My name is Emmanuel Katto. I am exploring Tinderbox for organizing my projects and note-taking, and I could use some guidance to maximize my use of the tool. Here are a few areas where I have questions:
How do you organize and tag your notes in Tinderbox for easy retrieval? I’m curious about your strategies for categorizing information and if there are effective tagging conventions that would enhance my workflow.
I often use other tools (like task managers or calendars) alongside Tinderbox. What integrations or workflows have you implemented to ensure a smooth interaction between Tinderbox and external applications? Any tips on importing or exporting data would also be appreciated!
I understand that Tinderbox has capabilities for visualizing information. How do you make the most of its map view for brainstorming or planning stages of a project? Are there specific techniques that help in presenting ideas visually?
I think you are going about this the wrong way, in terms of assuming there is a ‘best’ method. Tinderbox is not an app that expects you to do things a certain way. Rather it is a toolbox for notes. Not everyone needs every tool but most use a set of tools in their individual way.
You would to well to start by working through the “Getting Started With Tinderbox” tutorial which is a PDF you can access from the Tinderbox Help menu.
As already noted there isn’t a best/right way. Tinderbox has powerful text search facilities and you can search any attributes. To help give you better suggestions, what sort of things are you trying to organise in Tinderbox. If you don’t have a particular task, the best way to start learning the app is to choose a task so as to give to a set of tasks for which you will need to use and learn aspects of the map. But, there is no general best model.
In terms of finding things consider the strands of information that it is helpful to keep discrete. So you could have a single collection keywords (tags) about some thing. But, it can be helpful to hold different facets of the object in different attributes. say you are comparing two camera. You could just put keywords in $Tags for make, model, price, features, etc. However, having the make and model in discrete attributes both makes querying easier and displaying the info as in the maker’s name is in a user attribute $MakerName it is then easier to show it as a Displayed Attribute or to use the value discretely when exporting information.
Hard to answer your questions there as you don’t say which tools, and here the Devil is in the details as many apps in the space have limited import/export options so our experience in the community is we first have to start with what out apps will provide. Also be aware that the notions on one (group of) app(s) doesn’t necessarily apply. For instance, recently, a number of knowledge apps are mostly/entirely Markdown based but that is not a general notion, just that of that group of app. Similarly, some apps don’t have notion of a dicrete title vs. body text of a note, others do. So, avoid assuming the app which which you are most familiar is the ‘right’ way. In moving data around, you often need some ajustment to ‘norms’ at both source and destination.
Yes, unlike many knowledge apps, Tinderbox has multiple built-in views of the same data. You can see a list of them here: Tinderbox views. Again not everyone will need every view, or for every tasks. Use the one that apply to your task. As you’ve not yet told us what you are trying to do with your information it is hard to me more specific.
As a general point, don’t assume Tinderbox is going to tell you how task X is done. Rather it gives you a range of tools to let you interpret your data in your style. This is unusual as most apps have fairly fixed methods for input/output.
Again, do read or, better, work through the ‘Getting Started’ tutorial as it introduces you to most of the basic concepts—the building blocks—of Tinderbox use. Also, if you don’t have a task in mind just pick one so as to give your investigation of Tinderbox some structure, i.e. so you have an idea which tools in the toolbox you might want to use.
@mwra has give you the best starter advice possible. In addition, I urge you to browse this forum by searching for topics on which you want advice and opinion. The members here have actually spend hundreds, if not thousands, of hours delving into all aspects of Tinderbox. Respect their efforts to help others in a similar starting position, by finding their voices, watching @satikusala’s videos, reviewing their tutorials.
For me, the simplest answer to “how do I start” is to start on your own. Open the app, start making notes. I first opened Tinderbox 17 years ago with exactly the same question as the opening question in this thread. In less than an hour I found my way.
I did think it seemed like an AI post, but we’re also an international crowd so not everyone is using their first language.
Anyway, the questions seemed like the might—if answered—be useful to new starters, so I answered!
Regardless of originated these generalised questions can also be useful in looking at the alignment of the perspective of the question and that of the available answer resources. Doing the above resulted in me adding a few more (!) cross-links in aTbRef.
That’s a good way to think about it. I did think re the language aspect, and I guess even if it was just training or testing itself, the reasoning holds. In any case, these sorts of moments will only increase, so its useful to come up with rubrics re one’s response. There’s such an asymmetry between the time and effort available to humans and that available to AIs…