Getting Things Done On WikidPad

A Snazzy System for Getting Things Done using the desktop program wikidPad for Windows

Introduction

wikidPad is a desktop wiki for windows which uses plain text for data and Python under the bonnet. Its special trick is an ingenious dynamically generated outline view. There is no page heirarchy implied or created by the outline; it is simply a representation of the linking system. There are formatting tricks which you can utilise for tagging the pages and displaying them as lists in the outline. Here you will get a quick idea of how set up a useful GTD system using these tags.

This tutorial assumes you know a little about wikis and about using camelcase words.

First, download the program. Take a look at the help wiki if you like, but it's not necessary for the purposes of this tutorial; you can just follow my super-quick orientation. (Just bear in mind, if you are used to wikis, that there is no separate edit and view modes; the text formatting is always visible.)

Super quick wikidPad orientation

• Create a new wiki (not a new page, a whole new wiki) and decide where to save it etc
• Find the ScratchPad and on it type a wikiword in camelcase
• Note that it is automatically underlined
• Press save etc, or wait for the auto-save, and take a look at the outline: the new page has appeared as a node of the home page
• Click on the newly created link, and you will find yourself on the new page
• Return to the ScratchPad, highlight the link, and cut it
• Look at the outline: the page has vanished. Now click on Views in the outline (you might have to wait for a refresh).... the new page now appears there under parentless-nodes
• Go to the home page, paste your link there, and see how the outline is redrawn again
• For fun, write the camelcase word "ScratchPad" into the ScratchPad, and see the tree create recursive nodes forever
• Take a quick look at the other special functions showing up under the View section of the tree
• Take a look at the Wiki Settings page and get a quick preview as to how you'll be tagging and annotating your pages
• Just as a teaser, write the following first two lines on any page except the wiki settings page, and the next two lines on a different page, and see what happens in the tree (and then leave these texts in the wiki to use later in the tutorial):

todo.email:Jo about keys

[Current:this week]



todo.home:mend chair leg

[complete:041229]

(The uppercase C in Current is a hack to make it appear at the top of the outline list.

Using keywords and attributes

So you've seen how you can make pages show up in different places in the tree. You're going to be applying this to generate lists of contexted next actions with markers for project status, such as current, somedaymaybe, tickler and complete. The next actions are all going to show up in a list sorted by context, but you will be able to distinguish between current and tickler projects by their colour. How you will do this is by creating a page per project, and then writing your next actions and status markers in such a way to show up usefully in the tree. This is acheieved by using keywords and attributes, and here is an explanation of the difference between them and how they can be used.

Keywords

• These are listed in the wikisyntax.py file, which is editable (with care) There are 5 of them preconfiguired, including "todo".
• To use a keyword, you simply type the word itself (e.g. "issue" or "todo") and a colon, at the beginning of a line, and after the colon write up to a line of text that you would like to show up in the outline.
• In the outline, one node-level under that particular keyword, you will see the line of text which you typed after the colon: when you click on it you are brought to that page with that line highlighted.
• You can subnest other keywords under these keywords by use of a period, for example "todo.work": In this case, each sub-keyword is listed separately under the keyword under Views. Only one level of sub-keyword nesting is allowed (although the developer is considering adding more levels).
• Keywords are automatically formatted by wikidPad in bold black.
• There is a setting in the program, probably configurable, whereby the keywords listed in the outline have a pin icon, which makes them easy to spot.

Attributes

• Attributes are written and erased from within the wiki page itself, on the fly.
• These attributes have two parts by necessity; you could see them as an automatic subnest, as a set of definition plus attribute.
• To create an attribute for a page, type the first part of the attribute, then a colon, and then the second part of the attribute, all within matching square brackets. e.g. "[doctype:reference]"
• In the outline, the page title appears one level down from the list of attributes. When you click this wiki page title the right-hand window changes to that page.
• Attributes have only two parts and no more sub-nesting is possible.
• Attributes are automatically formatted by wikidPad in bold grey
• You can associate settings with an attribute, such as colour or an icon. These will display in the outline associated with the page on which the attribute is written. Very importantly, the colour and icon will also show up in the part of the outline where keywords are listed.
• There are some special pre-configured attributes which have special functions. One of these is "priority" (followed after the colon by a numerical digit). For some reason, when a priority attribute is added to a page, under the keywords in the outline, the page title is shown rather than the text following the keyword. You'll see later that this gets rid of the usefulness of listing the todo texts after the keyword "todo".

Applying this to your wiki

[global.Current.this week.color:lime green]

[global.complete.color:light grey]

You can see where we're going now, I am sure, and to start you off here are some default attributes and their settings (note where to put the periods and the colons):

[Current:urgent]

[Current:this week]

[someday:maybe]

[tickler:date in sortable format here]

[complete:completion date here]



[global.Current.urgent.color:red]

[global.Current.this week.color:lime green]

[global.someday.color:dim grey]

[global.tickler.color:grey]

[global.complete.color:light grey]

So now you can start entering your next actions, using the todo keyword syntax, and annotating your project pages with the attribute syntax.