issues. Whats the error you're getting? Any chance there's a user ownership issue with the path the journal files are saved? If you 'ls -la' this path are you stated as the file owner?

[@anatoliipipko7258]

The error is "E21: Cannot make changes, 'modifiable' is off". The file permissions seems to be correct since they are the same as for index.norg which is editable when I open it with ":Neorg index". But for journal file I have to do ":set modifiable" to edit it or to open it separately like "vi 27.norg". That's very weird.

[@arthurlokhov6856]

I tried using neorg and I had a question. When I create a fold, I can't collapse and expand it right after that, it only works after I reopen the file. How can this be fixed?

[@devopstoolbox]

I've seen this happen to me right when I started and after a while it fixed itself. I remember reaching out with a similar question to the dev team but didn't get a clear answer... sorry. I hope it fixes itself on your end as well :)

[@DanielSaldivarSalas]

I have been able to mostly get around this by using :Neorg update-metadata, I use it with my leader keybindings

[@TayTayChan]

I've been looking to switch my notes to something like this for a long time, but the main thing holding me back is the lack of rendered images. You're probably able to link images just like in regular markdown, but this means that you need to render a document when reading through them. How do you cope with this? By the way, you're creating some very interesting content. Going back through your channel to find more gems. Thanks! 👍

[@devopstoolbox]

Thank you! TBH this is mainly for engineering notes and you’re right this is a problem but I don’t find myself using images all that often. When I do I usually go to notion

[@zinput]

Emacs can render images

[@sahilmishra2945]

3rd/image.nvim

[@007arek]

I don't know, why asciidoc doesn't have better support in nvim.

[@devopstoolbox]

Yep, it's just one of many I've been wondering about...

[@JamieAlban]

I really want to use this sort of thing, but I need my notes on my phone also! So obsidian is what I use right now

[@JamieAlban]

it is on their roadmap though

[@devopstoolbox]

I feel you. That’s my biggest pain point, but I think they’re on it!

[@JamieAlban]

@@devopstoolbox haha, I commented this before you said the exact thing at the end of the video - there's probably a lot of us in the same boat 🤓

[@adriansrfr]

Can obsidian interpret these neorg notes or do you have to export everything?

[@devopstoolbox]

Pretty sure you have to export norg is pretty much nowhere other than neorg. That said, Md export is easy to enough to use

[@adriansrfr]

@@devopstoolbox, hopefully obsidian will add an interpreter for neorg. A pain to have to recreate and update the database s daily. Researching this I just came across obsidian.nvim which might be enough for me to leave Vimwiki.

[@jackscheffel1509]

are there ways of getting all action items?

[@MirkoVukusic]

been there... switched to Obsidian at the end

[@lekken560]

Do you still use nvim to edit Obsidian? I want to stick to obsidian but I hate editing text inside of it, wondering what you ended up figuring out?

[@devopstoolbox]

It feels like I have no escape but going in the same route....

[@willernst]

@@lekken560 I mostly use nvim to edit my notes, but I'll sometimes flip to Obsidian for housekeeping or just reading. It's painless to switch between the two, which is the advantage of just using standard markdown files. I haven't set up the obsidian neovim plugin but keep meaning to get around to it.

[@maksa22242]

​@@lekken560you have vim motions in Obsidian, if that's what's holding you back

[@MirkoVukusic]

@@lekken560 , I'm trying to configure VimWiki/Obsidian/SyncThing to have seamless experiance on all devices. Also, I have central wiki for my stuff, but like to have wiki folders in each project folder, so all project related stuff is in one place. Did some Neovim scripts to manage this, syncthing to merge all this, only thing left is to make sure Obsidian file format and VimWiki file format do not step on each other toes (which happends). Almost there, but still work to do. But bottom lines(s) why I gave up on Org stuff are: 1) don't want to learn new format, markdown should be enough and 2) want to use it on mobile

[@birnx]

i would ssh through to my home or a VPS with Termux or another emulator and use vim that way. I went to obsidian also.

[@devopstoolbox]

Nice! thanks!

[@gustavofsantos]

I ended up creating mappings to access my obsidian notes inside neovim. It plays well with neovim and marksman language server

[@devopstoolbox]

I have to try that! Are you working with one of the obsedian plugins?

[@hamzahaddani6240]

By the way, what web browser are you using?

[@devopstoolbox]

Generally Arc, for videos Min just for cleanliness

[@hamzahaddani6240]

@@devopstoolbox Thanks

[@exvimmer]

I prefer vimwiki with Markdown syntax

[@devopstoolbox]

I get that! Another great option

[@hitarthpatel]

Great video man , how to integrate the buffers in lualine ?

[@devopstoolbox]

Thank you! I just keep them on instead of tabs, the config is in my dotfiles - dotfiles.omerxx.com

[@johncrwarner]

Have you thought of having termux on your smartphone then syncing them all between phone, laptop and desktop?

[@devopstoolbox]

I did, but then discovered Obsidian, its Neovim plugin and syncing methods and never looked back. (Got a video covering it on my channel if you want)

[@user-cu9zl5iw2h]

Crazy. I was just looking at this yesterday :D

[@devopstoolbox]

😅 Let me know how it goes if you start!

[@MarcGris]

Hey Omer 1st of all: Thx for all this awesome content you create. Little question: Have tried the combo Obsidian + VimWiki ? This really seems like the best of both worlds: a Neovim editable obsidian vault ! :-) Cheers M

[@devopstoolbox]

Hey! Honestly it feels like Obsedian is the go to given it’s availability on mobile and a few great nvim plugins! Definitely going to check it out!

[@maguilecutty]

Anyone have the issue where Neorg export isnt a command? Driving me a little bananas - have tried the classic reinstall but cant find anything online about it

[@guglielmobartelloni]

Personally I don't like the creation of another markdown syntax because it doesn't have much support outside of nvim. I wuold have preferred if there was support to orgmode directly

[@devopstoolbox]

I get that! The thing is - norg is much nicer on the eyes, as opposed to unparsed markdown when reading it. AND - it’s easily exported to markdown!

[@SohangLal]

How about using Termux to access neovim/neorg on mobile?

[@devopstoolbox]

Haven’t tried that! Did you? Is it reasonable?

[@SohangLal]

@@devopstoolbox I just installed neovim on termux with the kickstart.nvim config. Everything is working great out of the box. Will let you know when I try out Neorg, but I don't think there should be any issues. Would love for you to create a video on a neovim + termux + neorg workflow.

[@AndreaDragotta]

I do it to take notes, it is somewhat reasonable, but it's missing the autocorrect funzionality of the keyboard, which makes it less usable

[@SohangLal]

Terminal emulators usually do not support the advanced features of touch keyboards like autocorrect, prediction and swipe typing. To solve this, Termux has a text input view. Text entered in it will get pasted to the terminal. Because it's a native Android text input view, all touch keyboard features will work. To access the text input view you have to swipe the extra keys view to the left. @@AndreaDragotta

[@focker321]

do you have any video to install that beautifull cmdline?

[@devopstoolbox]

I've got videos for oh my zsh, starship (my current prompt) as well as a Tmux setup and quite a few others :)

[@WiseGuyFTW]

Where can I find those amazing key caps ?

[@devopstoolbox]

I think I got them on KDB fans a few years back 😉

[@cryptixdaemon7236]

Obviously based on orgmode, just that orgmode is way more powerful

[@guavavodka]

I notice none of your plugins are using lazy loading, should def do that

[@devopstoolbox]

Yep you’re right! I’ve been playing around with adding and removing lazy loading and had issues with it which is why I’m not utilizing it. Any specific suggestions for plugins that would do well with lazy loading?

[@guavavodka]

with 80 plugins or so, my startup time is 40ms

[@devopstoolbox]

@@guavavodka incredible. I’m actually sub100 with this config and while this is as good as zero it feels like some of this time could be reduced. Thanks!

[@CrazyMineCuber]

Pictures? PlantUMl? Mermaid diagrams?

[@devopstoolbox]

Not a big pictures fan but I'm pretty sure you can plant them. As for diagrams you'd have to dig deeper. Most of my use doesn't include these. Diagrams and visuals will normally be separated because this is how I like my environment. I'm guessing if this is a problem for you maybe stick to something else

[@thengakola6217]

image.nvim has neorg integration and it works well for me

[@DarthVader11912]

If Emacs didn't exist yeah but It does.

[@devopstoolbox]

Love the emacs comments 😆💙

[@gusslx]

Honestly, just stick to Obsidian. You have to be doing something really specific for it to not suit your needs.

[@devopstoolbox]

TBH, I'm slowly going in that direction. I love Notion, but Obsedian seems more and more like the best of both worlds

[@gusslx]

Yeah Notion is good for big databases and views (kinda slow tho). I use Neovim for coding but damn it took time to configure it. I don't see myself doing it again to move my perfectly working note taking workflow from Obsidian.

[@RakibHasan-hs1me]

Thats excatly what I did with excel

[@devopstoolbox]

👏

[@hectororopesa001]

great video! keep it up

[@callyral]

taking notes is for nerds i just forget stuff like a cool person

[@devopstoolbox]

😅

[@Bob-Fields]

TD for creepy AI images...TU for decent narration. Its a wash

[@radvilardian740]

i like it, but migrated to obsidian, its just markdown, much general

[@pjpodx]

anybody do GTD with it ? Often I see note taking systems presented starting from list of features, too little from workflow. It would be interesting to see how useful it is from workflow view

[@devopstoolbox]

Just wait for my next video 😅 Not GTD but a workflow indeed

[@fms6306]

Duck obsidian u obsidian fanboys... that piece of bloatware is fugly. Neorg looks to be the answer to mg dreams. I used vimwiki before when i could install it in neovim when config files were much easier ... now with lua (who has time to learn lua) i cant get vimwiki to work. Neorg looks interesting. I tried obsidian (hated that ugly interface) and logseq, better but temperamental. The best note taking app has to be terminal based not some gui crap.

[@devopstoolbox]

I want to agree so much! I’m loving Neorg but still waiting for a mobile solution though. There’s no satisfaction like editing my textual notes within neovim

[@neunmalelf]

Single font app for note taking ... jup great idea 🤭

[@devopstoolbox]

Not sure whether this is sarcasm but I actually prefer not adding more to the mix. I like a single font and only changing size and style. I do that with online content, all note taking apps including notion etc..

[@neunmalelf]

@@devopstoolbox what about graphics, notes, diagrams?

[@devopstoolbox]

@@neunmalelf if you use a lot of these then Neorg isn’t for you. My notes are 95% textual organized lists and action items / just plain text

[@farshad585]

I don't think anything can replace notion for me.

[@devopstoolbox]

TBH, I'm not sure either. Neorg is amazing for quickly jotting down notes, especially when I'm already in Vim. But Notion is really hard to beat. Maybe one day we'll get a plugin for that!

[@d3lirious]

For what it's worth, I've been a die hard Notion user for 5 years@@devopstoolbox and I'm starting to opt out. Here's my take if you're interested. ~ In many ways, it is slow to work with ~~~ it takes too much time to move around in text and edit it (vim bindings where are you ...) ~~~ it takes too much time to move around between pages (no macros, no key bindings) ~~~ search is too slow or not relevant, partly because it's online, partly because there is too much content ~ I have fallen out of love with the two core concepts : wikis (everything is hyperlinked) and databases (everything is a DB) ~~~ /Databases/ don't scale well because of the strict data format and editing complexity. They are hard to maintain and evolve. A bunch of structured text files is just a more robust solution. ~~~ /Wikis/ don't scale for me because ~~~~ Hyperlinking is hard to make future proof and refactorable ~~~~ Hyperlinking is overrated: powerful fuzzy search does much better than following links in many cases ~~~~ Wikis are good fit for the /cloud of ideas/ mental model. I /hate/ that model :-) My mind requires strict ordering and taxonomy, I might as well build it into the system. ~ The product and company are not evolving in a direction that is good for me ~~ more and more features I don't need (widgets, integrations, ...) ~~ complexifying what used to be simple I can tell they are victim of their own success and the decline has started. I was on Notion during it's best years.

[@DaveDayCAE]

I am totally bummed out that you chose to invent a proprietary Markup language over markdown. Really bad choice.

[@devopstoolbox]

I didn’t make this 😜 But since then I moved back to markdown :) it beat me too. Checkout my video about Neovim note taking and obsidian which has been my choice for a long time!

[@MaxwellsLab]

its not proprietary

[@olehdevua]

any Jetbrains IDE + markdown can do exactly the same things like neorg

[@devopstoolbox]

With one caveat - it’s markdown. Not easy on the eyes and norg is another level in that regard. Plus, it’s easily exportable to markdown if you need it

[@olehdevua]

​@@devopstoolbox > Not easy on the eyes quite controversial, taking into account that in markdown you can read it just in view mode. But anyway, it's good to see that neovim becomes more close to advanced IDEs in terms of features. Maybe sometime in the future I'll return back to neovim.

[@devopstoolbox]

@@olehdevua I guess it is a personal preference! And yes Neovim in my opinion is already in a place that with the right tooling can be a real IDE. I can see why people prefer the fully baked GUIs, but that said, it’s text editing capabilities are unmatched! We’re blessed to have so many options 😉

[@NotGovernor]

(no)

[@devopstoolbox]

😂. Not yet! What is then? I’ve been exploring it with obsidian lately and… WOW.

[@thedog5k]

1:30 Needing to be a programmer to take notes is prob the eptiome of shitty note solution

[@devopstoolbox]

You’re looking at this from the opposite way, it’s a note take tool for those who already use vim. That said, you don’t have to be a programmer to use Neovim but it’s probably 99% of users.

[@thedog5k]

@@devopstoolbox Not thinking any differently. That's just the following thought.