TreePad – My simple way of using it

TreePad (www.treepad.com) is the most powerful and flexible solution I’ve found for keeping text notes on my computer, and I’ve been doing this for twenty some years now – since my TRS-80 Mod 3 in the early ’80s. (See my earlier post: TreePad – for every kind of note.)

I’d like to explain that my way of using TreePad is quite simple. I’m trying to distinguish my simple, structured use of TreePad’s capabilities from the full range of TreePad’s presentation capabilities.

TreePad can use a dazzling array of icons in the tree pane. Node names, in the tree pane, can use font colors and background colors – and even different fonts and styles and sizes.

But for me, a complex presentation structure isn’t helpful. What’s important is the information I’m entering. And the simplest, most intuitive and functional setup I can devise is my objective.

I’ll explain my structure in the tree pane first. Then I’ll explain my structure in the article pane.

The Tree Pane

For each node in the tree pane, I can select from about 160 different icons in a set that installs with the product. If I have 160 nodes, each one could have a different icon.

I use three icons only: a tree icon, a folder icon, and a page icon.

For the root node, in every TreePad file I set up, I use a tree icon. It looks just like the program icon at the left end of the title bar. The name of the root node is always the same as the name of the file – without the extension.

For any node for which the article contains no text – a node that is in the tree for structure only – I use an icon that looks quite similar to the folder icon in the Windows Explorer tree. I think of this kind of node as a folder.

For any node for which the article does contain text information, I use an icon that looks like a white page with lines of text across it. I think of this kind of node as a document.

That’s my basic structure. Quite uncomplicated.

Let me offer an example, to illustrate some of this. I have a TreePad file called “Reading-Study” – for reading notes – so the root node name is “Reading-Study” – without the quotes. A “folder” under the root node is named “Psychology” – one of about twenty-five topic “folders”. Within “Psychology”, there’s a folder named “Reading Notes”. Within “Reading Notes”, there’s a folder named “Goleman, Daniel”.

Within the “Goleman, Daniel” folder, there’s a “document” named “Emotional Intelligence”. This is where I’ve put my reading notes for the book – what I call my AToC – my Annotated Table of Contents. Within that, there are a few more “documents” with more detailed notes on particular parts of the book.

The Article Pane

The information in an article takes whatever form it needs, for whatever the information is.

But I always use a frame – rather like the literary idea of a framing story. At the top, there is a standard format header – my standard. At the bottom, there is a bottom marker.

The standard header is in bold type. The header is what some might call “bread crumbs” to the article. Let me offer an example, based on the “Reading-Study” example above.

Reading-Study —
Psychology — Reading Notes —
Goleman, Daniel —
“Emotional Intelligence”

I separate each “crumb” with double spaces – the WordPress editor won’t keep double spaces, so I can’t show you that – and triple dashes. I could string the “bread crumb” trail across the top of the page – but I DON’T want a crumb to break across two lines – or I could put each “crumb” on a separate line – but in some cases, the content would be pushed halfway down the page. I don’t force a rigid structure in either direction. My result is a mix – whatever looks good and feels logical. The header is always separated from the rest of the article by at least one blank line.

The obvious point here is that if I look at an article – printed or on the screen – I instantly know where it came from – where it is.

The bottom marker is a single line, of tabbed and spaced out equal signs – with a blank line separating it from the rest of the article. The bottom marker is the same in every article. The point is that if I find a printout of the article, and I don’t have the bottom handle, I know I’m missing something.

It’s a convention that has good and bad points. I think it does more help than harm, so I keep it.

The “folder” articles have no text at all.

The root article has a full Table of Contents for the entire TreePad file. As best I can recall, this is a convention I came up with, but it’s been quite a while. What I want to make clear here is that the root article can have whatever contents I want it to have – like any other article – but this is the convention I use.

This Table of Contents is not automatically maintained. There’s a feature of TreePad where you can go to an article and insert a Table of Contents for all levels below that article. Any time I add or delete a node – or if I change the name of a node – I go to the root article, hi-light everything (CTL-A) and delete it, then tell TreePad to build a new ToC. It’s quick, and I do it automatically – my fingers just do it.

The entry in the ToC for each node is on a separate line, and is indented appropriately for its position within the tree. Each line is a hyper-link to the article it represents.

When a TreePad file opens, the root article has the focus, and in my T.P. files, the article pane shows the Table of Contents for the file. So if the articles you use most frequently are near the top of the tree, then when you open the file, you can immediately click on the name of the node you want to work on – and there you are.

Another Convention

My notes are often lists. List items often have sub items – the same with sub lists. I have always shown this structure using the tab key. So my tab set in TreePad is a “left” tab every 0.2 inch.

This convention also impacts the root article Table of Contents. Since the indenting, to show a node’s position within the ToC, uses the tab character, if you have a wide tab setting and a tree structure with “too many” levels, a ToC line could wrap on you – not pretty.

Conclusion

As I said above, TreePad is the most powerful and flexible solution I’ve found for keeping text notes.

If you keep notes on your computer any thing like I do, then I’ve tried to explain my patterns, so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. If you find my pattern useful, welcome. You could start with my pattern, and then adapt from there as it suits your needs.

If you don’t keep notes like I do, you still could get a feel for the power and flexibility of TreePad, but build your own patterns.

This article describes my simple pattern. Once I’ve got the structure set up, I don’t have to think about it – I just think about the information I’m keeping.

But the description of my basics is a bit long, so I will have to share any other observations in a separate article.