"You got your database on my word processor!" Does this software exist?
October 4, 2023 2:40 PM Subscribe
I dream of a piece of software that looks and acts like a word processor, able to edit long, free-form documents. But with a little more database DNA. I'd like to define arbitrary sections and give them labels or tags. I'd like to then view just certain sections by tag or group of tag. Not just view--even Save As to capture just that subset of sections, or print. I'd also like to do searches limited to a certain tag or set of tags. Is there anything out there like this?
Best answer: Adobe FrameMaker has this type of functionality. More generally the type of document methodology you're describing is usually called Structured Authoring, and most apps made to work with S.A. will be able to do the types of things you're describing.
posted by slappy_pinchbottom at 3:06 PM on October 4, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by slappy_pinchbottom at 3:06 PM on October 4, 2023 [3 favorites]
(XML and DITA are the names of two of the most common markup languages used in structured authoring, btw.)
posted by slappy_pinchbottom at 3:09 PM on October 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by slappy_pinchbottom at 3:09 PM on October 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
(I don't have that quite right, either. DITA isn't exactly a markup language, it's more like a level up in abstraction from a markup language, like an intermediary step between the marked-up document, which has no publishing instructions, and the publishing software, mapping tags to the specifications of whatever publishing software is being used. Sort of analogous to CSS I guess? I'll shut up now.)
posted by slappy_pinchbottom at 3:12 PM on October 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by slappy_pinchbottom at 3:12 PM on October 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
Drafts (mac / ios / ipad) has some of that functionality but not all. I love it.
One thing it does that may interest you that you didn't list is that each time you open a document and edit it, it makes a copy automatically so that every iteration you made of the same document is saved. You just click Info with the document open and it'll show you a list of dates and if you click on one you can view that document and restore it if you wish (or cut and paste from it).
If you click the edit button in an open document you can then tell it to segregate the content by sentence, paragraph, etc. You can then manipulate each of those sections with arrow keys for moving up and down and such to reorganize without using a mouse or doing any selecting or clicking. This is a wonderful tool for poets or songwriters who want to quickly see how rearranging affects flow.
You can add as many tags to each document you wish and then you create "workspaces" that you can specify tags for and then when you click those workspaces you see only the documents with that tag (or multi-tags if that's what you've requested).
posted by dobbs at 3:30 PM on October 4, 2023
One thing it does that may interest you that you didn't list is that each time you open a document and edit it, it makes a copy automatically so that every iteration you made of the same document is saved. You just click Info with the document open and it'll show you a list of dates and if you click on one you can view that document and restore it if you wish (or cut and paste from it).
If you click the edit button in an open document you can then tell it to segregate the content by sentence, paragraph, etc. You can then manipulate each of those sections with arrow keys for moving up and down and such to reorganize without using a mouse or doing any selecting or clicking. This is a wonderful tool for poets or songwriters who want to quickly see how rearranging affects flow.
You can add as many tags to each document you wish and then you create "workspaces" that you can specify tags for and then when you click those workspaces you see only the documents with that tag (or multi-tags if that's what you've requested).
posted by dobbs at 3:30 PM on October 4, 2023
Came here to say Obsidian too. Might not be what you're after. But it could be?
posted by jdroth at 3:41 PM on October 4, 2023
posted by jdroth at 3:41 PM on October 4, 2023
You might look at Scrivener as well!
posted by Blue Jello Elf at 4:54 PM on October 4, 2023 [9 favorites]
posted by Blue Jello Elf at 4:54 PM on October 4, 2023 [9 favorites]
The tagging feature is a common feature of qualitative data analysis software. You probably wouldn’t use this software for creating documents, however.
posted by oceano at 4:58 PM on October 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by oceano at 4:58 PM on October 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
I don't see where Obsidian has any of the database DNA moonmoth is looking for. You can certainly put headings and tags in a Markdown document, but viewing "blocks" defined they seem to want isn't a thing in Obsidian.
But it seems to me that Notion might be a little closer. Everything in Notion is a block and they can be used in many ways, apparently (I am not a Notion person...Obsidian all the way for me). Here is an article I found with a quick search that talks about how to use Notion blocks, it might be informative.
posted by lhauser at 5:24 PM on October 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
But it seems to me that Notion might be a little closer. Everything in Notion is a block and they can be used in many ways, apparently (I am not a Notion person...Obsidian all the way for me). Here is an article I found with a quick search that talks about how to use Notion blocks, it might be informative.
posted by lhauser at 5:24 PM on October 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
I've seen this type of thing generally called a "component content management system." I rigged up a very lightweight one myself using the gpp and pandoc shell software.
posted by adamrice at 5:33 PM on October 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by adamrice at 5:33 PM on October 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
Best answer: For once, I'm not going to recommend Notion (shocking, I know). Blue Jello Elf's suggestion of Scrivener seems like a good option for this: you can write in sections, tag and color code the sections. I'm not completely certain, but I think collections functionality would do what you're talking about with searching and printing.
posted by past unusual at 5:48 PM on October 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by past unusual at 5:48 PM on October 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
Logseq may be a closer match than Obsidian in the "markdown notes" arena.
posted by hoyland at 6:24 PM on October 4, 2023
posted by hoyland at 6:24 PM on October 4, 2023
If you'd asked this 25 years ago, I would have said Pipedream. It was a super-weird word processor + spreadsheet + query thing that started out on the 8-bit Z88 tablet, got ported to Windows (never past 3.1, though) and is still maintained on RISC OS (the now open-source OS originally written by Acorn for their ARM-based machines). I wouldn't recommend trying it, even if it's basically magic in software form
posted by scruss at 6:26 PM on October 4, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by scruss at 6:26 PM on October 4, 2023 [3 favorites]
DEVONthink has features along these lines.
posted by StrawberryPie at 6:49 PM on October 4, 2023
posted by StrawberryPie at 6:49 PM on October 4, 2023
I don't see where Obsidian has any of the database DNA moonmoth is looking for. You can certainly put headings and tags in a Markdown document, but viewing "blocks" defined they seem to want isn't a thing in Obsidian.
Obsidian has a plugin called Dataview, which gives you a query language that ranges over your Obsidian files (which are text). Queries themselves can be inlined in files in Obsidian. I'm pretty sure you can get blocks by section labels either in that plugin, in base Obsidian, or in another plugin. There is a quite rich plugin ecosystem, much of which is designed to support the kind of interaction it sounds like you're interested in.
That said, if what you want is to flexibly search text elements in documents you write, the power of keeping everything in plain text and getting familiar with tools for searching text should not be underestimated.
posted by grobstein at 10:10 PM on October 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
Obsidian has a plugin called Dataview, which gives you a query language that ranges over your Obsidian files (which are text). Queries themselves can be inlined in files in Obsidian. I'm pretty sure you can get blocks by section labels either in that plugin, in base Obsidian, or in another plugin. There is a quite rich plugin ecosystem, much of which is designed to support the kind of interaction it sounds like you're interested in.
That said, if what you want is to flexibly search text elements in documents you write, the power of keeping everything in plain text and getting familiar with tools for searching text should not be underestimated.
posted by grobstein at 10:10 PM on October 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
Scrivener sounds like a good solution. I use it now for my medium and long form writing (anywhere from 2,000 to 150,000 words).
posted by brianogilvie at 8:33 AM on October 5, 2023
posted by brianogilvie at 8:33 AM on October 5, 2023
Response by poster: Thanks everyone. I'm a fan of Obsidian, but don't want to tackle a whole new query language. Scrivener looks like a strong possibility. I can't quite tell yet if it's possible to filter by label, but I'm researching. Thanks again, I learned a lot here.
posted by moonmoth at 10:13 AM on October 5, 2023
posted by moonmoth at 10:13 AM on October 5, 2023
Lemme interject just in case that the Dataview query language is SQL-like, so if you have some exposure to SQL it will not be new to you.
posted by grobstein at 11:06 AM on October 5, 2023
posted by grobstein at 11:06 AM on October 5, 2023
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Braeburn at 2:54 PM on October 4, 2023 [10 favorites]