RoamBrain newsletter #7
News about Roam Research, links to useful Roam resources and updates about new content on RoamBrain.com.
Launch of the RoamStack membership
On Tuesday, Ramses Oudt and I announced the launch of the RoamStack membership.
Our goal is to provide information about the tools, techniques and workflows you need to get the most out of Roam in as efficient a way as possible. We want to make the complex simple and to provide resources in a way that doesn’t feel overwhelming.
Our aim is to use innovative ways to teach people about Roam and the wider Roam ecosystem. We will focus on text, screenshots, checklists, diagrams and flowcharts - and only use video when it absolutely adds value.
We will be covering all the other apps that you can use to get information into and out of Roam. This is going to become increasingly important with the launch of the Roam API, which will allow other apps to directly integrate with Roam and enable much more automation.
What’s new on RoamBrain.com
A Roam into Software Engineering Management
Scott Block explains how he uses Roam in his job as a software engineering manager to take better notes, run better meetings, track complex projects and communicate clearly with his reports, managers, and directors.
Useful Roam resources
New block reference features
The major Roam improvement in the last two weeks has been the update to the block reference features.
In a very helpful video, RoamHacker gives an introduction to the role of blocks in Roam and explains what you can do with all the new features.
The feature I’m most excited by is the ‘Replace block with text and alias’ option. It allows one to copy and amend the existing text from a block but also keep a link to that block so you always have access to the original text.
Two other useful new Roam features
Two other very useful new features have recently appeared. Firstly, if you Shift+Click the Daily Notes link in the left sidebar, today’s Note will open in your right sidebar. This means that you can work in individual pages and, at the same time, always keep today’s Note accessible in the sidebar.
The second new feature brings search to filtering. When you filter a page that has lots of tags or references, it can be hard to find the tag or tags you want to filter on. There’s now a ‘Search References’ box that allows you to find them easily.
Usefully, it only seems to appear when you have more than one line of tags.
Roam theme changer
Jordan Lyall has created the Roam Themes Chrome extension which allows you to change your Roam theme instantaneously.
Roam Themes is a great way of quickly trying out new themes. It helped me find an interesting theme (@al_malecha’s Slightly Aesthetic theme), which I’ve been using for the past week.
There’s one thing to watch out for. If you find any of the new themes aren't displaying correctly, it's worth switching off any custom css you’re already using in case it's causing a conflict.
Structuring Roam databases
There have been some interesting discussions on Twitter recently about adding more structure to a Roam database.
I was really struck by Lisa Hardy’s approach. She’s created a map, which you can see above, that she imagines overlaid on top of her database.
As she tweeted: “I don't have a "workflow" document anymore, or a daily checklist. I have an imagined stroll across different areas of the map. It works kind of like a mind palace for remembering what I need to work on.”
You can see a full-size version of the map along with her tweet here.
RoamWorld news and information
Making your Roam database more accessible
Tom Lisankie launched the alpha version of his intriguing new project Roaman Pub yesterday.
By allowing you to create a website from your Roam database, he’s created a promising approach to the problem of how to make Roam databases more accessible. And it’s another great example of all the innovation going on in RoamWorld at the moment.
You can specify the pages to be included so any pages you want to keep private can be excluded.
At the moment, you have to export your database file and upload it manually but, once the Roam API comes out, this process will be automated.
There are explanations of how Roaman Pub works here and how to use it here.
And this is an example, showing the Roaman Pub website version of the RoamFM database — roamfm.roaman.pub.
The Roaman Pub website can be found here.
Fabricating Serendipity
Congratulations to Kahlil Corazo for starting the 2nd round of Fabricating Serendipity. It's a great way to meet other Roam users. Ramses Oudt and I met on the 1st round, which led to the setting up of RoamStack.com.
FS2 is now full. But you can sign up for the next one here.
That’s it for today! I hope you’ve enjoyed reading the newsletter.
Francis Miller