tiddlywiki for research

1 Research Guide: TiddlyWiki for Research

1.1 Introduction 4

1.2 TiddlyWiki Basics 6

1.3 TiddlyWiki Install 11

1.4 Managing Research Notes 25

1.5 TiddlyWiki Text Formatting 36

1.6 Resources 47

TiddlyWiki for Research

Introduction

I was taught to use index cards to manage my research notes. It was agreat system and served me well through my high school, college andbusiness days. Today’s digital world has dramatically changed the entireworld of research, but I still stuck to my index cards. Sure, I tried lots ofnote-taking applications - simple text editors, my word processingprogram and any number of “notebook” programs. Each had itsadvantages and disadvantages, but none really worked for me. Today,things are even more complicated by the fact that I have a Windowsmachine at work, a Mac at home and a Linux system for the road. What’sa girl to do?

I’ve found my solution in an extraordinary wiki application called TiddlyWiki. TiddlyWiki is different from other wiki applications in severalways. First, it is designed to work on your desktop rather than a webserver. And, while most server-based wikis like WeRelate organizecontent in pages, TiddlyWiki creates “tiddlers” - the digital equivalent ofan index card. By keeping my tiddlers to single-source notes - just like Iwas taught to use my index cards - I can quickly collect and organize myresearch on a specific topic. TiddlyWiki includes a very nice taggingsystem and search component to make that easy too.

TiddlyWiki for Research - 4 A Family Matters Publication

http://www.tiddlywiki.com

http://www.werelate.org

Because this unique application is totally contained in one HTML file, itworks on all operating systems and most browsers [you will need to haveJavaScript enabled]. My personal TiddlyWiki currently resides on mythumb drive with a bookmark in my browser toolbar on both my desktopMac and laptop Linux. When I move from one system to the other, thewiki file moves with me.

This research guide introduces you to the basic operation of TiddlyWikiso you can experiment with the application and determin if it can serve asyour personal research notebook. Both the TiddlyWiki application andthis manual are free so this experiment will only cost you a bit of time andeffort.


TiddlyWiki Basics

This lesson introduces the basic components and concepts behind a TiddlyWiki notebook.

Basic Terms

The basic components of a TiddlyWiki are: 1) Main Menu - provides links to your most important content. You canupdate this at any time. 2) Tiddler - a single wiki entry. Consider this as the digital equivalent ofan index card. 3) Wiki word - two or more words run together with the first character ofeach word capitalized. Wiki words are automatically treated as links toother tiddlers. Clicking on either of the two examples shown here - OpenID and TiddlySpot - will take you to those tiddlers. 4) Core macros - these built-in macros perform various wiki functions. This is the programming that makes TiddlyWiki work. 5) Tiddler lists - lists of all tiddlers contained within your wiki. Click onthe tabs to view your tiddlers sorted by timeline, alphabetical, tags or type.



Anatomy of a Tiddler

Each tiddler includes the following components: 1) Tiddler title - generally this is a wiki word (run-together word) that,when used elsewhere in the wiki, will link to this tiddler. 2) Author, creation date and date of last update. 3) Tiddler menu - commands include close: close this tiddler, closeothers: leave this tiddler open and close all others, edit: open this tiddlerfor editing, more: display more commands. 4) Tags - displays the tags you assigned to this tiddler. Clicking on anytag will open all tiddlers tagged with that tag. 5) Content area - displays the content of your tiddler.


Tiddler in Edit Mode

After clicking on edit in the tiddler menu, the tiddler displays this simpleedit screen: 1) The current title is displayed at the top and again within the editingarea. Here you can change the title if you wish. 2) The tiddler menu now displays the following commands - done: tosave and close the editor, cancel: to close without saving, and delete: todelete this tiddler. 3) The editing area is where you enter and format the content for thistiddler. This example shows some of the simple keystroke codes used toformat content. For example, an asterisk identifies this as a bulleteditem. Formatting is discussed in a later lesson. 4) The tags area allows you to enter tags (keywords) to identify thecontents of your tiddler. These can be used later to quickly retrieve allyour notes on a particular subject.


Sidebar Macros

Here is a view of the command macros found in the right sidebar. They perform basic functions andare quite useful in managing your content as your wiki grows. The search macro will search theentire wiki for the keywords you enter in the search field. You can also browse through your tiddlersby date order, alphabetical order or by tags. Each of these commands is discussed in greater detailin future lessons.


Basics Recap

This lesson provided an overview of the main components of a TiddlyWiki wiki. While it may seem overly simplistic at first, you will seein later lessons just how impressive this personal notebook can be.


TiddlyWiki Install

How to install and setup your personal TiddlyWiki on your desktop.

Visit TiddlyWiki Site

Visit the TiddlyWiki site at http://www.tiddlywiki.com.




Download the Wiki File

To download the free TiddlyWiki file: 1) Click on the DownloadSoftware item in the sidebar menu. 2) The DownloadSoftware tiddler appears at the top of your screen. 3) Right-click on "this link to empty.html".


Save the File

Choose the Save Link As . . . (Mac) option. Windows users will see SaveFile As . . .


Choose Name and Location

By default, the wiki file is named empty.html. You can change the filename to suit you as part of the save process.


Begin Setup

Double-click on the saved wiki file and it will open in your default browser. The "empty" wiki isn't quite empty after all. It includes several functionaltiddlers including this GettingStarted tiddler.

The term "tiddler" refers to each individual entry item stored in yourTiddlyWiki. The easiest way to think of a tiddler is as a single index card.

Before beginning to take notes, you will need to do a bit of setup tocustomize your wiki to your personal needs.


Change the Wiki Title

To give your wiki a more appropriate title, click on the SiteTitle link in theGettingStarted tiddler. The SiteTitle tiddler appears on your screen. Now, click on the edit link in the tiddler menu at the top right margin ofthat tiddler.


Edit the Title

The SiteTitle tiddler opens a very simple editing area containing thedefault title - My TiddlyWiki. You can backspace over that and replace itwith whatever name you want.


Save SiteTitle

Here, I've changed the name to My Notebook. Now, just click on the done link in the tiddler's menu bar.


New Title Appears

That's it. If you ever want to change the name again, just update theSiteTitle tiddler with your new choice.

You can repeat these steps to change the SiteSubtitle tiddler whichupdates the subtitle text following your wiki title at the top of the screen.


Set Username

Notice that the author for SiteTitle is "YourName" (1). You can updatethe GettingStarted tiddler to set your own username (2) which appears asyour signature on each tiddler you create or edit. All you have to do isenter your name - or whatever you want - as a wiki word in the signatureblock field.


Signature Results

Now, when I create a new tiddler or update an existing one, my signaturewill be added to that tiddler.

NOTE: Notice the SiteSubtitle tiddler has been updated and that subtitlenow appears next to the wiki name.


Creating a Menu

Update the MainMenu tiddler to create or edit the menu that appears inthe left sidebar. Enter wiki words for the tiddlers you want to display inthe menu. It doesn't matter if the tiddlers haven't been created yet. Thefirst time you click on one of the links you'll be asked to create it.

In this example, my menu consists of "ToDoList", "BarkerNotes",LinkNotes" and "BarrettNotes". Once you've entered your menu options,click on done in the tiddler's menu bar to save it.

This isn't set in stone, you can update the MainMenu tiddler at any timeto add or remove items from the menu.


Main Menu Results

Here's what the resulting menu looks like. Notice that although theGettingStarted tiddler is no longer part of the MainMenu, it still exists inthe wiki file and can be retrieved at any time.


Create a Tiddler

Clicking on the ToDoList menu item displays this instructional tiddler. Double-click on it and it will open in the simple editor for you to addcontent. Add your own content, then click done in the tiddler's menu barto save it.

Installation Recap

Installing TiddlyWiki is as simple as saving a file. Two minutes of setup and you're ready to start taking notes.


Managing Research Notes

TiddlyWiki is so versatile that it can serve as a project management system, todo list and research notes - all in one very neat package. While the term "tiddler" is a bit strange at first, think of it as a single index card only in electronic format. The beauty of this wiki system isthat you don't have to keep shuffling and sorting an ever-growing stack of cards. TiddlyWiki takes care of that for you.

In this lesson, we'll look at how easy it is to manage your research notes using TiddlyWiki. As an example, I'm researching a local artistand family friend, Carl Austen, to write a biographical sketch for my Moultrie Creek blog. I'll walk through how I find my notes, reviewthem and add new information to support this effort.

Getting Started

My MoultrieCreekTopics tiddler serves as both a list of topics I want to write about and asa table of contents to additional information for each of these topics. The topics in blueare links to additional tiddlers. The topics in black don't have any additional information -yet.

My first step is to click on the MoultrieCreekTopics item in the Main Menu (1). Then Iclick on close others in that tiddler's menu bar (2) to close any other open tiddlers andmake room for what comes next. Now, only the MoultrieCreekTopic tiddler is displayed.


Open the Project Tiddler

In the Topics tiddler, I click on the Carl Austen bullet/link to open Carl'sproject tiddler. The arrows point to the gray boxes at the right of eachtiddler. These hold the tags - keywords - I assigned to each tiddler whenI created them. I can use these tags to quickly find other content markedwith the same tag.


Displaying Tagged Content

I click on the Austen tag and then click on Open all from the popupmenu that appears. I could just as easily choose to select any one of thespecific tiddlers displayed in the menu.


Open All Display

Now, every tiddler in my wiki that has been tagged "Austen" (1) is open inmy workarea. This example displays two of them, but as I scroll down Iwill see the rest.

Notice the search box in the top right corner of the workarea (2). I canenter Austen in that box to display all tiddlers with the word "Austen"anywhere in the tiddler - title, content or tag.


Search Results

As shown here, the search function will display any tiddler containing mysearch word/phrase with that search term highlighted in yellow.

Notice that the Historical Society Library tiddler is a general todo list ofthings I wanted to look up on a recent trip to the library. Carl Austen wasjust one of many things on that list. It has several tags for the variouspeople/topics I wanted to check out while I was there. Just above it, the Carl Austen Bio tiddler is only about Carl so there is only one tag.

Tagging is a very free-form organizational system - you use the keywordsthat have meaning to you - and is quite easy to manage.


Sources

My personal preference is to create a tiddler that contains thebibliographic information for a source - especially if more than one tiddlerwill be related to it. Then, I just identify the source and page/record whenI transcribe the information I want on additional tiddlers. You may choosea different system, but that's the beauty of TiddlyWiki - it adapts to you.


Add New Tiddler

Got another piece of information to add to your wiki notebook? Just clickon new tiddler in the right sidebar.


Blank Tiddler

A blank tiddler editor form appears. 1) Enter the title of your tiddler. 2) Type or copy/paste the content for this tiddler. 3) Add appropriate tags.


Ready to Save

Here's an example of a new tiddler with content added. Now click on done in the tiddler menu to save the tiddler and close the editor.


Completed Note

Your new note has been added to your research collection. It doesn'tmatter if its related to the other Carl Austen notes or something entirelyoff topic. The tags you assign the tiddler and TiddlyWiki's superb searchcapability insure that this note can be collected with all its related notesanytime I need it.

Managing Research Notes Recap

While the index card analogy is an easy way to describe a tiddler, they are actually much more versatile with their capabilities limitedonly by our imaginations. The combination of a simple tagging system and a comprehensive search facility make it easy to collect andorganize your notes when you need them.


Don't worry about organizing your notes into this folder or that category. Just add a few tags to identify the person, family, place, topic orany other keyword that suits this particular tiddler. TiddlyWiki will do the rest for you.


TiddlyWiki Text Formatting

As an old touch-typist who learned to use keystroke formatting commands in DOS applications like WordStar and early WordPerfect, Istill use them rather than break my typing rhythm to click on a button. Because of that, I've found the keystroke commands used inTiddlyWiki to be easy to use.

Once you get hooked on today's graphical toolbars, the formatting commands in TiddlyWiki may take some adjustment. It won't be longthough before you find yourself whipping through the keystroke commands for your favorite styles. These commands aren't hard tolearn, they're just different.

NOTE: The examples shown in this lesson use the default style sheet included with the standard TiddlyWiki file. With a bit ofHTML/CSS experience, you can modify the style sheet to suit your preferences.

Formatting Text Codes

In most cases, TiddlyWiki uses simple characters to create formatting codes. The samecharacters identify both the beginning and the end of the particular format option. For example,two apostrophes identify the beginning and end of a phrase to be displayed in boldface. Italicizedtext is surrounded by two slashes.

The sample editing screen above shows examples of the most common text formatting codes.


Formatting Text Display

Here you see how each formatting code from the first example appears ina saved tiddler.


Header and List Codes

Headings, bulleted lists and numbered lists are simple to create. Eachadditional character will create the next level of header or list.


Header and List Display

Notice that the style of the bullets and numbers changes at each level. Information on customizing these styles can be found at the TiddlyWikisite. Some theme options can be found at TiddlyThemes.


http://www.tiddlywiki.com/

http://tiddlythemes.com

Block Quote Codes

Multiple levels of block quote indents can be created by placing one - ormore - greater than ( > ) characters as the first characters on a line. These indents will remain in effect until you create a new paragraph bypressing the Return key.

To create a multi-paragraph block quote, type three less-than symbols(<<<) on a blank line at both the beginning and the ending of your quote. Everything within those command characters will be indented.


Block Quote Display

Once again, the vertical line is part of the default style sheet. You can modifyyour styles to suit your preferences.


Link Codes

Wiki words - run-together words with initial caps like MoultrieCreek - arethe quickest and easiest way to create and link to new tiddlers or link toexisting tiddlers. If you don't want to use a wiki word to name a tiddler,then you link to it by putting double square brackets ( [[ and ]] ) aroundthe title.

There may be times when the display text you want to use to describethe link is different from the tiddler's title. In this case you use thedoubles square brackets and include a vertical bar ( | ) to separate thedisplay text from the tiddler title - see Honey Dos example.

Occasionally you may want to use a wiki word within your text, but don'twant it to function as a link. In this case, just put a tilde in front of theword.

External links are generally composed of two items - the display text andthe actual web address. In TiddlyWiki, enter the display text for the link,add a vertical bar then enter the url for the site or page you are linking to(beginning with http://) and surround the entire thing with double squarebrackets.


Because your TiddlyWiki resides on your computer, you can also link tofiles - and even folders - also located on your computer. These links arevery similar to external links but instead of http://, you begin the path toyour folder or file with file:/// (yes, that's 3 slashes) prefix. For those ofyou who remember DOS paths, notice that these paths are all forwardslashes.

Link Display

Reminder about file links . . . if you maintain your wiki on a thumb drivefor portability, unless your files are also on that thumb drive, those linkswill not work on another computer.


Image Codes

You can include images in your wiki - both images on your localcomputer and those located on the web. This feature is quite useful ifyou maintain photos and other graphics on an online photo-sharingservice.

Inside the first square bracket, the img code identifies this command asan image command. The imagetitle is text describing your image whichwill appear as a tooltip when you mouse over the image. A vertical barseparates the title from the image's URL. Two square brackets close thecommand.

If the image resides on your computer, you can use the file:///(path) linkdescribed in the links section to point to it. When the image resides inthe same folder as your wiki, only the file name is necessary to display it [img[imagetitle|avatar72.jpg]].

Text does not wrap around an image when you use the basic imagecommand (first example above), but you can use the greater than ( > )and less than ( < ) symbols to float your image to the left or the right ofthe main wiki area AND allow the text to wrap. You see how thoseexamples have been set up here. You can see the results below.


Image Display

The size of your image will significantly impact how well the word-wrapcapability works. If the image fills the display area, it won't word wrapeven if it's set.


Text Formatting Recap

Keystroke formatting commands may seem a bit strange at first, but you'll soon discover how easy it is to use them to format as youtype. Before long, they'll be second nature.

A very nice cheatsheet for these commands can be found in the resources section at the end of this guide.


Resources

Software Support

Visit the following sites for additional information:

* TiddlyWiki site* TiddlySpot hosted service* TW Help a superb howto wiki for TiddlyWiki* No Thick Manuals has a useful single-page cheatsheet of TiddlyWiki commands



http://tiddlyspot.com

http://twhelp.tiddlyspot.com

http://www.nothickmanuals.info/doku.php/cheatsheets

For More Research Help

The Family Matters blog offers help using the latest technology toresearch, organize and present your family history.

Stop by any time at http://moultriecreek.us/family.

This is a Family Matters Publicationlicensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 UnitedStates License.


http://moultriecreek.us/family

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/

tiddlywiki for research

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