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sf.me > Blog > VimWiki Is Terrific
Posted on: 26 July 2023
Reading time: 2 minCategory: Linux
I have recently been using VimWiki to take all of my notes instead of Joplin, and it has been working really well. It has its own Markdown (.md) format, but I use regular Markdown (.md) with it. I use Syncthing to sync all my notes to all of my devices. There is barely any delay, so there are never any conflict issues.
VimWiki is a plugin for Vim or Neovim that allows you to create a personal wiki. On this wiki, you can add anything you want. It is essentially Obsidian but more minimal and scriptable.
Since it runs in Vim or Neovim, it is extremely fast, lightweight and has barely any bloat. It runs blazingly fast even on old devices. The capability is also extremely high, since you can edit files at light speed when you learn Vim or Neovim properly.
Using VimWiki, it is trivial to organise notes, ideas, diaries, to-do lists or even future plans. It supports tables, links and much more. There is even an option to export your Markdown (.md) files to HTML, which allows you to create webpages quickly.
VimWiki is so versatile that I wrote this post completely in VimWiki. View the raw Markdown (.md) file here
It allows you to do everything regular Markdown (.md) can do and more. For example, you can have checklists with progress on them, like this;
[ ] --> 0% complete
[.] --> 1% - 33% complete
[o]--> 33% - 66% complete
[O]--> 66% - 99% complete
[X]--> 100% complete
You can even have pre-formatted text. This makes it useful to add and explain code.
On my computers, I use Neovim to use VimWiki. When it comes to my phone, I use the Markor app, which is a Markdown (.md) viewer. It is not the best experience on mobile, but I am willing to give that up for an amazing experience on my computers, since I use and note down things on my computer more.
The reason I am using VimWiki now is mainly to stay in line with me preferring plaintext to proprietary note apps or formats. As I mentioned in my last post, I try to use as much plaintext as possible to prevent distractions and have easy access to my notes wherever and whenever I want to.
To conclude, I switched to VimWiki because I find it faster and easier to use Neovim directly on my computer. I love using Markdown (.md), so I feel at home when using VimWiki. It is also because I prefer to use plaintext as much as possible.