git clon...

A while back, I was looking for a tool to act as basically a semi-organised dumping ground for all sorts of notes and thoughts.

I wanted it to be Free software, easy to keep in sync / use across multiple devices, I can use it offline / without a LAN connection, and it should render Markdown nicely.

I looked at logseq, which looked interesting, but decided to give vimwiki a go. I spend a lot of my time in vim already, so this seemed like it would fit into the way I work very easily.

And I was right. Since it is “just” a collection of .md files, it appeals to me from a simplicity point of view, and also makes synchronisation and backing up very easy.

Installing it

There are [multiple ways to install vimwiki].

I went for:

git clone https://github.com/vimwiki/vimwiki.git ~/.vim/pack/plugin
vim -c 'helptags ~/.vim/pack/plugins/start/vimwiki/doc' -c quit

and then adding the following to my ~/.vimrc (although I already had one of them):

set nocompatible
filetype plugin on
syntax on

Using vimwiki

To add a new wiki with support for Markdown (rather than the default vimwiki syntax), I put the details into ~/.vimrc

let g:vimwiki_list = [{ 'syntax': 'markdown',
\ 'ext': 'md',
\ 'path': '~/briefcase/Store/vimwiki/'}]

Then, I opened vim, and used \ww to open the wiki. On the first use, there was a prompt to create the first page.

Keybindings

The basic vimwiki-specific keybindings are indeed the ones I use the most to manage the wiki itself.

For me, “” is ““.

<Leader>ww -- Open default wiki index file.
<Leader>wt -- Open default wiki index file in a new tab.
<Leader>ws -- Select and open wiki index file.
<Leader>wd -- Delete wiki file you are in.
<Leader>wr -- Rename wiki file you are in.
<Enter> -- Follow/Create wiki link.
<Shift-Enter> -- Split and follow/create wiki link.
<Ctrl-Enter> -- Vertical split and follow/create wiki link.
<Backspace> -- Go back to parent(previous) wiki link.
<Tab> -- Find next wiki link.
<Shift-Tab> -- Find previous wiki link.

Otherwise, I just use vim normally, which is a significant part of the appeal for me.

Syncing via Nextcloud and git

The wiki is just a collection of markdown files, in the directory specified in the “path” field in the configuration.

This makes synchronisation easy. I sync my vimwiki directory with Nextcloud, so that it propogates automatically onto my machines, and I can also push it to git, so that I can grab it on my phone.

This works for me, and means that I don’t need to configure, secure etc. another sync tool or a dedicated sync system.

Multiple wikis

There is support for multiple wikis, although I have not experimented much with this.

Each wiki gets its own line in ~/.vimrc.

You can use \ws in vim to select which wiki you want to use.

I like it!

I really like vimwiki. It is simple but effective, and because it runs in vim, it does not require me to learn a different tool, or adjust my workflow. I just open vim and open my wiki.

Prior to vimwiki, I was just dropping .md or .txt files into a directory which got synchronised, so this is not massively different, other than more convenient. Everything is still file-based, but with an increased ease of organisation.

For someone who didn’t already use vim, it is probably a more challenging choice.