Weekly newsletter of Pkm One - Issue #2

1. Get Organized with Zavala - Zavala

2. Distraction-free writing app for your iPhone, iPad and Mac.

3. The Archive (macOS) • Zettelkasten Method 

4. xTiles - Think, write and organize

I have been quite frustrated about the quality of the outliners available around. Some are too boring to look at and some are beautiful but they don’t sync. Others which work well on the iOS don’t work so well on the Mac and vice-versa. Paying for such an app which don’t really do the work for you is another pain which you can do without. 

By some serendipitous luck when I was desperately on the lookout for an outliner I found Zavala. The developer has the same pain and he developed an outliner to solve his pain along with others. 

Zavala is not only free but is available on all platforms and the sync works like a charm and also supports OPML export and import. I had a crashing issue with my tinderbox export file and have asked the developer to look into it. So there is robust support on Twitter as well as via email. Which is the main concern with open source apps where the developer is snoozing as this was a side project. 

This newsletter is outlined in The Archive and then composed (written) on an iPad app called Paper Editor. 

Paper Editor is beautiful and loaded with features with local storage support. The features are plentiful but it still feels minimalist. This is the skill of the developer in creating a UX but not compromising on its features. 

I think Ulysses, iAWriter all have cloud storage which creates a fiction when you want to move out to a new app. For me, the number one thing I was looking for in any note-taking writing app is local storage. I can not only do long-form writing but can also work on my Zettlekasten apps (which are again local). 

Paper Editor doesn’t come cheap, there are no annual plans. It has a monthly plan at around 5 USD and a lifetime plan at 100 usd. So if you are not already opted into other focus writing apps I highly recommend you go for Paper Editor.

I started my Note-taking journey in 2017 with Tinderbox, then moved to Roam, Obsidian and logsec and numerous other apps (link it). I still haven’t settled into any app yet and will remain a drifter. 

But lately, this simple app called “The Archive” caught my fancy. It is developed by the Christian and Sascha. Sascha is an expert in Zettelkasten and their blogs and forums are excellent sources of learning about Zettelkasten.

The Archive is as close as possible you can replicate the Zettelkasten note-taking system digitally. But one of the best features is how lightweight it feels. Obsidian and logseq all have started feeling bloated as they have an open API and are more adopted by the mass markets. The various plugins are gimmicks that slow down the apps and make them clumsy as these apps are not native. 

The Archive will cost you around 19 USD + tax and comes with a very generous 60 days trial if you for whatever reason decide not to buy the app. You don’t need to do any complex migration as all files are local. 

We all love whiteboards but they represent a sort of chaos like sometimes you feel while zooming in and out. Your information is lost. 

Now Xtiles is developed in Ukraine and the developers aptly say the app is a cross between Miro boards and Notion. Yes, indeed it is. 

The zettelkasten apps though they have tab features are somewhat limited to opening a few notes. If you open many notes some kind of minutiae is lost in the overview. 

Xtiles is an indefinitely nested document manager with an indefinite horizontal scrolling whiteboard. Xtiles is mainly promoted for content creators. 

You can carry all your outlines, notes, images and links and then when you are writing a piece have everything on the same page or a tab away. You never have to switch to another app for reference. 

I highly recommend you give xtiles a try! It has 300 cards free with all the features.†