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Ask HN: Using Markdown Files for Notetaking?

3 points by LivingGlitcher ↗ HN
I've used Roam Research, Google Docs, etc. All of them haven't scratched my itch for offline and synced notes.

I've been using markdown notes for a short while, but some shortcomings, such as a lack of collapsible points and styling, make me want to (re)consider other notetaking solutions.

6 comments

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EddieDante
Have you considered Org Mode <https://orgmode.org>? The syntax is different from Markdown and it was made for GNU Emacs first and foremost, but if you really need to sync org files to mobile devices there are probably a couple of ways to skin that particular cat.
themodelplumber
I wonder if an extensible editor (example: Atom) could do both of those things with Markdown files. Assuming by styling you mean things like being able to highlight and custom-style some text, even in a typically text-only view of a markdown file. It wouldn't be a big surprise if that could be done...somehow. Collapsible points ought to be doable for sure.

Personally I use other methods for styling within markdown, for example emoji, tags, link formatting with brackets (for things that are not really links), etc.

I also take any list that's longer than 8-10 items and break it up by category or reorganize it so it's less visually overwhelming.

Otherwise you may find it helpful to look into more rich-editor-style notetaking solutions like cherrytree or Notecase Pro. The latter is proprietary but I used it for years and was very happy with it. Good luck in your search.

https://www.giuspen.com/cherrytree/

https://www.notecasepro.com/

dschuessler
Concerning collapsible points and styling: You can use inline HTML at every point in Markdown. So you can use <details> tags for the former and <style> tags for the latter.

Of course, these are only valuable if you use a Markdown editor that renders a preview.

runjake
Somebody’s going to com in here and mention Obsidian Notes, so it might as well be me: https://obsidian.md

It supports collapsible sections just with the Markdown syntax but it’s also highly-extensible in any way you wish. I think Bear and other editors support Markdown collapsible a as well.

bmallerd
Seconding obsidian. Throw the files into Dropbox and voila - synced notes.
kixiQu
> All of them haven't scratched my itch for offline and synced notes.

Hard to discuss this without being more specific about what kind of offline/synced behavior you think would be good. Some people don't want to have to take any manual steps to save or reconcile divergent offline versions, which means what you can recommend to them is very different.