Outputing several notes in different configurations and formats

Q & A - getting started with Tinderbox
1

Hello,

i would like to do the following:

  1. Would like to have selected notes be output (as .pdf or .docx):

a) separately
b) as one document but starting at separate pages
c) In single ducument (.pdf, .docx, .html, .md) one after another (without page breaks) in a set order

I would appreciate any guidance on achieving these; if there is a video tutorial on how to achieve these, that would be great!

Thank you

2

Exporting the same data different ways

The key to understanding this is that notes only hold one export template ($HTMLExportTemplate). However, the Export: 'envelope and letter' technique offers a way around that.

But, you might say, in each case the root note (the top container of the cascade) already has an export template in stored to export its own per-note page. The workaround is to add a note to your document whose only task is ti ^include()^ the relevant container using the relevant ‘envelope’ template that in turns calls the cascading template for the included children/descendants. If you doubt this bear in mind this big page (designed for generating PDFs) is produced via a single enveloper-and-letter export of aTbRefs content via an ^include()^. If you don’t believe me, you can download the a zip of aTbRef source TBX file and see for your self.

Formats

You give rather a range of those which have varying degree of support. Tinderbox doesn’t export PDFs. You can export to Word or RTF/RTFD, but not using the template based method. Why? Because that is intended for those who find the template based export (originally HTML export) ‘too hard’. You could ‘HTML’ export to HTML or Markdown and use a command line (CL) tool like pandoc†.

With formats, why do you need format X? Is it because some other process will accept only X, or is it simply a casual assumption that you are used to, in the past, using format X? Put another way, if format X is difficult to generate (or you lack the skill/interest to do so) might some other format serve equally well. In context, my view of Markdown has shifted because of its value as a solid format for … format interchange. In the early 200s people laughed at the ‘complexity’ of JSON for data because “CSV is just fine”. Pitch a CSV solution now and—except for working with really old systems—the room will laugh at you for not using JSON. So, norms change and our expectations of ‘must use’ need to move accordingly.

Multiple scope+formats

Possible but you’ll likely want one envelope/letter cascade for each output format. So, if you want the whole doc exported in three different formats—*using Tinderbox—then you’d need 3 containers with ^include^ each using different templates/export configuration. That works prompts the question do you need Tinderbox to do this. You could, for instance, make a well-formed HTML exported page. In word, import and save as a DOCX. Print the DocX to PDF. You now have 3 formats. Were it me, I’d dump formats i don’t need and take the path of least effort to make those I do.

A different reading of the question

If may be you assumed all the formats were built-in button-press options, in which the short answer is, they aren’t and whether it is worth generating every one using Tinderbox alone is a judgment call only you can make.

†. N.B. This is not included in macOS’s default set of CL Unix tools. It is not complex to install but you might need to ask for help if you’ve not installed CL tools before. There is no one tool/process for this, which is why you might need guidance the first time.

3

@mwra Thank you for your kind guidance; I will first try your suggestion of the ‘envelope and letter’ technique and proceed from there.

4

I’ll repost my simple export exercises. I just noticed the changes to the app to enable zero-config internal (web) ‘preview’ mode, broke an element of HTML export. I need to update the demo instructions.

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5

We see our video library where we’ve had several meetings on exatly how to do this. also, on my school I have templates for all these workflows; 5Cs of Knowledge Management.

Michael

6

I’ve uploaded an updated version of my basic export exercises, tested in v11.5.2. for users of the older version (last issued under v8). See here: Exercise files for learning basic export.

I’ve added a ninth exercise that employs the envelope-and-letter export technique as well as calling the latter via an ^include()^ allowing the same notes to use different templates and export both as per-note items and as a consolidated report..

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7

@satikusala Thank you! Plan to explore 5Cs of Knowledge Management!

8

@mwra Thank you! I downloaded the .zip file. I will systematically explore them! Thank you very much!

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9

Great. Remember, the exercises are teaching the building blocks that you will use in similar or differentness combinations in your actual ‘work’ in Tinderbox.

I think this encapsulates the how you don’t learn Tinderbox as you would learn MS Word. Following the toolbox analogy, you learn he tools and how they work and then employ tat knowledge to do you work. So you don’t learn ‘how to build a house’ but you learn about saws and hammers , etc., and with that new expertise are able to build not just the house on the cover of the box but all sorts of houses.

The latter doesn’t mean you can’t just add a note and give it some text. But you can do the latter in any text app, but most people want Tinderbox for a richer experience of note-taking—and what you do with the notes once made.

This is why the “how exactly do I learn Tinderbox?” is difficult general question to answer. If I suggest the same exercises as above to someone who isn’t going to use export, they will learn something but not pertinent to their own work so will feel like they’ve learned nothing.

The (hidden) upside of this, as I reflect on from over 20 years of Tinderbox use is it shifts your frame of thinking to understand the nature of the task at hand rather than the more normal “does it look like what I expected?”. A weakness of the latter is if the output isn’t right you’ve little indication why so it’s a do-over.

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10

@mwra I see tbx how you approach tbx. Very instructive.
I now see the essence of tbx. Thank you!

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