Mastering Tinderbox: Training Videos (Complete List)

A few of my fellow Tinderboxers and I have been toying with creating educational Tinderbox videos.

What is Tinderbox

Tinderbox

What is Tinderbox? from Mark Bernstein on Vimeo.

Our Training Videos

TBX - L IntroductionVideo
(Click to watch intro)

I have recorded a number of lessons and put them on YouTube. Here you go:

  1. Tinderbox Training Video 01 - An Introduction to Michael Becker
  2. Tinderbox Training Video 02 - Turning on toolbars and navigating the menus
  3. Tinderbox Training Video 03 - Getting started: Creating your first notes
  4. Tinderbox Training Video 04 - Getting started with prototypes
  5. Tinderbox Training Video 05 - Getting started and wrapping your head around attributes
  6. Tinderbox Training Video 06 - Understanding Agents & Queries (Part 1)
  7. Tinderbox Training Video 07 - Understanding Agents, Queries, and Actions (Part 2)
  8. Tinderbox Training Video 08 - Understanding Agents, Queries, Actions, Rules, and Edicts (Part 3)
  9. Tinderbox Training Video 09 - Exploding Notes (Part 1)
  10. Tinderbox Training Video 10 - Exploding Notes with Action Code (Part 2)
  11. Tinderbox Training Video 11 - Exploding Notes with Action Code and Regex (Part 3)
  12. Tinderbox Training Video 12 - Working with media in your TBX files (Part 1)
  13. Tinderbox Training Video 13 - Working with media in your TBX files (Part 2)
  14. Tinderbox Training Video 14 - Searching sets: understanding the .format dot operator
  15. Tinderbox Training Video 15 - Using the agent designator in Agent Queries
  16. Tinderbox Training Video 16 - Adornments, Smart Adornments, and Adornment Designators
  17. Tinderbox Training Video 17 - Working with Export Templates Part 1
  18. See video 29: Tinderbox Training Video 29 - Working with Export Templates Part 2
  19. Tinderbox Training Video 20 - Working with Export Templates Part 3
  20. Tinderbox Training Video 23 - Using code notes and caching variables with action code
  21. Tinderbox Training Video 24 - A Strategy for Moving Notes Between TBX Files
  22. Tinderbox Training Video 25 - Planning with Tinderbox Deconstruction
  23. Tinderbox Training Video 26 - Daily Journal Time Tracking Project Management Part 1
  24. Tinderbox Training Video 27 - TBX - Deconstructing Daily Journal Date Descendants Management - #2 by satikusala
  25. Tinderbox Training Video 28 - Interview with Mark Anderson, a demonstration on analyzing thousands of notes - #2 by mwra
  26. Tinderbox Training Video 29 - Working with Export Templates Part 2 - #2 by NiranS
  27. Tinderbox Training Video 30 - Working with Export Code to Pull Attribute Values Into Your Notes
  28. Tinderbox Training Video 31 - Integrating Export Code & Action Code in Your Text
  29. Tinderbox Training Video 32 - Using Action Code to Help Spellcheck Attribute Values
  30. Tinderbox Training Video 33 - Tinderbox and Screenwriting, an Interview with Roberto Moreira
  31. Tinderbox Training Video 34 - Exporting TBX Notes to PowerPoint PPTX with Pandoc
  32. Tinderbox Training Video 35 - Publishing long-form CSS styled content with relative outline depth
  33. Tinderbox Training Video 36 - An interview with Bernardo Vasconcelos: publishing & transforming notes w/Pandoc
  34. Tinderbox Training Video 37 - An interview with Phil Scheuerman on managing a college class with Tinderbox
  35. Tinderbox Training Video 38 - Anthony Caldwell on organizing background research [for architectural history]
  36. Tinderbox Training Video 39 - Action & Export Code Working Session with Art Currim and Bruce Gale
  37. Tinderbox Training Video 40 - Working session - building an industry map with Tom Diaz
  38. Tinderbox Training Video 41 Working With Markdown and Templates in Tnderbox
  39. Tinderbox Training Video 42 - Finding text strings near each other with regex
  40. Tinderbox Training Video 43 - Making Sense of And Getting the Most From $Text & Preview Views
  41. Tinderbox Training Video 44 - Working with Lookups, Link Actions, and Automated Links - #2 by Jasonromney
  42. Tinderbox Training Video 45 - Simple Gradebook Part 1
  43. Tinderbox Training Video 46 - Simple Gradebook Part2
  44. Tinderbox Training Video 47 - Simple Gradebook Part 3
  45. Tinderbox Training Video 48 - Demystifying Action Code Part 1
  46. Tinderbox Training Video 49 - Demystifying Action Code Updating a Note's Display Expression
  47. Tinderbox Training Video 50 - Understanding Inheritance
  48. Tinderbox Training Video 51- Linking With Tinderbox
  49. Tinderbox Training Video 52 - Using Regex and Replace to Parse patterns like emails
  50. Tinderbox Training Video 54 - Blogging with Tinderbox
  51. Tinderbox Video Training 55 - Working with Taggers
  52. Tinderbox Training Video 56 - Sentiment Analysis & Analyzing Tweets with Action Code
  53. Tinderbox Training Video 57- Working with Tinderbox and Zotero
  54. Tinderbox Training Video 58 - Annotating with Highlights App, Tinderbox, DEVONThink, and Zotero
  55. Tinderbox Training Video 59 - Leveraging OnAdd Action to Automate Your Efforts
  56. Tinderbox Training Video 60 - Author Books, Scripts & Screenplays with Tinderbox
  57. Tinderbox Training Video 61- Blogging [Basics] with Tinderbox Lesson 1 from Weekly Meetup
  58. Tinderbox Training Video 62- Dynamically create notes from attributes with functions
  59. Tinderbox Training Video 63- Export Drafts Note to Tinderbox
  60. Tinderbox Training 64- Automated Note, Glossary of Terms, Figures, and Entities Creation and Indexing
  61. Tinderbox Training 65- Simple Markdown Template
  62. Tinderbox Training 66- See the Potential: Harvey Ball Competitive Analysis
  63. Mastering Tinderbox - 5Cs Knowledge Management: Private Session for Becker’s Patrons & Friends
  64. Tinderbox Lesson: Becker’s June 2022 Session with his Patrons
  65. Tinderbox Lesson - Meetup Sunday 14Aug22: Working with Ordered and Numbered Lists [A near complete review of the 5Cs and Tinderbox]
  66. Tinderbox Lesson - Embedding and Previewing Video in And Out of Tinderbox
  67. Tinderbox Lesson - Tinderbox for Teaching: Strategies, Tactics, and Methods For Running Your Class
  68. Tinderbox Lesson - Building Nested Lists with Functions
  69. Tinderbox Lesson - Write and Export Notes in Markdown
  70. Tinderbox Becker Patreon Session May 2023: Action Code, Template, Functions, and Project Management
  71. Tinderbox Training: Doctoral Dissertation Variable Hide in Text with RegEx

Meetups

  1. Tinderbox Meetup, Sunday, May 29, 2022: Qualitative and Quantitative Data Analysis with Tinderbox
  2. Tinderbox Meetup 06AUG22: Fundamentals: 5Cs and 3 Pillars of Personal Knowledge Management
  3. Tinderbox Meetup - Sat. Aug. 20, 2022: Importing, Explode, and RegEx
  4. Tinderbox Meetup 28AUG22 - An End-to-End Overview of Contribution
  5. Tinderbox Lesson- Transforming List Pasted from Internet
  6. Tinderbox Meetup- TBX Meetup October 9, 2022: Basic Note-Taking and Attributes Management
  7. Tinderbox Meetup- Meetup 15OCT22 Parsing Highlights in SKIM
  8. Tinderbox Meetup- Meetup 23OCT22 Working with Action Code, a Step-by-Step Walkthrough
  9. Tinderbox Meetup- Working with the New Preview Feature in Tinderbox 9.5
  10. Tinderbox Meetup January 29, 2023: Visual thinking strategies
  11. Tinderbox Meetup February 4, 2023 Video: Note naming strategies, working with maps, building a trash can
  12. Tinderbox Meetup February 12, 2023 Video: Scriptwriting and Building Tables

  13. Tinderbox Meetup February 18, 2023 Video: Making Meaning from Links, Command Line, and more
  14. Tinderbox Meetup Sunday, February 26, 2023
  15. Tinderbox Meetup March 4, 2023 Video: Managing Lab Experiments, ChatGPT Integration
  16. Tinderbox Meetup March 12, 2023 Video: ADA Compliance and Templates, Markdown
  17. Tinderbox Meetup March 18, 2023 Video: Hookmark and Include Review
  18. Tinderbox Meetup March 26, 2023 Video: Project Management and Anki Cards
  19. Tinderbox Meetup April 1, 2023 Video: Lists, Tables, Action Code and Export Code Oh Boy!
  20. Tinderbox Meetup April 9, 2023 Video: Export, AppleScript, Quantitative Analysis, TBX Views Review
  21. Tinderbox Meetup April 15, 2023 Video: Big History, Parsing Text, and Creating Dynamic Tables
  22. Tinderbox Meetup April 23, 2023 Video: On ZettelKasten with Sascha Fast from Zettelkasten.de
  23. Tinderbox Meetup - Saturday, April 29, 2023 Video: Zettelkasten Review, Markdown, Links vs. Attributes

  24. Tinderbox Meetup - Sunday, May 7, 2023 Video: Connect with Sönke Ahrens live, the author of How to Take Smart Notes
  25. Tinderbox Meetup Video - Saturday, May 13, 2023: Using TBX as a CRM, Email and Social Media Posts from TBX
  26. Tinderbox Meetup - Sunday, June 4, 2023: Introduction of Posters, Demo with ChatGPT Curl Integration
  27. Tinderbox Meetup - Saturday, June 10, 2023: A Discussion with Jerry Michalski on The Brain and Tinderbox
  28. Tinderbox Meetup - Sunday, June 18, 2023: Exploring eachLink to unlink notes
  29. Tinderbox Meetup - Saturday, June 24, 2023 Video: A Discussion with Kathryn Cramer–an AI researcher, writer, editor, designer, and futurist
  30. Tinderbox Meetup - Sunday, July 3, 2023: DEVONthink and Tinderbox with Eric Boehnisch-Volkmann
  31. Tinderbox Meetup - Saturday, July 8, 2023: Optimization–output, action code, and other tricks
  32. Tinderbox Meetup Video- Sunday, July 16, 2023: Back to The Basics, Key Fundamental TBX Concepts and How to Execute Them
  33. Tinderbox Meetup Video- Saturday, July 22, 2023: A Review of Bookends–Citation and Reference Management–with Jonathan Ashwell
  34. Tinderbox Meetup Video-July, 30, 2023: Trivia Night, Interview QDA Methods, and RegEx and TBX Action Code
  35. Tinderbox Meetup Video- Saturday, Aug 5, 2023: TBX 9.6 Review
  36. Tinderbox Meetup Video- Sunday, Aug 13, 2023: Building a project file from scratch to respond to grants
  37. Tinderbox Meetup Video SATURDAY August 19: Readwise, Marked Stream, Highlighting Extension, and Annotating PDF
  38. Tinderbox Meetup SATURDAY 2 September Video: A broad discussion on memory, thinking and knowledge management
  39. Tinderbox Meetup Saturday 16 September Video: Knowledge Synthesis and Discourse Graphs with Joel Chan
  40. Tinderbox Meetup Sunday 24 Sept. Video: Catchup and Working with Dictionaries
  41. Tinderbox Meetup Saturday September 30 Video: With Mike Rohde, Author of The Sketchnote Handbook and The Sketchnote Workbook
  42. Tinderbox Meetup Sunday 08 Oct. Video: Tinderbox Praxis -theory and application - student grading assessment
  43. Tinderbox Meetup Video- Saturday, October 14: Stacey Mason on Goal Setting and Management with Tinderbox
  44. Tinderbox Meetup Sunday 05 Dec 23 Video: INFORMATION GARDENING with Information Architect Jorge Arango
  45. Tinderbox Meetup Sunday 17 Dec 23 Video: Tinderbox and Doctorate Studies, Books on Notes
  46. Tinderbox Meetup Sunday 7 JAN 24 Video: With BRYAN JENCKS
  47. Tinderbox Meetup Saturday 13 JAN 24 Video: Project Orientation - Map View vs. Outline View
  48. Tinderbox Meetup Sunday 21 JAN 24 Video: Sustainability Research, Reference Manager Import, Explode, and Hyperbolic View
  49. Tinderbox Meetup Saturday 27 JAN 24 Video: Blooms Taxonomy, Infocom, Markdown Export, Auto Numbering
  50. Tinderbox Meetup Sunday 04 February 24 Video with Cathy Marshall and a TBX Training Using RegEx
  51. Tinderbox Meetup Video Sunday 18 February 24: Tools for Thought with Chris Aldrich
  52. Tinderbox Meetup Saturday 24 Feb. 2024: Blogging and Weblogging with Tinderbox
  53. Tinderbox Meetup Sunday 9 March 2024 Video: Captain’s Log, Grading & Rubric Management
  54. Tinderbox Weekly Meetup Sunday 17 Mar. 2024 Video: Using Tinderbox for Talking Points with Beck Tench

Let’s grow the community: Please be sure to Like the videos and subscribe to Becker’s Tinderbox YouTube channel. Liking the videos and subscribing to the channel will increase the ranking in Google and drive more attention and traffic back to Tinderbox.

Other Notable Videos & Blogs

Brian Crane on Teaching with Tinderbox

The links for the feedback sheets later in the thread are:

Call for videos, ideas, and interviewees: If you are aware of any other works/lessons that Tinderboxers have done, can you please send them my way (DM me at @satikusala. Also, I’d love to hear from you on your application of Tinderbox. If you have some to share, please send a message along with your ideas. If you’re open to doing a Tinderbox interview with me, please reach out, and lets me schedule one.

I’d like to give a huge thanks to all those that have helped me along my own Tinderbox journey, especially @mwra, @eastgate, @bmgphd, @sylvaticus, @TomD, @PaulWalters. To all, thank you.

If you like this format and have topics that you’d like us to record for you and the community, please email me your questions ee42patx@pocketgeekid.com and we’ll pull something together for you, or better yet you can simply make a comment on this post. Your feedback on how to make this better is welcome. I’ll update this post as we create new videos.

21 Likes

Thanks Michael - this is a great service to the Tinderbox community! I am confident many will watch these lessons (I write this after having watched one) and be encouraged to experiment with this great piece of software!

4 Likes

Nice! I’ve watched all 3 and all makes sense. (I’ve a few minor tech observations but I’ll email).

Thanks, I hope these will help folk get going.

3 Likes

Yes - that is absolutely outstanding

If by chance you have experience with lookup tables to transfer Devonthink tags into Tinderbox Attributes that would be quite helpful

Great Job Michael! Well done. I like the quick vignette format covering practical specific topics. For me anyway, it integrates some topics I have been thinking about.
Keep it up.

Tom

2 Likes

Hi Richard, I may be able to help with this one. Can you be more specific on the workflow you’re trying to follow?

Yes of course - thanks for any help you might suggest

I use Devonthink to curate PDFs and bookmarks for citations to the medical literature. I would like to use custom metadata in DT3 to curate that literature by various criteria, i.e. treatment works, treatment does not work, landmark study, etc. Then I want to take that information and import it to Tinderbox, partly for further analysis and mostly as a “report generator.” In Tinderbox, I would set up Agents and Stamps which would in part act on the custom metadata from DT3 and in part act on $Text from the abstracts in that data.

A well-known and respected participant on the DT3 forums suggested the following though he was limited in how much of his own code/scripting he could share due to his employer’s rules:

If you happen to look into how to use a “watched DEVONthink group” in Tinderbox, note that by default the only user modifiable metadata that Tinderbox imports is “Tags”. In Tinderbox, “Tags” is a “set” type attribute. In a Tinderbox set you can create key:value pairs. In DEVONthink you can create tags of the form “key:value”. So you can pass all manner of custom metadata from DEVONthink to Tinderbox by placing the key:value pairs into DEVONthink tags and retrieving them from the synchronized Tinderbox tags. (Tinderbox calls set attributes that contain key: value pairs “look-up tables”.)

I suspect the ability to transfer custom metadata from DT3 to attributes in Tinderbox would thus help for my workflow but also may be applicable to many other users of both apps as well.

Got it, yes. I think I have just what you need. Give me a day or two to pull it together.

2 Likes

HI ,

Great format of the videos keeping them bytesized and small . Please do keep them coming.

You might want to consider dividing the videos into Basics / Intermediate / Advance sections . This will allow newcomers(such as me) to go directly to relevant playlist.

Last Feedback
There’s a massive increase in difficulty ratio from Video 2 to Video 3 for a newbie.
Video 3 when you are typing the query , it’s very difficult to see the same in 480p format(which was the best available option) , it would help if you could “Zoom” that part.

Also SO many icons in your dock ! HOLY MOLY

Nice idea, I’ve added a level flag.

Totally agree, I’m going to [slowly] pull these together in between work. So, they’ll come in based on timing and inspiration (ideas from others will help with the prioritization).

Great point. I don’t have a lot of time for editing right now. Would love help with this, if someone is interested. In the meantime, I’ll put the code in the notes or just upload the file with the video.

You should see how many tabs I keep open. :wink:

Absolutely wonderful work Michael. Just watched the first video and even though I’ve used Tinderbox for many, many years on and off, I picked up some valuable ideas from just the first video

Tinderbox has added so much capability incrementally over the years that it’s useful to have a step back and see a comprehensive use of the current tools.

One note on the first video- At some point explain how you type the title and start inputting text without mousing around. The DoubleClick-Title-Return-Space-Text reflex has become completely automatic for me but took a while to figure out as the sequence.

1 Like

Just added a video on prototypes. BTW, anyone have some thoughts on the best way to manage this? Should we create individual entries for each video so that they can be individually commented on, or do we maintain this master list? Thoughts?

I’ve generally generated web pages (that I can access/edit) e.g. this for my Clarify† tutorials.

I’m not sure forum threads are the place to park the bulk of the detail, better to have a hub-page to link out to that has all the listings. Where that should be I’m less sure.

†. RIP: 32-bit and sunsetted, sadly.

1 Like

Yes, that is a good idea for a repository, but doing so we lose the community interaction and comments. It is up to the forum leaders (e.g. you and Mark) but maybe I/we create one post per video and maintain one post to aggregate them all. That way people can make comments to the individual training and provide suggestions on how to make them better, but they can also go to the consolidated post, i.e. this one, or they can simply go to the YouTube channel; however, it would be nice to keep the comments and posts in the forum to benefit the community.

1 Like

Sure we can make threads per video, I don’t see a problem with that.

New category Training Videos has been created. I’ve moved the per-movie threads there.

2 Likes

These are excellent

If you have the inspiration sometime to consider a video on HTML export templates that would be really helpful

2 Likes

+1 would find these useful!

Fantastic idea and excellent execution @satikusala!! I’m going through them all, even the concepts I’ve already grokked. Great revision :+1:t4:

3 Likes