PTPL 047: The Plain Text Experiment Helped Me Discover 2 Superb Apps
PLUS Why manual note taking might suit you better than automated alternatives
Welcome to the Plain Text, Paper—Less Productivity Digest! A once-a-week taster of the unusual, the helpful, and the delightfully mundane, as well as the next installment in my quest to futureproof and simplify my digital-analog workflow.
This week —
Isn’t plain text ugly and hard to use? — No. No, it isn’t.
Why you probably don’t need a read-it-later app
2 great apps I found because of the plain text experiment
Productivity Tips and Inspiration
This! I couldn’t help but smile on reading the FAQ on the hledger Plain Text Accounting website:
Isn’t plain text ugly and hard to use ?
No way, it’s great, honest. We love it. You’ll love it. It’s fast. It’s cheap. It’s non-distracting. It keeps you focussed on the content. It’s copy-pasteable. It’s accessible to screen readers. It’s resizable. You can pick the font and colours. You do not need “Plaintext Reader, Trial Version” to read it. you do not need “Plaintext Studio Pro” to write it. You can use your favorite editor and skills you already have. You can search in it! You can version control it. It works well over remote/slow connections. It’s future-proof. It will be just as usable in 15 or 50 years. You can still read it even without the right software or (if you print it) a working computer.
This is why you don’t need a read-it-later app
I’m fast realising that Victor Correra and I are plain text buddies. The simplicity of his method for taking notes on articles, newsletters, books, social media, and courses is simply beautiful! To me it encapsulates the essense of slowing down, and the peace that comes from that kind of lifestyle.
There’s nothing wrong with using read-it-later apps with auto highlight importers, truly — unless there’s another strategy that’s a better fit for you. For those of us who think like Victor, the manual method is the answer. I’m cool with the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mindset, but if you’re even a little bit curious, why not give it a go? Think of it as a note taking detox, and observe what happens (interstitial journaling recommended).
Adventures in Plain Text (and a little paper)
The Plain Text Experiment helped me find two awesome apps
№ 1: Anki
Anki is a-mazing. I’ve been aware of it for years, but had either never dug in deep enough to appreciate it, or never had something flashcardable I was seriously trying to learn. This week I’ve discovered the text-to-speech add-on, and dang, it’s cool! Obsidian’s built in audio player has speed controls that Anki is missing, but the latter’s auto voice is pretty good as is.
Frustration: I can’t get my own audio files to play on Anki. In-app and Reddit advice has so far proved fruitless.
№ 2: MarkEdit
Suggested to me by Epiphanic Synchronicity on Mastodon, MarkEdit is like TextEdit with a very nice set of Markdown threads. It has coloured headings, numbered lines, and highlighting one instance of a given string of letters highlights all of them.
There’s no Markdown preview to keep checking every 2 minutes, and the line spacing is wide enough to make text nice and easy to read. I like how the dropdown table of contents allows you to flit between headings with ease. Best of all, I like the fine balance between enough Markdown to be useful, and enough simplicity to keep the distraction monster at bay.
Check in with PTPL 45 and 46 to read more about the plain text experiment, or follow the #PlainTextExperiment hashtag on Mastodon.
Other plain text doings
hledger is driving me insane. I want to be able to use it, but I can’t even figure out the instructions to tell it where my file is. It’s so tempting right now just to pull the plug and go pay for YNAB, but I’m a stubborn plain-texter, so I’ll keep going a while longer.
Org mode, Emacs and Evil mode are on the back burner. The gap between where I am and where they’re playing on the opposite bank is just a little too far at the moment.
I’m typing this in Obsidian. Going forward I’ll be making sure that all my notes (or most of them) work just fine in iA Writer and MarkEdit, as well as Obsidian.
I’ve published the first part of my bilingual (English/French) Bible —it’s a free download with wide margins that’s perfect for sketchnoting on a tablet.