Q1: What types of zettels have a special meaning in this Zettelkasten?

Zettel types:

F - Fleeting note
Q - Question note
P - Permanent note
C - CreativeWork note (a permanent note annotated with schema.org metadata)
L - Literature note
H - Hub note (index to a set of related zettels)
S - Source-code / software note
V - Video reference note
J - Project note


Q2: How zettels are identified in this Zettelkasten?

Each Zettel has a unique identifier generated by the system.
Format: L2022-01-17-140050-6f8bc2, where:

The first character (L) is a letter indicating the type of zettel: F, Q, P, L, H, S, V, C, R.

Followed by a timestamp representing the reversed date and time (yyyy-mm-dd-hhmmss), e.g. 2021-01-17-140050 = January 17, 2021 at 14:00:50,

Followed by a dash "-", and

A 4-6 digits unique hexadecimal identifier, e.g. 6f8bc2

Notes:
a) Zettel identifiers are generated by Zettelkasten tools.
b) A zettel identifier is unique in the Zettelkasten.
c) The name or title of the zettel can either be the title of the blog post (and part of the URL); or can go on the top of the zettel and is part of its metadata.
d) Zettel identifiers with zeroed date, e.g. "0000-00-00" are used to identify atemporal zettels, such as hub notes.


Q3: Are there any recommended naming conventions for zettel titles?

Yes. Zettel titles should be short, descriptive, and standard throughout the entire Zettelkasten for the sake of consistency.

Write zettel titles in plain English; i.e. use spaces to separate words, and only capitalize proper names.

Number zettel titles if needed.

Avoid using special characters in zettel titles.


Q4: What are the recommended specifications for zettel tags?

A better question would be: should I tag or label zettels at all?

Zettel tags should be created carefully since they may work across an entire Zettelkasten. Their use must be planned with great care as to rename or delete a tag, the user must remove it from each zettels. If used, tags should be as short as possible.

If used, always write zettel tags in a consistent way, all lowercase, all UPPERCASE, or all CamelCase.

If a tag needs to have more than one word, write it with underscores instead of spaces.

If the user is a visual learner, it may be helpful to use unicode characters (emojis) in zettel tags. The only limitation is that these special characters are renderized differently in different platforms.


Q5: What is the anatomy of a zettel?

In this Zettelkasten, zettels are html documents authored by the user, stored and retrieved by a blog system. As any live (posted) html document, it has a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) — its unique web address. The zettel identifier can be part of the URL, and its use in the URL is optional.

Our zettels are usually divided in three sections: top, body, and bottom.

The top section contains metadata — useful information about the zettel. Example of a permanent note top section:

3. The Zettelkasten method


Description of the Zettelkasten method.
Last modified: 2022-02-02 15:54:04
Mauricio Leventer
Abstract
Keywords
Learning outcome
Credit
V 1.0.0
URL

Source code: 

<section class="zsection ztop">
<!-- P2022-01-02-155404-28f5ae -->
 <details>
  <summary>3. The Zettelkasten method</summary>
  <p><br />
  Description of the Zettelkasten method.<br />
  Last modified: 2022-02-02 15:54:04<br />
  Mauricio Leventer<br /><!--more-->
  Abstract<br />
  Keywords<br />
  Learning outcome<br />
  Credit<br />
  V 1.0.0<br />
  URL<br />
  </p>
 </details>
</section>

Notes:
1. The user must decide what information is relevant to his/hers needs.
2. The user can employ a standard set of metadata annotations to leverage search and maintain consistency, such as schema.org CreativeWork (https://schema.org/CreativeWork) properties and related metadata.

The body section of the zettel contains the note, idea, piece of information, reference, knowledge, thought, and so on. Example:

This is the body of a fleeting note!

Source code:

<section id="zkbody">

<blockquote>
 <p>
  This is the body of a fleeting note!<!--todo-->
 </p>
</blockquote>

</section>

And the bottom section contain references — external hyperlinks to other websites and internal hyperlinks to other zettels in this Zettelkasten. Example:

References

Internal
Internal reference(zettel)


External
External reference

Source code:

<section class="zsection zbottom">
 <details open>
  <summary>References</summary>
  <br /><p>Internal<br />
   <a class="ziref" title="" href="/internalreference">Internal reference(zettel)</a><br />
  </p>
  <br /><p>External<br />
   <a class="zxref" title="" href="https://externalreference.com" target="_blank">External reference</a><br />
  </p>
 </details>
</section>
Notes:
1. The bottom section is optional.
2. Bibliographic references can also be part of the bottom section.


Q6: What are the main features of this Zettelkasten?
  • User friendly and ubiquitous:
    • The web interface and tools simplify creating, storing, retrieving, sharing, and managing zettels.
    • This Zettelkasten requires a desktop or tablet for full authoring; and can be accessed from any kind device.
    • It can be public — visible to anyone; or private — visible only to the user or group of users (requires a Google account for login). If public, Zettels can be easily shared on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, via WhatsApp and email.
    • Data is securely stored in the cloud.
  • Powerful search:
    • The zettel identifier does not be part of the zettel title.
    • Zettels can be found by title, zettel type (Note, Hub note, Video, Software), tag, year, year-month, year-month-day, or any other metadata included in the top section.
    • Flexible tagging system
    • As any other regular website, zettels can also be indexed by Google (public Zettelkasten mode).
  • Content-rich:
    • Zettels can contain information of any kind, such as text (data and metadata), images, videos, sound recordings, and more.
    • Zettels can also contain geo-location information.
  • Capacity of this Zettelkasten:
    • Number of zettels — unlimited
    • Maximum number of zettels created or published in one day — 100
    • Maximum number of tags — 5,000 unique tags
    • Maximum number of unique tags per zettel — 20
    • Maximum tag length — 200 characters


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