Excalidraw Writing Machine: Generate articles from your Visual Zettelkasten cards in Obsidian
Summary
TLDRこのビデオでは、視覚的な情報管理(PKM)のフレームワークを紹介し、記事のビジュアルレイアウトをPDFに変換する方法を説明しています。テキストとイラストを組み合わせることで、記事の流れが明確になり、公開に近いドキュメントを作成することができます。Zettelkastenシステムを活用し、記事の初稿を効率的に作成する方法も提案されています。さらに、AIを活用して記事を自動生成する方法も紹介されています。
Takeaways
- 📚 動画では、記事のビジュアルレイアウトをPDFドキュメントに変換する方法が紹介されています。
- 🎨 ビジュアルPKMのワークフローは、個々のニーズに応じて柔軟に適用できます。
- 🔗 Zettelkastenシステムの強みは、プロジェクトをゼロから始めることなく、既存の情報を利用して記事の初稿を作成できることです。
- 📈 4D PKMは、テキストの次元に、リンクやイラストを加えることで情報をさらに豊かにします。
- 🎭 ビジュアルノートは、テキストと異なる並列処理で視覚情報を処理するため、視覚的にアイデアを整理することが重要です。
- 📝 視覚Zettelkastenは、カードの両面に視覚的な要約とサポート情報(出典や関連ノート)を含めることができます。
- 🤖 AIを活用して、生成されたテキストをさらに自動化し、記事の完成度を高めることができます。
- 📑 Excalidrawスクリプトを使用して、ビジュアルレイアウトからテキストを抽出し、記事の構造を自動生成します。
- 🛠️ テンプレートやAIツールを組み合わせることで、記事のスタイルやフォーマットをカスタマイズできます。
- 🔧 Excalidrawスクリプトは編集可能で、個々のZettelkastenシステムに合わせて調整できます。
- 👀 矢印の配置順序は、スクリプトによって解釈される記事の流れに影響を与えるため、注意して配置する必要があります。
Q & A
ビデオで紹介された「visual PKM」とは何ですか?
-visual PKMとは、視覚的に情報を整理し、記事やブログポストなどの創作プロセスを効率化する手法です。テキストと画像を組み合わせて情報を整理し、より効果的な情報管理と創作を可能にします。
ビデオの目的は何ですか?
-ビデオの目的は、視覚的に記事のレイアウトをPDFドキュメントに変換し、テキストの流れが自然で読みやすい、ほぼ出版準備ができているドキュメントを作成する方法を示すことです。
Zettelkastenシステムとは何であり、どのように役立つのですか?
-Zettelkastenはドイツ語で「ノートの箱」を意味し、情報をカードやノートとして整理するシステムです。このシステムにより、新しいプロジェクトを始めた際にゼロから始めることなく、既存のノートから情報を引き出して記事のドラフトを作成することができます。
4D PKMとは何で、なぜ重要なのですか?
-4D PKMは、テキスト(一次元)、個々のドキュメント(二次元)、ノート間のリンク(三次元)、そしてイラストやアイコンなどの視覚要素(四次元)を含む情報管理システムです。視覚的な情報処理は並列的に行われ、テキストと比べて情報の整理と理解を助けます。
ビデオで紹介された「visual Zettelkasten」とは何ですか?
-visual Zettelkastenは、視覚的な側面とテキストの側面を持つノートを作成し、カードの表側に視覚的な表現を、裏側にサポート的な背景情報を配置するシステムです。これにより、アイデアを視覚的に組織化し、より強力な情報管理が実現できます。
Excalidrawスクリプトとは何であり、どのように使われるのですか?
-Excalidrawスクリプトは、Excalidrawという図形作成ツールを自動化するためのスクリプトで、記事のレイアウトからテキストを抽出し、それに基づいてドキュメントを作成します。
AIを使って記事を生成する際の利点は何ですか?
-AIを利用することで、既存のテキストを分析し、新しいコンテンツを生成することができます。これにより、創造的なプロセスを加速させ、記事の質や多様性を高めることができます。
テンプレートを使用する際の注意点は何ですか?
-テンプレートを使用する際は、生成されたテキストがテンプレートのプレースホルダに適切に置き換わることを確認する必要があります。また、テンプレートの選択は記事の内容や目的に合わせて行う必要があります。
スクリプトの設定を変更するにはどうすれば良いですか?
-スクリプトの設定を変更するには、Excalidrawのプラグイン設定から「Excalidraw Writing Machine」を見つけ、必要に応じて概要のセクション名やソースのセクション名、テンプレートのパス、画像の埋め込み設定などを変更します。
スクリプトをカスタマイズする際のポイントは何ですか?
-スクリプトをカスタマイズする際は、自分のZettelkastenシステムに合わせて調整し、必要に応じてExcalidrawスクリプトのコメントや構造を理解して編集する必要があります。また、エラーを見つけるためには、開発者コンソールを利用して生成された変数を確認することも重要です。
ビデオで紹介されたワークショップとは何ですか?
-ビデオで紹介されたワークショップは、視覚的思考フレームワークやPKMに関する詳細を学ぶことができるプログラムです。参加者はフレームワークの詳細を学び、スクリプトやObsidianの自動化についても議論することができます。
Outlines
😀 視覚的なPKMの紹介
この段落では、Joltが視覚的なPKM(Personal Knowledge Management)を紹介し、記事の視覚レイアウトをPDFに変換する方法を説明しています。このプロセスは、テキストの流れが自然で、イラストが適切に配置され、ほぼ出版準備ができているドキュメントを作成することができます。Joltは、このワークフローは個々のニーズに応じて柔軟に適用できると強調しています。
📚 Zettelkastenシステムの可能性
第二段落では、Zettelkastenシステムの可能性について議論されています。Joltは、良いZettelkastenシステムがあれば、ブログ記事や動画、記事など、何をしていても最初から始めることなく、既存の情報を元に記事のドラフトを作成できると説明しています。また、4次元PKMと視覚的なZettelkastenの概念についても紹介しており、テキストと視覚情報を組み合わせることでの知覚の違いを強調しています。
🖌️ 視覚的なZettelkastenの活用
第三段落では、視覚的なZettelkastenの活用方法が紹介されています。Joltは、Excalidrawのノートの両面、すなわちマークダウン側とイラスト側を利用することで、視覚的な概要と裏側のサポート情報を組み合わせることができると説明しています。このアプローチは、アイデアの視覚的な組織化を促進し、より強力な情報管理を可能にします。
🔧 執筆マシンスクリプトの紹介
第四段落では、Excalidrawのスクリプトである執筆マシンスクリプトの機能とインストール方法について説明されています。このスクリプトは、視覚レイアウトからテキストを抽出し、記事の骨組みを作成することができます。Joltは、スクリプトの使い方と、Obsidianのツールパネルからスクリプトをインストールする手順を紹介しています。
🤖 AIを用いた記事生成
第五段落では、AIを利用して記事を生成する方法が紹介されています。Joltは、生成されたテキストをChad GPTに貼り付け、より高度な記事を作成するプロセスを説明しています。また、AI for Templatorというプラグインを用いて、テンプレートから記事を生成するプロセスも紹介されています。
🛠️ スクリプトのカスタマイズと注意点
第六段落では、スクリプトのカスタマイズ方法と注意点が紹介されています。Joltは、スクリプトの編集方法と、Excalidrawのスクリプト機能の柔軟性を強調しています。また、矢印の配置順序が生成されたテキストの流れに影響を与えるため、注意を払う必要があると警告しています。
Mindmap
Keywords
💡visual PKM
💡Zettelkasten
💡4D PKM
💡Excalidraw
💡テンプレート
💡AI for Templator
💡Markdown
💡視覚的思考フレームワーク
💡生成的AI
💡Obsidian
Highlights
展示如何将文章的视觉布局转换为外观良好、阅读体验佳的PDF文档。
介绍工作流程的灵活性,可以根据个人需求进行调整。
强调Zettelkasten系统的重要性,它承诺用户无需从零开始创作。
解释4D个人知识管理(PKM)的概念,包括文本、独立文档、链接和插图。
讨论视觉思考框架和Zettelkasten在信息处理中的作用。
展示如何使用Excalidraw脚本将视觉布局转换为文档。
介绍Excalidraw写作机器脚本的安装和使用。
展示如何使用AI工具如GPT-3来增强文档内容。
讨论AI for Templator插件的使用,以及如何与Excalidraw脚本结合。
提供模板和脚本的下载链接,以便用户自定义和使用。
展示如何通过调整箭头顺序来控制文档生成的逻辑。
提供关于如何编辑和自定义Excalidraw脚本的提示。
鼓励用户在评论中分享他们使用这些工具的经验和建议。
推广视觉思考工作坊,提供更多关于框架和Obsidian自动化的信息。
总结并强调视觉组织想法和创建文档的潜力。
Transcripts
hey everyone it's jolt here welcome to
visual PKM in today's video I want to
show you how you can convert this visual
layout of an article into this PDF
document that looks good and reads well
the flow of the text makes sense and
there are nice illustrations and overall
it's a document that's almost publishing
ready of course it is not publishing
ready you would need to do some more
work but this is a pretty good start of
an article so before we dive into the
guts of the conversation I just want to
highlight that what I'm going to show
you today is fully adaptable to your
needs if you dislike generative AI you
can skip that part if you don't want to
create custom templator scripts you can
skip that part as well the workflow is
adaptable to how far you want to go with
it now before jumping into the actual
solution there are two things I want to
talk about just to set the scene thing
number one is the promise of zel
Cen practically any book you read on
this subject you will see this promise
that if you have a good zle Casten
system then you will never start from
scratch be it a blog post a video an
article whatever you're working on you
will not need to start from scratch
because you can simply pick up a branch
from your zettle Caston system lay out
the cards and bang you have a good draft
a good first draft of your article all
you need to do is to stitch it together
now I've been always envious of this and
today I think I have a solution that can
actually make this
happen the second part of setting the
scene is about the promises or claims I
make in the mindset visual thinking
framework I advocate for
four-dimensional PKM and for visual
thatle Casten so let's look at these two
topics 4D PKM can be best understood
bottom up so what is two-dimensional PKM
well the First Dimension are the text
documents that you're writing and I call
this linear text because you need to
read from the top left to the bottom
right or of course if your language
reads from a different direction than
following that direction and that's
Dimension number one your linear text
the second dimension are the separate
documents that you're creating each
document its own file maybe in your file
system you can elevate your game by
implementing threedimensional PKM and in
my understanding and my
interpretation this is what Thiago Forte
and Nick Milo are advocating they're
Advocates of 3D PKM the third dimension
is the links between your notes so if
you have a two-dimensional PKM but you
add links between keywords and files
sort of like your own Viki system then
Wikipedia then the third dimension
appears here and those are the links now
what's the fourth dimension well the
fourth dimension is when you start to
add illustrations and it's not only
adding illustrations but when you start
to reuse illustrations like icons and
parts of images and use those images
across various notes to connect ideas
and I call this a next Dimension because
the VY processing information is very
different from how we process text text
we process linearly visuals we process
in a parallel way so a good mindset to
demonstrate this
how a linear text differs from a visual
note is if you think about a shop
receipt versus a shop window which one
is faster if you want to find out what
the shop is selling
now the other concept I want to talk
about is visual thatle
castan this Builds on the concept of
having notes that have two sides a
visual side and a textual side so let me
show you in this case if I select my
note here and open the back side of the
note so the back side is the markdown
side of this note then here I have all
sorts of text notes that are related to
this again if I flip this over to exol
dra View mode then I can see the drawing
if I flip this over to markdown View
mode then I can see the markdown side of
the document and I can see my notes of
course you can achieve this not only
with excolo for example the slide notes
on slides in PowerPoint act in a similar
surve but my idea is or my advocacy is
that this way you can include your
visual representation your visual
summary on a card on the front and
supporting background information like
your sources like the summary of the
idea like related notes on the back of
the card and so my promise is the
following that by visually organizing
your ideas you get to something that's
much more powerful than shuffling bullet
points and this is where the whole idea
of visual zle castan comes in that you
have your notes as visual zle castan
notes each of these cards are an
individual zettle castan node that you
can switch over or flip over to see
what's on the back side but when you
need to organize your ideas you can
organize it at this visual level now the
these were the setting the scene topics
there's one more thing I wanted to bring
in here and that is Ted blizzard who
approached me yesterday with an email
and he shared with me his idea or vision
for the paper writing machine this is
practically a tool that helps academics
produce documents with citations and
this Builds on the whole idea that we
talked about until now with the zettle
cting system that you're reading books
articles take notes on the web and you
capture all of these in your zle casting
notes and from this you can create maybe
VI a data view query maybe with other
tools you can create an outline of your
paper and then you can convert that into
a document that's maybe a ver document
or Google Docs or whatever so this is
the solution that I want to show you
today so the components of the solution
that we are going to look at are a
visual layout in exol draw and we're
going to look at that in just one second
it's an exol dra script it's the exol
dra writing machine script it's ch GPT
obsidian templator and ai4 templator as
two additional plugins on top of exol
and it's a templator template and again
you can go as far or as little as you
like so let's start with this visual
layout that you can follow so this is
the basic concept that first I want to
show you and then we'll look at the
actual example that we looked at the
beginning so this the way this works is
the script the exol draw writing machine
script will go through your sequence of
arrows and capture the text from the
different elements so here it will start
with the main title then the next lines
until there's a fork in the road are
just simply going to be paragraphs
within that main title or under the main
title and then you have a fork on the
road then the first text be it on the
arrow or be it a separate text element
is going to be your section heading and
again it's going to be followed by the
paragraphs that follow in a linear way
later on and if you have a z castan note
like in this case so again I can show
you this is a zle Casta node that is a
very simple node so I have this Source
section that says the mindset framework
and the idea that this is the idea so if
you have this layout then you need to
select the very first element in your
sequence and you need to
run
the excal through writing machine script
then I run the script I can choose a
template to use now I'm going to select
another file and press Escape I'll
explain about this later for now all I
wanted to do is is not to use a template
and you can see the end result so
there's the main title that's a level
two heading then I have paragraph 1 two
and three then I have section 2 one here
with paragraph one and two and then I
have section 22 and I have paragraph 22
one I have the image under the image I
have the text that we saw on the back
and I have the Source here in Brackets
afterwards uh so I have the reference to
the source for this note so this is the
output that the script generates so now
let's look at how you can use this
output I'm going to close this and I'm
going to actually head over to my
writing machine demonstrations uh page
now before we get going I want to show
you how to install the exol writing
machine script it's pretty simple you
need to click here on the obsidian tools
panel and here you need to select the
first button that's install or update
excal draw scripts and once it loads you
need to just type in
writing machine it will take you to this
link to the excal writing machine and
you can click here to install the
script so what you can see here are my
cards from the book on a page summary
for Atomic habits so each of these cards
if you can look at this each of these
cards you're not going to be very
surprised or a visuals that will cost a
no so on the back of the card I have
some data here about the source about
the idea I have my 360 view of the idea
and so on on so there's lots of content
here for each of the cards as I was
creating these cards I was creating each
of them as a z Casta note in my system
but of course each of these comes from
somewhere in uh James clear's book and
you can see that I've created this flow
that it starts with the book cover then
there's a brief introduction of what
this article is is going to be about and
then I continue on with four sections in
my article tiny actions can lead to Big
differences why focus on identity and on
system is crucial Etc you can read these
so if now I click on Atomic habits and
again I
start the writing
machine writing machine script again
still I'm not going to choose the
templator script I'm going to select
another file the reason I see this menu
first time you run the script but we'll
look at that you will not see this menu
but only the next one but if youve
already selected a template it's going
to be offered to you if I choose to
select another file and press Escape
then it means that I'm not using any
template so when I do this you can see
that this document was created it's the
same as the document we looked at in
this case so it follows the same logic
you can see here the images the text and
here you go so here's the stitched
together material and each of these
sentences that you see here are the
sentences that I wrote to capture my
ideas about that
specific permanent note that I created
as a visual permanent
note and now if you want to stop here
great you can stop and you can take this
document and start to type and improve
your text and and I think you've already
achieved a lot because you have a visual
layout how you organize your text you
generated the document from that and
from then on you can start to work on
this document but if you want to use AI
then you have a simple option you can
just simply select everything and copy
this to the clipboard and then you can
head over to CAD GPT and in CAD
GPT I already have my prompt here so
you're an expert in academic writing and
so on you can pause the video and read
it here and I'm going to paste
the text that was generated by excolo
writing machine here and I'm just going
to press enter and with this chpt is
going to do its magic it's going to
generate the article I've asked chpt to
generate the article uh
into return the result as a markdown
code block so that's why here I'm
receiving this markdown code block the
text is ready I'm going to scroll up to
the top of the text and just copy the
code like this I'm going to head back to
obsidian and just simply press paste and
here I can see that unfortunately in
this generation now something happened
to the images no nothing happened to the
images good it just needed time to load
the images so you can see that the
article is ready um this is how it looks
so there's a bit of a guide here and
then yeah so you can read this I've done
several runs of course as with GPT it's
always slightly different but I think
it's good enough so
that's option one if you want to further
automate this then your next option is
to use AI for templator so AI for
templator I'm going to to be using two
scripts really so let's come to
community plugin and I'm going to show
you first of all AI
for templater so this is a an excellent
plugin for running CH GPT queries from
TFT hacker so you need to install ai4
templator and of
course you need to install the templator
plugin as well once you have those
installed and
configured then you will need a template
as well this is the template that I
created I'm going to include this link
upload this somewhere and include the
link in the video description so you
will not need to um start from scratch
practically this is a very simple
template I'm going to close these two
files
um it defines a system message a user
prompt uses a model now about the models
I found that well GPT 40 mini is a very
low cost model chbt 40 latest is a
slightly more expensive model but
frankly with all my testing I've spent
around 50 cents or less over the two
days so it is really not a huge amount
of money the reason I chose these two
models here is because they allow for
more output tokens normally this is
4,096 the maximum limit for example for
GPT 40 these two models allow more and
since the article can be bigger I went
for
this and and that's almost about it
there are two more
actually three more things I want to
show you here just so you understand
what's going on then the EXC colro
writing machine script runs at the end
it will place the generated text on
window.
ewm so when the templator script is
executed it can take the value from
window. ewm and use that to Sol submit
to Chad GPT so that's Point number one
point number two the way I develop this
templator script to help with debugging
finding errors is before closing it will
place on ewm response it again on the
window object it will store all these
variables so you can go to developer
console and find out what has happened
and I think the third and most important
Point here is I introduce so in the
writing machine
script I
introduced this placeholder that
wherever this is found in the template
that you provide it is replaced with the
generated text and this is good because
this way uh you can include the original
text in your templat I'll show you in a
second how this will work here so that's
about the templator file and now let's
come here and run our script so I'm
going
to start writing machine and I'm going
to use my template here and then I press
enter then you will see that the page
was generated and you need to pay
attention to is these bubbles in the top
right corner they will go on for quite a
while just as CH gbt to get time
responding it takes its time in this
case as well so you will need to wait a
little for this to finish the
generation and there you go the
generation is ready you can see some
stats about the generation and we have
the actual document here so this is a
pretty
uh nice document well I mean it's
similar to the previous one that we
looked at at the beginning I'm not going
to go into the details I'm going to
upload that PDF again we'll include the
link in the video description so you can
take a look at what was
generated so the script comes with
settings but the first time you need to
run it once for the setting to appear so
let me show you what what I mean if I
come to excal draw plug-in settings at
the bottom of settings settings for
installed scripts now you will see that
I have the excal writing machine here
but that's because I've developed the
script and it's not in my downloaded
folder you can see here so this is
actually for you not going to be here
nothing is here but once I run the
script for the first time so I need to
select an element and I need to start
writing machine you can see that now I
have two writing machine scripts here
and I'm going to run the downloaded
version and I'm just going to press
Escape because I don't want to use a
template at this time if I press Escape
here it means that whatever is generated
is generated into a completely blank
document so when I do this then this
document was generated and if I come
back to settings I can scroll down to
the bottom of settings for installed
scripts and you can see that downloaded
excolo writing machine is here and there
are a couple of settings you can do you
can change the name of the summary
section in my case I use the idea in all
my notes so instead of summary I call it
the idea whatever you call it you can
typee it in here you can set where the
source is so that's a section called
Source the template path you don't need
to worry about it then you select a
template from the dropdown list it's
going to be filled out automatically and
this is where the script stores
its last use template and finally you
can choose to embed the images or not to
embed so if I turn this off
then I'm going to close this and I'm
going to run the script
again so if I come here and then the
same text is generated but without the
images so you can get rid of the images
as well so that's about installing the
script now if you want to edit the
script which you might actually want to
do because there are are some so my
mindset here is this is a working
prototype but as many people as many zle
cast and system so there is no way of
configuring it exactly the way you need
it and that is the power of exol draw
scripts so if I come here to the exol
draw folder and come down to scripts and
download it here then if I scroll down
I'm going to find the Skol draw writing
machine here and if I click on this then
the script opens and yes you need a bit
of scripting skill to edit this I tried
to add some comments here and there that
it is easy to follow it is not a very
complicated script but of course what's
complicated and what's simple is a very
relative scale so I can understand if
this is scary and if it is then just
stick to the settings if you know what
you're doing or if you want to
experiment because what have you to lose
so if you mess it up you download it
again there's nothing to lose then I
think it's a good place to start also
Pro tip you can just select the whole
thing head over to Chad GPT and ask Chad
GPT to modify it this and that somehow
you want to modify it and you can just
simply baste the script here and then
you can use CH GPT to do whatever
updates you need to do with this script
on a final note there's one important
thing that you need to understand on how
the text is generated and how arrows are
interpreted the sequence of how you
create the arrows is important so let me
just show you what I mean here I'm going
to write this is going to be my title
and then this is going to be section one
and this is going to be section two and
then I'm going to have H paragraph one
one and paragraph one2 and here I'm
going to have paragraph 21
and paragraph 22 and now let me show you
how you can confuse the system so this
is good to know if if you want to avoid
this so I'm going to first draw the
arrow to section
two and I'm just going to use these nice
uh elbow connectors and then I'm going
to select section one and from here I
can just simply continue on drawing the
line so I'm just going to finish this
off and what you're going to see is now
if I just generate
this with the writing machine script I
don't
want like this so if I generate this you
can see that section two is at the top
followed by section one which is not uh
ideal so what I can do instead is I can
just simply delete this and delete this
and then I can come back and add first
section one and then section two and
now if I run this
again then you will see
that now section one is first and then
section two so this solves this problem
and so that's all I wanted to share with
you today I hope you found it as
exciting as I did I think this opens up
so many opportuni these for visually
organizing your ideas into flows you can
create presentations you can create show
notes I'm going to be using this to
create scripts for my videos there's
many use cases that you can do I think
this is such a nice opportunity and
hopefully you can also use these scripts
to customize them to your needs and
please in the comments I'd be very
interested in how you use this what you
thought of the entire process and what
you're missing from all of this and
finally if you find this useful and
interesting and want to learn more about
the mindset visual thinking framework
and for the PKM then take a look at the
links below check out the visual
thinking workshop and join one of the
next scorts I'd love to show you more
about the framework
and of course in the office hours of the
visual thinking uh Workshop we have time
to discuss other topics including
scripting and automating and obsidian so
that's just a plus an additional
opportunity that you can gain from the
workshop thank you
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