Charlie's Easy Indexes

Knowledge management
1

This might be a very obvious tip, but it is a system I came up with for easily creating index notes simply based off of tags and sub-tags. This is essentially my strategy for naturally growing out my personal knowledge system and the “Maps of Content” that everyone loves to talk about.

The strategy is based off of the ability to embed a search query and search results in a note. Again, this makes a lot of use of tags.

First, in a note already belonging to a topic (something you want to index, such as all notes related to “Calculus”) add two pieces of information:

  1. Create a stub note for an index.

On all of my notes I have a line starting with **Topic:**. I just place the link to an index note here, usually formatted as [["Topic" - Index]]. e.g. [[Calculus - Index]]. You can set up your notes and/or templates how you wish.

  1. Add a tag formatted as #Index/"Topic". This is the key step. There has to be some consistent information to search for in a given topic. Tags are the easiest way to to this. e.g. #Index/Calculus

Then, in the [[“Topic” - Index]] note paste the following code block:

```query
tag:Index/Topic
```

The “```” have to be placed in the same manner shown above or else it will not work: right before query, and then in the line after your search query. In the documentation (accessible by the “F1” key) there is more options for how to format queries in the [[Search]] note.

Be sure to add the correct tag!

Again, format your notes to your preference.

  1. And you’re good! Your index note, when in “Preview Mode” will auto-magically update and display any note with the tag #Index/Topic in the corresponding [[Index/Topic]]. It will display as a search box.

Here is a screenshot of my [[Calculus - Index]] note (Editor view on the left, Preview on the right):

image
image1920×1040 54.7 KB

As a final note, in my index notes I place the tag #Index/Index to create an index of my indexes with the same strategy.

Final final note: I bet someone already uses this and I am hoping this is not already posted anywhere (if it is, I could not find it). The name is just kind of a catchy title for the post. I just made an explanation and made it as concise as I could.

Happy note taking!

7 Likes
2

That’s a great tip! I do something almost identical with backlinks. If I want a note to be found under an index note, I put a link to that index note in the first note. Thtlat way the backlinks in the blank index note form a poor man’s MOC. (When I am actively working on a topic I’ll go through these links and make an actual MOC)

3

This is just what I was looking for! I’m creating a wine tasting journal and wanted an index page for different regions and subregions. However, in your image all of the embedded search results were collapsed to not show the tag. Did you set this up manually or did you collapse them just for the screen cap? On my embedded search results the searches are defaulted to expanded and it makes it very visually messy. Thanks for the tip!